Vagabonding

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Vagabonding Reisende
Mervent
6. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The route from Bressuire is again much more varied than along the Loire, because you are presented with something new around every bend. I ride part of the way through very beautiful forests, watch cows stretching (I've never seen cows do that before😳) and follow my route.

I plan the route anew every day using an app. I enter the start and destination and don't bother with details. Most of the time it works well, you can even determine the type of bike and get adapted routes - but there is no category 'super heavy duty bike' (or 'tank' as I've been called lately 😁), which puts me in front of major obstacles from time to time.
I am off-road on a track that is narrow and becomes a mountain bike track in the last few metres in the forest. There I have to dismount. Immediately afterwards, however, I am more than rewarded with the view of a beautiful lake in the middle of the forest, and the view in Mervent of the surrounding reservoir is also really beautiful.
In the village I see the fantastic red coloured leaves.

At night I wake up with a cramped back, which has happened quite often in the last weeks. There's no quick fix and I'm left with only a few pain-free sleeping positions for the night.
Funnily enough, the next day I find a poster that aptly visualises the problem. So it's all about little red pests 😡 that get stuck in the muscles. All right.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
La Rochelle
8. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
I go to La Rochelle for a short stroll through the city. A really beautiful city with many small alleys and a very lively market including a loud (!) market crier 😄

Here I first find out what the pink umbrellas are all about (I've seen them in a couple of villages in France already): it's pink October and with the umbrellas one wants to raise awareness to breast cancer.

Obviously, people from Baden or Swabia have already been here and left their advertisement 😄Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Île de Ré - vacation in paradise 🏝️
8. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
The map of France is in front of me and I look at possible destinations. I look along the Atlantic coast and find the island of Ré. It looks so small. I have to go there.
Now I'm planning the details, zoomed in and realised that it's bigger than I thought: about 40 km to the top. 😅
So I will spend two days there and take some time off 🏖️.

An almost three-kilometre-long and beautifully curved bridge leads onto the island. On the bridge the island first disappears from your view, leaving you alone with your own expectations, and then gives you a small glimpse of the first part of the island. The first few metres I already feel like I'm on holiday there - it's 20 degrees and the sun is shining. Only my heavy bike reminds me of my 'old' travelling life that I mentally left behind on the mainland. 😁

As I roll along the bike lanes I come into a deer crossing behind a bend : a huge caterpillar makes its way across the lane. As beautiful as it is to look at, I wonder how many hectares it eats every day and which giant insect will later hatch from its cocoon. (Later I am told that it will be a death's-head hawkmoth.)

What else is there to say about the island? It's a great place to spend a holiday, it's used for salt production, it has a prison (two donkeys patrol the moat, see photos) and probably the highest density of bicycle rentals in France.

As I watch the sunset over the Atlantic, I get the feeling that I will one day look at this ocean from the other side.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
La Vélodyssée Pt. 1
10. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Since La Rochelle, I've always been asked the same question: Do you ride the Vélodysée?
This is a famous long-distance cycle route in France. It starts in England, then goes through Brittany via Brest, Nantes and along the French Atlantic coast to the Basque coast.
I want to cycle along the Atlantic anyway, so I set off on the cycle highway. After just a few kilometres, the first cyclist is standing at the side of the road. He looks in need of help and we start talking. 30 minutes later, we have exchanged tips and tricks and our experiences so far, and we continue cycling together. His name is Nikolas and he has now cycled 9000 km, has also changed bikes in between and now only rides with a duffel bag and trailer. For comparison: I have one such bag and four other bags plus a handlebar bag plus a food basket. 😅 -> I henceforth wear the name 'tank'.
After another hour, we start talking to two Frenchmen who are taking a break. We take them straight into the pack and continue on our way. Oncoming passers-by give us astonished looks because of the size of our group and the completely different bike setups.
Nikolas rides with minimal equipment and a trailer, I ride with full equipment, leather seat and all the trimmings,
Anthony and Alicia with moderate luggage.
This is where different cycling strategies really come together and for the next few days I think frantically about what else I could throw overboard in order to become lighter.
Of course, I will ride a much longer distance but as my buddy Jeffrey* would say: 'You ride your bike x hours a day, it should be fun and not a torture, otherwise you won't last long!' . Right he is. 🐸

