Amsterdam!

I've made it to Amsterdam! And forgotten to do a blog post for a while (sorry!)

So after the last post, I got up early on Thursday to start catching my trains, someone had taken my bike space when I got on but luckily a German man going on a bike tour managed to talk to the conductor and sort it all out for me. I left Bremen at 7:45, got 5 desperate trains, and arrived in the Netherlands in Utrecht at about 2pm.

The UK definitely has a lot to learn about trains, and bike paths in cities from Germany and the Netherlands.

I spent some of Thursday wondering around Utrecht, it's an amazing city so beautiful.

I walked around most of the city up and down the canal, there's loads of cafes and second hand shops all along it. Then I went to a nice salad rice bowl type place for dinner, my body is craving a normal diet.

Thursday night I ended up talking to two people from Denmark who were on a week long cycling holiday who were staying at the hostel. That was really nice, and I can talk for hours about cycling and camping at this point, so we ended up staying fairly late.

On Friday I got up pretty late and went off to rent a kayak for the day, I was out for about 3 and a half hours, it was pretty tricky since it's the most I've used my arms in about 2 months.

I don't know how well you can tell from these photos, but I had to go under a couple of “low bridges” which actually meant about 2 feet of space. You had to get as far into the kayak as possible then lie as flat as you could, then use your hands to pull your way through the tunnel.

I saw loads of fancy houses all along the water, with private docks and everything.

Then on Saturday I cycled out to Amsterdam, I'm on a campsite about 15-20 minutes cycle from the centre so it's a bit quieter than a hostel and a lot cheaper. I spent Saturday at the campsite because it was rainy and cold and I didn't get here till about 3, then Sunday I went in and walked about 20km along canals just looking around. I tried to find somewhere showing the world cup final and the best place was an Irish pub with a load of Americans in it. I was rooting for the Netherlands though obviously.

It's Monday now and I've been having a nice day at the campsite, it's been raining on and off all day, there's clouds everywhere and some wind. So I didn't really fancy a bike ride or to go into Amsterdam really. I'm on the move so often it's nice to just do nothing for a day sometimes. I still have one whole day here tomorrow, and then on Wednesday I'll cycle down to Rotterdam, stay there for 2 nights and then get the night ferry back to Hull! It's not long now only about 4 more days left.

last day in Germany

The day after my last post I spent in Hamburg, mainly in the shade or indoors trying to stay cool. It got up to 32 degrees but in a city with all the buildings and cars it was probably closer to 35. Still, it was a nice day to relax, and in the evening when it cooled down I went out to get a hamburger in Hamburg, and it was amazing!

On Monday I set off again, it was back down to 20ish degrees so not bad, I went up the Elbe about 45km. It took me about 20km just to get out of Hamburg and onto the river though. It turns out most of the route was through sheep farms! Atleast it was paved though so it wasn't all bad.

Although some of the paving was a bit dodgy.

It was super windy all the way along the river, but it kept me cool and made the ride a bit longer. Most of the river that a 5 meter dyke the whole way along it, I guess it's a big flood risk along there, I was on the land side of it so a little bit out of the wind although I couldn't see the river half the time.

I got to the campsite on Monday and went to the local town, there was a dock with some boats and some food trucks, I don't think I'd fancy going out on a boat with how choppy the water was from the wind though.

I cycled back to Hamburg the next morning (the route is all changing now and made last minute) which meant I had the wind at my back so I was really enjoying it!

I got a coach to Bremen from Hamburg on Tuesday, I got here at about 6pm and checked into the hostel. Today I've been looking around a lot, turns out it's the 200th anniversary of one of the Grimm fairy tale books so there was music in the streets all day. They had the Bremen Philharmonic playing in the square from windows in sorounding buildings and the conductor was on a cherry picker so they could see him!!

I saw a flamenco trio which was really good and then a chamber music quartet after. I even had a Schnitzel for lunch! When in Germany...

Bremen seems pretty nice, not tonnes of touristy stuff in the centre I don't think it's as big as the other places I've been recently.

I've got a train at 7:44 tomorrow and then 3 changes (3!) To get to Utrecht where I'm staying for 2 nights. Then I'm on to Amsterdam where I'll hopefully be camping near the centre. Looks like I'm on track to being home around the 12th still.

29-06-19

Hamburg heat

I did end up getting a flix bus to Hamburg! It was about 2.5 hours and it was so nice to just sit back and relax, I ended up getting to Hamburg around 3 and my hostel around 4. It's pretty nice, a bit far from the centre but it's surrounded by cafes and restaurants.

I slept 10.5 hours just straight through last night I think the heat and constant travelling make me super tired. And I'm ill with something, don't know if it was something I ate or if I have a bug or what.

