• Sarah and Peter
Jun 2016 – Jul 2017

BaltiNavia by Bike

A 422-day adventure by Sarah Read more
  • Trip start
    June 5, 2016

    Burton on Trent - contemplating......

    June 5, 2016 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Sat on a hilltop camp in rural Masaka Uganda, the event I had looked forward to and prepared hard for over 6 months was tangiably close... just 24 hours away. I was prepared, excited and ready for the challenge..... yet I woud have been equally happy to have been able to stop time and retain the expectation and motivation it had given me to tick off the bleak english winter days in a job I had lost passion for. I knew that when it was over there would be a huge feeling of elation and satisfaction at completing the event, but there would also be a void to be filled which inevitably meant another 9+ months working in a office and riding out another grey British winter until I could concoct the next adventure. This time I knew it had to be longer. Working an intense job for a WHOLE year for 25 days holiday is a bad trade off, right? ;)

    I met some very inspirational people in our wonderful little camp, a group of 150 or so Brits who had flown to Uganda to take part in a hilly off-road marathon all had to have something uniquely magical flowing in their blood to bring them together. The day before the marathon during our "Un-conference Day", having listened to stories about solo women cycling to New Zealand and people stepping out to change their careers, I made 2 promises to myself. One was to change my job into a role I didnt continually want to escape from, the other was to go on a long journey - and somehow cycling to Russia popped into mind.

    Going back a couple of years or so, I recall having an odd day off at the end of summer, I decided to take my car up to Middleton in the Peak District and the high peak trail to Hurdlow. Being in my late 20s I remarked how all the people I encountered on the trail that day must have been retirees. Some couples, some solo, but all enjoying nature, being in the open air and getting from A to B under their own steam. I caught myself thinking "I can't wait to retire until I can do this all day...". WHAAAAT!! I was 29 and already wishing to be 65 (or older by the time the retirement age rises..!) Despite the bewildered looks I get from friends or colleagues when I tell them of my plans to do a long-distance bike trip I am more and more convinced that sometimes you have to step out of the socially-expected, safe, trajectory of "life" to actually experience "life". We shall see...

    Vive la reVELOcion!
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  • Elsterberg, Germany

    December 31, 2016 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

    Happy New Year !

    At 7pm on New Year's Eve, most people are having dinner, doing their hair, getting dressed up ready for a night out. Team PS, decided it was a good a time as any to test out a tour tent. Thankfully not outside in the Minus 10 conditions, but in P's living room....

    Aside from the bikes, the tent has the possibility of becoming the most expensive bit of trip kit. In the interests of keeping costs down we are going to work with what we have regarding tents. Its a snug 2 man, without a porch, but with the addition of a tarp, should more than compensate and allow for the option of sleeping "outside" should the conditions be favourable.

    Verdict - a very cosy place for eating Pretzels at 2am. ;)

    ______

    EDIT - its April and we've decided to buy a tent with a porch!
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  • Oxford Weekend

    January 29, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    This weekend was a surprise trip to Oxford, where we stepped briefly into the world of Harry Potter, enjoyed some old pubs, and stumbled into the most amazing bookshop....

    The frontage was two small buildings wide, which gave way to a 3 storey world of books like never seen before. It was pretty magical!

    Of course they had an awesome cartography section which lent itself well to buying a detailled Europe map in. Let the preparations commence!
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  • London, UK

    March 10, 2017 in England ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Luckily we're still in the EU and the Schengen agreement still applies so the only country we need to obtain a visa for is Russia.

    After many days of researching, reading forums, and trying to call the Visa people we've both decieded to use a agency in our respective countries to aid the application process. £25 in addition to the consular fees seems like a fair price for by-passing the myriad of conflicting and confusing information out there on getthing the visa.

    As a tourist you can get a 30 day single double entry visa for £175 if you are a UK resident and for around EUR 35 if you are German!!

    I decided to use the attractively named "Stress-Free Visas" agency in London where they arranged my invitation voucher and met me on the day to go and do the biometric data collection in London. After some interesting exchanges with the guy behind the counter and a need to nip outside to my "fixer" (!) I left my passport with them and hoped that I would get it back within the promised 6 day window!
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  • Elsterberg

    March 12, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    I’m pleased to announce the latest arrival to my bike family!

