SEVEN COUNTRIES IN SIXTEEN DAYS BY BICYCLE

A travelogue.
Introduction:
Picture
​On 5 October 2016, with a notable reluctance relative to my previous adventures into the unknown, I departed my winter home in Hamburg, Germany, first south to the Elbe Tunnel and then, from the south bank of the Elbe River, west towards the Netherlands. I was anticipating about 10-16 days of light touring on my Niner Bikes RLT 9 Steel gravel bike. Along the way, I planned, using GPS maps and other digital tools, to explore six countries. To this sextet, I spontaneously added a seventh when a friend proposed a "bishop's move" from my location at that time in south-western Germany to his cottage in the Czech Republic. Five of these countries would be firsts for my modest life-list: Netherlands; Belgium; Luxembourg; Switzerland; and the Czech Republic. And many of the regions in the remaining two countries, France and Germany, would also be new, such as the Département de Moselle in northeast France. Sixteen days into my enchanted tour through wonderland, with 1534 miles (2454 km) in my legs and 122 bicycle touring hours in my body, I returned to Hamburg via the celebrated Elbe River Bike Path with a life's worth of visual and experiential treasures. Below are day-by-day blog entries, 16 in total, including maps for visualizing the routes that I took through the various countries. Anyone that's curious will find detailed recollections from the tour along-side contemporary, moment-by-moment, expressions from my original Facebook posts when the tour was underway.
Chapters:
Day 1: After many delays and despite an unusual reluctance to initiate my latest little adventure, this morning, at about 10:30 am, I departed Hamburg, Germany heading west towards the Netherlands on my Niner RLT 9 Steel gravel bike fitted with rack, panniers, and a top-tube bag from Blackburn Design. This is the beginning of what I anticipate will be 10-16 days, possibly more, of bicycle touring through Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and the Czech Republic. This will be my second adventure into the bicycle genre often described as "light touring". My first was only a month ago [READ MORE] ...
Day 2: The RLT and I hit the ground fairly hard today, near the municipality of Uplengen, Germany, after I dug the front tire into loose sand on a hard right turn on tractor track. No major damage to the bike or the body, but my right knee will be sore for a few days. Little wrecks along the way aside, I still managed to ride about 120 miles (192 km), ten miles more than yesterday. I've set a goal to ride 100 miles or more per day across northern Germany and the Netherlands in anticipation of a much slower pace when I enter the hills of the Ardennes sometime tomorrow [READ MORE] ...
Day 3: Day three and another night of comfortable lodging for less than thirty dollars booked using the Airbnb iPhone app and not until after 4 pm. So far my system of trying to save money whilst staying anywhere I happen to arrive is working well. That system starts each day with an inevitable, it seems, ambition to ride 50 miles or more before noon with little concern about where I'll arrive to as long as it's roughly south of where I started. This ambition is motivated by a body and mind reinvigorated by a deep sleep and a hearty breakfast; and by my experience that the body will eventually start to slow down. As my motivation dips and the sun begins it's long descent towards [READ MORE] ...
Day 4: It was a treasure trove of adventure today as I made my way south through the Netherlands, never far from the German border and often only a few kilometers or less on either side of the border with Belgium. Because of that proximity, I added a new country to my life list before noon unbeknownst to me until perhaps the third or fourth crossing when I finally detected an EU border marker on the roadside - a circle of yellow stars around the country name on a blue background. My primary guide and companion this morning was Holland's system of interconnected canals, an efficient means of making one's way across the countryside, with few hills and fast, smooth, surfaces [READ MORE] ...
Day 5: Everyday has been special, full of surprises and memories, but today was even better than the previous four. As much as I enjoyed the cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands, the network of canals, villages, farms, and forests, the Ardennes of Belgium and Luxembourg delivered one stunning scene after another on my ride today. Perhaps the landscape high point of my autumn adventure? We will have to wait and see.
   A very cool (fresh) start this morning was unavoidable as I descended into the river valley below Carmen's le Cafe and BnB. I paid my bill just before I left, 61 euro. That covered a private room and bath in a funky, unique, inspired inn. As well as hot soup, bread, and more for dinner; an equally robust breakfast, and lunch for the road! It was, until this evening, by far my highest lodging cost in four days, but with all the extras it really was very reasonable.
  Within an hour or less of my departure the sun warmed my nearly frozen fingers and I was subsequently grinning my way down a paved bike path at full casual speed, about 20-22 mph. Even before solar radiation dispelled the numbness, I stopped for photos, including the header image from this post, to take advantage of morning light, mostly clear skies, and sunshine, the finest weather so far on the trip. I'm hoping for the same tomorrow. In the meantime, I've decided[READ MORE] ...
Day 6: A very chilly morning, about freezing at 9 am so I delayed another hour, chatted with Stéphanie, the BnB owner, enjoyed her French accent and drank more coffee. For the most part, today's weather was as anticipated, overcast sunrise to sunset. Yet, it never rained, a fact for which I'm grateful and will continue to be grateful for even when the sunshine is filtered by cloud cover. Cool temperatures, in the absence of rain, are excellent for cycling once the body warms-up.
  I was surprised to cover nearly 20 miles in the first hour on the road, which put me in France before noon despite my very late departure [READ MORE] ...
Day 7: I'm starting to forget how many days have passed since I left Hamburg. How about seven? And what a day it was. By the time I finished yesterday in Metz, France, I was already many kilometers off my planned route. I had freelanced my way from Belgium and about 1/3rd of the way across northeastern France towards Germany and the Alps. Today I continued, without a GPS trackline to guide me, to the Rhine and the French-German border. My average pace was a little better than 15 mph, including stops. Along the way, I covered 108 miles (172 km) not counting the few miles from the grocery store to Eric and Julie's AirBnB close to the city center of Strasbourg, France, a city of exceptional antiquity [READ MORE] ...
