Trowbridge - Bad Hersfeld

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Hi there everyone, sorry for lack of recent updates, we have been enjoying ourselves too much to be bothered to find and use a computer! Also sorry for no pictures on this blog yet as the internet cafe we are using is not geared up for such things and the only other one in town will not let us!!

Trowbridge - Dover

We left my brothers in Trowbridge after a weekend of fine food and beer (and some DIY - both on our bikes and my bro´s new house!) along the canal and then south across Salisbury plain, being careful to stay on thre main roads as all side tracks, including rights of way, have inviting signs such as "warning - beware of shells and mortar fire". Possibly good training for further on our trip but we decided not to risk it. When they are not busy bombing the place and driving their tanks everywhere the British MOD (Ministry of Death/Destruction) seem to farm the place pretty intensively so finding camping site was not so easy, until we came across some National Trust land near Stonehenge, although this did mean camping by some 4,500 year old barrows (burial mounds) although no visits from tom bombadil in the night! Stonehenge - what can you say about this awesome monument - no-one really knows how old it is, why it was built or what it was used for, who built it or how it was built, yet English Heritage will apparently explain all of this to you for the price of GBP 5.50. We opted to view it for free from outside the 6 foot security fence as the entrance fee still does not alow you to approach or touch the stones - aparently because of "recent bad weather" although this sign is always up and there had been no bad weather recently. I had hoped that by loitering around til after 6pm when the visitor centre closed that we might be able to jump over but no, ther is a 3-4 strong contigent of security guards who actually stand in the middle of the stones all night!! Maybe EH are worried that someone will steal them?
Anyway, from here we went down towards Salisbury and Old Sarum and then via Winchester to Sussex where we found a beautiful campsite on top of the South Downs, before continuing on to Burgess Hill and our grandmothers the following day. After spending some more time relaxing here (enjoying more fine food and beer!) and re-learning how to play card games we set off for Dover and the ferry to France. Erika estimated it to be 70 miles at the most to Dover so having cycled 72 and still being well short of Folkstone we had to find a campsite for the night on Romney Marsh as there were no free camping options available. The next day dawned bright and sunny and we set off for Dover, approaching it via the cycle route along the North Downs way along the top of the white cliffs. The fast ferry/sea cat was indeed fast and comfortable and the cheapest option but at GBP15 each for a sinlge was a bit of a rip off as a car and 5 passengers can go for GBP22!

Calais - Köln (Cologne)

After finding our way into and then out of the centre of Calais suprisingly easily we were again forced to use a campsite as this part of northern France is flat and intensively farmed. Having been told the showers were free we were a bit pissed off at then being charged a euro each for them - these must be the most expensive showers in Europe! The giant rats that ran around the place after dark were apparently include din the price however.... This experience, coupled with the numerous Front Nacional posters covering the area encouraged us to make a quick exit from France and so the next day we took the shortest and fastest route to Belgium. Sorry France - maybe we have judged you harshly after only after 23 hours there but all shops were closed when we needed them, your campsites are crap and your fascist party enjoys too much support for my liking. That said the centre of Calais was surprisingly nice except for the ghetto of refugees/immigrants sleeping rough around the central harbour.

Belgium was altogether nicer, although much hillier than France. Shops are open at lunchtime, there are woods to camp in and lots of cycle lanes, at least in the dutch/flemish speaking part. Belgium is a divided country with an internal border between the Nederlanders (dutch speaking) and Walloons (French speaking). Our route from west to east skirted back and forth across this border, but mostly on the dutch side as they have more cycle lanes here! Roadsigns on the dutch side are mostly, but not always, bilingual; on the French side they are only in french which vcaused some confusion at first as the town we were cycling towards kept changing names! You can tell when you have reached the border because the nice, off the sdie of the road cyclepath on the dutch side just stops and you have to rejoin traffic on the French side. What else to say about Belgium - very nice beer and at much nicer prices than in the UK, lots of war graves, especially in the west around Flanders - very poignant. We skirted to the south of Brussels (spelt Brussel in dutch and Bruxelles in french, so why we mix the two in English?) through a nice forest park, and then headed east again towards Maastricht and the Netherlands border. Belgium has suitably spaced woods for camping in (ie. about a days cycle apart!) but they are infested with ticks, midges and mosquitos! The weather was at least kind as it was hot and sunny everyday and rained all night! Erika was happy as we had the Belgain national dish of chips/fries with loads of mayo for lunch one day. We also visited the town of Hoegaarden. One other curious thing about Belgium is their idea of road maintenance - instead of repairing potholes etc. they just put up a sign "! Weg in Slechte Staat" (you can guess the translation...). This horrified Erika who had nightmares about section 56 notices that night. Everyone we met in Belgium thought that cycling there was hard because of all the hills....!

