35 Years Later

When the Wall fell in 1989, my friend Stephan and I were standing in the basement of his apartment building, tinkering with our bicycles. We wanted to take advantage of this new freedom to explore the world by bike.

And in 1991, the time had finally come: during the school holidays, we set off on our first bicycle tour. From Leipzig, across the Alps to Venice. From there, continuing through the Po Valley into the French Alps, a bit of Switzerland and France, and back to Germany via Luxembourg.

Our bikes: 400 DM trekking bikes with 2x or 3×7-speed gears.

With us: a hammer, a “Frenchman” (adjustable wrench), and a GDR “Juwel” gasoline stove. We gathered plenty of experience back then and certainly paid our dues.

We covered around 3,000 km back then and, afterwards, decided never to go on a bike tour together again.

That promise didn’t last long, though; we had long since been infected by the bicycle travel virus. This first European tour was followed by many other journeys that took us to Morocco, the North Cape, Israel, and through the Himalayas to India.

But that first tour always stayed in my memory, also because it was the first time we rode through the entire night. That was toward the end of the trip, and we were near Osnabrück (I believe). Our destination was Adamshoffnung, a small village on Lake Plau, where Stephan’s family had a vacation home. The prospect of good food, lounging around, being taken care of, and simply doing nothing was very tempting after hundreds of kilometers across our continent.

Therefore, we decided to ride through nonstop, through the night, to arrive there the next day.

Over 300 km in one go – that was quite something, especially with our bikes and the luggage. I still remember nodding off on a bench during a break sometime around 4 a.m. in the dawn. I was so tired and so incredibly happy when we finally arrived.

In my memory, Adamshoffnung lay in the middle of a great “nowhere,” surrounded by pine forests and fields, accessible only via very sandy paths. The nearest shop was miles away, as was a post office with a telephone. I wanted to at least let my parents know where I was, as we had just gotten our first telephone at home that year.

But it was the right place to unwind after a major bike tour and recover for a few days before heading back to Leipzig.

And it would take 35 years before we both returned to Adamshoffnung together by bicycle. The reason was our winter overnighter, which we have wanted to turn into a tradition since last year.

Actually a small tour, as we were on the road for three days in total – though not together the whole time. On the first day, each of us traveled separately. We chose a rest area with an observation tower and a shelter at the mouth of the Elbe and Havel rivers near the Gnevsdorf weir as our meeting point, where we met around 9 p.m. For me, it was more than 100 km along the Elbe – a mental challenge, even if the nature is very beautiful.

But the sun was shining, and temperatures were almost summery during the day, and at 0 to 2 degrees at night, not too cold either. Stephan came from Magdeburg and rolled into the shelter 15 minutes after me. We chatted for a bit and then crawled into our bivvies. Above us, an incredibly clear starry sky. Wonderful!

The next morning, we were woken by the dawn and the chirping and croaking of birds in the Elbe floodplains. Today we wanted to take it easy, as Adamshoffnung was our goal and only 120 km away. We made the journey leisurely and immediately took a break at a gas station in Perleberg. We hadn’t made it to the bakery within the Sunday opening hours, that’s how relaxed we were on the road.

Brandenburg and then Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are quite sparsely populated here, so there were few supply options. But with the rising temperatures and the sun, rolling along was real fun. We indulged in memories and tried to clarify exactly how we had ridden in 1991 and what we had experienced.

Thus the kilometers melted away, and we took an ice cream break in Plau am See. After that, I followed Stephan onto a very beautiful track directly along the lakeshore, which became a bit more “natural” in sections, forcing us to push through water and brush.

Then it was only 3 km to Adamshoffnung when Stephan turned off once more and we rode around a small lake. Here he suddenly stopped and said: “This is the spot where we went swimming together back then, in 1991.” And after 35 years, we took a photo at this very spot, which we will hopefully remember in another 35 years when we stand there together again.

By the way, despite the high temperatures and the good weather, there was still ice on Lake Plau and even one or two streams were still frozen. Right down by the lake, it was noticeably colder, so we had to put something on again.

After this detour to the swimming lake, we rolled into Adamshoffnung on a very sandy path – just like we did back then. I recognized the house and the terrace – otherwise, of course, a lot has changed.

After a shower, we ordered pizza, drank a beer and tons of tea, and celebrated this beautiful overnighter into our shared past.

The next day, everyone went their own way again: me to Lübeck for the train to Hamburg, and Stephan to Fürstenberg for the train to Leipzig.

And it is a stroke of luck that we never let our oath from 35 years ago – to never go on a tour together again – become a reality. Life would have been a lot poorer for it.