Out of bed at four, getting ready, making a phone call with Annett (she always wants to know how I am), stowing away everything and starting shortly after five.

But stop, I still have to do something at the Donkey (nothing bad, there’s just something to be tighten up) …

Now, let’s go, right into the dark! I had dressed especially warmly, for I knew from Egypt, that evenings in the desert may grow bloody cold. However, surprisingly I pulled off my jacket after twenty minutes.

The desert is the more mesmerizing the nearer sunrise is drawing.There was a tour at Dahab (Egypt), which was only feasible with the help of camels. You always started diving from a beach then (these days there are also some boats to be seen there). If I remember rightly, the two diving spots were faraway and you could only reach them after about three hours on camelsback.

That’s why you had to start at six in the morning. Everybody got a lunch box, the diving equipment (wetsuites, oxygen bottles etc.) was loaded on the animals. Mostly a very old male Bedouin accompanied us, who cooked lunch (simple but delicious), and some younger Bedouins walking the camels. I used to organise races for the guests. It could be taken for granted: The one of us who would be the first back, should be invited for dinner afterwards. In our lunch boxes – among others -were fruits. On the way back I dropped some pieces of fruit from time to time. That made the camels of my competitors stop. Tcha, “Mr Know-how“!

To tell the truth, that didn’t mean anything, because the true regard – no matter where we were – was the daily sunrise. Unfortunately, one hardly takes time to enjoy pleasures like that. Even in the city you can experience the morning sun subliming places already nice before.Take your time once again! It takes only two minutes watching, which everybody should be able to afford.

Well, let‘s keep to the point: The reason for my early start wasn’t the sunrise but the desert this time. You permanently have to look for a shade and the temperatures aren‘t just nice. At 32 degrees Celsius I was lucky today, because a cooling breeze from the right direction was blowing in the afternoon. I‘ve made more than 62 miles today and I feel fine. I guess, I’ve regained lost time.

Tomorrow there are about 74 miles to the next mark. The places here don’t lay to close to each other and when you approach a house or a building you find it abandoned very often. Heyday of the “Mother of all roads“ is over since a good while. The water supply was easy so far. I have four litres more than usual with me. Just to be on the safe side, you never know.

Phew, after squashing under a shrub to catch a shadow for the umpteenth time I suddenly remembered my new hat! The flap at the back doesn’t only protect me from sun, it catches the airflow too, which cools down my neck. A class thing, recommendable, indeed. Looks silly, but who cares, if it‘s helpful? J

Start at four tomorrow. Two times sleeping yet until I’ll have an appointment with the Cowboy at Vegas. Yeah!

To Steffen: Wasn’t I completely right with my estimation of 1400 metres? I’m so glad to have overcome this height. All together I’ve cycled up to 105.6 miles, including “sight seeing“ in L.A.. In other words: I’ve achieved nothing yet. Usually within three days I make the double distance.

However, the next stop is Las Vegas. I’m not sure whether I‘ll blue the 50 $ as planned. I’m tempted to do so, probably I will. When – if not now – will I have the chance to go home with a few millions in my pockets?

As I already wrote, I don’t get along with the jet lag yet. That’s why each kilometre is difficult for me. An old acquaintance accompanied me this afternoon: Sometimes he appears as a good friend, sometimes as an enemy. I mean the wind. Today it was favourably disposed towards me, not only chilling me down but also pushing the bike. In addition the wind was one reason, that I didn’t take the eastern direction which the ancient settlers had chosen; I moved from east to west. Another reason was, that after the mountain tour I’m running downhill most of the time. J I‘ve topped my record from yesterday at the last descent: Maximum speed now is 69.95 km/h. J No big deal on a fully loaded bicycle, for what is retarding you upwards is pretty accelerating on the way down.

Today I’m earlier at the hotel, which doesn’t deserve this term actually. So I will realise the plan of starting at five in the morning. Just me and the road – Get your kicks on Route 66! 😉

Good to be on the road again looking for things you have heard of once. It’s like browsing through old pictures, everything already known calls up images in the head telling of old times.

