Day 1: Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Feet ... Pedaling 

(After All, it's a Long Ride to Prague)

Day 1, the Countryside Outside of Dessau, Germany

Dirk Broeren, Group Leader extraordinaire.

None of the 18 of us knew it at the time, but we were about to spend 14 days with two of the nicest men on the planet on the Road Scholar program, "Bicycling the Elbe River Valley." Dirk Broeren, a retired airplane builder, was our Group Leader. Carl Heinz Schneider, also retired, was his wingman. Dirk led our bike caravan every day, acting as our sheriff, our inspiration (the man was 76 and rode better than any of us) and our guru. If Dirk didn't have the answer for a question that arose along the banks of the Elbe River, no one did. Oh, Dirk was also a dry-humored comedian, the German version of Henny Youngman.



Carl Heinz Schneider, dressed in his Sundae best.

As for Carl, he drove the van carrying our luggage to the night's destination, and he also was often on hand at our frequent water, coffee and pastry stops. He was the fellow eating the ice cream sundae with at least two scoops. Lest you think Carl was a softie, the man was strong as an ox and singlehandedly delivered our luggage to our rooms each night.

It rained on Day 1 at the Berlin Airport, then rained just three more times total.

Prior to meeting Dirk and Carl, my wife Kay and I flew in overnight from Boston, arriving early Sunday morning at Berlin Tegel Airport. We were greeted by Dirk, then met our first new friends, Dick and Carol Morasch. Dirk continued to round up arriving participants, and soon we were headed an hour southwest in a bus to spend the first of two nights at a hotel outside Dessau.

Because it was rainy, Dirk postponed a safety check until the next morning. We relaxed until our first dinner all together. As is customary, all of us new acquaintances introduced ourselves, providing a brief sketch of our interests, how many Road Scholar programs we'd taken, and anything else we cared to share. It was a jovial, interesting bunch that easily painted a self-sketch of themselves, and delightful Nancy Hembree bubbled, "I've been on a number of Road Scholar programs, and I've never met a group of people that seemed to care about each other so quickly. This is going to be fun." Indeed, less than eight hours together, and the camaraderie had already begun.