Earlier on the trip home, I finally figured out the best 'push-pull' pedaling method that works for the kind of pedals I have (where my feet are strapped in), so I was happy to increase my spinning power, and as a result my average daily speed (17 km/h) along the Rheine, which includes the rare hill-climbs, descents, the periodic stoplight, road construction, and detours. Not too bad, considering the rain kept me bundled up (and not very aerodynamic), and I am loaded down with about 20kg of baggage (clothes, sleeping bag, small camping cooker, and food/water). After one *very* long hill climb above the river, I blasted down the other side, reaching 50.7 km/h. Probably could have gone faster, but I ran out of hill!
The bad side is that the muscles in my lower legs are still trying to pedal, even though I am sitting still in front of the computer! So there is a constant 'background ache' that made me decide to take a train from Düsseldorf to Oldenburg this morning.
Hopefully a full nights rest and a bit of stretching will cure that for the last 500km to Copenhagen. Vlad - my host for this evening - has prepared a soft bed and a yummy bit of Romanian cuisine to give me energy for tomorrow's road attack. 500km to go!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 3
Raining this morning, so I took a little extra time to re-pack the trike, and put on the rain pants and jacket. I eventually hit the road around 9:00am. Heading west and the north along the Rheine, I tried to follow the 'cycle wander way' but the dang sign - a blue square with a yellow cycle in the middle - kept moving around. Sometimes it was on the left, sometimes on the right, sometimes on the side of a house, and sometimes facing the wrong way. For several kilometers it disappeared altogether, forcing me to do a bit of guesswork: 'hmm...river over there, train track over here, autobahn on *that* side, so the road I want must lead *this* way....I hope....'
I have a fairly good nose for heading in the right direction (I've been known to recite the old Buckaroo Bonzai mantra "no matter where you go, there you are" many times), so I eventually abandoned the 'tourist cycle route' and struck out on my own, using the straighter 'bundesstrasse' roads to get me on the way. It was a good choice because I did the 100km to Koblenz (the next big city on the river) in just over 4 hours. The last hour was a bit severe, drenching me with several bouts of heavy rain mixed with a surprise 5 minute hail storm about 20 km south of Koblenz.
It was about that time that my left knee started to complain. The entire trip home has been against the wind so far, so I'm not surprised. In Koblenz I jumped on the train, and skipped the next 136km, ending up in Düsseldorf at around 08:00pm. It looks like the weather might stay clear, so I'll find a camping spot along the river and attack Day 4 with a rested knee. Oldenburg, my next major 'destination', is about 265km to the north-east. If I split that up evenly over the next 2 days, I can cruise easily into Oldenburg on Thursday afternoon. At least that is the plan, and is subject to change if the knee does not co-operate. Must remember to stretch well before I start cycling again.
I have a fairly good nose for heading in the right direction (I've been known to recite the old Buckaroo Bonzai mantra "no matter where you go, there you are" many times), so I eventually abandoned the 'tourist cycle route' and struck out on my own, using the straighter 'bundesstrasse' roads to get me on the way. It was a good choice because I did the 100km to Koblenz (the next big city on the river) in just over 4 hours. The last hour was a bit severe, drenching me with several bouts of heavy rain mixed with a surprise 5 minute hail storm about 20 km south of Koblenz.
It was about that time that my left knee started to complain. The entire trip home has been against the wind so far, so I'm not surprised. In Koblenz I jumped on the train, and skipped the next 136km, ending up in Düsseldorf at around 08:00pm. It looks like the weather might stay clear, so I'll find a camping spot along the river and attack Day 4 with a rested knee. Oldenburg, my next major 'destination', is about 265km to the north-east. If I split that up evenly over the next 2 days, I can cruise easily into Oldenburg on Thursday afternoon. At least that is the plan, and is subject to change if the knee does not co-operate. Must remember to stretch well before I start cycling again.
Monday, April 27, 2009
SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 5.. but it is really Day 2?
Greetings Programs!
Yes I have been lax in posting, but then again I'm having sooo much fun on this tour so far that I don't want to stop every day just to post something. So 'officially', this is the second day of the return trip from Mannheim to Copenhagen.
I arrived on Friday in Mannheim, and rode into Germersheim (and the SPEZI expo) on Saturday morning. All the usual suspects were there, as well as a few new things to see. Photos will be posted when I return to Copenhagen next week.
Sunday evening I headed out back to Mannheim, cruising at a comfortable 25kph. The roads were awesome, the weather nice, and the local culture friendly and curious about the recumbent trike I am riding.
In the evenings I stop at a park or camping place near the Rhein river, enjoying the view of the stars in a sleeping bag with an iso-mat underneath me. In the morning, I eat a bit of breakfast, drink some fruitjuice, and hit the road again!
Last night was a bit different: After a detour to follow the 'scenic route' through some small villages, I caught up with 65 year old Ulrich Papenfuss, riding a Scorpion fx trike. We chatted a bit in a mixture of German and English, then as the sun was setting he offered to put me up for the night. I was grateful for the chance to have a shower and sleep on the featherbed in his guest room. We enjoyed a fine soup in the evening while overlooking his small collection of ducks, chickens, and geese (one of which is a 'guard-goose' named Toni). We chatted about all sorts of things, and planned my attack of the cycle route for the next days over a decent German beer before heading to bed around midnight. It was a good idea to have shelter this time, as it turned out to be lightly raining at 6:00am the next day.
Ulrich kindly offered me his MacBook Pro so that I could shoot off a few emails and this blog entry, while he headed into town to attend to his Dentist practice. So now I am off again to pack, put on some rain clothes, and head out into the drizzling rain to follow the river northward towards my next stop: Köln!