    Specification –
    Strength – able to carry 20-40 kilos of kit
    Reparability – using fairly standard / universally used components which can be easily maintained or replaced on the road.
    Longevity – must be able to do the distance for 4 months
    Size – as a 5ft 2 woman it’s not always easy to find sports equipment that’s not just for “Joe Average”.
    Cost – should be a good price – performance ratio. (Budget circa £1000)

    It was going to be fairly tricky to find something pre-existing, either new or used to meet that spec as well as having it in Germany ready for the trip so it was decided that Peter would use his existing Surly Karate Monkey and up-spec various components to make it touring-suitable and for me to have a new build.

    We have a downhill frame – In-bred OnOne
    29 inch Marathon Tyres by Schwalbe
    Forks - Surly Ogre
    Rims and Spokes - DT Swiss
    Casette - Shimano
    Disc Brakes - AVID

    To be added -baggage racks, low-rider racks and a bar bag.
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  • Grants Yard, Burton on Trent

    April 15, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    I had forgotten how stressful it is to move house. Even when you aren't moving "House" as a house -share room renter its stll very easy to amass a lot of "stuff" ...doubly compounded when you aren't moving to a new address but are temporarily suspending life in the UK and only storing things or getting rid of them. As a result of moving madness I decided to push my flight to germany back a few days from Monday silly o'clock to Wednesday afternoon. I didn't want to admit defeat of not meeting my 9 day prep target, but feeling like a frazzled worker ant I had to let it slide!

    I decided to sell all of my furniture after looking into storage costs - it was looking like circa 50GBP per month for a cotainer of sorts and most of my furniture was IKEA, so replaceable and meaningless so it had to go!

    Thanks to gumtree and facebook I managed to sell 2 x bedside tables, 1 bed, 1 bookcase, 2 x chests of drawers, a laundry basket and a desk and chair within 2 weeks. It was tight, it led to sleepless nights but its done!

    A VW Golf is like a tardis - a guy came to collect an IKEA double width dresser with 8 drawers in a 3 door mark 5... with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. AND A DOG! My housemate was peering out of the window and was also absolutely positive that the dresser wouldn't fit into his car. Well, it did. the boot shut and his girlfriend and dog were still sat happily upfront.

    The other extreme was the lady who came from Lichfield to buy my 2 meter tall bookcase. She had a VW UP.... with 4 doors, so i was a little more hopeful. Unhelpfully the rear seats all fold down in one, leaving her son with nowhere to realllly safely sit. She declined offers of disassembling the bookcase as well as my offer to try and wrap the legs of the unit in the blanket she had in the car to prevent it touching the glass of the rear window. Thankfully she did take me up on the offer of tying the boot lid down with string... As I didn't hear of any traffic incidents involving a bookcase and a boy flying down the A38 I assume all got home safely! Not something I wanted on my conscience!

    I found a 20 Zlotych note in the desk drawers -. I've been reliably informed that that's sufficient for a good night out a a 4 zlotych bar... let's see!
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  • BHX Birmingahm Airport, UK

    April 19, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Aaaaaaaaaand breathe! It's been an absolutely manic week and a half consisting of; selling furniture, disassembling said furniture, carrying furniture mainly single handedly down 2 floors of stairs...sorting and culling lots of clothes and possessions, 2 x charity shop runs with armfuls of bags, admin to change my address, getting my hair cut, visiting my nearest and dearest (still not managing to see many I had promised to check in with prior to heading off), slight matter of PACKING....buying insurance (last minute or just efficiently timed? ;) )

    The final hurdles were;

    A)Being ready on time for my lift to the airport. DONE with the obligatory "run round every room like a headless chicken check". Making sure every last thing I had touched in my dad's house was in alignment. He is somewhat particuar ;)

    B)Quick paint job repair on my car for damage sustained last April. Sliiiiightly poor timing on that on my part! After 9 months of trying to divert family members's attention away from the damage zone for fear of poor-driving judgement was getting a little hard to sustain!

    C)Finding out whether the entire "clip" of batteris I packed could be taken in hold luggage. The internet said yes, Mrs Flybe said no. Cue last minute repack of my big holdall whilst in check-in, OF COURSE the batteries were at the bottom and my underwear was on the top.....thankfully I was exactly 2 hours early for my flight and check-in was pretty quiet.

    D)Armed with my ISIC student card, I tentatively tried to take advantage of the "one extra hold bag for free" offer that flybe have for students. I wasn't sure if i would get away with it as my course had taken place through distance learning. With my newly purpled hair and wearing my "well-loved" (aka ripped and i'm now between jobs so can't justify buying a new one) skirt and shoes (again "well-loved" and re-glued the day before) I don't think there was much doubt as to my social status. The sales staff in the duty free concourse reassured me I looked studenty enough on my route through to departures, as not one of them attempted to spray me with their wares in an attempt to meet thier perfume sales quota that day! feeling rejected but mission complete!

    Time for a Veggie full english at Giraffe and a ginger-blast smoothie. Hopefully it will be enough to see me through the rest of the day and give me enough energy to talk Peter to death during the three hour car journey from Berlin to Saxony the other side..

    Apparently its snowing in Germany......
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  • Feeling thankful flying over the sea...

    April 19, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    I find being on an aeroplane is a great time for contemplation..

    These european hops are full of solo travellers and business suits so no one is talking, its child-free and there is white noise aplenty. Thankfully this flight has no WiFi so I'm alone with my thoughts during what feels like my first real bit of pre-trip pressure free down time.

    In Uganda last year I had the privilege of visiting a Queen Elizabeth National Park on a safari where we stayed in tents on an area of land where hippos roamed freely at night. We ate delicious food, ans spent nights chatting and singing Toto round the campfire under a star-encrusted sky. We visited Victoria Falls where the mighty River Nile reduces to 6 meters wide. It was an amazing force of nature that was profound to hear, see, smell and feel. One of the guys from my group broke our awed silence and announced "We're the luckiest people in the world right now".

    Never was a truer word spoken. We just hadn't realised it.

    I'm so lucky to have been born in a stable country relatively full of opportunity compared to many...to have had an education and various jobs which mean I can take time out and enjoy life without a fight for daily survival. This itself instills a feeling of responsibility in me towards my fellow earthlings, to not take too much (or indeed take too much for granted), to be mindful of what I buy, who is making it and under what conditions.
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  • Mountains and valleys

    April 24, 2017 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    A few days into being able to actually fully unwind after the stress of moving out I feel more alive than I have done in ages. My highly-treasured couple of exotic weeks that working 9-5 has afforded me over the years have been amazing but it really was a case of work-stress melding straight into "holiday stress", so I don't think I've had this true sense of "down time" for years.....!

    When you have so few days holiday to offset the year's drudgery of being sat in an office many people feel compelled to achieve the highest state of escapism possible during their permitted 23 or so days of vacation. For me, this was always the pursuit of a guaranteed warm temperature, a stimulating adventure, culture and something very far removed from my monotonous day-to-day. This is sometimes in itself a recipe for not being able to relax as you rush to hand over your workload in a comprehensive way, only to rush to the airport and due to the company-imposed limits of only 2 weeks holiday being allowed at any one time, you rush town to town to maximise the therapeutic or hedonistic return on the outlay you've spent on expensive long haul flights.

    How to fill a quiet day on the bike project number 1- I need to find a way of working for myself or for fewer hours!

    All in all the last few days in Germany have been an absolute joy.

    -Running a half marathon distance for fun through trails and forests alongside water tumbling down the River Elster.

    -Cooking healthy food from scratch and sitting down to enjoy it without the pressure of needing to use my freetime to rebalance myself after the confines of a day in an office.

    -Feeling creative and full of ideas, from a mind that is healthy and not under "stress". Being able to have the mental power to solve problems and feeling resiliant to obstacles.