Everything here around me reminds me of my youth. Together with a friend I wanted to go to the U.S.A. then. Finding a job, making money, getting to another place – until the money’s gone, afterwards doing some other job & so on.

Unfortunately nothing came of it. My then friend intended to flee the former GDR when the border to Hungary was about to open. I wanted to go with him, but only if we would continue on. He decided, however, to establish himself in West Berlin for the time being. So I stayed where I had been, so we unexpectedly met some weeks later when the Wall came down at Bornholmer Strasse.

Well, now I’m in Beverly Hills & the time lag is whacking me! A few days ago still in China – now, here. The perfidious seventeen hours of time difference are killing me. Hardly arrived in Berlin, immediately departing for the following place, pooh… – Or is this a sign that I’m getting old, hmm?

I had to look for a room at 4:30 pm, was absolutely exhausted. – My heart had been beating hard as I had been cycling uphill at 31 degrees Celsius. My head felt as if it was packed with cotton. Being a good observer, I had heard the sound of my inner alarm bells early enough to tell myself to stop for a while, firstly to move into a shadow. Three hours sleep just hadn’t been enough. – I fell asleep immediately, snuggled up in the blanket like a puppy.

Now I’m awake again. I’m writing a bit, sending pictures to friends of mine. Those pics were personally made for them, a kind of very special “Personal postcard”. That’s why you won’t find them published here.

Loading them up quickly to get some more sleep. I have to get back to a normal daily rhythm. One day delay already, ;-( miles to be caught up. 😉

Yesterday still in Berlin, today at the other end of the world. Have slept three hours, now I’m preparing for the new day.

But let’s go back in time.

I had checked in the Donkey the evening before already, a proven method. It’s much easier for me to do that with Annett’s help. J

Eventually I started yesterday morning at 10:10 am. A last call from the lady who writes for the ‘Stern’: The article will be issued.

Changing in Duesseldorf, next changing in Chicago, pick up of the Donkey from the luggage reclaim at night, assembling the bike, then off to the hotel. I was there after fifteen minutes & at 1:45am I stood in my room.

Hollywood has one further attraction: A Berliner on a Donkey is going to rush through the sights (some of them at least) of the city.

The blog is in German and English

5.40 Uhr war Ankunft am Hauptbahnhof von Peking, kurze Verabschiedung von unserer Schaffnerin und auf ins Gewusel. Ihr glaubt nicht was um 6.00Uhr in einer Stadt schon an Menschen unterwegs sein kann. Eigentlich hatten wir uns die Route zum Hotel schon rausgesucht, hätten zweimal umsteigen müssen und die U-Bahn in Peking kostet nicht mal 25 Cent. Das Problem war auch nicht das finden der Station, nein es waren die Massen von Menschen die unterwegs waren. Alleine am Ticketschalter war eine Schlange wir bei uns am Fernsehturm. :-). Ich hatte gelesen, dass ein Taxi in Peking nicht so teuer ist. Annett wollte lieben mit dem Taxi fahren. Also vorbei an der Schlange und ein Taxi gesucht. VORSICHT: Es sprechen dich viele auf ein Taxi an und wollen dich fahren, das Problem ist nur es sind keine Taxifahrer, diese sprechen dich nicht an. 😉 Na egal, wir haben gehandelt und wurden erst mal schnell ins Hotel gebracht, das war wichtig. Angekommen, schnell einchecken (das Zimmer war schon frei), wieder raus und in ein Taxi. Wir mussten die ganze Strecke wieder zurück denn unser Hotel war etwas ausserhalb direkt am Flughafen. Angekommen mussten wir feststellen, dass wir etwa fünf Euro mehr für den anderen ¨Taxifahrer¨ bezahlt hatten, und ich hatte ihn schon um ein Drittel runter gehandelt. Also wenn ihr mal hier seid nehmt euch ein Taxi und schaut, dass der Fahrer den Taxameter an macht. Taxi fahren ist preiswert, kostet etwa soviel wie öffentlische Verkehrsmittel in Deutschland.