Day 8: The EuroVelo 15, aka, Rhine Cycle Route, follows the Rhine from its source in the Swiss Alps to its end at the Nordsee in the Netherlands. As the number fifteen implies, there are other EuroVelo routes: as of October 2016, fifteen are either completed, like the Rhine Cycle Route, or in some stage of development, such as the EuroVelo 9. When the EuroVelo 9 is completed, cyclists will be able to ride from the East Sea in Poland all the way to the Adriatic in Italy; a distance of 1,930 kilometers (1,199  miles) all on a well-marked cycling route. The list of EuroVelo routes on this web page is truly enviable fodder for any contemplative cyclist. If you're addicted to your bike(s), then I advise that you check it out right away and start making your own plans to explore a portion of the over 70,000 kilometers (43,495 miles) of signed cycling routes. Put that in your dirty bike sock and eat it! [READ MORE] ...
Day 9: Each day unfolds as it wishes, and this morning was no exception. The day unfolded slowly starting with four Illy Espresso's made in the kitchen a few meters from my room, for which I paid 41$. My slow pace was motivated by the cold, likely the coldest morning so far, just 2.8 C (37 F) at 9 am; by the weather forecast, windy and overcast with rain possible throughout the day; and the stage of the trip, 1,333 kilometers (833 miles) in my legs since leaving Hamburg [READ MORE] ...
Day 10: A long day as I followed the Rhine on the German (east) side, 129.9 miles (208 km) with a modest 1039 feet of climbing. That's my longest ride out of ten days, as far as I can recall, since leaving Hamburg. Despite the few ups, the distance combined with cool, wet, overcast weather was enough to wear me down by the time I arrived to my intended destination for the day, Offenburg, Germany.
     Offenburg is directly east of Strasbourg, where I stayed in France at the conclusion of day seven, on [READ MORE] ...
Day 11: Last night I laid my head onto the pillow at about 9:45 pm, was asleep by 9:50, and woke at 4:30 feeling rested. It seems I needed some rest after yesterday's three cul-de-sacs and more, including just under 130 miles on the saddle. I rolled-out of Offenburg, "a city with about 57,000 inhabitants", at about nine o'clock, roughly two hours after I exited the misery frame. Right away, within a kilometer, freelancing led to two flights of stairs; I was happy to climb [READ MORE] ...
Day 12: Trains were always part of what I considered possible during this trip, especially a long or short train ride back to Hamburg if my body decided it was finished. I'm feeling better than anticipated on the bike, despite many long days, and fatigue between rides has also been less than anticipated. This likely means no bail-out by train. But bail-outs aside, I have considered, before my departure from Hamburg and during my tour, other possibilities involving trains.
  One scenario in particular became more and more attractive as I diverged, grandiosely, from my original itinerary on day six, a decision motivated by the allure of auto-free bike trails, a random encounter outside of Metz (France) with a 70-something cyclist named "eh-mo" [READ MORE] ...
Day 13: Given that day twelve of my autumn tour didn't conclude until five ante meridiem on day thirteen, I experienced, literally, one very long 48-hour day. And that's about how I felt, too, when I awoke and prepared to start day thirteen at 9:30 this morning. But if that's the price I'll have to pay each time I visit David, Jana, and Vašek at "the cottage", as David calls he and Jana's wonderful home above the Elbe in Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, then I'll do so willingly and with great haste! The food, company, and conversation were the very best. And the view the next morning, despite low clouds, was exceptional [READ MORE] ...
Day 14: After sleeping through breakfast and subsequently receiving forgiveness for the second time in 24-hours from Wolfgang, the patient BnB owner, my day settled-into its usual routine, albeit a bit late, though not nearly as late as yesterday. Breakfast with all the coffee I could drink, four cups this morning, maybe more. My companions for the morning meal, a lovely German couple touring the local and regional history, were patient listeners as I rambled on and on, from one topic to the next. A lone traveler does become a bit of a liability at times.
     Caffeine withstanding, I started the fourteenth day of the tour, in the 2,016th year of a widely anticipated but nonetheless absent lord, with a casual, exploratory, spin through the historic town of Torgau [READ MORE] ...
Day 15: As I rolled along the river in Magdeburg this morning on the Elbe bike-way, I was treated to fall colors, sunshine, and an impressive, towering back-drop, above the trees. The back-drop comprised architecture from bygone days including what the German's refer to as Magdeburger Dom. In English, the church is known officially as the Cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice. Construction began in 1209 and concluded a mere 300 years later! It's the oldest Gothic-style church in Deutschland. A church with an exceptional history withstanding, the scene from the left bank of the Elbe [READ MORE] ...
Day 16: At about 10 am, following a few last minute work commitments, I departed my German winter residence at 77 Bismarckstraße in Eimsbüttel Quarter, Hamburg, on a journey that concluded today, at the same location, 16 days later. A journey indeed, an adventure for my mind, body, and soul. Nourishment that I anticipate will have many beneficial effects including a slowing of time.
     I hardly know where to begin now that I'm on a familiar couch, in a familiar living room, the sounds outside of children playing at a local school and the many birds above the canal, all familiar too. But I am here, now, so begin I must, and in a moment, anew. Sometimes it helps to start with the simplest tasks, so I've taken a hot shower, clipped my nails, and eaten, somewhat ravenously, locally made falafel. But not too much because Clarissa and I will have a nice dinner together this evening! At home, with tea and laughter for desert. I think our coming back together will be the best so far, and we've already had some wonderful reunions [READ MORE] ...