Sun, sun, sun

Day 19 was another day predominantly following contours. From St Wendel, I followed a little stream and a valley all the way to Neunkirchen, where I then hopped over a couple of small hills past Bexbach (although this took me slightly longer than planned as I ended up taking an unnecessary detour around the villages there). I soon arrived in Zweibrücken and found a cycle path that went all the way to Pirmasens, again following another river nearly all the way there. I had a nice lunch stop at the half way point and arrived in Pirmasens a little hotter than anticipated, due to quite a nasty, steep climb out of the valley and into the city. 

A coffee/waffle stop in Pirmasens later, I was back on the bike and heading towards Dahn. My planned route changed just as I was leaving the city as I saw a sign for Dahn on a smaller road, which turned out to be a brilliant change of plan, weaving through some German forest, beside a river in the afternoon sun!

I arrived in Dahn in plenty of time, so headed to an Apotheke which had a computer with internet access. With emails and blog done, I then found the campsite and pitched my tent. Due to not having much food with me and the fact that there was a restaurant at the campsite, I decided to treat myself to a proper meal so sat down to a large lasagne, a bowl of green salad and a small beer. During my route planning for the next few days on the bike, one of the chefs, who had finished for the evening, came up and started asking me why I had so many maps. Replying in German, we spoke for a good half an hour (reverting to english relatively quickly though), until another of the chefs joined in. After a great day in the sun and a lovely evening, spirits were slightly dampened, literally, when the weather turned and it started raining. Fortunately, it only lasted for a few hours and when I woke the next morning, it was nice and sunny, with everything not as damp as I thought it would be. Not only that but for the first time on my trip, I didn't wake up cold in my tent!

The next day's riding was a quick 40 miles back into France, finishing in Haguenau (just north of Strasbourg). After another hour on the internet in the Uni's Bibliothek, I decided to have a rest day the next day, to give my legs a break and to explore the city. On my way to the campsite, just outside the city (about 25 mins walk), I stopped at a supermarket and bought a large amount of food. Supper that night was a whole box of scrambled eggs, which I found out is very hard to do on a campstove, which had 2 whole kabanos, half a giant babybel and a large tomato added to it, along with a packet of BNs (I didn't eat them all that night), another waffle and a carton of Innocent Smoothy!

My rest day was extermely pleasant, apart from not being allowed to go swimming in the pool directly opposite the campsite as I only had a pair of baggy shorts. I had a nice hamburger in a tiny turkish shop, run by a turkish lady who was about 4ft tall and looked about 90, in a small alleyway beside one of the churches, another couple of hours on the computer in the Bibliothek (all for free) and then sat in a cafe for a couple of hours, with a good people watching position just off the main square in the centre of Haguenau. I was soon back in the campsite, all packed up for an early start in the morning, with all my clothes dry from a quick handwash in the sink.

Deutschland and living a life of luxury!

Setting off from Clervaux was the start of a day of new things. In Diekirch, after having a quick look inside the military museum there, I went to the tourist information to see if there was an internet cafe and a camping shop, which the lady inside (who spoke a small amount of English) said there was and pointed to them on a map of the town. Heading first to the internet cafe, it turned out to be closed down and by the looks of the place, had been for some time. Next was the camping shop, which ended up not actually existing at all and when I asked the receptionist at the campsite 500m down the road, he said that there was one but about a kilometer out of the town. Fortunately this was in the direction I was headed so I pedalled there and bought a thick woolen hat and a fleeced, woolen blanket, to try and stop every night in a tent being freezing cold!

The ride from Diekirch to Larochette was an extremely pleasant one, following a small stream through a wooded valley, and seeing as it was around lunchtime, I decided to stop at a cafe and have an actual lunch, instead of continuing with my riding diet of waffles, fruit and water. 5 minutes later I was sat in the sun, with a great view of the castle and eating a large sandwich I had bought from a small boulangerie, along with a large coffee. The early afternoon's cycling to the Moselle River was relatively uneventful, apart from a few hills and I arrived in Grevenmacher where I had planned to cross the river into Germany. This wasn't as easy as I'd hope as the bridge that was on my map had been completely demolished to make way for a new bridge they were just starting to build. This meant I had to detour to one of the bridges in Trier, where I was thinking of staying for the night anyway, and it turned out to be a brilliant ride along the river, slipstreaming a couple of roadies who turned onto the cycle path justm ahead of me. I easily found the tourist info in Trier as it was right beside the Porta Nigra and thanks to a tip off by my parents, the lady inside gave me the directions to a Jugendherberge in the north of the city.

New things: First useless tourist info person. Proper lunch stop instead of sitting by the road. Germany (on this trip). Hostel.

When I went to sleep that night, all my clothes were clean and drying, there was a much slimmer chance of me being cold and I even updated my blog (France + The Headwind)!

Setting off after a good breakfast and an extra few rolls made for lunch, I headed out of Trier in the direction of Saarbrücken. This was the direct route on my map and it ended up being a route that went straight over some mountains - after a reasonably slow day, I ended up in Sankt Wendel tourist info at half four, looking for somewhere to sleep. There were no campsites or hostels in the area and with a long day of hills behind me, I didn't fancy cycling off to find some. This led to the woman in the tourist info finding me the cheapest place to sleep in St Wendel, which turned out to be a B&B run by a little old lady who spoke no English.

I thoroughly enjoyed the B&B, we chatted in German about my trip, her family (there were lots of photos on the wall) etc... and I was pleasantly surprised how well my German coped after totally ignoring it since my GCSE. I even got a luxury breakfast and she insisted that I ate eveything on the table or if not, that I packed it for lunch whilst on my bike!

Hitting the hills

Day 14 consisted of following the 'Canal Albert' from Maastricht to Vise, then gradually rising out of the valley and heading towards Verviers. I got lost for about 20 minutes in Verviers due to non existant signs, which turned out to be caused by the road I should've taken being completely dug up by roadworkers. Using my best french to navigate out of the city, I soon made it to Theux, where I camped for the night in a campsite at the top of a very steep hill just past the town.

Being in the middle of nowhere, I expected it to be a relatively small, cheap campsite with only a couple of guests including myself. It turned out to be one of the most luxurious campsites I have ever stayed in, with unbelievably posh facilites including enormous shower cubicles without timers on! With another cyclist (Belgian) in a tent beside me (although he also had his car), we sat in the sun chatting about bikes, whilst drinking beer and listening to the campsite owner playing David Bowie out of their window!

The sun was short lived as after being woken up to rain in the early hours, in continued until 5 in the evening, leading to my first rest day whilst on the road. I filled the day with showers to stay warm and planning a proper route through Luxembourg, Germany, France and Switzerland.

Waking the next day was improved (after being cold nearly all night) by not hearing the sound of the rain pelting the outside of my tent, so I got up, packed all my stuff and headed down the hill towards Spa. Due to not having visited Spa Francorchamps (the race circuit) for a long time, I decided to detour slightly so I could ride past it and throught the towns of Malmedy and Stavelot, which both have corners named after them. This turned out to be an intesting choice as leaving Spa I encountered my first proper ascent, taking about an hour of crawling up a steep slope from Spa to Francorchamps. After taking a photo of the La Source hairpin, I made my way through the hills towards Luxembourg, which I arrived in without incident and pitched my tent in a campsite in Clervaux.

Eindhoven, a proper rest in the sun!

My first evening in Eindhoven was a very chilled out one. After arriving for a late lunch, which ended up being a whole box of eggs, scrambled, on toast and as Sarah didn't need to be in school in the afternoon, we did some shopping for tea and general bits - I replaced my emergency tin of beans I had eaten the previous night. Tea turned out to be home made burgers with all the trimmings, which even nearly ended up being barbecued due to the sun coming out for the first time since I arrived in London! After fantastic food and an evening doing very little, Sarah and I (who didn't have any morning lessons) ended up sleeping until midday!

I tagged along with Sarah to go to her lesson in the afternoon and after an hour or so in that, we both walked round the graduate's design show, which turned out to be really interesting and impressive (apart from the really arty shit that doesn't make any sense whatsoever...) Late afternoon consisted of buying yet more food for sausages and onions poached in red wine, which I cooked for Sarah and her two house mates, Paola and Nils, as a thank you for letting me turn up randomly on their doorstep and stay with them and then getting ready for an underground, Dutch, rave, graduate party thing that I was made to go to by Sarah and co.

Pre-drinks started with Arielle and Mila, friends from school, turning up and a similar version to the '4 King's' drinking game being played by all. This turned out to be hilarious as a couple of the group, in particular my cousin, were extremely bad at this game so ended up a little worse for wear than the rest of us. Fortunately for her, she was chauffeured to and from the party on the back of her own bike!

The next day was a relatively slow day, with admin type stuff completed, the workshops in school explored and a large amount of Dutch deep-fried food and chips eaten for tea. After another very lazy morning, more packing, route planning and bike maintenance was done for departure the next day.

After waking earlier than any previous day in Eindhoven, I disappeared off into the city in search of a better map of Germany, as the previous day's route planning had ended up in me deciding I would go into Luxembourg and then into Germany, following the border and Rhein all the way to Basel and Switzerland. After finally getting everything packed, I set off towards Maastricht where I set up camp in a campsite just outside the city, after a nice 40 miles on the last bit of properly flat roads.

The Headwind

Setting off after my second poor night's sleep in a tent (my first of many) was not greatly improved by the strong, cold wind coming from the north-east. I was making my way slowly to Oostende in Belgium, where I would turn inland and start making my way towards Brügge, Antwerpen and then Eindhoven, when I slightly overstretched the knee I had pulled on my first day in England, whilst rushing to meet Olivia in Oxford. The combined trio of poor weather, riding with a pain in my knee and still being tired meant that I had my first 'sense of humour' failure of my trip. After speaking to the family on the phone and a lunch rest in Nieuwpoort, I felt slightly better about the situation and eventually made it to Oostende. The situation then improved a lot more as I turned inland, getting out of the worst of the wind and made the 20 miles to Brügge with relative ease.