After 4 days of hard pedalling we reached the dutch border and the city of Maastricht where we stopped for a bit of a rest, to buy new maps and enjoy the dutch cafe culture. Our lunch here was also the national dish of herring from a street stall. We then headed east again through the dutch highlands (yes thats right!) where camped for the night on top of a wooded hill with nice views over rolling countryside. Alright so the hills are tiny and frankly wouldnt even qualify as a hill at home, but it was still nice to see compared to the flat lands of holland further north.

The next day we crossed into Germany and the city of Aachen where we stopped for our first German bakery as Erika is of the opinion that German bread is the best in the world. It is hard to disagree so far... As we had agreed to meet an old schoolfriend of Erika´s that night we pushed hard east all day through flat boring farmland and then into and right through the middle of Köln, stopping to enjoy the Dom and the views down the Rhein. They also have a cool peace protest in the main square dedicated to the Palestianian struggle known as the Köln Wailing Wall with messages on cardboard from all over the world in many different languages. We then continued on to Bergisch Gladbach to meet Janna and stay with her family for a few nights. We were made extremely welcome by both Janna and her parents who made sure we were very well fed and always had a full glass of hungarian wine! The second day we were there was a local religous holiday and also a heatwave so we went back into Köln for a barbecue in the park with most of the rest of the köln population! Much Kölsch beer was drunk in the sun and I learned all about Kölsch culture from Janna´s friends, even learning some phrases and songs in Kölsch dialect but after so many beers I cannot now remember any!..Sadly we had to say goodbye to Janna the next day and head east again.

Köln - Bad Hersfeld

Leaving Köln/Bergisch Gladbach in a heatwave with a massive hangover was not so good, and the apearance of the first proper hills since northen England did not help much either. As the temperature got higher over the next few days our mileage totals got lower but at least we manged to find nice campsites by lakes each night so we could enjoy a cooling swim at the end of the day. German hills are very nice though, with lots of shady forest when you most need it and with roads graded so that each climb is slow and gradual rather than a steep, straight-up onslaught. We have gone back to camping in the woods - woke this morning to find fresh diggings and tracks of wild boar not far from our tent! We passed througb Marburg on the way which was a very scenic, old town on a steep hill. Fortunately they have built a lift into the hill so we could leave our bikes at the bottom before going up to enjoy the views and ice-creams. We are now very close to the old East German border and probably halfway across the country, so now we have to decide our route from here towards Prague and the Czech Republic. Erika had to buy a new inner tube today after destroying one yesteday whilst trying to pump a bit more air into it, thus making a 10 second job into a 20 minute tube replacement! We have also learned why tyre levers come in threes - I had never understood why they sold three when you only need two, but seemingly the third is for girls!


All being well the next update will be from Prague, where we also hope to be able to add some photos to this blog.

Tschüs!

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Photos

The Dom in Koln/Cologne
After 50 odd miles of seeing the spires in the distance finally we arrive...

Freinds Re-united
Erika and Janna outside the Schloss in Bensberg, Bergish Gladbach

Dinner in a Belgian Wood
Enjoying our food along with the rain, mosquitos and ticks in the woods of Belgium!

German Bakery
The best bakeries in the world according to Erika...