The Amazing Race episode 9 recap, November 20, 2011.

Welcome to the ninth episode of The Amazing Race! With the elimination of Laurence & Zac last week, only five teams remain in the Race around the world.

Ernie & Cindy, as the winners of the last leg, are the first to depart at 9:01 in the morning. They read the clue and find out that they and the other teams will proceed to the Hans Christian Anderson statue to pick up their next clue. It’s a Roadblock where one team member must memorize a short Hans Christian Anderson poem inscribed on the bottom of the statue. Then they pick one of several bicycles with a map on the hub of the wheel to get to their next destination. There, they must recite the poem on a stage to a drama critic. They must not only recite it correctly, but also with some dramatic flair!

The poem is very appropriate for the Amazing Race as it reads:

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.

It’s a tough memory test. If they fail to remember it on stage, they’ll have to return back to the statue to re-memorize it. Cindy does the task with flair, getting it correct the first time. Ernie & Cindy get their next clue, which takes them to Legoland Park.

Meanwhile, Bill & Cathi leave the Pit Stop at 10:34, with Andy & Tommy five minutes behind them. They reach the statue and practice reciting the poem several times before going to the theater. Cathi, however, can’t find the theater on the map and has to ask for directions. Tommy also has trouble finding his way and finds out he is “off the map”. Meanwhile, Marcus & Amani depart the pit stop at 11:43, more than hour behind the second and third place teams. Surprisingly, Amani easily finds her way to the theater and gets there ahead of Cathi and Tommy. She also does it with flair and now she & Marcus have just moved up into second place! As Marcus put it, “We just took the opening kickoff and ran it for a touchdown. That is unreal.”

Cathi is the third person to reach the theater. Will she remember the lines after wandering around for so long on the bike? It goes well until she says “lands untold” instead of “lands remote”. Oops. It’s time to go back to square one. About this time, Jeremy & Sandy depart the Pit Stop at 12:08, already running well behind some of the other teams. They reach the statue with Bill and Andy still waiting for their partners and decide that Sandy will be reciting the poetry.

Cathi makes it back to the theater and recites the poem correctly the second time (and gets a kiss on the hand!), just as Tommy parks his bike on the same bike stand that Cathi did. Cathi departs and very soon thereafter Sandy arrives as Tommy is doing his recitation. He recites it correctly, but with no flair at all! “More drama, please,” the critic asks Tommy. Tommy walks out to his bike to go back to the statue. “Drama for your mama,” Tommy flippantly says to the camera man, “they want more drama.” Sandy also doesn’t give enough drama and she goes back to the statue too! Tommy practiced it a bit more for Andy while Sandy just rode by the statue to go back to the theater. Tommy gets it right, barely saving himself as he stumbled on remembering the “lands remote” bit. Still, he gets a pass and he leaves the theater just as Sandy arrives. She also gets it with the right amount of dramatic flair in the second try.

Ernie & Cindy, meanwhile, have already reached the Legoland Park. Here they find out that teams will have to assemble a lego puzzle while spinning around in a theme park pirate perch ride a lot like the spinning cups in Disneyland. The assembled pieces will reveal the next clue. Cindy is already saying that she is feeling sick from all of the spinning around. Even with one piece missing, they manage to put together the puzzle, which looks like the train station “Hamburg Hbf”. From the Legoland park, the teams will have to drive across the border into Germany to reach the Hamburg train station.

Marcus & Amani reach Legoland second. After a few spins on the ride, Amani is about to throw up. We get a shot of a barf bag on the floor of the ride. After a few stopped rides, during which time they can’t work on the puzzle and have to hold their hands up, they manage to piece together the puzzle. Meanwhile, Bill & Cathi are still on the way, stopping by a pizza parlor to get directions to Legoland. Andy & Tommy reach the park just as Amani & Marcus leave, meeting them in the parking lot. Jeremy & Sandy reach the park a few minutes later while Bill & Cathi still on the road somewhere.

