new wheels
by Rach, who thought she might go to church this morning, but ended up at the flea market
Berlin, Germany
Driving big vehicles in little towns is a challenge we are expecting to face, but will avoid whenever possible. And so Grandpa bought a bicycle pump the other day, in readiness for the day we might buy a couple of bikes to strap on the bike rack attached to the back of the second Womo. The fact that the bike rack had been illegal and therefore removed before being handed over to us yesterday, was no deterrent today. We already had the pump and so now we needed the bikes! Where better place to buy them than the Mauer Park flea market where we had already purchased pots and glasses and a ladle and enamel basin…..?
Sure enough, after the scouring the entire market, we came away with two fixable bikes and an interesting encounter with one seller. Actually, two interesting encounters. Having failed to convince one seller to drop his price, our gang waited beside his stall (primarilly because there was a reasonably large open space right there!) while a couple took off to Bargain Harder elsewhere. In the meantime the unbudging seller’s wife (we think that’s who she was) came over and gave (the obviously very cute) ER2 a WHOLE BAG of Werthers Originals. She also wanted to tell Rob that she had 14 children of her own and that he could still have more too! (But I must say, if having 14 children makes you as grumpy as her husband, then I’ll stick with my eight).
So while they were sucking butterscotch, Grandpa, Jboy13 and I were intently negotiating around the corner. Asking price and final price are immaterial. Of interest was the fact that the seller (who was apparently only there helping out a lady who genuinely didn’t look in the best of health, but that might have been a sob story to keep near his asking price!) had just cycled a thousand kilometres….and that a few years ago he had taken a 1967 Mercedes bus from Germany to Senegal. At this point we knew he was telling the truth, because people don’t nonchalantly throw Senegal into a conversation! He encouraged us to head down to Spain, across to Morocco and follow in his tracks….apparently there’s even a road through the desert now. He was fairly convincing, but kebabs in Istanbul still hold some appeal.
Anyway, we got our bike (met in the middle pricewise), wheeled it back to the lolly-sucking crowd and noticed Grumpy Man had some baskets that would fit nicely on the back rack. He wanted three euros, which seems a lot of money for an old scungy bit of metal. We scrabbled around and came up with two seventy. I offered and he grudgingly accepted. THEN I found out about the free sweets!
And so we are now eleven people with twelve wheels between us (and two spares). Everyone is looking forward to taking turns riding to the village bakery with Dadda for our croissants while the rest of us run in mountain meadows where we’ll be parked beside a sweetly flowing stream listening to cowbells in the distance!
But for now, we’re still in Berlin, two Womos parked side by side in a carpark just off a main road, Indian music belting out of a nearby restaurant, which we can’t afford to eat at, fire engines blaring their way up the street every hour or so, bikes strapped to the roof…..
And if you’d like a step-by-step walk through The Bear Cave, click here and we’ll give you the full tour (not being very big, it won’t take long <wink>). We wrote the post a week ago, but didn’t have photos at the time….so here it is fresh from the archives now (still without many photos).
Tags: money, postcard: Germany, postcard: Rhein Road Trip, transport
rayres
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