Today was good though! I went down to the docks and went through a commuter tunnel under the Elbe river, it was built in 1911 and is still being used. And the best part? It was nice and cool.

I have ended up getting caught in the heatwave, it was about 29 degrees today, so pretty warm. I spent a lot of the time just wandering around, I went up the St.Nikolai church tower. The rest of the church got bombed in the war and they never rebuilt it, but now the top of the spire is a viewpoint around the city.

There was also a museum about the bombing in the old church crypt (again nice and cool), it was a pretty horrifying account of what actually happened here. The allies basically firebombed the entire city, but it was a good museum with a good message.

I don't know how easily you'll be able to read this.

I'm back at the hostel now before I go out for some food, I need to try and book a room for tomorrow night aswell because it's getting up to 31 degrees so there's no way I'm cycling in that! So I should be in Hamburg another day to relax in a park in the shade or something.

I went shopping for some shorts today since mine keep falling down, I ended up getting a size 30 pair, the ones I took with me are 34. So I thinks it's safe to say I've lost a bit of weight whilst I've been away, just got to hope I can keep it off when I get back.

Germany!

Well I've made it to Germany. It was a 45 minute ferry over from Denmark which was a nice little afternoon break. I've been battling the wind a lot the last few days, I think I've cycled past atleast 300+ wind turbines, full sized ones. And I'm normally going against the wind, or have a massive cross wind. I've had some massive bridges to go over which were pretty windy, one (in Denmark was about 3.5km.

I only managed to do 50km or so after the ferry which was a bit less than I wanted to do, but with the wind and road conditions (you 100% couldn't get a road bike on the route I took yesterday) I was a bit slower.

Atleast it had a nice view

I've found that camping is more expensive here, I don't know if it's true for most of Germany or just where I am but it cost €22.50, and all 10+ of the nearby campsites charged the same.

I've been sleeping about 9-10 hours most days and feeling exhausted a lot of the time, I think my rubbish diet of just trying to keep my calorie count up has caught up with me. The heat, wind and having the end in sight aren't helping with the weariness.

I ended yesterday still 110km away from Hamburg which there's no way I was doing in one day in these conditions, and I can't really afford to be spending more money on expensive campsites. So today I'm getting a Flixbus to Hamburg! Then I stay in Hamburg for 2 nights before moving on. I think it should take me about 2 days to get to Bremen and then I need to make a choice. If I want to cycle the 300km left of Germany or maybe skip some of it to get to the Netherlands earlier and spend more time there.

I'll have a good few days and hostel wifi to make my decision but at the moment I'm thinking I might just skip some parts, which would mean I'll be home sometime within 2 or so weeks!

Bloomin hot

I spent the last 2 days exploring around Copenhagen, I cycled quite a bit of it just looking around. I went to the botanical gardens and they had an entire section dedicated to all the plants needed for beer, and even for flavouring it.

I went out for some drinks and to see some music in Christiania on Sunday night which was really fun, it was still warm out at 10 so you could sit out on the dock drinking a beer.

On Monday I went for a long walk around the old city battlements and then found a nice park to lie in a read, I needed a good few hours to relax since I've been moving non stop for so long. I had a quiet evening and went to bed pretty early to be ready to head out cycling again today!

I was on a semi main road for the whole 70km today but it's not too bad, it is very straight and a bit boring though.

There's a bit of a bike lane and I've only got another 80km tomorrow then I'll stay in another campsite before getting the ferry to Germany on Thursday morning!

It's pretty warm out here it's half 6 and still 23 degrees, and it's only meant to get hotter from here, I think Amsterdam was about 34 degrees today.

I'll need to start getting up super early and finishing my ride by 3 or 4 to avoid some of the heat or something, or I'll end up melting in the saddle. Still, it's nice and there's some breeze to keep me a little cool.

I'll have spent about a weeks or so in Denmark by the time I leave and I've enjoyed it here. The flatness, cheap beer, and Copenhagen are the main reasons I think. It looks like I'll only be going about another 20 or so days (if I don't run out of money, or start getting some trains and busses when I get lazy (as usual)) before heading back to England. I'm looking forward to being home and having a proper bed, I'm looking forward to the rest of the trip aswell though!

Its been a while

Well I've been in Denmark for 5 days now, and it's also been 5 days since the last blog post (sorry about that). I've had a lot of full on days with no Wi-Fi where I just collapse in the tent, so here's an extended update.

I got here on Tuesday at half 7 in the morning, I didn't sleep great on the ferry, and got woken up at half 6 by an announcement by the captain (ask anyone I don't like getting woken up at the best of times). But I didn't mind once I started cycling, I heard from someone that Skagen is pretty nice and I should go there, it's the sticky out north point and about 50km the other direction that I was meant to be going but it sounded fun so I went anyway.

I was pretty excited to find out there's a bunch of nicely signposted routes in Denmark and one was going to Skagen so I hopped on it. It went through some forest and then along some nice beaches.

Turns out though that not all of the cycle paths are road or pavement, a lot of them have some pretty big gravel or dirt path sections, not great on a road bike when you're loaded down.

I got to Skagen on the Tuesday, it was a nice place, lots of cobble streets in the centre though but it had a really great view out to the sea.

I left Skagen after an hour or so break and started heading South on my route to Copenhagen. I found another bike route that went along the east coast, all the way to the ferry I needed. Like with the other route though this one had some dodgy paths.

I ended up cycling 112km on that Tuesday which I was pretty happy with, and ended up doing the last 10km in a thunderstorm right before getting to my campsite. I camped out okay, it had stopped by the time I put my tent up and slept.

On Wednesday I kept going and did about 90km, it was alright cycling but again it had a few dodgy bits of path and rained a few times. I ended up finding a little free campground for the night which was nice.

Thursday I went through a town pretty early and stopped for lunch, right as about 30+ norweigan men went past me on a bike tour! They were all atleast 50 or older but looked like they were having fun. I think I'm starting to get the hang of how to pack everything now aswell.

I only did about 70km on Thursday as I was pretty exhausted from the previous two days and had to cycle along bits like this.

But that night I found what I thought was a campsite, was kind of a campsite but kind of part of a scout groups land. They wanted about £3 for me to stay the night so I cycled into town to get some money. When I came back no one had any change so I could camp for free! I put my inner tent inside some huts they had so I was nice and sheltered for the night. I had to use my panniers bags as support to hold the tent up though.

Friday was a bit of a disaster, I woke up early to get to the ferry at Aarhus to take me to the next next section to Copenhagen. I made the ferry alright and got off fine, I started cycling and quickly got dumped onto some gravel roads again, which I was pretty fed up of by this point. Then I got a puncture. My first puncture in 5 weeks. It didnt help my dislike of gravel roads atall.

So I swapped out the inner tube for a spare to save some time and headed out, I headed back to the road to avoid the gravel paths and got about 20 minutes down the road when another puncture struck. On a brand new inner tube.

By this point I had no spare and was in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, so I asked some locals and found a bus to get to the nearest train station to get a train to the nearest city and therefore, bike shop. I got to Holbæk at about half 6 so all the bike shops were closed, and headed off in search of the campsite I'd seen online. It took me about an hour an a half to find because it was hidden in a bunch of trees, in the end i had to ask some locals where it was.

I was pretty grumpy at that point from having to cart around a bike and bags with a deflated wheel, luckily I'd got some cookies earlier and there was some outdoor party with live music at the school near by so that cheered me up a bit.

That brings us to today. I got up early and got to the bike shop at 10 as soon as it opened. I got a new inner tube and new tire (mine was bald and pretty broken) they even tightened up my brakes and gave it a mini service which was lovely.

Being grumpy the day before I'd decided to get the train to Copenhagen today, and even booked a hostel for 3 nights. The train was only about 45 minutes and 60km, and very full of bikes.

So I got to Copenhagen at about half 2, checked into the hostel and went exploring! It's a great city for cycling, lots of bike paths and routes and just a really lovely city in general loads of cafes and restaurants outside and tonnes to do and look at and see, I'm not sure 2 full days will be enough but I'll try.

I'll try and get back to the regular updates again, shouldn't be too difficult now I'm in a city with Wi-Fi and I'll attempt to be better when I leave on Tuesday.

Tuesday's ride

Wednesday's ride

Thursdays ride

Fridays ride

Goodbye Norway!

I spent the last two days in Bergen, just exploring and enjoying some sunshine and relaxing a bit. I got there on Saturday afternoon and looked around, it was about 24 degrees and incredibly busy. I stopped at pasty world for a bit of a taste of home, I got a dark chocolate sorbet (I think that's what it was (either way it was really good)). I got chatting to a Welsh woman who worked there and she gave me a free pasty even which was amazing!

I cycled up Salmon hill on Sunday early afternoon, it was the first time I'd been on my bike without the bags for 4 weeks, safe to say it was a bit wobbly. Then I went for a walk up Fløyen later on and had an amazing view over Bergen.

I met another English person and an American in the hostel that evening and ended up sitting around chatting with them for about 6 hours which was good. It was nice to have a proper talk to people and to enjoy some English humour for a bit. Then on Monday morning we all went for a coffee together, before I had to go off and get my ferry which I'm writing this from!

