July 2005: Watch out, Rebels on the bus! Tourist trip Rebel Jam 2005

Jul 07, 2005

Written by Bart de Jong

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The Rebel Jam in Berlin started off with a tourist tour through the city. Two double decker buses were hired to show the riders, sponsors and media what the city was all about. This is a great idea as we only get to see the venue, the hotel, the airport and a bar or two at 90% of the contests. It was raining cats and dogs when the buses showed up. When everyone rushed in the bus to grab a seat, the windows fogged up. With a closed roof (that was leaking left and right), heavy rain outside and steamed up windows the conditions weren't great for the tourist trip. And then 4 cases of beer turned up in every bus. This made it

more enjoyable from the start. The tourist trip was turning into a Rebel drinking tour from the start. Heads were faced inside the bus instead of outside the steamy windows. The tourist leader on the microphone had a hard time making everyone understand what the history of the city was. The speakers weren't loud enough but nobody seemed to care, at least not in the upstairs section of bus one. This is also where the Canadians had brought 6 bottles of

Whiskey on board together with some Cola and some big cups. To make their money back, they charged 5 Euros per cup and if you were lucky you got some refills later on. Dustin Guenther and Dave Osato were great salesmen but Clint Millar was the worst and got heckled by everyone. He was intoxicated enough not to care. We had a piss stop at the Berlin wall (that's what's left of it). A team photo was shot and the Spanish riders showed how easy it was to get on top of the wall and have a beer. This is 2005 though and 20 years back Perico would have been shot dead for his action.

It had dried up and the roof of the bus was taken off. This left for a nice breeze and the opportunity to put stickers on traffic lights way up there. If you notice some Cream and VANS stickers at the bottom of the green light in Berlin, you know it took a rolling double decker to get it there. Soon after the second bus got attacked by bus one. From napkins to beer caps to headphones. The Rebels were loose. This had to stop before someone got seriously hurt and Bademeister Emde instructed to put the roof back on.

I believe we drove by Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburger Tor and the Live 8 stage but to really get to know the city I'd have to do the complete tour over again. It was super fun but we could have done laps around the block too. We screwed the opportunity of learning more about Berlin. BdJ