Day 6: Heming, France to Freiburg, Germany

Photos: Luke at the end of the day preparing for a days climbing as only he knows how; Us at the German border aka the Rhine. (no sign, bit disappointing); Me in Strasbourg, looking a bit sunburnt after a few hours or mid day sun; Luke cycling along the Marne-Rhine canal, a truely wonderful invention; the Ship Lift we were planning on bumming a ride up, disaapointing to find ourselves already at the bottom and going downhill; Our first view of serious mountains in the morning on thursday )we avoided them!)
üp






Our longest day so far, did 105 miles, at least 10 of which we're in pitch black after we again misjudged how many miles we could do in the evening session.

We started out with some trepidation expecting plentv of hills as we passed from the River Marne vallev over to the Rhine and the border, but a short stop in the tourist information in Sarrebourg and it transpired there was a canal that took us all the way to Strasbourg. Excellent cycling and a fair bit of much needed shade as it was again totally scorching weather. Still managed to top up our sunburn tho.

Stopped in Strasbourg to let the day cool down and took the opportunity to book a room in hotel in Freiburg in anticipation of the toughest day yet climbing into the German alps to reach the source of the Danube in Donaueschingen. Our first night not in the tent and very much needed if only from a hygiene point of view.

45 miles to get to Freiburg seemed doable after we left at 5pm but for the fiorst time on the trip i let Luke navigate because he had a city centre map of Strasbourg and he duly got us totally lost (the satnav having lost all will do live a day or two ago after we neglected to feed it electrcity). We hit the Rhone-Rhine canal for 20 miles, and planned to cross the border at Rhinau, but got accosted by a delightful French chap on a carbon road bike called Arnaud who decided it was his dity to show us across the border along the offical EU cycle path, which involved 11miles of gravel track on an island in the middle of the river. I didnt have the energy or the french to tell him we'd prefer to do it our own way.

So very much behind schedule we cycled onn into the evening/dusk/dark until we hit the hotel.

Getting kicked out of the library, bit more to follow, plus we have lots of badly taken photos that ill tag on.

From Donaueschingen, Germany
Phil

photos:

Day 5: Troyon to Heming

Photos from the trip, finally:
Just checking the camera works, Luke in the internet cafe, and me outside eating as usual. The stupid thing on my head is the solar charger. It doesnt work verz well despite the effort i went to positioning it for maximum sumlight!



Quarter to 5 in Nancy, France and it's still fricking hot. We got toasted by the sun on the road up here so have holed up in an internet cafe to wait for it to cool down. We've got a 55 mile slog to the campsite I've booked for tonight so not too much time for reflexion.

France has been really cool. There was a day and a half crappy cycling as we got away from the coast, fairly flat and featureless but a slight tailwind pushed us along. The food is exceptional whereever you go, I still have three or four pain o chocolats from this mornings pattiserie waiting to eat in the bag. And i have to say the people are all really pleasent (although hardly anyone speaks much English). Cyclists are defintely treated with more respect than in the UK, and Ive had a few funny conversations with people asking us where we're going. Cant wait for the day when people are much more surprised that we've come from England rather than that we're going to Romania.

We set ourselves a target of the big alpine ascent into the top of the Danube for Friday (just checked the forecast, heavy rain), so its been a bit of a push through France. The iphone battery conked out and the satnav is on its last legs, just about being kept alive by my solar charger (note to manufacturer: much room for improvement). We've slept rough in any place we could find that was hidden from the road, which while it has its merits, is doing nothing for our state of clenliness, so tonights campsite and the prospect of a warm shower is very much looked forward to. I bought a camera just now so hopefully some photos will start to appear, my brilliant plan to blog and take photos with the iphone didnt count on a dead battery and no power points, so good old fashioned internet cafes and digital camera photos itll have to be.

Tomorrow night we'll be crossing the Germany border (hopefully), and then we'll book into a hotel in preparation for the toughest climb either of us has ever done...

From Nancy, France
Phil

Luke: trip so far

Only post number two and it has been a few days now. This hasn't been from lack of effort on our part, mainly lack of facilities from which to post our adventures.

To start with I'm having a bit of struggle with this french keyboard. Why do some keys have to be changed round? This is my excuse for any spelling mistakes rather than my poor english/typing.

Anyway, back to the adventures of Luke and Phil: straight off the ferry and we had our first race. To be slightly more accurate a bunch of french school children tried to race us but nevertheless we still turned it on and won. The fact the oldest of them was about 12 and they were all riding BMXs did take a bit of shine off the victory but the score still stands. Race One = Victory. Total: Luke/Phil 1, Europe Nil.