If I can keep posting regularly, you should be able to follow my progress at http://www.gmap-track.com/user.php?user=digitalmouse
Vi ses! (See you later!)
Yes I have been lax in posting, but then again I'm having sooo much fun on this tour so far that I don't want to stop every day just to post something. So 'officially', this is the second day of the return trip from Mannheim to Copenhagen.
I arrived on Friday in Mannheim, and rode into Germersheim (and the SPEZI expo) on Saturday morning. All the usual suspects were there, as well as a few new things to see. Photos will be posted when I return to Copenhagen next week.
Sunday evening I headed out back to Mannheim, cruising at a comfortable 25kph. The roads were awesome, the weather nice, and the local culture friendly and curious about the recumbent trike I am riding.
In the evenings I stop at a park or camping place near the Rhein river, enjoying the view of the stars in a sleeping bag with an iso-mat underneath me. In the morning, I eat a bit of breakfast, drink some fruitjuice, and hit the road again!
Last night was a bit different: After a detour to follow the 'scenic route' through some small villages, I caught up with 65 year old Ulrich Papenfuss, riding a Scorpion fx trike. We chatted a bit in a mixture of German and English, then as the sun was setting he offered to put me up for the night. I was grateful for the chance to have a shower and sleep on the featherbed in his guest room. We enjoyed a fine soup in the evening while overlooking his small collection of ducks, chickens, and geese (one of which is a 'guard-goose' named Toni). We chatted about all sorts of things, and planned my attack of the cycle route for the next days over a decent German beer before heading to bed around midnight. It was a good idea to have shelter this time, as it turned out to be lightly raining at 6:00am the next day.
Ulrich kindly offered me his MacBook Pro so that I could shoot off a few emails and this blog entry, while he headed into town to attend to his Dentist practice. So now I am off again to pack, put on some rain clothes, and head out into the drizzling rain to follow the river northward towards my next stop: Köln!
If I can keep posting regularly, you should be able to follow my progress at http://www.gmap-track.com/user.php?user=digitalmouse
Vi ses! (See you later!)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Track the digitalmouse!
I've installed MGMaps on my mobile phone today. With it, you should be able to see where I am during the SPEZI 2009 tour roughly every 2 hours or so, via http://www.gmap-track.com/user.php?user=digitalmouse.
Where-ever my position is displayed, I should be within 20-25 km (about 12-15 miles) of that point along the route I'm following (see the SPEZI post above, or scroll down this page a bit). My plan is to update my position when I stop for a break every 2 hours. If the position doesn't move for more than 4 hours, then I'm probably sleeping.
No guarantee that this will work, as it will try to report via a wireless internet access point then via the mobile phone's cell network. The later might be expensive, so I've set the auto-reporting at 2 hours (in case I forget to shut the GPS off) to keep the cost down. We'll see how long the pre-paid money lasts. At worst case, I'll update the position manually when I have internet access at a cafe somewhere.
Where-ever my position is displayed, I should be within 20-25 km (about 12-15 miles) of that point along the route I'm following (see the SPEZI post above, or scroll down this page a bit). My plan is to update my position when I stop for a break every 2 hours. If the position doesn't move for more than 4 hours, then I'm probably sleeping.
No guarantee that this will work, as it will try to report via a wireless internet access point then via the mobile phone's cell network. The later might be expensive, so I've set the auto-reporting at 2 hours (in case I forget to shut the GPS off) to keep the cost down. We'll see how long the pre-paid money lasts. At worst case, I'll update the position manually when I have internet access at a cafe somewhere.
Copenhagen: City of Cyclists
Mikael over at http://copenhagenize.com recently finished his long-awaited video on - you guessed it - cycling in Denmark.
From his website: "At long last. The music video I made for the City of Copenhagen is now finished. It's a promotional video aimed at highlighting how the bicycle is an integrated part of this city's urban fabric and the many ways that the citizens use the bicycle.
I filmed throughout August 2009 and a few times during the winter, when it snowed.
It's a great thrill to finally get it online. I showed the film at a bicycle conference hosted by the Danish Embassy in Riga a couple of days ago - the world premiere as it were - but here is the video, finally online.
Enjoy."
Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.
From his website: "At long last. The music video I made for the City of Copenhagen is now finished. It's a promotional video aimed at highlighting how the bicycle is an integrated part of this city's urban fabric and the many ways that the citizens use the bicycle.
I filmed throughout August 2009 and a few times during the winter, when it snowed.
It's a great thrill to finally get it online. I showed the film at a bicycle conference hosted by the Danish Embassy in Riga a couple of days ago - the world premiere as it were - but here is the video, finally online.
Enjoy."
Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
T-Minus 5 days!
Friday, April 24th 2009, I'm hitting the road for another 1200 kilometer ride through Germany and Denmark.
As with last year (see the April 2008 archive) I will attend the SPEZI special bikes show in Germersheim, Germany. But this time will be a bit different. I'll take the train down on Friday to arrive late Friday / early Saturday at my destination. After the show ends on Sunday, I'll hit the road late Sunday / early Monday and follow the Rheine River north to Düsseldorf, turn north-east to stop in Oldenburg, then continue north-east to Copenhagen.
Since I'll be riding the OTrike low-racer, and carrying a lighter load (sleeping bag, 2-3 changes of clothes, and water), I ought to make good time each day. Goal is 200 km a day, but probably will be closer to 150 km/day. I'm thinking that if I leave the bike show on Monday, I should be home in Copenhagen by Sunday. Might stretch it a day extra in Oldenburg to visit nearby friends/colleagues. So that becomes 1200 kilometers in 7-8 days.
I'll try to update this blog every other day, or as internet access becomes available.
Below is the projected route, thanks to 
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