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)