Hi family and friends,
Well our adventure has started. On New Year's Eve while the rest of the world was celebrating Chris and I were sorting out our gear to make sure that it could fit into one cardboard bike box and one large North Face bag. Our friend Michelle came around and we celebrated New Years Eve - New York time at 9.00pm Pacific Coast time with a glass of champagne as we both knew that a) come 12 o'clock we would be either asleep or b) still frantically figuring out what was to go to Africa and what was to stay on the living room floor! No prizes for guessing who was sleeping and who was still up at midnight! Anyway, after getting the scales from our Studio, the decision was easy - weight dictated what went and what stayed! New Year's Day we headed up to LAX with the mandatory bike box and bag AND got it all past the TSA without losing anything. Miracle!!! The flight to Heathrow, London was uneventful and we arrived Tuesday 2nd to grey skies with the sun trying hard to show an appearance. It lasted all of an hour before the rain and wind set in. Ahhh!!!!! back in blighty!
After leaving our bike boxes at Terminal 4, in anticipation of our flight out of there on January 10th, we drove to Stansted Airport. Chris did well to fight the urge to close eyes and sleep as jetlag was showing it's ugly head all too quickly. Me? I was the princess in the passenger seat who got to sleep however it bit me in the ass at about 3.00am the next morning when I couldn't sleep. Not a pretty sight at breakfast, I can tell ya that! We rocked up to the AirBerlin counter Wednesday 3rd to find out the Trans Atlantic weight restrictions changed and were reduced once you started flying around Europe. It was going to cost us £80.00 to take all our gear which was crazy as we didn't need half of it, it being our Africa warm weather gear and we certainly were not going to be wearing it in wintery Paderborn, Germany. So, in typical Chris and Janet style we did the re pack right there in the middle of the airport floor..(this time Richard we were respectful and managed to not offend any other passengers)...left the bag at Stansted Airport for £12.00 and headed for Germany to see Chris's brother George and family.
We expected snow in Paderborn but got rain! George lives in a place called Bad Lippspringe a small town which is 30 minutes out of Paderborn. Bad is German for spa, Lipp is the name of the river that runs through the town and Springe is the type of water source which is a thermal spring. Wouldn't you know it...I fly to Germany and land in a spa town...don't you love that!!Chris met a guy on the plane who told him about a place in Bad Lippspringe that had a variety of traditional hot saunas and cold plunge pools which had to be sampled. As luck would have it, it's a five minute walk from George's house. No towels allowed, butt naked only!! So after dinner I stayed and sampled the wine while Chris went and did sauna research! The ratio of hotties to non-hotties was not good, Chris held his tongue regarding the evils of eating gluten and declined to offer strength and conditioning advice to all and sundry. All I can say is thank goodness his conversational German is nil BUT the saunas were superb. Tonight we are all going!!
This morning we ran through a forrest which borders George's house. It is rectangular in shape and approximately 10km long by 6km wide. It was amazing to run off road and to have a variety of trails to choose from, all with a definite 'Hansel and Gretel' feel to them. In the middle of the forrest I would not have been surprised to see an old house and the corresponding old lady outside it from the fairy tale. Instead the forrest was full of nordic walkers, people walking their dogs and others cycling to work. Today we went sight seeing and then had a two hour lunch. No alcohol just lots of food..ahh replete! Big bellies ready for tonights sauna!
I have to go as Grace the five year old needs to get on the computer plus Euro sport is showing Biathlon racing.
Hope you are all well. Love ya
Janet (and Chrisxxxxx)
