Worried by the fact that a ferry portal stated that DFDS will not carry bikes around I started riding. I overtook some cyclists, was overtaken by some and arrived the Dunkirk ferry port.
Good by EU!
We met at the waiting lines. Some of them where Germans, living in Germany and some of them in the UK.
Two of them, a father with his son, will have done tours regularly. It'll be the last tour for the father. He's getting to old he said, his son shakes him off to often, nowadays. Hope the son keeps it up.
Their bikes are pretty old and worn out. It'll probably work out for the father for some more years if he spends a little money for a better bike.
After an hour or so, we were allowed to enter the ferry to Dover.
We spend one and half hours on the ferry. It was raining and whenever I tried to have a smoke the wind beat the water into my face. It was salty, even though it was rain. *
I enjoy ferries much more than planes. Besides being able to have a smoke, you can move around and have better food. You can also drop money in their slot machines. *I guess it's because the ship's hull was salty and the rain hit the hull.
When we were allowed to leave the ferry, the cyclists should go first, I was forced to manoeuvre my bike and the trailer through the trucks.
Without further instructions we got our kicks on a 4-lane street riding through busses, trucks and cars. Later we learned that there is a red line the cyclers should follow and this was dead risky.
Soaked by the rain and with high adrenaline levels I went to the dover train station and got myself a ticket. Two and a half hours later I arrived in:
In Brighton I had a short break to prepare and recover.
Yesterday I noticed my pannier rack was on the loose. I didn't had the tools to repair it, so after my (included) breakfast, I used my bungee straps to fix the problem.
I wanted to go to Calais. Because of the rain, the temperatures went down to 15-20 degrees Celsius and I was freezing for the first 2-3 hours. The against wind was even stronger than on Tuesday.
I followed a long canal and the route was beautifully flat. Due to the fact I had to fight this hard against the wind I only shot a single photo.
I was moving in slow motion. In the end my other knee also started to hurt, and my hands as well as my butt also suffered. It was a hard ride... ;)
I bought my first bag of Amberleaf tobacco for only 12EURs. I could've paid in British pounds, too.
9pm I arrived in:
I changed my decision to go to Calais and tried to finish my trip at a campsite in Dunkirk that doesn't exist anymore. Some g**gling later I found that the next camp site was about 20km away but after 10km I stopped giving f*cks and went to the cheapest/closest hotel. During supper, I met a scotsman. I didn't understand some of what he said cause of his accent. His name is Greg or Craig.
Tuesday morning, tired as fuck, as always. Two of those three people I met yesterday were singing a birthday song for their mate.
After I packed my stuff, I joined in for a word or two and left my number as well as the camping site.
Whenever I think of Bruges I think of the movie "In Bruges". Well, this is where I want to go today.
What awaited me were high temperatures (~35 degrees Celsius), against wind and 100km distance.
The ride was so exhausting I couldn't really enjoy it. I had almost no shadow, the against wind made me ride slow as fuck.
On the plus side I was riding alongside some nice canals without much traffic.
After 10 hours I finally arrived in Bruges and the weather forecast predicted heavy rain tonight, so I decided to get shelter in a hotel room. My first night in a hotel. I really was looking forward to it.
High season in Bruges, prices sky rocketed and I should to pay 150EURs (breakfast included) for a single night in a shabby **(*) hotel. I didn't had the will to continue riding and the receptionist felt guilty and lowered the price to 135EUR.
The elevator was broken and my knee... oh well, I guess I don't have to mention it.
I had a shower, in a shower with a door at the ceiling (sorry for not taking a picture).
After looking at the door for to long I walked up a restaurant I came across earlier. It had a nice view to the townhall. I finished writing up my diary, ate my meal and walked home again, tired and exhausted and occupied my bed.
This Monday I finally decided to leave this boring, crossed by corn fields, routes and get myself on a train from Apeldoorn to Breda, the closest city in Netherlands next to Antwerp.
I couldn't get any real advice from anyone regarding my trailer on the train. So after some back and forth I finally overcame my doubts, bought a ticket and hoped for the best with just a single litre of water.
