London Musings: May 2010

Four years ago on a distant gravel highway in the wilderness of Alaska two worlds collided. One an '81 Toyota Land Cruiser, the other a tandem bicycle named 'Achilles'. Some of you may remember the encounter:

The Crusier was on an expedition from NY to the Arctic Ocean and back (shoutouts to the Alaskan cross-country crew, you can see our work here: http://www.crosscountry-2006.blogspot.com/) while Achilles had just begun a journey from the North Slope of Alaska to the southern tip of South America.

Four years later the pilot of Achilles, our great British friend Dominic Gill has finally released the documentary and book that captured his epic adventure. These pieces capture Dom's incredible journey as he pedaled south in search of strangers to join him on the back of his tandem. The documentary is currently circling the globe in the international Banff Mountain Film Festival:

http://www.banffcentre.ca/MountainCulture/Tour/

His Adventure:

http://www.takeaseat.org

The book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-Seat-Tandem-Twenty-Thousand-Possibilities/dp/184596585X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273656741&sr=1-1

A review:

Dominic Gill's trip began as a personal challenge - to cycle alone across two continents - but became, thanks to the many people who either jumped on the back of his tandem on the way or looked after him, an exploration of what it means to be human and a celebration of the generosity of the human spirit.

Of course I couldn't leave out my contribution as being the first rider to hop on the back of Achilles during Dom's adventure:

Is this guy the man or what?

Dom had a book signing at a local pub here in London just last week. It was the first time we had been able to catch up face to face in 4 years:

It was an awesome time and after 4 years it really didn't seem like it could have possibly been that long. I spoke to Dom on the phone just yesterday so we could make plans to grab brunch tomorrow before he heads out. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

Me: Hey Dom, just wanted to let you know your hair made it into the new Disney movie 'Prince of Persia'

Dom: Oh hey Charlie, your ears must have been ringing.

Me: No, why?

Dom: 'Cause I was just telling someone how you used to look so cool and now you look like a loser!

This was the type of exchange that made my 68 miles on Achilles so memorable. It was one of those events that stick with you forever. Do yourself a favor and check out Dom's next adventure which starts shortly:

www.domandernie.com

Follow it in real time through his website and updates. I promise you that you will start to greatly anticipate the days they grace your inbox.

I'm off to get some sleep before our 'meet-up' as it is now almost 3:00am. Also working on growing as much facial hair as possible before the morning comes. oh and by the way, if you get the book...I highly recommend pages 33-47

Hello folks. Sorry for the delay in updating - just had a little trip to Amsterdam last weekend, I forgot I had a blog.

So, anyways...this trip was great because there was no craigslist needed this time. I was going to meet up with my boo! Codi was flying over with her roommate Rachael to start a little European vacation of their own and I had been invited/decided to crash.

It just so happened that this little excursion fell on the Dutch holiday of Queen's Day, a little added bonus. My flight came in Thursday night which was Queen's Night (Queen's Day eve) and I had written down two addresses of the bed and breakast where I was supposed to meet Codi & Rach. There was some confusion to which was correct. We had sorted it beforehand but I completely forgot which one to use. I thought things out, ran a logistical analysis in my head and made the only logical decision - I would go check out the one in Red Light District first...

...man was I wrong...

Anyways, the second address was Bingo right on the money and the place was great. Not only was it centrally located but the owner lady left some cold Heineken in the fridge, an omen!

We all woke bright and early the next morning to get a head start on Queen's Day. We hit the streets around 10:30am (that's bright and early, isn't it?). Booths were starting to pop up, people were beginning to populate the city and there was a buzz of heavy anticipation in the air. We followed the general flow of foot traffic. To where we were headed, we did not know. We just knew it made sense, like worker bees returning to the hive. After 25 minutes or so we ended up at a clearing at Museumplein and this was clearly 'The Mecca'.

Listening to a Dutch Rapper was actually kinda cool, probably similar to taking in some

Pavorotti or Bocelli. You don't know what he's saying, but you know it's gibberish anyway,

so who cares! Plus everyones drunk! This is great!

It wasn't hard to see that this was one of the focal points of the festivities, but there was so much more. The whole city was a giant carnival. After walking some more we ended up in another park where all of the sudden we were in an episode of Oliver Twist meets the Twilight Zone. The park was hosting what seemed to be a normal fair until I noticed that every single booth was run by little kids. Like, really little! They were playing music, selling food, lemonade and stuff from their parents' house. I wasn't sure if this was sanctioned or not. These goods could be stolen! And who knows what was in the punch! I didn't want to find out so I just secured my wallet and bolted out of there. We hit the streets again (where we felt safer) and by this point Queen's Day was in full swing.

Elevated DJ's, 4 Euro Hotdogs

Party Boats!

I even offered to hold Codi's beer

At one point I thought I saw people bungee jumping off a crane, it didn't look like a very legit operation, probably some workers just blowing off steam.

An awesome and exhausting celebration. We covered a lot of ground over the next 3 days too. Oh, and the sanitation workers had gone on strike, I guess deciding this would be an impactful time to do so (just give 'em whatever they want!!!). It was noticed, to say the least, but there was one benefit: