Tarifa To Nordkapp: Route Planning Gets Interesting… And Hot?
It’s a while since I sat down to look at a map like this. Heading for Lysekil today and then, is that a heatwave being celebrated in the headline? I think so…
Andrew
Cycling Day 64: Gothenburg To Myggenäs
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Hotel all-you-can-eat breakfasts can be useful on a long cycling trip but I think this morning my IBIS fill up put me in a lethargic mood from the start. I wouldn’t say that I was on a go […]
Rest Day 12: Gothenburg / Göteborg, Sweden
A wander around the city to begin with… …followed by a visit to the Volvo Round-The-World Yacht Race final event just to the north of the river. Perhaps I should consider sailing as my next ‘adventure’ activity. I have previous after my little jaunt on the Mediterranean with […]
Cycling Day 63: Ugglarp To Gothenburg
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Every epic cycle trip requires at least one epic day of cycling and yesterday was, probably, that day. 169 km. Not quite the 270 km that I cycled from Tarragona to Valencia back in the summer of 2013 […]
Cycling Day 62: Båstad To Ugglarp
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Various things put me in a grumpy mood this morning. The internet still wasn’t working (campsite or 3G), I was looking at at a half hour wait for the campsite reception to open so that could pay, and […]
Cycling Day 61: Helsingør To Båstad
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Båstad. The Rough Guide to Sweden sees fit to give the pronunciation: /bow-sta/. It didn’t prevent me from smirking when I saw the town on the map this morning when still in Denmark and choosing it as my […]
Krongborg Slot, Helsingør, Denmark
So, shortly after arriving in Helsingør (see previous post that I have yet to write but hopefully by the time you see this, I will have done… such is the world of running a travel-related website) I returned to the centre of the town. The main attraction is […]
Cycling Day 60: Copenhagen To Helsingør
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Just as it was yesterday, rain has been a theme of the day, but when I ‘woke’ (for the third or fourth time) there was no pitter-patter of raindrops upon my tent. That said, dampness was still in […]
Rest Day 11: Copenhagen, Denmark
The first day of prolonged rain so probably better off the bike than on it. That said, my visit to the centre did involve a 7 km ride from the campsite (see previous post) and a very wet ride back in the late afternoon. I joined a three […]
Copenhagen: Cycling City? First Impressions…
The question mark is a touch rhetorical… Of course it is! There are bicycles everywhere and cycle lanes take you from anywhere to anywhere. That’s really not surprising, but… Contrary to what the ‘everything-about-cycling-in-Britain-is-rubbish’ crowd would have you believe, there’s a large minority here who wear helmets, a […]
YHA Celebrate Bike Week 2015 With A Big Investment
By Philip Gamble of the YHA Bike Week 2015 is now upon us and cycling events are taking place across the UK in order to encourage more people explore the outdoors on two wheels. From ‘Bike Breakfasts’ to pedal powered juke boxes, there are a wide range of […]
Cycling Day 59: Vemmetofte To Copenhagen
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I’ll be honest. This isn’t going to get written until tomorrow… The pictures aren’t that great either. —– OK, it’s now cycling day 61 and I am finally sitting down to write this. I will keep it brief […]
Cycling Day 58: Møns Klint To Vemmetofte
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I usually write these updates while I’m sitting next to the tent. Tonight I’ve found somewhere rather more beautiful and even more peaceful… I’ll be honest. I’ve now returned to the campsite – only a couple of […]
Equipment Update
The last couple of weeks have seen various items of equipment meet their maker, not just on the bike but other bits and pieces as well… Let’s starts with the bike however: Replacement chain, cassette, brake pads and rear wheel in Hamburg. A new set of Schwalbe Marathon […]
Rest Day 10: Møns Klint, Denmark
“One of Denmark’s most famous landmarks…” according to the Lonely Planet guidebook. They – the cliffs that is – are impressive although you wouldn’t want to bring a group of school children here; the paths are perilously close to the cliff edges and rock falls are not uncommon […]
Sunday: The Day Of Rest (In Møns Klint)
Fear not! I haven’t suddenly gone all religious… …but after a full week of long, strenuous and flattish rides (ones that rarely give you an opportunity to sit back in the saddle and relax), I’m taking an impromptu day off. Møns Klint with its allegedly spectacular cliffs […]
Cycling Day 57: Ulslev To Møns Klint
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Now before I start, I forget to mention something yesterday. I got my tyres pumped up in a shop! [That it?] But there’s more… I asked the chap who did the pumping what he thought about the tread […]
Cycling Day 56: Spodsbjerg To Ulslev
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I have found an idyllic place to camp tonight on the eastern side of the island of Falster on the shore of the Baltic Sea. This is the beach, just metres from my tent: How I managed to […]
The View From My Breakfast Rock In Denmark…
I think I’ve arrived in Scandinavia. No doubts.
Cycling Day 55: Fynshav To Spodsbjerg
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I’ll try and keep it brief tonight, for my sake just as much as yours. I’ve said that before however and always find a few tangents… First up (after two muffins for breakfast) was the ferry. Actually (first […]
Cycling Day 54: Flensburg To Fynshav
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I chatted late into the evening with Franziska and Klaus whilst sitting on their garden terrace sipping wine and eating Scandinavian chocolate. They had left me alone at the house for a couple of hours earlier in the […]
Cycling Day 53: Missunde To Flensburg
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. The campsite at Missunde really was a gem. Every box on the Cycling-Europe-travelling-cyclist-ideal-campsite list was ticked. Twice. The previous number one site of the trip had been in Orléans; but it didn’t have this: By the time […]
Cycling Day 52: Borgdorf-Seedorf To Missunde
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. When I went to the reception of the campsite in Borgdorf-Seedorf this morning to pay my bill, I owed 4 cents on top of the deposit of €10 that I had paid for the card that recorded how […]
Possibly The Best View From A Campsite So Far?
A sneak preview of tonight’s round up of cycling day 52. This is what I’ll be looking at when I write it. Unless it starts to rain…
Cycling Day 51: Hamburg To Borgdorf-Seedorf
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I was up and about ridiculously early this morning. We ate and drank well the previous evening so I can’t really explain why I did get up so early. Perhaps it was the bright sunshine outside which gave […]
The Start Of Part II: Hamburg To Denmark
I’m going to be following (hopefully) an ox herding route (now an official cycle path) called the Ochsenweg up through the northern German region of Schleswig-Holstein towards Flensburg, the final town in Germany. The vague route is highlighted in green on the map below but I’m hoping that […]
Rest Day 9: Hamburg
A day of sightseeing and shopping…
Rest Day 8: Back To School / Reggie Gets A Refit
My day has been spent in a German school in the suburbs of Hamburg talking about my travels. Nice students, nice teachers! Here are some of them: In the meantime, Reggie was in for repairs. It was always part of the plan to get the bike serviced […]
Cycling Day 50: Harsefeld To Hamburg
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I’m half way to Nordkapp! Come back later for the full story of cycling day 50… Have you come back? Good. Then let me finish off this post… It’s now Sunday evening and a full three days after […]
Cycling Day 49: Bremen To Harsefeld
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I followed the HH-HB / route 7 for the first two-thirds of the day… It’s now Friday morning and I’m doing a bit of a catch up on blog side of things. Cycling day 49 was Wednesday and […]
Rest Day 7: Bremen
The day was spent 50:50 between discovering the Hansiatic city and shopping (in preparation for cold, wet Scandinavia…). The pictures are just of the first 50.
Cycling Day 48: Vehrte To Bremen (Via Syke!)
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Not a great deal to report on for cycling day 48. After having spotted the town of Syke just to the south east of Bremen on my map the previous evening, I sat down on the steps of […]
The German Town Of Syke
The town of the Sykes! Never before have I regretted so much not having a black marker pen to hand… The town of Syke is, alas, not one of Germany’s most attractive destinations. A little run down and in need of investment (insert your own joke at this […]
Cycling In France (Review)
I did promise to write one of the reviews after each country (here’s the one about Spain) but I am only now sitting down to write the review about cycling in France. As before, it may make more sense if you go back and read the post I […]
Cycling Day 47: Münster To Vehrte
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. So, where were we? Ah yes; in a very wintery Munster getting hailed upon… On the terrace of the bar where I wrote up the report for cycling day 46 yesterday afternoon I was at least protected from […]
Münster: Paying Hommage To A… Road
Remember these iconic images / poster from an advertising campaign here in Münster to get people out of their cars and into buses or onto bikes? Well, I wasn’t able to climb the tower of the cathedral to take my picture but I did find the […]
Cycling Day 46: Reckling-Hausen To Münster
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Let’s start with the positive: I’ve arrived in Münster, the sun is shining sporadically and, on the whole, the physical cycling conditions today were good. For most of the time I was able to travel along dedicated […]
Cycling Day 45: Düsseldorf To Reckling-Hausen
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. First of all, if you have looked at the statistics in the above link, did you notice this? You probably didn’t. I stopped for a coffee and to write up about cycling day 44 in a supermarket. […]
Cycling Day 44: Cologne To Düsseldorf
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Over the last ten years I’ve visited Germany on quite a few occasions; twice to Stuttgart, twice to Hamburg, once to each of Munich Berlin and Bonn. I have a very positive view of the country based upon […]
The Rhine Cycle Route: Really?
