TravelMag September. 2012 | Page 5

Despite the fact that there is a certain novelty around crossing a border, an added bonus being that we crossed it on a bike, we hadn't biked that far on the day we arrived in Flensburg Germany. My dad brought us on a bad route, again. We were trying to make our way to Krusa, the border town between Denmark and Germany when dad told us that the national bike route deviated from the rode and went into the woods. We were, in retrospect, idiots. We could see very painly that there was no more pavement once we entered the woods but we took dad's word for it (with my dad, always a dumb thing to do) and got off our bikes to climb up the steep incline. Well, let me tell you something, It was a steep incline the whole way along that bike paths and we had to keep getting on and off our bikes to stop from slipping and falling on the rocks that sat in the path. Finally, we came out into a clearing and we saw a sign in front of us that showed the German and Danish flags mixing. After a deep consultation of the map, my dad declared us 'In Germany'. Anoyed ( we were hoping for at least a border sign ) we trekked along another path, determined to stay in Denamrk at least until we'de seen a border sign. We ate Pizza and then took pictures next to a flag and a small sign with the flag of the EU on it that said 'Welkom op Bunde's Republic op Deutchland. It was kind of cool, especially for me who had been enduring the taunts of those siblings who had stepped over the border on the trail, saying things like 'I've been to one more country than you' crossing into Germany and especially when we heard that it was only 5 km to the town where we had a room at a hostel. Ah that was luxury after all of the camping, to lay down on a bed. We went out to an Italian ( Yes, of all things we could have eaten in Germany, my parents wanted Italian) restaurant and got Ice cream. Than, we slept and I can't tell you what a luxury to have a bed after the hard ground. Our first day in Germany was marred only by the fact that the first to things I succeeded in doing in germny were hit a random stranger ( He was okay) and my sister ( Unfortunatlly also okay) with my bike. The next day, all we really did besides eat and sleep is get train tickets to Berlin