    With this level of invigoration, I feel absolutley no regret about leaving my last job. Its especially clear to me now, that for the last few years I had sold out to an environment and culture that absolutely didn't meet any of my needs as a human, aside from earning money. I was merely trapped in my own fear to conform to and asire to certain societal expectations befitting someone my age. Whilst I'm now in a bit of a fortunate utopia of a longer than average break from work, I know this isn't a sustainable state of life any longer than the period I've currently allowed myself...it would of course lose its shine if this time were to be an open-ended period of nothingness. I'm going to savour the renewed energy and life lessons that will come my way.
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  • Greiz road test ...

    April 25, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Is spring here??!! I still don't know. Nature says yes! After watching a nest from the house stairs when passing each time for a week the "amsel babies" have hatched! (Blackbirds in English) . On the way out to meet friends in Greiz for lunch two or three very naked-looking bird shapes were just about visible in the foliage. With temperatures between 0-10 degrees C I hope that they'll fluff up quickly and thrive.

    The ride back from Greiz was a bit bleak, a biting cold wind and a saddle that is absolutley not living up to the hype of it its 500 x 5 star reviews and praise as a good touring saddle. Initial tests on the turbo trainer indoors were promising....when it came to it, a 14km round trip turned into a pretty miserable affair. Not a good sign at all!

    Afternoon plans had to fall by the wayside as this is a pretty critical bit of kit not to be right. Selle Italia is not my friend and someone will get an absolute bargain of a saddle on eBay when I'm back!!

    An evening spent shopping on bike24 until the early hours shooooould provide a plan B and C....!! watch this space.

    Before such a long sporting endeavour I'm trying to stay injury free by not doing anything too stupid..(aside from my day-to-day walking /running up and down the steep stairs of an old house in some novelty hugley oversized ant slippers, that is)...it turns out that a single HAIR from a toxic cactus of doom can have much more painful effects than misadventure in inappropriate footwear. Whilst lying on the floor to carry out the first part of kit inventory checking as P was bike tweaking, a cactus hair got into my calf and caused a huge hot red lump the size of a gooseberry which sends a wave of weird pain up my leg everytime I move my foot..like when climbing stairs..and cycling 😂😂😂. Cactus Jack and Selle Italia Diva saddles are on todays sh!t list!!!
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  • Leipzig Decathlon trip!

    April 26, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Today Peter and I bought our first home together...a three-person hiking tent from Leipzig decathlon! We decided to go for a new one as Peter's existing one is a snug two-person without a porch and its quite bulky. With the weight being at a premium when bike touring, a smaller more compact pack and a porch space to bring the bags into at night and potentially in the rain is going to be much more convenient.

    We also picked up an inflatable pillow each and a couple of long-sleeved tops in H & M SHOULD the summer ever decide to come!!

    The tent is going to take one hellof a road test so reviews to follow!!
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  • Elsterberg, Zelttest auf dem Spielplatz

    April 28, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Wir sind eingezogen! Das Quick Hiker 3 macht aufgebaut einen genauso guten Eindruck wie klein verpackt und ist ein echtes Leichtgewicht. Die Grundfläche ist bemessen für 3 Personen und das Vorzelt geräumig, sodass unser ganzes Gepäck mit im Trockenen stehen kann. Auch ist nun Boris das Wildschwein zu uns gekommen. Er wird uns auf unserem Trip vor den 38000 Braunbären beschützen, die es in Europa gibt. Das Equipment wurde weiterhin komplettiert durch einen faltbaren 5l Kanister und einen Topf aus dem DUK Kaufhaus. Hält man die Augen offen, gibt es auch abseits von Outdoor-Läden günsige Alternativen. Zu nennen ist da auch der Baumarkt für Planen, Leinen, Schlösser etc. Ein Brausekopf für eine Gießkanne wird unsere Outdoor-Dusche. Da ist allerdings noch etwas Handarbeit nötig, bevor wir sie zeigen können. Die Baumdusche in Barcelona hat die Messlatte hoch gelegt ;-)Read more

  • Greiz at Peanuts

    May 5, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    A quick trip to Greiz to buy some last minute bits and bobs and to test the Terry saddle for the final time....thereafter, there's no going back! Yes, that's beer and water being loaded into the bags by Peter. Well, we are in Germany afterall and beer is cheaper than water...☺

    The little path between Elsterberg and Greiz is pretty grim to ride without suspension of any kind but the individual flagstones make it pretty well-suited to testing whether anything will fall off the bike or whether the seat "suspension" lives up to its confident marketing claim to avoid any seating discomfort!