Angekommen an der Verbotenen Stadt haben wir den Taxifahrer gefragt was es kostet zur Chinesischen Mauer zu fahren und zurück. Sind etwa 60 km eine Richtung, er meinte man müsse mit 65€ rechnen, wir hatten also erst mal eine Vorstellung. Später haben wir dann über einen Veranstalter ein Auto gemietet mit Guide, das ganze hat dann etwa 130 Euro gekostet. Wesentlich preiswerter wäre es gewesen wenn wir den Bus dorthin genommen hätten, doch dabei sollte man bedenken, dass die Verständigung sehr schwer ist. Man braucht sehr lange bis man jemanden findet der einem weiter helfen kann und da wir nur den Tag der Ankunft und einen weiteren vor der Abreise hatten wollten wir nicht noch Zeit für langes suchen verschwenden.

Die Verbotene Stadt ist sehr schön – beeindruckend und sehenswert aber an einem Tag zu viel, man sollte sich zwei Tage Zeit nehmen wenn man wirklich alles sehen will. Wir haben uns einen Audioguide geholt und uns die ¨wichtigsten¨ Sachen angesehen. Den Platz des himmlischen Friedens mussten wir natürlich auch sehen; Der Platz ist wirklich so groß wie er im Fernseher rüber kommt – nicht wie der Rote Platz, der hatte uns ja eher enttäucht von seiner Größe.

A short look out of the window: we have landed in a steppe-like region. Not even one tree and quite far away you can make out mountains.

You might assume such a rail ride to become boring sometime. Not at all so far.

We read a lot, listen to music, take pictures, admire the view and sleep. Regarding the subject of sleeping, there is something coming into my mind. Those of you who are perhaps interested in going on this journey as well, should know: Each of our beds has a length of 1.20 metres (47 inch / 3.95 feet) and a width of 0.70 metres (25.5 inch / 2.30 feet). There’s still some space left to the ceiling and the side walls. I think it’ll do for people up to 1.90 metres (75 inch / 6.2 feet) height.

Today the bogie of the train will be changed, because rail tracks in China are narrower. I am already excited like a West Berlin kid on holiday.

We’ve arrived at the border. All out. The train will be back to this track in two hours. Let’s go to the city now. The place isn’t very large and hasn’t plenty to offer either. Buy some fruit, some packets of soup and some biscuits. Afterwards directly to the bank (once already we were sent away from there because it was lunch time. ) Arriving the place – shazam – the bank is open. However, some more people need to draw out money, five of them queuing in front of us. Never mind, we still have one hour time. After 25 minutes – still the first customer on top of the line switching between two counters – we realize that 60 minutes aren’t that much. Out of the building, straight to the station. Standing in the middle of Siberia without any piece of luggage wouldn’t be to our taste.

Although being back in time, we have to wait a while until the train arrives at our track eventually.

‘The new bogie now and off we go’ is what we are thinking. But no way. The train is turned upside down instead. Russians examine every nook. They use dogs and a bunch of officers ask for papers and goods to declare. During the passport control I have to turn my head, to stand up and to take on various facial expressions. “Hmm, looks different somehow.” – Well, as a result of the operation on my right cheek, where a melanoma has been removed, my face has slightly changed its look.

After a six-hour-stay the journey continues across the border. On the Chinese side we realize there are a further four hours ahead of us. We suppose those hours on the schedule to be dealing with the time shift, the Moscow time doesn’t remain valid anymore. Wrong. Same procedure as beyond the border. The Chinese take the matter easy, for their colleagues on the other side have just checked the train thoroughly. No idea whether this guess is right. Anyway, they are completely relaxed. Annett is even asked to take a picture with a female officer at work. “Sit this way, take away the jacket, the man (me) to the other side please, rearrange your hair.” Watching photos and laughing. “No. Again.” After shooting ten to fifteen pics we are satisfied. Not a hunch, what the picture is destined for, probably for the wall displaying the employee of the month. 😉 I think Chinese people like Germans. Everyone who has seen our passports, seems to be delighted and delivers a slogan related to Germany. With one hour delay we carry on travelling in a Chinese restaurant car at 1 in the morning. Twelve hours for nothing. I hate borders. The idea of Europe without them sounds cool. Let’s hope for this improvement to become a global feature in the future!