01 Oct 2013
Scharbeutz to Gromitz
22 miles

It’s a Doberman Pinscher and it’s barreling toward my left leg. Mind you, my left leg has suffered greatly on this trip. First there was the Kneecap Incident in Schwerin, when a very low and sharp bed frame corner tried to take me down. This was followed by the Stenciled Calf Incident outside of Timmendorfer Strand, when a poorly placed set of stairs lead to a near-perfect imprint of my largest bike cog’s teeth upon my left calf. And now, if something doesn’t change in the next 5 seconds, some portion of my left leg is going to be sporting a couple of canine incisor holes.

As I come to a full stop and think simultaneously to myself “no sudden moves” and “don’t pee your pants,” the dog arrives, gives me the once over, and decides, I guess, that he’s not so hungry after all. Perhaps it is my lucky day or perhaps not doing my laundry last night has paid off. Either way, it is too close of a call and not quite fathomable how it is that this off-lead dog is allowed to stay off-lead on the bike path, given his clear penchant for sampling cyclists.

With my left leg spared any further trauma, I’m happy to report we were able to pedal onward, enjoying all that this amazing coastline has to offer. We didn’t make it far today, too distracted by pastries and beaches and sunny benches, but we have some extra time to get back to Denmark so why rush a good thing?