Andy & Tommy are assembling one piece at a time, leaving most of the pieces in the box with one of them handing a piece over. Jeremy & Sandy don’t seem to be making any progress even after a few rounds, with at least one piece having flown out of the ride on to the platform. Sandy is the next one about to throw up. And it gets worse after they found out the piece is missing. Andy & Tommy finish the puzzle and then start mocking Jeremy & Sandy, showing them the puzzle and then doing some throwing up sounds and spinning their ride around. Jeremy & Sandy realize a piece is missing and look for it. They find it and eventually get the puzzle put together, leaving the park in fourth place. Bill & Cathi arrive after Jeremy & Sandy have already left, so they’re pretty far behind the pack at this point.

Ernie & Cindy, meanwhile, have finished the drive to Hamburg train station where they pick up their clue. Teams will ride a train to Brussels, Belgium and then make their way to the European Parliament Building to look for their next clue. Ernie & Cindy find out the next train is at 12:30 a.m. and… did Cindy just drop their tickets on the floor? Yup. They realize they’ve lost their tickets and can’t seem to find them after retracing their steps. They check a ticket machine and determine that they don’t have the 77 Euros to buy new ones. For some reason, they don’t go to a manned ticket counter to get some help to replace them. Meanwhile, the other teams arrive one by one and it looks they’ll all be on the same sleeper train.

The train conductor comes around checking tickets. Ernie tells the conductor that he and Cindy lost their tickets. Cindy looks sick. The conductor asks them if they have receipts or anything else and they don’t. The conductor says she can’t help them. “This could be a game ender,” Ernie remarks. “We blew it big time.”

The train ride transits at Cologne and Tommy says, “all aboard.” Indeed they are, as Ernie & Cindy are also on the train. They’re hoping that there won’t be a conductor to check for tickets on this route. Sure enough, nobody checks for tickets and Ernie & Cindy seem to have dodged the bullet.

It’s an equal race now with everyone rushing out of the train station and looking for a taxi. The taxi line is very long (and in Europe, don’t even think of cutting the line!). So the teams decide to hoof it out onto the streets, hoping for an available taxi somewhere else. They all manage to find taxis and make their way to the Parliament Building. The clues are tucked into a bag attached to a bike.

The next task is a body building routine. Everyone must put on a body building uniform and do some routines which will be judged. Once they get judged with a high enough score, a total of 12 or more from three judges, they will be able to move on. Cathi says, “I was pretty mortified. I’m not sure I have ever worn a bikini that was so small.” Most of them weren’t comfortable with the attire at all. “Horrendous,” Marcus puts it simply. Yikes, Cindy looks like she has a big bruise on her left hip.

Not only do they wear speedos and bikinis, but they also get their whole body smeared up in gobs of tanning oil. After that, they’re shown the muscle flexing routines they’re supposed to do. Ernie & Cindy are the first to appear on stage in front of the judges. They get a 3, 2 and 4, not quite enough, as the judges explain to them what they need to do to score higher. Andy & Tommy do worse with a 1, 2 and a 1.

Amani & Marcus do a lot of practice before hitting the stage and they put on a pretty good show. The small audience is whistling at them and the judges award them with a 4, 4, and 4 score, allowing them to move on in first place. They get the Route Info and from here, teams go to a gazebo in Parc Elisabeth as the next Pit Stop. “The last team to check in here may be eliminated,” Phil tells us.

On their second try, Andy & Tommy again get failing marks, being told that there was no improvement. Ernie & Cindy are next up again and they’re working on pleasing the small crowd watching along with the judges. They figure if they smile enough and attract some applause, the judges will up the score a bit. Sure enough, they get a 4, 4 and 4 and are the second team to finish the routine.

Bill & Cathi give it their first try and score 1, 1, and 1. Yikes. They might be here a while. Jeremy & Sandy, though, go up and nail it with a 5, 4 and 4. The crowd loved them. They’re the third team to leave the building.

Meanwhile, Amani & Marcus reach the Pit Stop first. Phil greets them with his trademark raised eyebrow and tells them they are team number one! Amani & Marcus are high-fiving it as they learn they’ve won a trip to Panama. They’re also told…

“The next leg of the Race starts right now.” Oh, a super leg. No rest for the teams today.

Next week: Building barrels boats and auto racing on the speed circuit!

Stay tuned!