Seriously underwhelmed with what I’ve found. The first hour cycling north out of Cologne has been only sporadically sign-posted with Eurovelo 15 signs leaving me guessing as to whether I am on the right track on not. I’m following the little red signs assuming that they are sending […]
Cycling Day 43: Aachen To Cologne
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Yesterday I made clear my (self-inflicted) frustration at not being back on a campsite but couped up in a small hotel room in Aachen. As I sit here by the banks of the Rhine at tonight’s campsite just […]
“Wirral Men Complete Epic Charity Bike Ride”
Press release: 5 COUNTRIES – 10 DAYS – 1315 KILOMETRES – £3600 RAISED FOR CHARITY Earlier this year we told you about a group of young men from Wirral who were planning to undertake an epic and unsupported bike ride from London to Berlin to raise funds […]
Germany: The Plan (Ish)
Today was a little bit of a wake-up call; arriving in Germany I expected the place to be full of campsites. Aachen certainly wasn’t. Although it does have a ‘camping platz’ just out of town, it’s not for tents, just motor homes. The woman in the tourist office […]
Cycling Day 42: Maastricht To Aachen
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. The collegiate atmosphere of the five cycling tourists on the one small patch of ground at the campsite south of Maastricht continued this morning as we all packed away our things are readied ourselves to head off in […]
Tour De Yorkshire: The Race, The County, The Amazing Things On Offer To Visitors
By James Moore Taking place between the 1st and 3rd of May, the Tour de Yorkshire was a staggering success, the utterly new and refreshing racing event drawing one and a half million people as spectators whilst simultaneously showcasing the county to countless viewers hailing from 150 countries […]
Cycling Day 41: Borgloon To Maastricht
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Tonight has been chuffing cold! I have now crawled into the tent at the campsite a few kilometres south of Maastricht wearing four upper layers of clothing, a beanie on my head and a Buff around my neck. […]
Cycling Day 40: Chapelle-Saint-Lambert To Borgloon
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Kevin Mayne and his wife Cheryl have been great hosts. Not only did Kevin make the effort to come and ‘collect’ me on Friday afternoon after I cycled over the border into Belgium from France but they wined […]
Rest Day 6: Waterloo, Belgium
It seems appropriate on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest to visit the site of the Battle of Waterloo. Let’s face it, it’s a field, but what is more interesting – very interesting – is the brand new and excellent visitor centre built underground, the round panoramic […]
Cycling Day 39: Maubeuge To Chapelle-Saint-Lambert
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A little delayed, here’s the write up… I set out all my bits and pieces of paper on the an outside table of a café in central Maubeuge to sort out what could to be sent back to […]
Cycling Day 38: Seraucourt-le-Grand To Maubeuge
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. It was a late finish today – back in Maubeuge! – so I’ll write the prose tomorrow or later tonight. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures… I’m back! It’s now Friday morning and I’m sitting outside the Café […]
Maubeuge: Crossing Points
2010: 2015:
Cycling Day 37: Pierrefonds To Seraucourt-le-Grand
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Don’t worry; until earlier this afternoon I’d never head of Seraucourt-le-Grand myself. It’s not too far from Saint-Quentin (and don’t worry, even French teachers like me pronounce it that way as well!) More of my destination in a […]
The Curious Chateau Of Pierrefonds
Colour where needed…
Cycling Day 36: Paris To Pierrefonds
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. This morning it was my fourth attempt to navigate my way across the Bois de Boulogne and the fourth time I lost my way. The campsite was on the other side of the urban park – an overgrown […]
Rest Day 5: Paris
So nice to see not just a few but lots of familiar faces in Paris; colleagues and students from my old school, Gillotts, in Henley-on-Thames. It was honestly bizarre to be accompanying a group of children but ultimately having no responsibility for them whatsoever. That said, it has […]
The ECF Cycling Barometer 2015
Cycling Day 35: Fontainebleau To Paris
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Enjoy the teaser? Thanks for coming back to read the text! (It’s not half as good…) If I have learnt one thing this week it is how to spell ‘Fontainebleau’ correctly. Ask me a few days ago and […]
Paris, France
I wish all the cities I cycle through had such an identifiable ‘centre’.