I spend my time with an older couple, that cycles the Netherlands' border in 1 week stages during their vacations, keeping an eye on our bikes for the next 2 hours w/o water.
In Breda I quickly restocked my water supplies and went for:
I left Breda through a very sandy forest road which, for the next 5km, forced me to dismount several times. *angry-face*
Look at this very cool windmill - wohoo!
After I sweated tears and blood I arrived at 9pm at the very sweet spotted alternative camp site and bar "Kamping Kontiki" in the middle of the Antwerp harbour.
I met 3 germans cyclists. They were camping here on their way back home and while having a very nice chat I missed my chance to use the only shower for several hours. At the bar they were playing The Doors and I had a very good time.
It came kind of unexpected. While riding through some villages and fields I found myself, w/o further notice, in the Netherlands. Except for the language on those street signs nothing changed.
I was ready for my first stay in a tavern. My plan was to do some levelling and get my live and magic bars filled up.
Fat chance, what I didn't know till I arrived at the first hotel in:
... it has its famous open book market this weekend. After 90km I was tired enough to just visit the next camp site that still has some room left for a single tent. That was probably the most crowded camp site I've ever seen. I set up my tent roughly 200m away from the restrooms and other necessities.
BYOP was next thing I didn't know. On this camp site you have to bring your own paper to enjoy a full length stay at the restrooms. In panic I hurried to the next open super market, I only had half an hour left to get me some valuable toilet paper.
Sunday I was just tired. I gave myself a catlick, then I walked myself to the book market.
I had a breakfast in the park and continued my diary while watching the masses leaving the trains and running for the market.
Still tired I went for another nap, or two, or even three naps. I got hungry again and got myself a pizza and continued reading the book "Goldener Handschuh".
On my way back I stopped at the reception to charge my laptop. It took so much time I almost finished with the book.
I was couch-potatoing this Sunday very much.
Sidenote: I will not complain about the pain in my knee anymore since it will partner in crime for the next weeks.
While writing my diary I had some very delicious fast food. Most people looked weird, not because they looked weird but it seemed that I looked a lot weirder than them. *da-dumm*
In the end, nobody did care so much even though I didn't order anything for the next one and a half hour of writing. That's exactly why I came here.
After that I set off to the next cycling store to get a new tire for my trailer.
Then I started riding to Geest and decided to go to Twist since the beautifully named camping site "Die blaue Lagune" (The blue lagoon) was located there.
The bathing lake was astonishing, it even had a sandy beach.
I was hyped until I had my first contact with some guests and the owner of the site. That kind of unfriendliness and unsupportiveness made me wanna leave first thing in the morning.
On the pros, I met a very nice couple from Netherlands on their way cycling to Germany.
Dead Bananas? you ask. Well, coming up with a title is harder than one might think. It's comparable to variable names, a name for your child or a name for Tom's Hardware.
I try to take something I came across, I felt or something I can associate with one of those. This ride could also be named: Power Ride, Killing Knees, Heat Wave, Dead Bird's Wings, Rough Ride, and so on.
I had a very serious phone call on Wednesday that made me think about my future a lot. The decision I'll make will change my way of living to a huge degree. It caught me kinda off-guard and threw me off for about 3 hours. It was a good call I have to say, drawing my long term plans to my close future, I'd say.
I decided to put this decision aside for at least one week giving me room to focus on this ride a little bit more.
When I started leaving Bremen it seemed so easy to leave that I was half-heartly motivated to go to Meppen today. I really wanted to cycle all the way to Meppen, which was about 140km away, but it was more like a wishful thinking.
Short time after, still having issues with my compass but finally using my maps, I left Bremen without issues and stopped at a public bycicle pump next to a water mill. I continued this nifty path but it took me on a road that was rough on me as well as rough on my bike.
