Bike Ramble - Cycle Adventures on Planet Earth
I stayed in a forest near Brandenburg last night. I think it was the most horrible night I’ve had so far. As I was pitching my tent I noticed a few mosquitoes about and I was like bummer, so I put on some repellent stuff and carried on. Then there was more so I put…
I cycled through Magdeburg yesterday. It was quite nice and a pretty big city. Didn’t really feel like looking around though so I left pretty quickly. Last night I thought I found a really good campsite but turned out it was full of bee hives. So I stayed at a legal ‘camp site’ for a…
Today I left Hanover and Owen, who has been cycling with me since Rotterdam. Sad times. Hopefully we will meet again in Berlin or Vienna! I took the canal path most of the way to Braunschweig. I forgot to go shopping so dinner was half a pot of pasta and 2 bits of bread. I…
I’ve spent the last three days watching the German Bikepolo Championships and drinking beer. I think I’m actually going to break a record for the first person to cycle around Europe and come back fatter than when they left. If you’ve not heard of bike polo before it’s basically like horse polo but everyone’s on…
If rickshaw drivers in Glasgow dressed like they do in Hannover, they’d be dead.
We went on a bit of sight seeing tour today. Visited the town hall which has some great views. There’s a lift inside that takes you up to the main viewing gallery that actually goes round a corner on it’s way up. The floor is sloped when you get in and then becomes level as…
Its been raining for 2 days straight now it’s so annoying. I have waterproof panniers but still my stuff inside gets soaked from opening and taking stuff out. My overshoes have been put in the bin. For the record don’t buy Altura overshoes. They say they are waterproof but my feet beg to differ. I…
Kicked about Munster today and went to the market. We can’t get enough of the cakes here! We stayed in the hostel SleepStation last night which gave us more time to see around the city. The botanic gardens was cool. There was over 8000 species of plant there. The sun even came out for a…
This is the first day of rain since I left. It sucks. We crossed the border into Germany today though! We were looking for a place to camp when a woman stopped in her car and asked us if we were looking for a place to stay. She offered us a place on her lawn…
I cycled past this today. It’s the weirdest bug I’ve ever seen
We went into the city centre today. Man it was so busy. I guess I always thought Amsterdam would be a chilled out place but it’s like a street party or something here. I think with it being Saturday and the weather being nice probably made it a bit more chaotic. It’s pretty easy to…
We arrived in Amsterdam tonight. Cycled around 60km or so in the blazing sunshine. We were greeted by a dude hanging out the first floor window – Nat, who has kindly let us stay here in his student appartment for a few days. It’s nice not sleeping in a tent!
Cycled just south of Leiden last night. Found a little deserted car park with a little wooded area just off a back road and pitched our tent.Cooked dinner and just about to eat when this police car came round the corner into the car park where we were sitting. They both came up to us…
Popped by the Peace Palace this morning, it’s the most photographed building in The Hague, so I thought I would join in. The guided tours weren’t running which is a shame cause I kinda wanted to see inside. We went to see the Panorama Mesdag instead. This guy, William Mesdag, painted 360 degrees around, 14…
Cycled from our luxurious campsite to Den Haag (The Hague) today. Probably only took an hour to get to the hostel, Yorplace. Nice wee place though. It’s like a surfer dude place, where people walk around in sandals and talk really slow. It took me a while to move from the free massage chairs. After some…
Visited the small town of Delft today, about 10-15km South-East from the centre of The Hague. It’s a lovely looking place, and some of the buildings were spectacular. Canals criss cross the city, lined with narrow cobbled roads and little back lanes. Like everywhere in Holland, bikes dominate. We really struggled to find somewhere to camp tonight.…
DEAF, or the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival was great. There was so much going on there it would be impossible to write it all down. The exhibition hall, where most of the volunteers worked wasn’t busy today so we had time to look round all the exhibits for free. There was one which I found…
Wild camping in The Netherlands is illegal (90 Euro fine). So you do need to pick your spots. I can only afford to stay in hostels some of the time and couch surfing only goes so far so inevitably, I need to camp at some point. I do feel bad about dodging the ‘tourist tax’ (do…
Well a job of sorts. Owen took me to where he had been volunteering today – The Dutch Electronic Arts Feastival, or DEAF – as it turns out they were looking for more staff. So they put me on the till and information point, which is funny because I don’t speak the language. Not only…