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Day 3: Ulm to Donauwörth

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Although some nifty navigation knocked 5km off the route today, it was a hard day with temperatures nearly reaching 40C. The day started early with an excellent breakfast at the Hotel Goldenes Rad. And then we were on the cycle paths along the side of the Danube in the cool morning breezes. This would not last. The Danube has got a lot bigger all of a sudden. Actually, that wasn’t the first thing we did. The first thing we did was pack the bikes and oil the chains and once again, I got a chain tattoo before we’d even started. Nobody wants this as the link photo of the blog… More washing to do at the end of the day. One would think that after over 60 days of doing this, I would learn to stand on the other side of the bike when I’m packing the bean… The paths were beautiful and soon we started seeing these navigation signs. The distance to the mouth of the Danube These only started appearing as the Danube becam...
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Day 2: Sigmaringendorf to Ulm

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Another good day although maybe a bit too long.  We were travelling through the land of storks. There were a lot of these giant multi-coloured storks along the way. Another hot night. Although the Beim Rindvert lacked air conditioning or a heated towel rail, it did have a superb breakfast buffet including made to order scrambled eggs and unlimited coffee. Like literally everybody we have met so far in Germany, the hotel owner was charming, friendly and engaging. It was a lovely start to the day. We rolled away from the hotel before 8am to take advantage of the early morning coolness and soon we were back on the EV6 Donauradweg. Early morning mist and the traditional easy gravel. The first 20 or 30 km were very easy. We stopped for further coffee in Reidlingen — a lovely town full of half timbered buildings and a giant stork.   Slightly creepy when they rear above you like this… One sees storks everywhere in the fields and on the ...
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Day 1: Donaueshingen to Sigmaringendorf

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 That was maybe the nicest 100km of riding we have ever done. Lots of this The wide open plain of the Baar plateau  And quite a lot of this The gravel paths through the Schwartzwald And even time for some of this. Endless opportunities for Apfelkuchen. But before all that fun, we had an incredibly hot and sweaty night — but not in a good way.  On previous trips hotel stays have been conditioned on whether or not there was a heated towel rail to dry one’s washing on, it appears that for the next 12 days it’s mostly going to be about whether or not the hotel has air conditioning.  The Hotel Linde does not.  However, Donaueshingen does have a sizeable population of people who own cars without silencers and who like to drive around at 2am shouting a lot.  It was a challenging evening. Breakfast was the usual 3 star fare but seated amid some…eclectic…decoration which seemed to be a fusion of Far Eastern influences and a 1950s East German apartment.  We didn...
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Day 0: It begins again

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Once again it’s time for a long-distance self-supported cycle trip across Europe. After the success of last year’s Rhine Cycle Trip  (i.e. we had fun, didn’t get divorced, avoided most of the things that can go wrong) there was an intensive planning session just after Christmas where we investigated the possibilities for a trip this year.  A ride in North America was a possibility but the US and Canada are really sparsely populated which makes it hard to route and plan.  Also, logistics is hard. We seriously considered Warsaw to Tallin or Vilnius to Tallin.  These would have been a bit shorter than usual but would have been new countries, lots to explore, lots of history but maybe more challenging weather and the proximity to Russia was…problematic. Cycling from the Rhine to the Danube following the Rhine-Main-Danube canal was a nice idea since it would have linked the ride last year to the one the year before but it turned out that there was a lot of it which was t...
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Day 14: Harwich to Cambridge and the wrap up

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This final post of the trip will have multiple sections. One the traditional travelogue of the day and the rest on gear, clothing, kit, route etc. The day Due to some weird interaction between the Vodafone Maritime service, timezone changes and Apple's alarm app, we woke up at 4:30am. Two hours before disembarkation... This was not a great start to the day. The ferry had already docked and we stared at the trucks unloading in the early dawn light our of our giant porthole window. There were hundreds of trucks and, watching them driving off, one gets an insight into how much cross-border trade and transport goes on "under the hood" of economies. If only the Tory party had realised how much of this goes on day after day after day before they threw a giant bag of Brexit sand into the gears of the economy. But you're not here for the economic commentary. "Tell us more about the biking stuff Dr K", "Were there any gravel fac...
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