Posted by Ron Prinzlau On Mai 14, 2014 0 Comment
Translated by Bjørn Henschke
Moin moin Pirate-Bunch and Landlubbers!
There was a time when one lonely Pirate decided to ride 550km all alone on his road bike, like a booty quest. Like Capt´n Jack Sparrow with his small boat to enter the Black Pearl. At the end of the trip he get to know Dirk and nowadays we know, he became a Pirate as well.
Than Dirk told him, that he wanted to ride to the stadium, when OUR 1.FC Köln, will made it back again in the Premier League. Great idea I told him, but than we have to ride there from the last enemy stadium. Wait a minute, last enemy…wait…all right FC St.Pauli. Dirk said, this is maniac or what? But awesome, let´s do it. All right, Two Pirates, one word. How far is it? 440km. Damn it, can´t they play against Bielefeld???
All right. Did what we said. At least we´re Pirates. Up there, that´s the course we rode. But can you tell me why we rode back, when we entered ROW? Who care´s, at least we had time.
Back to the beginning. Do we get some tickets for the game. Still no pre-sale. Let´s wait for the beginning of the sale. Date drew closer. 8:00o´clock. All blocked, after some minutes. Sorry all sold. Calling Fc, directly, no sorry, all gone. 50000 tickets in 20min. Awesome, but, what about last time in 2011, I searched fort he number, called it, declared my case and, I got 3 common tickets. YES…I called Dirk, I got them, now we can take off.
So, let´s get it on. Course, schedule, newspaper, inform everybody and making all the other nervous. The newspaper called us nuts, but they were right, we´re Pirates, we are nuts…
Jenna told us to be our food supply and Sara wanted to take the pictures of the trip. Still one missing, a sharing driver, all right the mother of Jenna. Cool, thank you…
Judgement day drews closer and closer, and we are getting more and more nervous. Did we forgot something, RON. HELP. You´re right, quite early, but Ron makes everything possible. AWESOME….
Saturday morning: 03.05.2014 7:00o´clock Departure. 6:00o´clock meeting. Lets pack out stuff. Prepare the car and get to bed early, it will be a really long day.
Saturday: 06:15o´clock in Hamburg-St. Pauli.
I´m really nervous, when do we start. All right, getting dresses, Fix the bike. Finally, Ron is showing up, As well like Dirk, Jenna and her mum.
Wait. Shit. No way. My helmet. Not here, Damn it. What to do? Sara got an idea, isn´t their a large mall near by? They open at 7:00o´clock. Jenna and Sara get there to get a helmet. In the meantime, Ron shows up and tells me, that he also forgot his helmet as well like his shoes, so I´m not the only one this morning..
Well, finally Jenna and Sara return with helmet form e. Now we can start…
Somehow I got a weird look on this picture. Well, bike´s ready. Getting started, right thru Hamburg. It´s Saturday morning, not much traffic. It´s really difficult getting, or riding out of a huge city. Finally we made it, with an average speed of 8km/h or less.
Getting some nutrition from the supply car and going on. Inside the country, away from the main streets. In between you get to know, who´s the king of the streets, cars and their drivers, you can´t imagine how close some of them pass you, to let you know, you don´t belong as a cyclists on the streets.
But at least the scenery was nice.
What about the weather, it´s like angel´s travelling.
Damn it, we rode to far. Maybe it´s just because of the fact, I look like Jesus.
We decided to do a longer break after each 100km. Breaks are important, getting straight again, hug your honey. But tell me why we made this break at a chiseler for grave stones.???
So weit wollte ich eigentlich nicht fahren! Verdammt! Alles bestimmt nur, weil ich so aussehe wie Jesus.
We moved forward. Km by km…
We choosed a mostly flat course, because we didn´t want to climb that much hills, and it worked…
But, if you rode towards south of Germany, you have to get over some hill south of Osnabrück.
Shortly before we arrived their, the sun decided herself to get asleep. Fastly fixed our lamps on the bikes. I had to change my front wheel, because I had a dynamo for the light on my bike. I didn´t want to be addicted to batteries. By the way, while we took a break, we decided to eat something as well.
Further on, to Osnabrück. Dirk lives here close by. He warned me before the hills. About 300m of altitude, not bad. But as you all know, who wants to ride down, has to get up. When I saw this sign, I received some sense of home.
On the way, we found out, that our enemy made a small trip thru the summer as well over the small villages. If it should replace an exercise camp? Than I know why they can´t made into the Premier League…
Than we came by Dirk´s home and rode on. We just wanted to see the River Rhine, because there are no hills, but until then, there were one or two hills. It reminds me on the last Pirate-meeting at my house, when I said something about the next hill is the last, and the next, and the next…
We came to Lengerich, than to Greven, to Münster, Dülmen, Dorsten, Oberhausen, Duisburg. It was pitch black here. As dark as the night could me and cold, near the freezing point. My feet, my toe´s froze. Even the 2nd pair of sox didn´t warm me up again. Maybe it was also, I was tired.
Than, sunset at the horizon. We were looking for a bakery. We were starving for a hot chocolate, croissant. But on Sunday morning. If you´re in need of a balery, you won´t find any. At a petrol station? No way, to cheap. Further on. Than we found a bakery, and we were being rewarded. Delicious…
After the breakfast, some water in the face and back on the bikes again, into the cold and further on. And we still have to ride thru the town, which much not be named to the River Rhine. And we soon remarked that the “ POTT” is not anymore dark, black and dirty, it also got lot´s of green lungs. The old industry is gone and the air breathable again. Maybe because of the fact, it was Sunday morning.
RHINE, finally, getting over the bridge to Neuß and further on the B9 heading south. All alongside the Rhine. It started to rain. Wait, I´m smelling some thing. Their it is. The eagerly awaited sign: COLOGNE…
Because Sara hasn´t a ticket for the game, and was really tired, she wanted to be driven to her uncle, my brother. We decided that Jenna will bring her and than to meet her inside Cologne somewhere, while we wanted to ride on.
On our way to town we saw the old jail bus, awesome…
Further on. When we were close to Ebertplatz, we talked with another Pirate, who followed our trip on FB. Greetings to Ron, by the way. Finally we reached the Ebertplatz, our meeting point with Jenna. And slowly, sun came up and it became warm. So, I took my jacket and pulled on a new jersey…
Than we rode thru the city towards the stadium.Finally we could already hear it.
The “ Wild Bunch”, closed the Aachener Street and we had to find a new way.
Than, we were there. Finally. Tired, but proud and satisfied. Proud remains and pain will leave.
Being welcomed by the member service with a special shirt and also they offered us a room for our bikes.
After the game, we went back on our bikes and rode to our car. Fixed the bikes on the car and went to my brother. My wife already waited for me. Dirk and Jenna moved on to Lengerich.
Having said this, it was an awesome trip. It was all fun and I will do it again. Here some numbers…
Nach dem Spiel konnten ging es dann wieder zu unseren Rädern und dann zum Auto. Die Räder aufs Auto und zu meinem Bruder, wo dann meine Frau auch schon da war. Dirk und Jenna sind dann wieder Heim nach Lengerich gefahren.
Es war eine absolut geile Tour! Immer wieder gern mein lieber! Hat mir richtig viel Spaß gemacht!
Hier noch mal die Daten…
494,47 km in 26:48h, Average speed of 18,5 km/h, Ascent 1643 m, down 1602 m… awesome!
Your Hakan alias Eastcoast Özi alias Käpt’n Jeck
