Saying “good bye” from the people at the Friedenshof is always hard. A part of me usually wants to stay longer. However, around 10 am I was on the road again heading South towards Göttingen were Kara, my eldest daughter, is staying with her boyfriend.
The road took me along the river Leine through Hannover and couple of rather uninspiring little places. Also, it was raining a bit and there was draining headwind for a while. I did not cover much ground during most of the day.
Only in the evening the weather improved and the landscape became prettier as the small river Leine was meandering beautifully through a green valley.
Finally, I was able to complete 135 km by 8:30 pm and still found a camping site with some food on offer. The place is close to an Autobahn and has almost no even spot since it is on the side of a hill. But who cares?
Three other cyclist from Oberstdorf and Ulm were very interested in my project and my bike setup and we started chatting. Later, we had a beer together and did some shop talk around gear, equipment and other stuff.
About 30 years ago, two zis scholarships helped me to broaden my horizon, expand my understanding of what is possible, and develop more self-confidence. zis is a non-profit organization that has been awarding scholarships for study trips to young people between the ages of 16 and 20 for more than 60 years. Today, the word we use for tenacity and grit is resilience - and I've made it my profession, to help managers around the world to develop more of this inner power.
In retrospect, the experiences I've had on these trips to Scotland and Iceland have been priceless for my development. After having had a childhood with some challenges, I learned that I could cycle 1,700km on my own and get wet every day without despairing. I have learned that I was able to get along with only 300 € for 4 weeks and still had a good time. I have learned what it's like to be threatened with deportation and how to get an interview with the President from such a crisis. I have understood that limitations are primarily constructs in our heads, and I want to make these insights available to as many adolescents as possible.
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