A week of riding and socialising with friends at the rally, near Tecklenburg, Germany.
Jane and John on their Pino, Polly with Bernie and Sue.As is usual for rallies, there was a choice of short, medium or long rides each day except Wednesday. The short rides were far enough for us.An unplanned trip into the woods in search of a café where we were to meet up with a ‘non-rider’. Unfortunately Google decided to take us via the steepest, roughest track it could find! Still, the views made the effort worth it.There were plenty of opportunities to stop for coffee and cakes or ice-creams, though they were usually busy with other rally goers too.The landscape was a mix of arable farmland and forestry.The organisers also had a ‘photo treasure hunt’ where we had to use a photo cue sheet to find the subjects along the route of the ride.On the Wednesday ‘off’ we cycled into Osnabrück – only about 11 miles away – and wandered the shopping centre. The sports shop we went into had its own surf wave training area!It stayed very warm all week, so whenever we could, we sat indoors or at least in the shade.Refuelling stops were an absolute necessity!The Teutoburger Wald provided plenty of opportunities for some long, hot climbs and fast, flowing descents. Taking a quick break.Most of the rides routes took us along quiet roads.We had one wet day – the day before we came home, so Karon and I took a day off the bike and just readied ourselves for the ride home.The start of the tandem games. On the final evening, the rain had cleared earlier in the day and we had a BBQ with some music provided by a one-man-band. It was the perfect way to finish the week before we all went off on our separate ways the following day.
Over the course of the week we cycled every day except the Friday before we left and the five rides Sunday-Thursday totalled 162 miles.