    Test passed! The Terry Fisio GT is the saddle of choice for both bikes. Lets see what 1000s of kms does to it.

    For anyone ever venturing to my adopted second-home town of Greiz, "Peanuts" is a quaint little pub that sells home-made soup for EUR 3.50 or so, bargainous!
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  • First night wild camping!

    May 7, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Accompanied by Peters friend Andreas for first day motivation, we managed our target of 70km and crossed into the old "West" Germany.

    Camping - wild in the forest edge, beautiful but very damp/dark and full of little spiders!

    We got overtaken by about 20 cyclists but overtook two...no idea how that was possible on the bikes which ride like motorbikes with pedals! When we set off the weight and wobbliness took us a hit by surprise despite test rides with some weight. Thabkfully it settled down quickly and the upper body got used to taking some load.

    Derriere- feels ok!
    Muscle aches - surprisingly none for either of us.
    (Wait until we hit today's hills, yesterday's made 100m climbs feel like kilimanjaro)
    Food- we made a nice one pot meal of Hirse, onion, garlic and vegetable tomato pasta sauce followed by dried fruit and chocolate.
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  • Bayreuth

    May 7, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Irgendwann musste es ja passieren, der erste Regen. Wir haben heute nur 50 km geschafft. Der Weg führte durch das Fichtelgebirge. Kleine bayrische Dörfer, ein kleiner Junge folgte uns ein paar Kilometer. Endstation ist heute Bayreuth. Eine heiße Dusche, eine kleine Einbauküche, ein Traum. Morgen geht es früher los. Unser Tagesziel, Nürnberg.

    Today I found out that my (recently resprayed) waterproof jacket is about as much use as a chocolate tea pot...but also if you keep moving in the rain it doesn't matter so much about getting wet if you have something dry to put on afterwards.

    Having a bike laden with panniers seems to be an invitation for people to ask where you are going :D I love seeing their faces when we tell them 😀. Admittedly only two days in but now we've made the first wild camp, made it through the vogtland hills and the Fichtelgebirge its feeling more like we are getting used to the bikes and being on the go. Here's hoping for better weather tomorrow!!

    (2 days in- still not bought any food! - a sign we brought too much with us 🙊)

    Bayreuth seems to be a quaint small city with some nice architecture, parks and well-conceived cycle routes through the city.

    Peter's beer consumption: 1 small one from the petrol station.

    Chocolate consumption:
    3/4 of a rum and raisen ritter sport.
    1/2 an almond schogetten bar.
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  • NBG!

    May 9, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Today was the longest day of cycling so far, 90km with a fastest downhill speed of 58kmh...😀 some fairly nasty hills too add to the mix of course.

    We had our first puncture, a board tack IN THE FOReST! Who brings tacks to the forest, eh? Like a pitstop pro the inner tubes were changed in 15 mins and we were back on our way.

    I consigned the sleeves of my useless Tresspass rain jacket to the bin of a bus stop in a little village where we sheltered from rain and where a group of 3 children who had just got off the school bus were giggling at us. The two boys sent the girl over to ask 20 x questions, including why Peter was wearing sandals.😀

    In NBG were were greeted by Peter's friend Philip who was a fabulous host providing beer, showers and a comfy bed for the night. Just what we needed. We ate at the NGB equivalent of Hofbrauhaus in Munich which was very cool despite having a pub sign from the town my old office was based in. Work..? What work!

    A quick trip to Sportscheck made a hefty dent in my travel kitty but I now no longer fear the next rain downpour 😀
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  • Treuchtlingen

    May 9, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Today had a nice lazy start, breakfasting with Philip before heading off through central NBG for a spot of sight-seeing. We made our way through what felt like 100 red traffic lights before making a stop at the Parteigelaende where the Nuremberg rallies took place. After a quick clothing change (the flecks of blue sky visible from the appartment were just an illusion!) and a "quick" check through all 5 bags for my gloves..(painstakingly taking out every item of clothing from a compression sack, including all my underwear, in front of a group of german school kids in Hitler's congress hall (Kongresshalle) )..which I didn't find until a few hours later, realising they were in fact in the bar bag...oops 😀

    Once we got out of the cycle path myriad of the city we were quickly back into the small village life of rural Bavaria. Rolling hills, punctuated with little vilages full of timber-framed buildings and roofs that arch steeply above the many tiny shutter-covered windows. Each village identical in style but with a different charm somehow.

