The last two days at home
Unbeknownst to me, my lovely wife invited friends to come by for a little going away party. I am so naive and had no idea. When I got home on Friday, the first guests had already arrived. I
felt a little lump building up in my throat from emotions. What a nice surprise. The weather was great and we were all able to sit outside in the garden. This Saturday was used for
final facility managements tasks and checking all equipment and go over my packing list.
Though it was just for a few hours, I thoroughly enjoyed spending the last night in my own bed. It was a strange feeling knowing that it will be a very long time before I will sleep in it
again. Now, just a few moments before leaving, the tension and excitement rises. Bicycle loaded, saying goodbye to my mother who had tears in her eyes. Our lovely friend Susi
gave us a ride to Munich Airport.
Munich Airport.
Contrary to information I previously received from the airport's information service, unfortunately I was not able to wrap the bicycle in foil. I had prepared cardboard cutouts which I attached
to the tire's spokes with cable ties I had brought from home. Lufthansa, just like all the other airlines charges 100 Euros for large item luggage. The advantage with Lufthansa is, LH
takes the bike as is without having to dismantle the handle bar and food pedals. I'm curious as to what condition I will find my bike in when I get to New York. again. Then the bike
disappeared to the special area for large items, my wife Sylvia, our friend Susi and I enjoyed a coup of coffee and said our goodbyes. To make it easier on everybody, we quickly said
goodbye and I walked toward the check-in.
Due to me having packed a number of electronic devices, I was subjected to a random test for explosive residue, which was negative of course. Everything else went smoothly, except that we started with 30-minute delay. But what are 30 minutes of a 3 months vacation. Actually, I was not going to write anything about the flight but feel the need to get this off my chest. We were flying in a super modern airbus AXXX and despite 7 attempts to reboot the internet, much to the dismay of many passengers, they could not get the internet for work. I was still one of the most relaxed passengers.
Arrival in New York
Going through customs was a nerve racking ordeal. I entered the USA under the ESTA program. What this means is I ended up in the long line. While I was in line for 2 hours, my luggage made
nice laps on the luggage carousel. When I went to the pick up desk for large items, nobody seemed to be in charge and knew what was going on. A nice security guard suggested to look around
in the hall where his colleagues usually park large items. And that is exactly where I found my bike.
There was by super bike, unlocked and unsecured in the corner of hall 1 at JFK airport and nobody showed any interest in it (which was good). It stood there
Drive to the hotel
I took the terminal train from JFK airport to Howard Beach station which was the end of the line and I had to continue via bicycle from hereon out. Unfortunately, my navigation device
(navi) was not able to read the route I had stored. Theory and practice previously worked very well at home, but failed me now. Because I had spent a lot of time planing the route from the
airport to the hotel, I was able to memorize the entire route which I now stored in my navi. I will need to come up with a solution for day 2. I know realized some short comings with
my planing stage. I was going to need to find an internet cafe in order to be able to upload data.
The ride through New York was very noisy but also very interesting. In New York I also experienced by first large brush fire at a nature reserve in the vicinity of NY airport. I
believe there were more fire engines on this scene than all fire engines from the cities of Nuremberg, Furth and Erlangen combined! What I did not anticipate about New York was the
extremely strong wind which at times nearly pushed me off my bike. But otherwise awesome summer weather at temperatures over 30 degree celsius (over 86 degree Fahrenheit).
The motel which I booked via Booking.Com Motel was actually not a real motel. It ended up being a converted private house with tiny rooms and shower and bathroom facilities in the hallway to be shared with others. And while internet was advertised, there was no real wireless connection. I measured and it was below 1 Mbit. Which means I had to wait to upload photos and blog, and I didn't feel like using my prepaid data card. I will need to resolve my technical issues or I am going to have problems.
After a short night, I repacked my equipment again, walked to the nearest subway station and bough a ticket to Manhattan. Heck no, that plan did not work out. The subway system going in my direction, had major disruption in service which was announced was going to last for a longer period of time. So I decided that I would walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I am writing this blog at an Apple Store after I walked for 16 miles and a short subway ride to Central Park. After all, I have now seen all ofr Brooklyn and large parts of Manhattan. I will upload some photos and take advantage of having internet. The bandwidth is here phenomenal. Then I plan on making a side trip to the Central Park and Times Square and I think this will be all for today.