Cycle Route South from Paris by the Seine
This is the route that I plan on cycling tomorrow, in reverse (well, not reversing but you know what I mean…)
Cycling Day 34: Montargis To Fontainebleau
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A short cycling day – just 56 km – but it was planned that way and puts me within a normal cycling day’s ride of the centre of Paris. But back to Montargis… I’m pretty good at telling […]
Morning Wood
In some respects it’s a dodgy campsite here in Montargis – more on that later in the day – but the view from the tent in the morning compensates somewhat:
Cycling Orléans To Paris
From Clare of Mon Vélo Et Moi: “Earlier in the year I bough a French book from Chamina publishers which plots the route from Tours to Namur along the, as yet unrealised with signs, Eurovelo 3. The directions in the book weren’t great when I did Namur to […]
Cycling Day 33: Orléans To Montargis
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. An average day in several ways but most obviously In that I cycled 75 km, my target average (which is currently exactly 74 km). I was out of the tent early. The fact that I didn’t know where […]
Orléans, France
I’ve visited Orléans before – I can’t quite remember when or why – but the image I had in my mind is so different from the reality that I’m beginning to wonder if I ever actually came here at all. It’s beautiful! Clearly the focus is, unsurprisingly, on […]
Cycling Day 32: Amboise To Orléans
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. One of those days where, when I set off, I really had no idea where it would end. I guessed somewhere between Blois and Orléans, the former being only 35 km from Amboise, the latter about 100 km, […]
Cycling Day 31: Tours To Amboise
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Did you follow that link? Yes? Thanks. No? Why not? If you are into your statistics you might enjoy finding out all about the quantative side of my cycling day. But hang on! Today, it doesn’t quite give […]
Rest Days 3 And 4: Loir Et Cher
There was a little bit of cycling yesterday (rest day 3) – 30 km from Chateau-Renault to Couture-sur-Loir – to visit my former colleague Liz after a train journey from Tours, but much of the day was spent resting and the cycling didn’t count towards the continental crossing […]
Tours, France
A morning of memories (and a few changes and additions) in Tours…
So Far In France…
As seen on Instagram:
Le Musée Des Beaux Arts, Tours: Digitally Revisited
One sunny afternoon during my time living in Tours in the second half of the 1990s, inspired by some similar creations that I had seen in a gallery in Bradford by David Hockney, I took my analogue SLR camera to the nearby fine art museum to take lots […]
Cycling Day 30: Saumur To Tours
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Most days I fight the urge to focus (quite naturally) upon the destination rather than the journey but I’m afraid yesterday and today, when I have been cycling to destinations that I know well, I have had to […]
Saumur
Yesterday and today in Saumur:
Cycling Day 29: Parthenay To Saumur
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. On a day when I feel as though I have done much it’s ironic that I’ve struggled to start writing this. I first came to the Loire Valley back in 1993 to work for Eurocamp as a campsite […]
Cycling Day 28: Niort To Parthenay
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A no-nonsense bit of cycling from A to B (well, N to P I suppose…) today in an almost straight line. Quite a short cycle – just over 40 km – but that was planned after having stayed […]
Cycling Day 27: La Rochelle To Niort
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Ok. Before we get on with the usual business, a plea for help. I’ll say this now rather than at some point below as I suspect many of you just skip over the text and look at the […]
Cycling Day 26: Rochefort To La Rochelle
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Wind has been the theme of the day, at times quite cold but thankfully the rain petered out after a few short bursts in the morning. There ends today’s weather report. Rochefort wasn’t at all what I expected […]
Cycling Day 25: Royan To Rochefort
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Back to the old fashioned method of doing this; I have no data coverage here on the Camping Municipal in Rochefort – my pitiful campsite WiFi allowance was frittered away listening to half an hour of Radio 4 […]
La Côte Sauvage: The Most Beautiful Point Of The Trip So Far?