We also pass a well-worn bridge on our way. More precisely, the Rochefort floating ferry. It towers high above the river and carries a gondola across the river. Unfortunately, it is out of service today, otherwise I would have ridden it directly. It's still missing from my collection of lift rides and extravagant rides. 😄

Nikolas' comment on the last picture:
'Look, a book exploded!' 😀

* name changedLes mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
La Vélodyssée Pt. 2
11. oktober 2022, Frankrike
Nikolas, whom I met yesterday, is taking a different route today, so we split up again.

Nothing really interesting happens on this section of the Vélodyssée.
I cycle through an endless forest (that's how I imagine Finland), up and down a little, then a little left, a little right. And again from the beginning. For hours.
Luckily it is still drizzling. 🤪

In the afternoon I stop at a supermarket. After my shopping, a new rain shower awaits me outside. The internet connection has just been interrupted, therefore I can't check how long it will last.
So I stand in the foyer and read a book. There are moments like that. 🤷‍♂️

In the evening I take a ferry and meet Simon - a lawyer-to-be from Cologne. We get on well and because he has dragged his tent through half of France and then spent every night in overpriced youth hostels, I show him how easy wild camping is.
The next day we drive to Bordeaux together, where he stays in a youth hostel he has already booked and I look for a nice spot in the forest. Everybody has his own preferences 😄Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Bordeaux
12. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The modern traveller has basically the same needs as all other travellers before his time.
What distinguishes them from their predecessors, however, is the need to back up their digital memories and refresh their electronic devices at regular intervals.
I meet this need on the outskirts of Bordeaux and set up a mobile workstation in a shopping centre. Whenever such an oasis of modern conveniences appears before the eyes of the digital nomad, one should make the most of it. ☝️

After this basic need has been satisfied, I take a look at the city. I really like Bordeaux and it gives me the impression of a city worth living in. I particularly like the long and wide riverside promenade. The French somehow manage to create a welcoming atmosphere for bikers and pedestrians - Stuttgart’s civil engineers could learn a lot here !
It has a beautiful and well-balanced architecture - of course I like the traditional building style the most, but modern architecture also has its place here.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
The Dune of Pilat
15. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
I'm a city kid. I know dunes from the Baltic Sea. I have no idea how high they can get when they are fully grown.
The statement 'Europe's largest shifting sand dune' in the travel guides therefore means nothing to me.
Now I'm standing in front of it -and it is huge. My nieces would freak out if they saw that there was such a huge pile of sand. 😆

Eventually I climb up and then overlook the nearby forest and a good part of the ocean at the same time. I can see sandbanks and individual tiny sailing ships.

In the evening, I find a really nice spot on the lake of Cazaux and Sanguinet and bathe in it.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Bayonne
18. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
On my way to Spain, I pass Bayonne. Once again, a beautiful town with an old quarter and many small shops that probably don't belong to larger corporations. The shops are tiny, one of them so small that a woman with a desk and a chair for clients just fits in.

I jump over my own shadow today. At the end of the day, I stop at a homestead. There, at the side of the road, an elderly woman is trimming a hedge. I ask her if I can spend the night on her property. She has two meadows: a meadow full of sheep and an empty meadow, both separated by a stream. She later allows me to spend the night in the sheep meadow after she has brought the sheep in. What a nice lady.
I pass the time as life comes into the flock. They suddenly flock from their grazed meadow to the other meadow.
Flailing, the good lady comes out and flees terribly.
Together with the herding dog, she enters the meadow and the scene really comes to life: she purposefully shoos the sheep back and forth and at the same time speaks commands to her dog, which helps her herd them. I just stand there and am amazed because I have never seen anything like it. For me it looks a little like witchcraft, as I don't know any of the words, but the dog is magically guided by her words. 😆
I wouldn't have been less amazed if she'd shouted 'Go, potato mash' and her broom flew over. 🧹
Eventually all the sheep are herded back and we survey the cause of the problem: a fence has buckled, presumably when a sheep rubbed against it.
We straighten the fence, tie it up well and try to reinforce it. A few metres further on, the sheep are standing and watching us. I think they are plotting another escape.

