The Slow train experiment

The plan for this trip was to see how far I got and then figure out how to get home. Actually the figuring out was not that easy. Somewhat reluctant to try to deal with flying from Copenhagen (and the obligatory finding and transporting a box for Maisie on my own), I was hoping a rail trip home was possible. Sadly its almost impossible to book a bike on a long distance international train on the fly. Alain generously pedalled into the Geneva rail station office to try in person on my behalf, but for want of an electronic means of sending a bike ticket, it too was No Go.

So I decided to try the slow approach to rail travel. So far we (Maisie and I) are on train 9 of 11. This train makes 26 stops so if you do your sums i must have stopped at quite a sizeable proportion of German stations. My favourite train had the whole downstairs of one compartment given over to bikes - and it was needed.

Now (later) on the final train :-) I have only once had to dismount panniers and only once been forced to use the stairs. I will have spent almost 24 hours on trains (plus an overnight en route). Luckily I am tired from all the pedalling and have done reasonably well at both being patient and navigating all those stations and trains. Still it was quite an endeavor and I am proud to have given it a shot. And anyway, the fact that it was such a long trip home does rather underline just how far I pedalled.Read more