August 22, 2025
Day 3: Markranstadt
The day began as is my ideal for every day in Europe, with a trip to the bakery for fresh buns. Somehow I neglected to take a photo of the bakery, but that is just as well, because presumably I can not photograph every bakery in Europe, or even all the ones along our route! But I can say that the buns included those great seeded ones, with me choosing the one with pumpkin seeds on top.
My next step was to have a closer look at the bikes, and specifically the all new Magura brake levers and cylinders that we had insisted on, and that were installed by the lady at Fahrradservice Markranstadt. I noted that these seemed to include a new system for adjusting the clearance of the pads to the rim, and I wanted some guidance about that. So Juergen and I jumped on the bikes and cruised though the quaint streets of town down to the shop. The mechanic, Doreen Janusm was worried that she would get my usual flood of incomprehensible English, but I explained the questions to Juergen and he interpreted. Indeed, it was a new system, that should make the adjustment easier! (We'll see, no doubt in the wilds of France!)
Doreen also looked at Dodie's headset, for which we were thinking the steering was a bit crunchy. She loosened the bearings slightly, and it smoothed out. I take this to be a sign of wear, but for now all is OK.
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We returned home with the bikes, and Dodie continued to work on fine tuning the load. You would think that if we made it here, we could make it away just the same. But, a few things have changed, not least all the goodies and gifts that we have received, and bits of kit that we swapped in and out from home. Still, we will be ready to roll, well before tomorrow.
Juergen and Birgit plan to take us to observe (but not participate!) in their dance class tonight. Hearing of this caused us to name some favorite dance styles, to see if they are learning these. One was Cajun, and oh was it ever difficult explaining to non English speaking Europeans what "Cajun" is all about! It's a mix of Canadian, French, British, and U.S. history that is quite unknown out here! And I don't think my proof that Dodie is a certified Cajun dancer (from our visit to Mulate's dance bar in New Orleans) had much impact.
The dancers in Juergen and Birgit's class were quite accomplished with many of the steps, and they put on a nice display. The light in the hall was quite low, so it was difficult to get really clear shots, but it was a bit like this:
Pia and Stephan (Birgit's brother) can also be seen in the foreground, right.
Of course we ate a few more meals during the day. It seems with visitors one is always preparing or clearing up from meals, or working on eating them. Unless all can agree to just forget it!
Everything that hit the table could be characterized as traditional German - with various cheeses, sausages, buns, potato salad or dumpling, and such. We all noted this, and tried to remember what they have for food in Canada. We concluded that true to its immigrant roots, Canadian food is all from some other countries - Italian, Indian, Greek, Chinese, and sad to say American, as in burgers.
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Birds of Juergen's Backyard
Despite our being 10,000 or so km away from home, the backyard birds here are just as "normal" as the ones at our place:
Today's ride: 1 km (1 miles)
Total: 1 km (1 miles)
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