In the evening in the tent I ask myself the same question I've been asking myself for days: whether my next step will work or whether I'm completely overestimating myself. I guess I'll have to try it out to find out.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
19. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Around noon, I roll into a pretty little town called Donibane Garazi. It's one of the prettiest villages in France, a road sign tells me - and I think to myself 'Well, whether my plan for the next big step works out: it's nice that I was here. What a coincidence that here on my route lies another of the most beautiful places in France'.
It turns out: I'm exactly where my day's stage was supposed to go, only the sign at the entrance to the town greeted me in Basque and not in Spanish, so I didn't realise that I already reached my destination. 😆

I have now arrived at one of the stations on the Way of St James. (Later I will learn that from now on almost every road that goes in the direction of Santiago de Compostela is considered to be the Way of St James).

Today I take it easy and find a paid campsite for the night. There I make the next contacts with my campsite neighbours, who invite me to their home near La Rochelle should I step by there in the future.

There are strong wind gusts tonight. If a tree doesn't fall in my face at the campsite, the story will continue 😉

The next morning a couple from Berlin invite me for a coffee. Their strong dialect immediately awakens feelings of home and the woman starts mothering me a bit. "Drink up, you need it. Wait, I'll make some more coffee! Over breakfast we exchange all kinds of experiences and I roll out of town with a little diversions via the post office. (It's exciting to see which things I still carry around without using them).

Up to this point the route was still manageable, but the coming stage is on another level. After looking at my route and the altitude profile, I'm sure I can do it though.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Final Statistics France
20. oktober 2022, Frankrike ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
Days in the country: 41
Distance on the road: 2 621 km
Elevation Gain: 16 649 hm
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Vagabonding Reisende
Over the Pyrenees⛰️
20. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ 🌬 17 °C
My plan worked out: The route over the Pyrenees is tough but not impossible. Fortunately, I can handle the brakes and the first gear so well that starting on the hill is not a problem 😁
I secretly wonder if the nice Berlin woman from the campsite has put some drug in my coffee this morning, because it's going pretty well.
What is annoying, however, is the headwind, which hits me with 50 km/h. At At times I have to stop to make sure I don't get blown off the street.

The downhill ride is not as easy as expected. Here, too, the wind keeps blowing and despite the gradient I have to pedal hard and arrive late in Pamplona.

Now I just want to wash up, eat and then go to bed as quickly as possible.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Pitching the tent in a storm
20. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ 🌬 21 °C
Whoever has ever pitched a tent in a decent gust of wind, please raise your hand.
For me, it is the first time.
I'm trying to put it up for the first time - or to be more precise, I'm not putting it up, because putting it up would mean that it stands - and it doesn't 😂.
It's actually flying around my ears.
It starts to drizzle and I intensify my efforts to bring the trio of inner tent, poles and outer tent into working harmony.

The first attempt... fails.

The second attempt... fails.

I try to set up the tent in a different order and suddenly the supporting poles slip out of their anchors and I sit on my flat inner tent while the outer tent whips around my ears.
Now the tent canvas smashes my skin in the rain, which creates noises which are hard to describe. 😄
In the last few minutes, setting up the tent was torture - but now that nothing works anymore, I start to laugh. It's no use: I go outside and try again.

After a few more attempts, it somehow works and I get everything upright.
I tighten everything as much as I can but I'm not really sure that it won't buckle at night. Tomorrow we will know...Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Pamplona
21. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
I don't know much about Pamplona. It is the capital of the province of Navarre and the venue of the world-famous Spanish bullfight, as a local proudly tells me.
When I hear this, I get defensive inside, because I have no love for this tradition - I think it's cruel to animals. It is not noble to wound an animal with lances until it is completely exhausted.
Of course, it's a great achievement when a human being uses tactics and skill to avoid a larger animal like a bull, and this form of bullfighting (without hurting it beforehand) exists - unfortunately not yet in Pamplona. Hopefully that will change soon.

