Europe Tour 2018

Wow! the end is almost in sight, it was perfect day to end the tour; a mild breeze, a little cloudy but dry. After a healthy breakfast of mixed fruit, muesli with milk, I got going at 8.37am.   The ride out of Freiburg was very pleasant and definitely hillier than what I had experienced for several days. I was used to long climbs out of and into towns. This was more rolling through the foothills of the Black Forest. And most of it was on bike trails, occasionally passing through villages and small towns. The scenery of the landscape was quite something, shame about the cloud cover; the photos don’t do it justice. I was feeling really good and thinking how lucky I was, to be able to enjoy this ride as I pedalled effortlessly towards Basle. I was determined to ride along the Rhine for one last time on this tour even though the Swiss side of the Rhine is not the prettiest. Finally saw the sign pointing me towards the Rhine and luck would have it, a local passing by w...

Didn’t take long to get back into the routine of getting ready to go on today’s ride; was really looking forward to getting back on the saddle on a beautiful morning. I must acknowledge my host in Strasbourg, Stephanie, a nurse who had a 6am shift so wasn’t around when it was time for breakfast or to say farewell. She had not only left me a nice breakfast but also some ham and cheese to make a couple of sandwiches, which I made to take with me. I learnt my lesson well from riding in Germany previously, one just doesn’t come across shops or cafes riding through acres and acres of never ending farmland or forest. Like the scouts, always be prepared with rations. And no chai latte to boot. The nice thing in Strasbourg is that you don’t have to dodge the cars as they have their road and the cyclist has a parallel path. I was quickly out of Strasbourg’s core and then spent the next 15 minutes escaping the suburban sprawl. But in an instant Strasbourg faded and I was trekking on ...

And I needed them. What a change of routine it was this morning – no pressure to jump out of bed rushing to get to breakfast by a certain time, or having to pack up my panniers to get on the road. It was like being on holidays! Breakfast, a baguette with butter, jam and tea) was at my own good time. Breakfast finished and correspondence attended to; it was time to go exploring magical Strasbourg. I had no plan of attack; just zigzagging randomly across the city enjoying whatever came next. I am staying no more than a 10minute walk to the old city.  Strasbourg has a student population of over 50,000, which explains why the town has so much youthful energy. Everywhere you go there are young people strolling around, smiling, chatting, contented and happy. One day they will look back and realise that these were the best years of their life. Everywhere I went there were fabulous cafes, restaurants, brasseries, pizzerias, creperies, and ice cream shops. But what rea...

It was a Sunday but the ride wasn’t easy like a Sunday morning. I headed out of town after a nice breakfast; Brigitte also gave me a packed lunch (fairy god mother looking after me). 5km out of Karlsruhe, I got lost in spite of following the Garmin; luck would have it the only person that I came across was a young American who kindly pointed me in the right direction. If you have ridden in Germany its all about bike trails and they are everywhere; it's very easy to get lost especially in the countryside. I reckon they have the best network I have seen anywhere. Every major road has a parallel paved trail and today’s route was no different. Some paved, some dirt, through acres and acres of farmland and/or forest with an occasional path next to a secondary road. You never know what the day will bring; today I heard bag pipe music from a long way away in the middle of absolutely nowhere, thinking someone’s got their radio on full volume. As I got closer to where the ...

Why Karlsruhe, you may ask? Well, because it is there; I was looking for a halfway point to put my head down for the night between Bensheim and Strasbourg and Karly seem to be as good a place as any. It didn’t disappoint. Heidelberg didn’t deserve a blog yesterday; I don’t know what the fuss is about that place but it didn’t do it for me. But the day ended well in Bensheim by having dinner with a young couple and their 2 kids. I asked them if they knew of a German restaurant nearby that I had heard about, not only had they not heard about it but they too were looking for somewhere to eat, so they Googled it and asked me if I care to join them, which I did. Meeting people is one of the joys of touring. Today’s ride took me though beautiful villages, farmland, forest, Heidelberg, Bruchsal and finally to Karlsruhe where I am staying in a delight AirBnb hosted by Brigitte. The ride whilst long was very enjoyable; everyday is different when touring on a bicycle. T...

Beautiful sunrise at Bingen over the Rhine made me think that it was going to be a ripper of a day. Sadly mistaken, as the actual ride was quite tedious and monotonous; covering all sorts of riding surface and landscapes. The photos below tell the story better than I can. Had a long day in front of me so got going around 8.45am in beautiful sunshine, saw very little of the Rhine today (20% maybe); the other 80% was mostly through farmland by now under cloud cover. About 20km outside Bingen, came across this character flying a drone, stopped to have a chat and would you believe it, he (James) was a Kiwi from Christchurch living his dream, building drones, which doesn’t pay so well so he also works as a teacher to fund his dream in Bingen. What is it that I bump into Kiwis along the Rhine? There was nothing scenic to even stop to take photos so it was mostly head down bum up and keep peddling. The only other people I came across were these 3 kids in Mainz, each ca...