En France, Part 2

-- Continuation from last post --

Day 7 (15.6.): Speyer - Seltz/France (92km). I stayed in Speyer in the morning in order to visit the cathedral (biggest Romanic church and one of the biggest churches of Christendom). It was one of the most impressive churches I have seen, really :) I continued my way towards France at midday and made it to France in the evening (no sign that I had crossed the border - only when  my way was blocked (once again) well into France with a sign <<route barree>> did I realize I was in a different country already.

Day 8 (16.6.): Seltz - Strasbourg (80km). I got up exceptionally early (5.30am) and left at 8am (it takes me well over 2 hours to get the bike ready in the morning..) because weather forecasts predicted heavy rain for midday in Strasbourg. Indeed it was not an hour after I had arrived in the city (took an auberge de jeunesse) that heavy rain started which was to last the whole day. So I had to explore the city with a waterproof rain jacket, and visisted yet another church (Strasbourg Cathedral, one of the tallest churches in the world), the old city part << La Petite France>> and the EU quarter including the representative buildings of the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights.

Outlook: My plan  for the upcoming week or so is to proceed along the Wine Route in the Vosges Mountains (ca 150km) and to take the European Cycle Path 6 to Chalon-sur-Saone (ca 350km) and then head towards Lyon.

Preliminary conclusions: I am quite ok with the selection of items I took with me, except for the tent. I might buy a different tent later, I will see.

The bike has been good so far; but my chain broke down near Mainz and the roulettes in one of the pedals crushed on the way to Strasbourg. In general though, the bikes is running smoothly, so that I can do an average of ca 25km/h on a flat paved road and without wind blowing in my face. Slow driving in towns, waiting at red lights, uphill parts of the route (Kassel-Marburg and Taunus in particular), and the like take down my average speed to about 20kh/h.

A bientot :)

P.S.: I realized that I cannot upload pictures in the internet shop, but I am trying to find other means to do this!

En France!

Hi all, so after 8 days and over 900 km of travelling, I crossed the border to France yesterday. I am in  Strasbourg now and I am taking a first half day off to get some things done here in in city. So this is what happened so far and what is hopefully going to happen after today:

Day 1 (9.6.): Bremen - Porta Westfalica. I cycled 130km on the first day and camped next to the river Weser. My (cheap and just 1,5kg heavy but small and only with one entrance) tent turned out to be some sort of a failure because its really quite sticky (--> just one entrance), and since it is a single-skin cell, condensated water makes the tent to go all wet from the inside. But at least there is no big hole in the tent which keeps most of the rain outside :)

Day 2 (10.6.): Bremen - Hameln - Corvey/Höxter. I did another 120km this day and spent a little time in the city of Hameln (also saw one rat, even they are supposed to have left the city, following he pied piper; right?!). I had initially wanted to head south in a more direct way, but other cyclists convinced me to take a little detour along the river Weser to Hannoversch Münden/Kassel.

Day 3 (11.6.): Corvey/Höxter - Hannoversch Münden - Kassel. This day took me another 90km along the river Weser until Hann. Münden where it originates (rivers Fulda and Werra unite). It had rained for the first time during the night, so my clothes where still kind of wet in the morning and I had to pack a wet tent. I also visited the old and famous monastery of Corvey in the morning and spent the night on a camping site near Kassel.

Day 4 (12.6.): Kassel - Marburg, 120km. This trip took me more or less the whole day because I had underestimated the hilliness of the mountains south of Kassel, but more of this was to come the next day;;;

Day 5 (13.6.): Marburg - Giessen - Mainz/Wiesbaden, 150km. Once again I underestimated the hilliness of the route (Taunus), plus the route was not easy to find, especially in the Rhein-Main agglomeration around Frankfurt. I had awesome views from the Taunus mountains to the Frankfurt skyline, but I had to crawl up the mountains in first gear and at 3 or 4 km/h.

Day 6 (14.6.): Mainz/Wiesbaden - Worms - Ludwigshafen - Speyer, 110km. This day took me along a rather unattractive route along the river Rhine. Romanic Worms Cathedral was awesome (you know I am a big fan of churches, but rather in the Ken-Follet style, which is strictly restricted to a cultural/historical and architectural perspective), but the route took me along the Ludwigshafen industrial area. The BASF plant is indeed impressive and Biblis nuclear power-plant looks nice from the outside, but I prefer nature to going through chemical and nuclear fallout zones (ui, why am I going to France, then!? :-p)

Last Minute Preparations and Prologue: Stuhr (Home) - Bremen - Stuhr (20km)

June 9, 2011, at the Roland in Bremen

 OK, some of you might already know that I am planning to cycle south this summer. I've been busy doing internships during the summer months of the last years, and this summer will also be my last 3-month semester break as I will start pursuing a 1-year master degree as of September 2011 at the College of Europe (Ger.: Europakolleg) in Brugges and will afterwards probably have finished my studies at university. So I'm starting my journey tomorrow (today actually --> this morning). The plan is to travel to and in southern France and Italy some 8 or 9 weeks until mid-August, depending on how everything will work out.
The exact route is still unclear, but the aim is to start in Bremen and go to Avignon first (roughly: Bremen - Porta Westfalica - Marburg - Frankfurt/Main - Strasbourg - Lyon - Avignon), hopefully including detours to Tour-de-France giants L'Alpe d'Huez, Les Deux Alpes, Galibier and Mont Ventoux :-)
I would like to spend some time in the Provence and visit Pont du Gard, Arles, the Camargue, Nîmes, and so on, before continuing through the Verdon Gorge and along the Côte d'Azur (Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Menton) towards Tuscany and visit Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Assisi. This is when plans start to get extremely fuzzy. If there are no problems and if I manage to proceed well, I might go further south into the Italian Pensinsula and then cycle home at some point. But I might cycle home from Tuscany, too ... Or take a train home ;-)
For sure, though, the second stage tomorrow (--> this morning) will take me either to Bad Driburg (170km) or Porta Westfalica (100km). I will see if I manage Bad Driburg, but I also booked a youth hostel in Porta Wesftalica, in case I decide 170km will be too much (which is well possible!!). By the way, I am generally planning to camp with a tent, but weather forecasts are not too good, so I will stay in a hostel during the first night.
Anyways, a prologue took me to Bremen City-Centre yesterday for a photo-shoot, picture above. You can also see all my luggage on my bike. I will be totally self-sufficient and have everything with me (an extra 36kg on my bike - it's quite heavy steering actually!), including 2 tents, a small cooker, travel guides, ... and College of Europe preparation materials :-P

In particular, I am very fond of the solar panel at the back of the bike which will provide 100% clean power for my navigation system at the front of the bike :-)

So, I will not be able to update this too often, but I will try my best and try to post something every week or so. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post away :)

Take care :-)


My bike: 5 bags and an extra tent. 36kg. Note the solar panel to power my navigation system! :-)