The most interesting thing about the city is its unusual geography, as it is built on hilly terrain and offers beautiful views of the surrounding area and distant mountains from its hilltop.

And here's a recipe from my own experimentation:
Fried Egg Deluxe 🍳⭐️

Fry the onion in a pan with water. Why not with oil, you ask? Frying oil can only be bought in 1-litre bottles and is used up very slowly, which is why it takes an incredibly long time to transport a large quantity of it around and over all the mountains, which you want to avoid at all costs☝️.
After a few minutes, add more water and the eggs to the pan. We prevent them from burning by constantly turning them.
As soon as the eggs are done, add salted peanuts and eat the whole thing with pesto-smeared bread.
¡Buen provecho!Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Cabredo - Jesus' home town
22. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Today I want to spend the night at someone's place - not wild camping but an overnight stay with a local. For cyclists, there is a social network where cyclists register their home and offer accommodation to other cyclists called 'Warmshowers'.

I chose Jesus, who sounds trustworthy and lives in a somewhat remote valley. There, he writes, he fell in love with nature and I absolutely have to go there.
The area lives up to expectations. You drive through gently rolling countryside while marvelling at the mountains in the distance.
In the end, unfortunately, I don't get to meet Jesus, but I wouldn't have found this beautiful valley without him.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Wind 💨 and more wind💨
23. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
The same way the foam in the coffee cup looks at me during my break is how I feel 🙀.
The forecast for today is for a gusty headwind of about 33 mph (53 km/h). Sometimes it comes as headwind and then again as crosswind. 😑
If I had a sail I could cross the wind. Just spread my arms and zigzag. How nice that would be. ☺️

As the day progresses, I spot a dead straight stretch of road across the country on the route ahead. It looks like a route error, far too precisely straight ahead for a road.
In the satellite view it becomes even more implausible, because I would be driving dead straight through a dense forest.
Finally, I want to find out what it's all about and come across an old track bed of a narrow-gauge railway, which I wouldn't have expected to find here away from big cities.
The highlight of the trip will be crossing the kilometre-long tunnel. 👻Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Valle de Mena
24. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
My day starts early this time - without breakfast, because I somehow miscalculated and only have three apples left. I found them on the road yesterday. (The journey has already changed me in that I take what nature/the road gives me).

My first hurdle is already waiting for me 10 minutes after starting to ride: my routing app decides that my bike path leads over a small river... 🤨
First I have to climb a small stone staircase with a handrail and further on there is a passage where there are only single stones leading over the river and you have to balance over them. 🫣
Anyone who knows Takeshi's Castle knows what I'm talking about. 😆
I take the bags off the bike in no time and thus cover the 200 metres in about 20 minutes - both bags and bike are carried over there bit by bit. My bike also carries me every day, so today it's my turn. 🤷‍♂️

I then cycle west via Sobrón into a new valley (see map in the picture gallery). I pass rugged rock faces, climb a few metres in altitude and finally reach the impressive dam wall.

After a few kilometres, the valley opens up, there are mountains to the left and right, mountains in the distance - wonderful. 😍

Highlight 1 of this valley is a church. I take photos of the strange façade from the outside and am about to drive on when a Spaniard waves me over and tells me to go inside. Inside, I am almost breathless at how beautifully the window panes shine.

Highlight 2 is Puentedey - one of the most beautiful villages in Spain. Here, the river Nela now flows through a stone bridge on which houses stand. It looks enormous.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
To Cantabria!
25. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ 🌬 16 °C
I have two route options to travel westwards: the Camino Francés and the Camino del Norte.
I have already followed the first one to some extent. It runs along the south of the Cantabrian Mountains where the landscape is relatively flat. The Camino del Norte would give me a new perspective - the ocean on one side, the mountains on the other. Finally, I choose this route.