The campsite just on the east side of Brügge was exactly what was needed. Unlimited, hot showers (instead of tokens), a Carrefour 200m down the road leading to my first proper meal since Wingham (500g bag of pasta, bolognese sauce and grated cheese) and a Canadian couple who were travelling Europe for 6 months, who I chatted to for the majority of the evening!

Waking up cold again was forgotten quickly when I realised that the weather had picked up and the sun was shining. This made the day's cycling seem easier so I ended up doing 75 miles and on the other side of Antwerpen, after cruising around the city for an hour or so, in another campsite. Unfortunately the campsite was 'rustic', as the brochure I picked up in the tourist info in Antwerpen had called it. But the sun was still out most of the evening so I wasn't really that bothered.

Surprise, surprise, another cold morning later I arrived in Eindhoven after an easy 45 miles for a late lunch and my first proper rest!

France

After an extremely leisurely morning, I eventually left the Henchers and made my way to the ferry. I arrived at the port at 15:10, got a ticket and was expecting to be put on the 15:30 after the receptionist had said I would easily be able to make it on in time as they were running slightly behind. So after sitting in a queue all by myself and watching all the cars unload and then board the ferry, I was a little disappointed to watch it sail off towards Calais without me! Fortunately a Lithuanian man on a motorbike parked up next to me and we chatted for the next hour and a half whilst waiting for the other ferry.

By the time I arrived in Calais it was around half 8 so I headed straight to the campsite I had been recommended by a couple I had been talking to on the ferry. It looked promising as I saw caravans and motorhomes all parked up inside the fence but it turned out that the campsite had actually closed down and all that was left was basically a car park, not somewhere I could pitch a tent.

So after deciding to head towards Dunkirk, my destination in the morning, I assumed there would be another campsite around somewhere close. By the time it had gone 10 and had started going dark I had given up on a campsite and had started pitching my tent in a random field outside Marck. Just to top it off, when I thought a nice, hot tin of beans would cheer me up slightly, I found out that I had forgotten anything to ignite the flame with...! Cold beans was not exactly what I wanted at the moment in time. This meant, after a terrible night's sleep, I was colder, more tired, more muddy and more annoyed than I wanted to be on my first night/day in France.

Fortunately, I had a nice pastry from a boulangerie in Marck the next morning and a gentle day (30.1 miles) to a campsite in Zuydcoote, where I had a nice hot shower and an afternoon of sleeping in my tent.

Water, water, every where.

Day two started well - my alarm woke me up at 9 for a 10 / half 10 departure. In terms of things going well, that's pretty much as far as it went that morning!

Got up at 9.30, made myself beans on toast for breakfast which took me about half and hour to eat and I ended up leaving about a quarter of it due to feeling incredibly bloated and a bit nauseous.  Had a very slow shower, got dressed and packed up and eventually setting off at bang on midday. The ride to London was good though, after cruising through the Oxford city centre on a sunny afternoon, I gently made my way through little country villages and lanes until I arrived at Rickmansworth after crossing the M25, then going straight into Watford on the A road, which turned out to be a bad idea. 

Following on from day 1, lessons learnt on day 2:

- Navigating London with a 1:900,000 scale map with no road names is nearly impossible.

After eventually making it through Watford and ploughing straight into London on the A5 (Edgware Road), I turned eastward towards the general direction of Holloway and zigzaged through a residential area, ending up at Highgate. After asking an elderly woman on a bike, I found out I was just at the top of the hill and about 5 minutes away from Holloway. I arrived at my cousin Ben's house (same cousin who put me in touch with Olivia and my bed for the first night) not too much later than had planned, had a nice hot shower, a curry and a nice evening and sleep. A much more positive end compared to the start of my second day.


As the title of this post suggests, the next two days were a little damp. After leaving Ben to crack on with some of his speech writing (if you're ever in need of a brilliant speech then Ben's your man, especially if it's about German politics, a field in which he is highly experienced!) in a cafe near his house, I set off towards Fleet Street to have lunch with another of my cousins. It started to lightly drizzle as I was weaving my way through the London traffic and after a lovely lasagne and chat with Amy, we stepped out side to ridiculously heavy rain. I arrived in Barnes (just over Hammersmith bridge) absolutely drenched and knocked on the door of my Aunty Debs and Uncle Roger, much to their surprise! They took me in, fed me and dried all my stuff for the ride to Canterbury the next day.

For the first time in the trip so far, I got up, had breakfast, packed up and said goodbye to my hosts on time. I steadily made my way across London until I reached Dartford, where I followed the A2 all the way to Canterbury. From there, it was a couple of miles down a country road to the village of Wingham, where my sister's friend was kindly putting me up for the night before I got on a ferry in Dover. It rained with varying strengths for pretty much all of the 75 miles but fortunately I was more prepared than the previous day and it wasn't anywhere near as heavy so I actually didn't get as wet. I was also helped by the fact I had a nice warm place to stay, with another nice (homemade this time) curry and shower, with all my stuff washed and clean for my trip over the Channel.

Another huge thanks to Ben (doubly for putting me in touch with Olivia), Amy, Aunty Debs and Uncle Roger and the Hencher Family, for putting me up, feeding me, giving up their lunch break to see me and generally making England much more pleasant than it would've been if I was in a tent every night!