Cocktail Hour: Coffeeneuring 2015 Ride #2

For my second coffeeneuring ride, I had no particular destination in mind. I was going to pack my coffee gear, some beans, and a little bottle of Irish cream, and ride to wherever looked like a nice spot to sit awhile and drink coffee. So with a considerably light pannier, I rode off in search of that perfect spot.

 

About four kilometers down the road, I found a picnic table tucked under some trees alongside the bike path and thought that would be as good a place as any. I unpacked the pannier, setting everything out to make a cup or two of coffee. After I filled the French press with water and set it on the stove to heat, I took out the Ziploc bag of beans and… did absolutely nothing with them. You see, I had forgotten one key piece of equipment: the Porlex coffee grinder.

After a couple of minutes trying to think my way around the problem—could I crush them with my pocket knife? Probably not a good idea.—I decided I would ride back, sort of in the direction of home, but past where I knew some places might be open. One café looked promising, so I stopped, only to realize that the money in my pocket was no more than 15 Euro cents, not nearly enough to buy a cup of coffee. So I went home to get the grinder and start again.

By this time, it was getting dark so I didn’t want to travel very far. I figured the previous eight or so kilometers covered the distance requirement, so I rode just outside the neighborhood to a lonely picnic table set in the middle of a field where a 9th century fortress once stood.

There I was able to grind the beans and make a proper cup of coffee. Its warmth was pleasant in the cool October evening as I listened to the sound of the wind rustling the nearly bare tree branches and the sound of cars driving home in the distance.

My cup empty and the streetlights turning on, I packed up my things and made the quick ride back to the house. One weekend down, several more to go to finish the 2015 Coffeeneuring challenge.

- Bicyclist Abroad

 

 

Coffeeneur Quick Stats:

Location:	Picnic Table, Waldfeucht, Germany
Date:	Sunday, October 18th
Drink:	Coffee
Distance:	12.9km/ 8 miles