Eastern Shore Ride Day 6 - Crisfield to Berlin

 Time to say goodbye to bleak and sad Crisfield. The view over the bay from the condo is amazing though. That's Smith Island in the distance.

Monday morning in Crisfield has even more limited dining options than Sundays, so we made do with the First National Bank of McDonalds.

A crazy person was ranting and raving inside Micky D's, and he struck up a conversation with us about our bike tour. 

Turns out he had a great tip about the ruins of a very old church just off our route, in the tiny but ancient town of Rehobeth, MD.

The church in ruins was built in the 1780s, on the site of an earlier church from the 1680s. I can only imagine what it was like here in the 1600s. There probably wasn't a giant chicken house behind the church then.

Since we are riding back roads as much as possible, the only place for lunch was Pokomoke City, where we chose gas station fried chicken over McDonalds again. 

Turns out the Krispy Krunchy chicken was fantastic, and the sides were made there and fantastic too. This could be the next R&R Taqueria, which also started in a Sunoco station.

There are a surprising number of old churches back in the woods here in the lower Eastern Shore. I think there are almost as many churches as houses.

Today was a long day. It was sunny and nice out, but it was 60 miles with plenty of headwinds. We made it into Berlin right when it was getting dark.

Berlin is quite a nice town. It's just inland from Ocean City, and there are lots of restaurants and a fancy historic hotel. It's a town for romantic getaways for couples with a lot of money. For people like us who are cheap bike tourists, well there are a lot of cheap motels 20 miles farther along the way to the beach with McDonalds next door.

Since the Atlantic Hotel is near brewpubs and breakfast options, we booked two expensive rooms, because this is still the best option. The room is so small the bike barely fits inside.

We had a lot of fun at dinner last night, first at the Berlin Brewing Company two blocks over, then at the hotel bar. At the bar we were sitting next to a couple where the woman was trying to set the guy up with one of her friends. She said she was a turtle and he was a Nittany Lion. Jim said his wife went to Penn State, and I asked her if she had ever been to the 'Vous. Which got her going ("Of course! I was in a sorority practically next door!") and now we are best friends for life, until she had to get a ride home so as to leave her friends she was setting up with no escape. They were still talking when we went up to our rooms.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/16556480698