It's pretty good actually, I've got a cabin, with an ensuite with a shower and all. There's even a tv (only Norwegian tv though so not very helpful) I'm in the lounge listening to someone playing piano, I even got a beer earlier from the bar. It's pretty grey outside and was raining a lot as we left Bergen, but I've grown to expect it so much from Norway it wouldn't feel right to leave in sunshine.

Heres some stats for the whole time in Norway

I had a look at where I'm planning on cycling tomorrow and it's only about 60m elevation over 51km, when I've done 900m elevation over 40km in Norway. I think ill be in Copenhagen by the weekend coming then it's just whatever route I feel like taking, I'm looking forward to it!

Getting to Bergen

Salmon hill

4 week anniversary

I spent most of Wednesday on ferrys, about 3 or so hours so I didn't really get much time to ride. I had a nice long morning and afternoon to read and relax though which was good. I ended up wild camping that night by a river, it rained a lot the next morning so I couldn't leave the tent to start packing up until around 11, when I got attacked by 1000s of midges.

I had a bit of a rainy start that day, the cloud didn't go away and the sun didn't come out for the whole ride so I kept my rain gear on the whole time. I had another ferry around lunchtime and just as I got to the port it started raining, hard. It rained for the next 35-40km or so, all the way to the campsite. Luckily when I got there it stopped and then the sun came out and it was a lovely evening.

I left at about 12 today as I only had to do 43km, it was overcast again but it kept the temperature down which was nice. I was following the signposts to Bergen all of today so I didn't have to worry too much about navigating. There were about 4 massive bridges I had to cross, one of them bounced a bit too much, especially when a lorry went over, it kept bouncing for a good minute after.

I'm at a campsite now, and it's only 20km to Bergen tomorrow so I get most of Saturday, all of Sunday and then Monday morning to look around before the ferry. And the best part is 3 nights in actual beds!!

I left the UK 4 weeks ago today, it doesn't feel like I've been away that long, just from the amount I've been doing. It's the longest I've ever been out of the country (previous best was 3 weeks when I was 10). I probably won't be back in the UK for another 4 weeks atleast if not 5 or 6, which us a bit daunting but I'm looking forward to going through some more countries with some flatter land!

Thursday's ride

Today's ride

ferrys

Yesterday was pretty windy and rainy for most of the day so it made for some fairly horrible cycling. I was done by around 6 though and it brightened up quite a bit!

Today was absolutely boiling the whole day was easily over 20 degrees, it's still warm now at 9pm and there were loads of people playing in the water when I got to my campsite at 6.

I have to get the ferry to Hirtshals the coming Sunday or Monday for it to be affordable atall, and I want to spend a couple of days in Bergen before I go so I think I'm getting some more ferrys to cut down on the cycling time. It means I'll be in Denmark by next Tuesday at the latest however! I'm looking forward to everything being a bit cheaper.

I've been looking at maybe trying to go on a detour to Copenhagen or something and what route I'm going to take in mainland Europe. Either way I think I'll be in Amsterdam sometime around the 20th of July or so, but then that all depends on how much the plans change!

Yesterday's ride

Today's ride

lazy days and rain (again)

Spent a nice day yesterday wandering around Ålesund, there's a big hill you can climb to get a nice viewpoint that I went to around 12ish (I had a lazy morning).

Obligatory selfie, apparently people might not believe I'm out here if I don't take one!

I walked around the town a bit more exploring but there's not tonnes to do over here. I went out to the harbour wall and got a nice view of all the luxury yachts and the viewpoint I went to before.

I had to rush to the shops for my tea as they were all closing at 4 because it's a Saturday (they have weird shopping laws here). Luckily i found one open a bit later just in time. I actually cooked for once, it wasn't very fancy, only cheesy pasta but it was nice and warming. Then it started raining, and rained almost all night.

Today I woke up boiling again (the curse of tents) but didn't have much to do, as it's whitsunday so everything is closed even more than a normal Sunday. It's whit Monday tomorrow so a lot of things are still closed, but I should be on the road on my way to Bergen!

It's about 483km to Bergen from where I am right now but 46.3km of that I think is ferries. I'm not 100% sure as I'm kind of making the route up as I go, aswell as following a map.

I started looking at ferries to Denmark, weirdly it seems they're about the same price from Bergen and Stavanger (and it's expensive). They're overnight so you need to book a cabin annoyingly, and the price goes up a lot after the 20th of June when the school holidays start here. It's hard to do research on a phone with limited Wi-Fi especially when I don't expect to have much until Bergen. Hopefully I can figure out a plan but then.