    Today's riding was kind to us, we hit upon our first long flats!! The Main-Donau Canal (averaging 21kmh for about an hour was awesome!) followed by a nice disused railway cycle track that took us to Heideck.

    Germany really is amazing for cycling, such a comprehensive network of cycle paths in all cities and equally well-connected routes around even the smallest of towns. Signage is pretty clear and following the cycle paths very rarely takes you onto sharing a road with cars. Country lanes are often very very quiet so cycling side-by-side is never normally a problem. The absence of hedges flanking fields also means you can see anying incumbent vehicles in plenty of time to move over. A road biker paradise for sure.

    The only issue I have is the "rechts vor links" principle of right before left, even when you think you are on the main road. This means you can be cycling along a fairly sizable road but you have to look (sometimes stop) into roads joining from the right, who have priority. As Germany typically sees a faor amount of wonter snowfall, roads and priorities are signed on posts as opposed to marked on the ground as in England. I'm slowing getting used to it despite a brief panic mode moment today where a car came and from the right, i forgot all of the "vorfahrt" rules and bolted to the left pavement out of comfort and habit. Haha.

    2 people asked where we were going today, a drunk cyclist in Nuremberg and a guy with a dog who had a good look at our set up before deciding to venture a question or two. Now we are 4 days in, it doesn't feel so abstract to tell them our plans. 😀

    We arrived in a nice little town called Trautlingen in the early evening after passing through our original minimum day's target destination of Weißburg. Trautlingen has a warm vibe (despite the baltic chill that's still not going!!) 2 minutes into the search for a B & B we stopped outside one for a matter of 30 seconds before being greeted by the owner. We were super happy to bring the bikes into a secluded courtyard before the owner ushered us to the locked garage just behind. What more could you ask for as a biker!

    Dare I say it, today for the first time I was almost slightly sad to be ending the day's cycling. After 4 days I think I can safely say that we've found our cycling legs (and bums).

    Today's bike hack is regarding kit: to keep pack weight down and to try and straddle the spring /summer conditions Peter is travelling in sandals with click-pedal fixtures, when its rainy he can put on neoprene socks to insulate and keep out any water. When its not rainy but windy as per today, some black insulation tape was the perfect solution to turn the sandals into wind proof but breathable shoes. I'm cycling in trainers but its a stinky feet recipe risk if the shoes get wet and you only have one pair of closed shoes with you....

    A light-weight gilet is also an essential bit of kit for anyone thinking of cycle touring. A cycle-sepcific fabric one with a waterproof/windproof front and vented back adds next to no weight (you can scrunch it so small it fits into your palm) but is amazing in insulating the body core on cold windy days where you are exercising hard amd don't want the extra arm warmth from a full extra top. It is also great in summer for speedy and breezy descents or cycling into a cooling headwind. If you've been sweating on an uphill climb the body temp can drop very quickly in damp clothes into any kind of wind once you stop exerting yourself. Peter bought one in Sportscheck yesterday by Vaude for circa €50, I bought a soft-shell style thicker one for around €35. It made a world of difference today so money well spent!!
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  • Ehrlich Herrlich

    May 10, 2017 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Mr. Haupt zuliebe versuche ich heute mal etwas in Deutsch zu schreiben ;-) bitte Schreibfehler verzeihen!

    Edit: Die Schreibfehler sind schon berichtigt. Meine liebe Nichte Victoria könnte ja auch für den Papa übersetzen ;-)

    Heute haben wir gemütlich gefrühstückt in unserem Zimmer in der Pension Tschernach - Joghurt, Brot, Käse, O-Saft und natürlich einen Kaffee und Tee dazu. Bei wunderschönem Wetter sind wir über Monheim, Kaisheim, Donauwörth geradelt und sind heute Abend in Dillingen gelandet.

