Bike Ramble - Cycle Adventures on Planet Earth
Once I got my head around the fact that I frequently spend a grand on a sandwich and you say ‘hello’ for ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ (it’s confusing), I’ve realised I’ve pretty much spent everyday here drinking. It’s definitely a party city. I was glad to meet up again with Jason and Tom here, who I…
Today I finally awoke from my slumber to explore the city – after a couple of nights drinking in the many cheap bars (1euro for a pint!), clubbing on a fake beach next to the Danube (they also have a club in a nuclear bunker – at least if there’s nuclear war the Slovak’s have…
After some windy cycling South from Brno, I was glad to be in Vienna. This is a city of class and quality. The buildings are a showcase of architecture from Baroque, neo-Gothic to modern glass skyscrapers. Every street is pristine. The food is good and the people are friendly. I even got a guided tour…
I had the pleasure of taking some really nice cycle tracks yesterday around the wine region of the Czech Republic (thanks for the tip Petr!). The government has sponsored the development of the region and has installed over 1000km of cycle tracks. They aren’t really direct routes to anywhere, it’s more of a scenic thing.…
I really like this city. It’s like an uncomplicated version of Prague. Easy to get around and easy to see the sights. The people are, like most of Czech, quite friendly. It rained nearly all day I was out but I think it tells you something if a place is still beautiful in the rain.…
My last day in Prague. Last night I went out for dinner and had roast bunny rabbit in sauce – it was awesome. It cost around £7 and was the most expensive thing on the menu. After I went to see a jazz band play in the ‘Jazz Club’ and they were good but the…
I went on my first guided tour yesterday and it went very well. It was called a free tour but you still have to give a tip. It was great though, was really worth it and the guide took me places I would never think of looking. This is the first city I’ve been to…
The last three days I cycled about 65 miles a day from Wroclaw to Prague. I never actually left for the Czech Republic on Tuesday because there was thunderstorms aaalll day so it would have been pointless to try and leave. But on Wednesday the weather cleared a bit and I set off South towards…
Been in the Claw for 6 days now. I really like it here. I’ve been super lazy in Poland, I’ve sat about waaay more days than I’ve cycled. It becomes so much harder to cycle with all the bags and stuff if you stop for too long. Especially when your diet is 50% beer. So…
Wroclaw doesn’t sound anything like it’s spelt. It’s actually pronounced ‘Frot-swav’ but I’m just going to call it THE CLAW it’s easier. It’s much busier than Poznan and a little more modern. The city is covered in pubs, restaurants and spectacular churches. You’ll have no difficulty in finding a cheap place to stay either with…
It’s been a great few days here in Poznan. The hostel I’m staying at, Blooms, is one of the nicest hostels I’ve been in. The staff are friendly, the rooms are really clean and its only £6.50 a night including breakfast. I met two guys from Finland here on Sunday so I have been busy…
I’ve been quite busy here in Berlin: Visiting museums, checking out the malls, seeing all the sights. It’s a pretty cool city. For some reason there’s graffiti absolutely everywhere you look. There’s a good subway and train and tram system for getting around but it’s also pretty easy on a bike. The roads are not…
Arrived in Berlin today. I got to Yohann’s flat and he’s like lets go climbing! So I find myself climbing an abandoned WW2 bunker a couple of hours later. It’s not the kind of staffed ‘we are safe’ climbing wall, it’s more of a turn up with a bit of rope and see what happens…
Potsdam is a nice little town just South West of Berlin. I met up with Clara and Tino yesterday who have kindly let me stay in their flat and today we had a look around the Sanssouci Park. It translates from French as ‘without concerns’ or ‘carefree’ and it’s a well chilled out place. It’s…
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…
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…
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…
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…