http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/NickTheTrick/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from NickTheTrick en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:00:45 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:00:45 +0000 No I've not started another trip it's ok. Am still mired in a new job.I recently discovered that Travelblog is very good for getting pictures picked up by Google. So here goes the best pics I've got to offer. For any random people out there who surf on down these pictures please leave a nice comment and some money in the coffers if you want to buy anyPics vary from approx 5M7Mpixels. Sorry http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-336650.html Well the trip is now over. I'm back in Dundee and procastinating over preparations for a move to Edinburgh and the start of a new job on monday.My trip back home with coach train and plane was incredibly hitchfree. I woke up on time from my hostel in Kabelvag hard not to with my alarm set to Fight for Your Right to Party by Beastie Boys it gives me heart palpitations when it goes off. I didn http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-298121.html Photos from the previous blog are up.I've made it to my end destination... well I'm at the hostel tonight 5km from Svolvr where I neet to be at 9.30am tomorrow to catch my bus to Narvik.Lofoten has of course been amazing despite a cruel northerly wind. Full report to come here's some photos...Right here goesSo I eventually got to Lofoten from Bodo at 6am after the 1.45am ferry was delayed and d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Nord-Norge/Lofoten/blog-296585.html Well okay I'm not quite in Bod just yet. Got about 120km to go so I'll be there tonight. From there it's a 4 hour ferry to Moskenes in Lofoten and conveniently there are ferries leaving at midnight so I'll catch the overnighter except of course there is no night up here as I've already crossed the Arctic Circle and have my last two days cycling on Lofoten. I've already worked out that if I g http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Nord-Norge/Bodo/blog-295567.html I pushed on from Trollstigen via Andalsnes. There I got my wheel fixed 170 kroner and had the good or bad luck to notice a slow puncture at the shop. We found the culprit a little thorn stuck in the tyre. Lucky I guess that we had the wheel apart anyway but now I've lost my no puncture record. I think I made about 2000 miles puncturefree though must be some kind of recordThat night I pu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Trondelag/Trondheim/blog-292772.html Onto Geiranger and I had no idea from my map that I'd be making another snowbound climb up to just over 1000m from about 500m this time. The previous night I had a lovely campsite next to Pollfoss a huge gushing section of rapids in a nice fir tree forest my last midgefree night but more on that later...The road up and over to Geiranger was really spectacular with an amazing first view st http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Trondelag/Trondheim/blog-292763.html Jotunheimen is the national park that contains all of Norway's high mountains over 2400m and highway 5 runs right by to 1434m over 20km from sea level an obvious attraction for me on my panniered up bike.I was lucky. I started the climb late in the day queue 3rd spoke breakage so there was no way I was going to make the top. It wouldn't have been practical to camp up there in any case. After http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Trondelag/Trondheim/blog-292760.html I've arrived safe but roadweary in Trondheim. I'm going to have a rest day here tomorrow so I can watch the football final and then we'll see. I'm thinking about taking a train just a bit to catch up on a couple of lost days. In that way I can enjoy the end more rather than having to race to get there. I should say I have now got a flight booked back home from Stockholm to Edinburgh May http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Trondelag/Trondheim/blog-292759.html Yesterday disaster struck. I'd just descended off my first big pass 650m up to the snow line just in the freezing rain and wind no probs. I didn't even take a break going up. On the way down my hands got so numb I could barely brake but I got down to the comparatively flat lake at the bottom just a few km from Voss when I somehow managed to crash in most bizarre fashion.I remember a car coming http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Vestlandet/Flam/blog-289989.html I arrived in Bergen last night after 2 and half days of cycling from Stavanger in a huge downpour. The final 10km or so into the city was all downhill and more like riding down a river. A kindly norwegian helped me to the central hostel as she saw me struggling with my map that was fast turning into liquid and straight into a warm shower I made some friends in the hostel and ventured out later to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Vestlandet/Bergen/blog-289202.html I'm just back from Preikestolen. This is Norway's number 1 tourist draw. An amazing bit of rock that sticks out above the Lysefjorden just over an hour cycle plus 20 mins on a ferry from Stavanger. Yesterday after a lazy morning and the first rain whilst cycling since Germany I waited it out in a bus shelter which there are loads of I hoicked myself up the 300m climb to the end of the road http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Vestlandet/Stavanger/blog-287997.html I made it to Stavanger The cycling in Norway has been tough to say the very least Looking at the map I figured that the south would be the easy part seeing as the terrain wasn't even barely hitting the first contour at 300m. Well it turns out that the south of Norway is a huge mass of 299m mountains and I yoyoed my way for 4 hard days to Stavanger when the direct motorway route is only 250km.T http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Vestlandet/Stavanger/blog-287984.html A big hello from Norway after 3 weeks I finally reached what was to be the start of my cycle tripI just caught two ferries in the last 3 days. One from Gothenburg Sweden to Denmark and the other from Denmark to Kristiansand Norway. But just in case you were thinking that's a bit of a cheat seeing as I'm supposed to be cycling all the way well I took in a couple of detours one to the very t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/S-rlandet/Kristiansand/blog-285731.html I will say now I wish I were Swedish It's that simple. Okay my judgement may be misguided by the amazing weather I've had all the way up from Copenhagen. Blue sky and 25 degrees all the way with a little chill breeze which makes it bareable cycling but also probably has fooled me into getting an even worse roasting by the sun. But this coastline and the water is one of the nicest stretches I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Vastra-Gotaland/Gothenburg/blog-284656.html I've now just arrived Gothenburg having spent 3 lovely sundrenched days cycling up here. That'll be in my next blog entry to come...Ok so back to Copenhagen. Well my first day there in fact I ended up going to visit my friend Alexandra a Swedish girl I knew from Oxford. She's now studying well kind of so it seems in Lund the Swedish version of Oxford. I got the train across and had a nice da http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-283358.html I've finally made it to Copenhagen After 11.5 days of cycling and 2.5 rest days and I calculate 908 miles since Gent with all but the last day directly into a force 4 siberian wind.Well the last 3 days have seen me arrive into Denmark via the PuttgardenRdbyhavn ferry and then onwards with a detour to the beautiful island of Mn crossing Lolland and Falster on the way before hitting Zealand a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-282555.html Photos from the previous blog are now up tooWell I've now arrived in Lubeck a beautiful city indeed thanks lonely planet on a warm and sunny and yes windy day The wind if anything is getting stronger and today I had a gentle 30 miler in the morning to get here. Actually most of the way was a very nice ride following the route of an old railway line through gently undulating countryside http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Schleswig-Holstein/L-beck/blog-281137.html Photos now upWell today is my birthday and what a way to spend it battling more Siberian winds across northern germany. There have been some ups and downs including my first breakage on the bike and the first rain of the trip but finally I've made it for a late lunch which I'll skip as i've had so many minisnacks on the way to a place called Gluckstadt just the other side of the magnificen http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/blog-280755.html Well after 5 days of full on cycling battling against a headwind all the way I've finally made it to Groningen Hardly my destination but given the ardour getting here and kind of intermediary success. In fact I assumed that Groningen would somehow be close to Denmark but on inspecting a map I've discovered to my horror that what is to follow across Germany to get to the ferry port for Denmar http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/Province-of-Groningen/Groningen/blog-279411.html Hello everyone This blog entry sees me well if a little sunburnt sore kneeed aching shouldered and weak fingered in a town in northern Holland called Alkmaar. It's a beautiful place full of ice cream eating locals and tourists alike lots of canals running around a lovely red light district one street which I just walked down to get to the internet cafe I saw the funniest thing one of th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Alkmaar/blog-278665.html