    Früh ging unsere Route über eine sehr LKW-lastige Bundesstraße entlang. Zum Glück könnten wir nach knapp 3-4 km wieder auf Feldwege einbiegen.

    Monheim hat einen sehr freundlichen, bildhübschen Eindruck gemacht, sowie auch Kaisheim.

    In Kaisheim stand ein interessantes (aber irgendwie sehr schönes) Gebäude -

    S - Wollen wir mal schnell anhalten und die Kirche von innen ansehen?
    P - hmmm, da ist Zaun und Stacheldraht drum herum... sieht aus wie ein Knast.
    S - ist tatsächlich ein JVA....!

    (Sarah)

    Die Donau zu erreichen war herrlich - so eine Art Meilenstein. Die Gebäude in den Städten sprechen die Sprache von historischen Handelsstädten. Fachwerkhäuser, geplasterte Märkte, viele steinerne Tore und das Highlight - Mr. Falafel :-) Meine Handrücken sind braun und die Oberseiten der Knie heiß. Morgen brauchen wir Sonnenblocker. Unsere heutige Absteige hat 4 Doppelstockbetten :-/ Naja, so kommen wir morgen wenigstens früh los.
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  • Munderkingen

    May 11, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    In Dillingen kamen wir heute früh wieder auf die Räder. Unsere Bleibe lud auch nicht zum längeren Verweilen ein. Die Tour führte heute den ganzen Tag die Donau flussaufwärts entlang - mal näher mal ferner. Die leichte Bewölkung tat gut, waren doch einige Hautpartien von der gestrigen Sonne etwas überstrapaziert. Die Gewitterfront haben wir gekonnt oder besser zufällig umfahren. Die Beine werden täglich besser, heute gab es 4 Opfer ;-) Überraschenderweise trafen wir auf eine römische Tempelanlage. Die Donaustädte sind in ihrem historischen Kern alle wunderschön. Es gibt reichlich Fachwerkbauten, kleine gepflasterte Märkte Tore in den alten Stadtmauern, die ins Zentrum führen. Sehr hübsch ist Ulm, das heute auf unserem Weg lag. Die ganze Gegend ist wunderbar auf Radreisende ausgerichtet, es ist kein Problem, eine Unterkunft zu finden, um den Luxus des Westens noch ein wenig genießen zu können. Als Nutzer eines großen Fernradwegnetzes ist hier auch gut zu sehen, wie eine ganze Region davon profitieren kann, wenn jeder ein klein wenig von seiner Attraktivität anpreist, sei es der Bäcker, das Café, die Pension mit Fahrradschuppen, eine gute Beschilderung oder ein fahrradfreundlicher Ausbau der städtischen Infrastruktur.

    SARAH-The wildlife on today's route was awesome, so far we've seen countless birds of prey (hopefully not eyeing us up!) A few deer, rabbits, woodpeckers, mice, and a lizard - today we saw what may have been a beaver or nutria in the river AND we were cycling under the wings of a circling stork. We then saw two stork nests. WOW, i think a human could have easily curled up in there with a book and had ample space. Quite a cool sight!

    We also sniffed out a whole field of wild garlic today, Peter went foraging and ate 2 stems proceeding to smell delightful for the rest of the day. 😀
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  • Racing the Rain/ Regenrennen

    May 12, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Greetings from near Lake Constance! Today we have tipped over the 500km mark and are almost at the western-most point of our route. The morning got off to a steady and sunny start, stopping a few times to marvel at storks and do some bike maintenance. (Scraping road dirt of the chain and re-lubing) . We then proceeded to run into a couple of navigational challenges; closed cycle routes with no signed diversions. We tried to calculate with our own diversion and hilariously ended up at the end of a piece of land with a river each side. The bridge we were hoping for didn't emerge!

    The sunshine turned into a split sky - a huggge black rain cloud that seemed to be follwing our direction of travel. It was huge motivation to plough on and munch up some miles. Amazingly we avoided it totally, despite the campsite guy's assertion that it rained in the whole of Germany today.