On my ride round the coast, I have two steep climbs to contend with. Komoot, my routing app, tells me to expect about 13%, but my legs say it's much more.😬Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Back to the coast!
25. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
The whole day I roll downhill on a superbly constructed cycle path.
It's a pity that it ends at some point and I have to pedal myself again.

On the way to the coast, I finally find the smallest petrol station of my life, consisting of a petrol pump at the side of the road and - after several thousand km (!) - I get my first real flat tyre.

In the evening I spend the night at a campsite and meet a friend, the black tomcat I call Cachou.
At first he watches me patiently while I eat dinner, then he comes closer and closer and sniffs my things here and there. He loves everything I own and rubs against me, my bicycle, my bags, my cooking utensils, really everything. But when he doesn't get anything to eat even after these expressions of friendship, he disappears just as quickly as he appeared. 😄Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Santillana del Mar
26. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
I got the tip about this pretty little town from my cousin. Santillana is a beautiful little village with the distinction of being 'un de los pueblos más bonitos', one of the most beautiful villages in Spain.
Here, not only the buildings are from ancient times: the stone paving, made of many individual small stones, is just as authentic from another time.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
One German egg platter, please
27. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
Ordered the first alternative dish to tortillas patates today. I call them "Huevos alemania". I told the waiter 'huevos, patates, cebolla (onion), pan (bread) and gestured a bit.
I got boiled eggs with sauce, roasted potatoes and some bread to go with it. It was a bit dry, but okay for my first Spanish order.
It looked very much like student cuisine and the whole time I was imagining what the Spaniards were thinking to themselves, "God, do the Germans really have no food culture at all?"

When I paid, I saw the exact same dish move to another table. Ergo, it's either off the menu or another guest told the waiter "Yo, I'll have the German egg platter there, too". Probably the latter.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Camping las Gaviotas
28. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
In retrospect, I realised that my French skills are really good.
Conversations in Spanish, on the other hand, are only very basic. I'm barely able to survive: I can order food, say thank you and "I'm German - please don't shoot".
My current conversation partner Lucos doesn't care about my lack of vocabulary - he's been telling me he story of his life for the last 20 minutes. At least I understand that he was once in Germany in the 90s.
I understand almost nothing of the rest of the conversation and try to make up a story from the few words:

"........ Erich Honecker .......... Claudia Schiffer.......... Revolver ( he indicates several bullet wounds on his body, also one on his head)...... Stasi........."
Since our conversation I've been trying to make sense of it.... 🤔

In the evening I arrive at the campsite and meet adults and children in disguise: there are lions, vampires and witches. Must be because Halloween is coming up. 😃Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Avilés
29. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ 🌧 19 °C
On the advice of my camping neighbour Nieto, I visit the next largest town, Avilés. It is beautiful there. Only the rain that surprises me on the way back doesn't fit into my plan. 🌧️
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Vagabonding Reisende
Cudillero
30. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
I owe this travel tip to my cousin, too.
Cudillero is an Asturian fishing village in a small valley that breaks through the cliffs and is definitely worth the diversion from my route.
It is so steep that I park my bike halfway up and continue my exploration on foot.
Every square metre wrested from the mountain is exploited. Satellite photos show the criss-cross backyards in which I get lost for a little while before I get back to the main road.

Thanks to the good weather, I manage to take a few photos that can be directly included in the tourism catalogue.Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
Praia das Catedrais
31. oktober 2022, Spania ⋅ 🌬 18 °C
What an amazing beach! Praia das Catedrais only shows its full beauty at low tide, when the rugged rock formations are completely exposed and you can walk through stone arches.

Take off your shoes and let's go!Les mer
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Vagabonding Reisende
To chip a bicycle
1. november 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
The mountain is killing me. I've been in a mediocre mood all day and now this mountain is getting in the way.
I'd love to get out my metal file and chop my bike into a big pile of metal. 😬
All right, maybe not the whole bike. But this strut here: it's not needed anymore!!🧐Les mer
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