Tomorrow morning I will start the real trip about 6 AM. As soon as I have WLAN I will move on. I am becoming a champion at improvising.
Kommentar schreiben
Wolfgang und Christa (Sonntag, 12 Juni 2016 16:35)
hallo Manfred,
Du sitzt jetzt schon im Flieger nach USA. Wir wünschen Dir eine gute Reise, schönes Wetter, keinen Plattfuß und dass alles so klappt, wie Du Dir das vorgenommen hast. Bestimmt werden wir jeden Tag einen Blick in Dein Reisetagebuch werfen und sind gespannt, was Du alles zu berichten weißt! Du fährst zwar allein, aber ein Schutzengel wird Dich begleiten! ALLES GUTE!!
Petra Fuchs (Montag, 13 Juni 2016 07:52)
Ich wünsche Ihnen unvergessliche Momente, gutes Gelingen und freue mich sehr, dass ich via Blog dabei sein darf! Alles Gute für die Reise!
Erich (Montag, 13 Juni 2016 10:44)
Hallo Manfred,
mit Spannung warte ich auf die ersten Reiseberichte von Dir. Ich wünsche
Dir eine unfallfreie Zeit und schönes Wetter mit Rückenwind.
Viele Grüße Erich
Rainer (Montag, 13 Juni 2016 11:58)
Hallo Temporärer New Yorker,wir möchten nun aber endlich
Stephanie (Montag, 13 Juni 2016 21:33)
Hallo Papi, schön geschrieben!! Ich werde jeden Tag fleißig lesen was du erlebst. Bin sehr stolz auf dich!!!
Manuela (Dienstag, 14 Juni 2016 02:14)
Ganz toll bei deinem Abendteuer daber zu sein. Soviel ist schon anders gekommen wie du es geplant hattest. Das wird bestimmt noch spannend. Freue mich riesig für dich.
Hab dich so lieb. Deine Manuela
Ingo (Dienstag, 14 Juni 2016 09:42)
Hallo Manfred,
na da hast du ja schon einiges unvorhergesehenes hinter dir ;-)
Ich hoffe, dass sich weiterhin alles gut lösen lässt und wünsche dir eine pannen- und unfallfreie Fahrt.
Viele Grüße Ingo
Martin (Dienstag, 14 Juni 2016 21:46)
Hallo Manfred,
ich sehe dein Adventure hat begonnen. Viel Spaß genieß die Ruhe mit deinem Fahrrad.
Gruß Martin
John from New Jersey (Mittwoch, 15 Juni 2016 04:20)
Amazing adventure. Wish you the best of luck and a safe ride to the west coast.
Thesi (Mittwoch, 15 Juni 2016 07:21)
Lieber Manfred..also erlebt haste in den den ersten Tagen scheinbar schon genug. Wir schicken dir Windstille und schöne Gedanken. Danke für den spannenden Blog und pass gut auf!
Thesi (Mittwoch, 15 Juni 2016 07:23)
...nochmal ich :-). Die Bilder sind der Hammer!!! Weiter so
Hardy und Kathleen (Mittwoch, 15 Juni 2016 10:53)
Hallo Manfred, schön, dass wir dich auf deiner Reise über den amerikanischen Kontinent begleiten können. Alles Gute, viele schöne Eindrücke und Begegnungen wünschen dir Hardy und Kathleen
Rainer (Mittwoch, 15 Juni 2016 15:06)
Schmerz ist nur Schwäche, die den Körper verlässt,
Manuela Schmidt (Mittwoch, 15 Juni 2016 20:12)
ICh bin so dankbar dass du denn officer John getroffen hast. THANK YOU John for going totally out of your way to help a stranger. May karma pay you back 10 fold and keep you safe!
ManFred du schreibst ganz toll. Hoffentlich geht's heute den Berg runter. Wird deine Route über die Andirondack mountains gehen?