    We made the pretty disgusting discovery today that my camping mat had started to go mouldy! The first night in the forest was so damp that the mat became pretty gross wrapped in plastic on the front of the bag. Cue cutting out the manky bits and sticking the good bits back together so we have something to isolate from the floor tonight. Looking for camping shops tomorrow!
    Bikepacking tip - always travel with black gaffer tape, as well as converting shoes it can also recreate camping mats!
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  • Switzerland! Schweiz!

    May 13, 2017 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    After waking up from a dream about Peter buying a spider (prompted no doubt by the huge spider that appeared on my arm yesterday whilst cycling) we made our way to Lake Constance and into Switzerland! Seeing the snow-covered alps was pretty epic as we past our western-most point of the route. Lake Constance itself is really nice, well-served by a cycle route and interesting throughout the 50km that we followed it today.

    Old-fashioned farms met very modern residential areas, chic waterside cafés, little harbours and swimming access "pools" off the lake. We could hear frogs along a small pond part at one point as well as the sheep each wearing their own little bells.

    As expected, Switz is pretty pricey! (Hence why we're currently in a tent having cooked ourselves!) A campsite can of beer was 5 CHF (about £4.50) and a bag of salad in the supermarket was (4.50 CHF)! Peter was so excited about the salad he couldn't wait until we camped to eat it!

    Ja, was gibt es hinzuzufügen? Neben uns liegen zwei schnarchenden Holländer im Zelt, ebenfalls Radreisende. In der Schweiz hat man das Gefühl, dass die Mehrheit recht gut begütert ist. Vielleicht täuscht es aber auch und es gibt auch Armut. Am Bodensee jedenfalls nicht. Viele Häuser mit Wasserzugang sind wohl nur Wochenendhäuser. Wem sie wohl gehören? Fussballspielern? Auf jeden Fall ist das Panorama große Klasse.
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  • Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland

    May 14, 2017 in Austria ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Packing up a wet tent this morning...manky. :(

    Cycling in the rain....manky :(

    Cycling towards the alps....awesome. :)

    Crossing into Austria to country 3 of our trip....awesome. :)

    Avoiding huge rain by sheltering under a border crossing point and watching the car drivers smile at us as they drove past....pretty awesome. :D

    Eating crispbreads, nuts, bread, chocolate and cheese all day because a)its sunday and shops are shut, b)this part of the world is outrageously expensive and we can't justify 15 CHF for a piece of toast!
    Mix of manky and awesome :l

    Crossing into Liechtenstein - awesome :) (country 4!)

    Realising Liechtenstein is just a stupidly expensive version of Germany...meh, we knew that but wanted to go anyway!

    We used the nicest public loo ever in Liechtenstein and left lots of our rubbish in the bin. Happy not to have paid any extortionate contributions to tax for the privilege!
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  • Allgäu

    May 15, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Nach einer regnerischen Nacht inklusive Gewitter mussten wir uns schon wieder bemühen alles zu trocknen (so weit wie es geht!) ...dann konnten wir dem Bodensee Tschüss sagen mit einer letzten Etappe, bevor es Richtung Allgäu ging. Die Landschaft war einfach wunderschön, hügelige Wiesen, die Alpen im Hintergrund, Bodensee....man konnte die Landschaft sehen, riechen, hören und sogar schon wieder mit den Beinen "spüren"! (Bergetappe!) Wangen ist eine sehr schöne Stadt wo wir auf der Suche nach einem Bäckerei positiv überrascht waren. Die Route ging einen Bahndamm entlang bis wir eine Bleibe für die Nacht brauchten... leider nicht so einfach!

    Peter hat sich seit langem gefreut über den Tag an dem wir die bis jetzt unbenutzten Gegenstände nach Hause schicken konnten (5,11 kg!). Heute war es soweit!

    Wir wollten unser Glück mit einer Übernachtung in einer Schützhutte versuchen aber die die auf unserer Karte ausgeschildert waren, waren nicht besonders gut geeignet (tote Mäuse, Bienen....) ..d.h. wild camping im Moos Gebiet...

    Nass. Nass.... und Kälte mit einem Stückchen Nass dazu. 😅

    Früh aufstehen und "wider gates"! (Aka weiter gehts - englisch ausgedrückt)
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