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! :-)