Airline Woes

Shannon and I landed on time and in one piece in Hamburg, Germany. We had a great BBQ last night at the Grebers house after Berit and Frank picked us up from the airport. Frank BBQ´d while we ate. Their two girls Marieke (4) and Jule (2) are very cute. Björn and his girlfriend Suzanna were there along with Berit and Björn´s parents, Gerd and Edeltrout. Shannon and I were able to fight off the jet lag and stay up until past dark. They were kind enough to speak mainly in English, but it was fun challenge trying to remember mz 8th grade German skills.

We spent today touring downtown Hamburg by bus and boat. The harbor tour was amazing (2nd largest in Europe). The bus tour was a bit frustrating since they would stop for 20 or more minutes at time and to see the full tour we were supposed to wait an hour for a tour bus transfer. We had a great Portuguese lunch. Watched the US play Brazil this evening.

So, for the airline woes. My new $400 GPS is no longer functioning. It is an important part of our trip and it is fried. Not sure how that happened. We arrived at the airport, but our bikes did not. They were delivered this morning. We opened the bike bags and they had obviously been tossed around. The place where my rear wheel connects to my frame is bent so I can not fit my wheel on to my bike. We will take it to a bike shop tomorrow morning in the hopes that they can fix it. If not, I will need to purchase a new bike frame and ship my broken one home. I am afraid this will be the case since I have an aluminum frame and we will be riding 2,500 km with about 50 pounds in our pannier bags. Not a good time to experience structural failure.

Shannon´s brake levers were a bit bent, but she was able to fix them no problem.

Besides the airline and technology troubles, we´re having a great time so far. The family we are staying with here is extremely kind and generous. I pray my next post brings good news. Either way, we´ll make the most of our time and just roll with the punches.