I decided to change on a straight route: less forests, turns and gravel roads. It already made doing a detour of 10km and my bike started to behave a little strange from then on. One of my rear wheels made a strange sound, but I couldn't detect the issue. I tried to distract myself and thought about all the dead animals I crossed paths with when I cycled south Germany, France and Spain on my first trip to Porto. Today, I noticed my first dead banana on the way. Shortly after that a second one and I was amused that we might have dead bananas instead of dead animals (thihi). Then a dead bird on the road. Ba-dumm!
Several dead birds after that and I threw away my theory and kept just the title.
I continued my ride and road signs warned me about damaged tracks. My butt still hurts a little, but my hands were more of an issue. I was already quite tired. After 70km I took my ear phones out and started to listed to the last LP by DFA1979. This gave me two goose bumps in a row and I started a power ride for almost 15 minutes.
My knee started to hurt after 20 minutes, it seems like a muscle problem to me and I still have to figure out the reason(s) behind that pain.
Lesson learned, start your Power Ride only 5-15km close to your destination.
After 30km very slow riding it became worse and worse and I had to walk my bike for a few kilometers before I could continue riding. After 10km or so I decided to look for a camping site. I stopped at a gas station, helped a polish guy to charge his phone and finally found a site that was only 8 more kilometers away. At that point I already rode around 10 hours.
After one more hour I reached the site. Quite happy about this fact I immediately put up my tent and went to sleep after some necessary chores. I was so tired I even put Fenistil on my knee instead of Voltaren...
After I started around 8am Friday morning I arrived at Meppen, I found out that the tire of my trailer's real wheel is broken. My knee still hurts, but I hope I'll get a new tire here and find a sweet camping site to have another break for a day.
I still need some time to pack my stuff and get everything sorted. Lucky me I woke up really early since I fell asleep at 22:30 o'clock.
This morning I spend my last 3 coins in the shower (10 minutes of pouring water, the last one actually to wash down the sand from my feet). I wrapped my KitKats, which have cooled down over night, in tinfoil and a wet shirt, thinking this would help to keep them refridgerated.
After I nursed all the bites, I started at half past 7 in the morning. Still trying to navigate using my compass I was completely lost for the first half an hour. After I switched to my cell phone again I was finally going to the right direction. Actually till then and even the first hour after I switched I felt totally lost.
I still cannot say if and in which way my compass is broken or, due to its casing, if it's really sensitive to electromagnetic fields or solar flares, or if it's just in a bad mood all the time. I should, really, look out for a better model.
After two to three hours of riding I had my first breakfast break at Penny. I still had a lot of kilometers to Bremen but I tried not to stress myself over it. Instead I had a phone call with my family, intensively starring at a bug that was crossing my path while talking. I enjoyed my Müllermilch Multifrucht, a Bergader strawberry jogurth (hmmm, delicious) and a Penny-brand lemonade.
It was still early enough to arrive before noon. Worst thing I could have done would've been to increase my tempo which would've kill me the next two days (hard learning on another trip).
I'm still not in the mood to take that many pictures, Germany can be so boring I don't even feel like taking my camera out. My handy would be sufficient for the kind of pictures I can take here. I'm missing the mountains and the breath taken views from there. My KitKat were molten again.
After another two hours or so I took another detour after I arrived at a Autobahn crossing that was closed. It took me through a forest path which I almost couldn't ride through. The wooden bridge I had to cross didn't have a handrail and some overgrown plants forced me to ride very close to the edge. My heart was racing. I was left in a very narrow path up a small hill.
I arrived at the a-road 75 which will have taken me to Bremen the whole way. Spending my next 3 hours on this street I drank almost all my water reserves. I wished for a supermarket on my way very badly, but there was none. Finally a few kilometers before I arrived at the camping site I came across a Rewe, buying 4 more liters of water, drinking the first in front of the market in a minute.
In front of the Rewe a butcher which served me well with some Mettwurst which I had, with a pear, as a supper after I put up my tent. I met a lot of cyclists there, having nice chit-chats while waiting for my phone to charge.
After some more texting I fall asleep, tired as I was, after roughly 100 kilometers in such a heat. It felt good!
We spend one and half hours on the ferry. It was raining and whenever I tried to have a smoke the wind beat the water into my face. It was salty, even though it was rain. *