The good weather helped but it was a wonderfully tranquil spot, almost like a desert island…
Cycling Day 24: Lacanau-Océan To Royan
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Today was a good day. The usual routine at the campsite this morning with one addition; I spent about 30 minutes attempting to remove all the accumulated gunk from the bike’s chain and mechanism that has developed since […]
In Praise Of… Fun Cycles, Maubuisson
These guys gave Reggie’s mechanism a clean in a way I could never have done. It was much appreciated! He’s been purring with delight all day… (or was it me?)
Cycling Day 23: Gujan-Mestras To Lacanau-Océan
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. When I woke this morning (well, ‘woke’ is used to refer to the time of the day that people generally wake rather than the actual physical activity of stopping sleeping which happened many hours earlier), the pitter patter […]
The Atlantic Coast Of France
I wish you could hear it as well…
La Bonne Conduite Du Cycliste
Hopefully you can tick them all, no?
Cycling Day 22: Arcachon To Gujan-Mestras
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. No video today, but I do have a sign that I came across on the short – just 10 km – ride from Arcachon to the municipal campsite at Gujan-Mestras: “Do not cross… without looking in both […]
Cycling Day 21: Saint-Julien-En-Born To Arcachon
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle.
Cycling Day 20: Capbreton To Saint-Julien-En-Born
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A later than normal start to the day; I was up at the same time and packed and ready to go well before 9am but then got chatting with the other three cyclists who were camping in neighbouring […]
Reggie The Bike
In the pine forest earlier today. Full story later…
Tour De Yorkshire 2015
Cycling Day 19: Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port To Capbreton
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. This post is dedicated to Heltor Chasca. You were the first person I thought about this morning and have been thinking much about you on and off all day. On with the show! I spoke briefly to a […]
Cycling Day 18: Pamplona To Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycling. I emerged from the Europa Hotel clutching a banana and an apple (discretely removed from the breakfast buffet for use later in the day) and a replacement CatEye cycling computer. If you remember, the previous one stopped working […]
Pamplona: No Bull(s)
Pamplona without the bulls this time. Look out for lots of independence-minded balconies in the city centre sporting flags along those lines (as well as one door), an English mother (or is it a stepmother or a mother-in-law?), a closed down Hemingway, some of the many pilgrims en […]
Pamplona: Not Quite The Running Of The Bulls…
…but the nearest you’ll get to it on a cold, damp Monday in April. The real thing takes place in July as this colourful poster, one of several on display in the city centre, makes clear: However, not far from the bull ring in a shopping street I […]
It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (Or Thereabouts…)
The route network that has inspired me to cycle across the continent two and a bit times (hopefully three times by the end of July) is twenty years old. This from the European Cycling Federation’s Eurovelo website: “It was twenty years ago that the World Trade Organization was […]
Cycling In Spain (Review)
Before setting off on this little trip across the continent I wrote a piece for the website about my plans for cycling through each of the seven countries from Spain to Norway. I’m now nearly finished in Spain – just the small matter of climbing the Pyrenees tomorrow […]
Cycling Day 17: Logroño To Pamplona
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Today was hard work but ultimately a great day of not just cycling but simply travelling. The weather was very similar to cycling day 13 earlier this week and the arrival in Pamplona as wet as my arrival […]
Cycling Day 16: Santo Domingo De La Calzado To Lorgroño
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Not long before I get to the French border and today’s modest 50 km nudged me a little closer. The destination was chosen because it has a campsite where I arrived in the early afternoon amid the noise […]
Rioja
Some great pre-breakfast scenery this morning and the first vines I’ve seen since arriving in Spain. It’s interesting to note that the ones seen here have all been recently replanted, presumably following the disruption involved in building the new motorway just next to the N road that I’m […]
Cycling Day 15: Burgos To Santo Domingo De La Calzado
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Peter and Sandra, my neighbours on the campsite in Burgos, provided me with a nice cup of coffee this morning. The discussion we had continued from where it had left off the previous evening. Interestingly they had been […]
Cycling Day 14: Palencia To Burgos
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. If an antidote had been required for yesterday’s humdrum, wet, cold, uninspiring, boring, gloomy [OK we get the idea; please move on…] cycle to Palencia from Benavente (if you dare, read cycling day 13), then the last 24 […]
Cycling Day 13: Benavente To Palencia
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s ride. If you think what I’m doing is glamorous (No? You never thought that? Oh…) then think again. At least as far as today’s cycling goes. It was most definitely a Mercedes day (see Paul, Mercedes Days and Seville). […]
