After a wet start, I was on the road by 8. Today's goal was to make it to the Dutch border, and I did, reaching Nordhorn just before nightfall. Due to the sporadic rainfall, I opted for a cute little hotel above an Irish pub. Stuffed my face with kebab and called it a night.
Next stop, Bremen!
After repairing *another * flat, I'm on the road again. Expect to be in Lingen, Germany tonight, and Bremen on Tuesday night.
Photo is name of rest stop at lunch time.
"Day 7?? What happened to the other days?", you might be asking. Largely, a lack of internet access. Some locations charged a lot for internet, while others didn't provide anything at all. So I had to grab it when freely available, or cheap. Sometimes even the quality of camping WiFi was so sketchy, that I barely had bandwidth to update the GPSise tracker. While I tried to use mobile data for that too, I discovered that my Danish phone services did not always place nice with its German and Dutch counterparts. One day I even ran out of power on all devices, which caused a minor panic from the wife.
So for the moment I will summarize the previous week, and fill in the details later.
Day 2 - made it across the ferry to Puttgarden without incident. About 2 hours after starting south, right front tire went boom in two places. Used tube patches as a make shift repair, and started looking for a bike shop. Thirty minutes later, pulled into a Famila center and tire went boom again. No suitable replacements available, so repaired tube, glued new patches over the tire holes, then glued an old tube over the patched holes. That got me slowly to coastal place called Kellenhusen, but only after suffering a rear flat tire 3km from town. I arrived around 22:00, charred with some people while I looked for a campsite. One man, Sebastian, offered me a spot next to his campsite. Didn't have time to make tent/hammock before the rain started, so used the Wilcat nose cover as a make shift tent by sleeping under it.
Day 3 - repaired rear flat, then on the road again. Made it to Neustadt and looked around for bike shops that carried right tire size. Wasted the afternoon, so jumped on the train to Hamburg, then cycled to Bremen. Stayed in a hostel on the 4th floor, private room with shower. Ahhhhhh.
Day 4 - started early and cycled to Oldenburg because I knew for certain the boss at Die Speiche bike workshop would have everything I need. Spent afternoon replacing both front tires with Schwalbe Marathon Green Guards, New tubes all around plus a couple of spares and off I went again. Visited some local friends from when I used to live in Oldenburg. Noticing that I was getting behind schedule, I jumped on train to Leer to make up some lost time. Train platform under heavy construction so I could not leave the station ( no one around to help carry velo up and down many flights if steps), so just took next train to Groningen from the adjacent track. Got lazy and took next train to Amersfoort, staying in wonderful hotel/hostel in old city centre.
Day 5 - enjoyable 2.5 hour ride back towards Arnhem. Gradually up hill and into the wind, but was still able to hold 20-25 kph average speed the whole way to the Warnsborn campsite. Set up camp, bought some WiFi time, updated my friends for the zoo visit the next day, showered, speed, ate dinner, shaved, then slept.
Day 6 - enjoyed wonderful day at the Burger's Zoo with long time online friends, Miriam, Eric, and Kim, plus Kim's boyfriend Roel. They treated me to a belated, but equally wonderful birthday dinner at a local restaurant. Sleep came quickly that night.
Day 7 - up early to charge all my devices in campsite library. Waiting on Carlos from Belgium to arrive around midday. He is considering a Wildcat fairing for his trike and wanted a personal look at mine. Afterwards I am on the road again, heading towards Bremen, although I don't know if I make it that far by nightfall. Probably seek out the Coevorden campsite I visited in 2003.
Have all sorts of fun and occasional bike technical troubles, plus not everywhere is connected to the internet yet. So still alive, still going. Will update blog with more detailed postings, when I get settled this aftennoon at my final destination in Arnhem. So enjoy some random trip related photos for now.
After 140 km I wanted to stop near the ferry so that I could tackle Germany fresh in the morning. Turns out that there are no campsites near the ferry.
With the aid of Diana, I backtracked 6 km to the nearest camping site in Rødby, and opted for a cabin for this first night.
All settled in, including a bit of wifi. Bought some potato salad and pineapple juice for dinner. Sitting outside enjoying the cool air a bit before I jump into the shower.
Legs a bit wobbly after such an effort (haven't done a tour of this length in at least 5 years), but seem to be holding up so far. Will be putting on lots of muscle ointment tonight and popping a couple of Advil painkillers to let me sleep peacefully.
Tomorrow: Germany!