The rest of the first day was pretty uneventful. Had a bit of a struggle finding a spot to pitch our tent due the complete lack of hedgrows, trees etc to hide our illicit camping. In the end we plumped for a bunch of trees up a side road north of Arras. Now these trees were surrounded by barbed wire and there was a bunch of big red signs stuck on them but our french to english translation decided it said "Welcome".

2nd day was more of the same. We thought that everything was shut the day before due it being Sunday but it appears that some french shops just decide if and when they want to open. This has meant we have had to take provisioning slightly more seriously. Therefore second night we actually made an effort to get food and get the gas stove out for it's first outing. I cooked up a pasta/frankfurter/tomatoe sauce extravaganza which Phil said was "the best I've ever tasted".

As we have progressed the scenery has definitely got more interesting however this has also resulted in more hills. Navigation efforts are now squarely on keeping to river valleys when at all possible especially due to the increasing temperature.

At some point in this space of time we had our second race (I am determined to call it that). Cycling past houses with dogs, as expected, brings them to their front fench barking to "protect" their territory. When this is a slightly bigger dog, the phrase "I hope that can't get out of there" normally springs to mind. Smaller dogs normally bring a smile. Except in this case. When cycling along a quiet country lane a rather rabid looking ball of fluff came yapping out at us. Phil, as is his way, barked back at it which caused it to dive through the fence and chase us up the road. We actually had to put on a fair bit of speed to outrun the thing. A french schoolkid on a BMX would have been toast. Anway, Race Two = Another victory. Total: Luke/Phil 2, Europe Nil.

Anyway must go. Having been hiding indoors from the sun in Nancy. Now have to actually go and get on with it this afternoon.

Day 1: London to Dover

Two historic landmarks were reached today.
1. First day of epic London to Bucharest bike ride done and dusted.
2. First ever attempt at a blog entry by Luke A Ibbotson Esq.
I will be completely honest and say that I am posting this under
slight duress. I have been refused entry to the tent until I have
posted something about today's little jaunt. This also comes after
Phil after has made himself perfectly warm and comfortable in his
sleeping bag.
So as I sit on the cold, hard earth contemplating what to write, I
find myself somewhat unenthused.

Day 1: London to Dover photos

Technology

Maybe technological advances have passed me by these last few years
but I have to take a moment to acknowledge how truly amazing that is.
Let's just hope wifi is common in Europe or i'm going to have a hell
if a phone bill when I get back. So alarm is set for 6.30, kit is
currently strewn everywhere but I'm very much of the opinion it'll be
easier in the morning. This is the last night in bed for 21 days, also
the last time i'll be able to sleep more than 6 inches away from luke
(practicality of carrying won the battle over luxury when it came to
buying a tent. Cost being on the side of practicality also helped!).

In 9 hours time we'll be underway on our way to the other side of the
continent with nothing but our legs lungs and hearts to drive us
there. An exhilerating prospect, I can't wait.

From London SE3, Phil

Ps a photo of our tent and gear from our training trip, hope this works!

IPhone test

Pretty much all packed and ready to go. As expected have far more
stuff than I thought and am still deliberating whether two large books
is a luxury too far. Just want to test the iPhone blog updated thing.
I'm writing an email in my phone and hopefully just by pressing send
it will get updated on the website. Fingers crossed...

Welcome

Listen,
This is a blog by Phil and Luke (probably mostly written by Phil) about their time on the road cycling from London to Romania.
I'm not sure why I started in the past tense seeing as I'm sat in a comfortable office in central London the evening before we're about to set off, maybe I'm planning on looking back at this one day, who knows? Suffice it to say I've never written a blog before, in fact I'm not much of a writer at all, but I do have a little bit of experience cycling and I'm hoping enough time on my hands to put some words down about the things we see and expereience in 3 weeks in the saddle travelling thorugh Europe. I hope you enjoy it, and even if it transpires that only my mum bothers reading it, im sure it will go down well and I'll be glad to have made the effort. (Hello mum)

I'm not sure how we've ended up with a route that encompasses 7 countries and over 2000 miles, just a desire to see new places and to push ourselves I suppose. We did Lands End to John O'Groats in April last year along with 5 other mates and caught the cycling bug. A year preparing, worrying, planning With the UK ticked off a Europe trip seemed like a natural challenege and step up and the River Danube, making its way East through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary made perfect sense. The only question was how far to go. Sadly without the freedom that (f)unemployment would give we are limited by how much time we have for the trip. Therefore some of the more elaborate destinations, Athens, Istanbul etc that I would have liked to consider were immediately ruled out, so we booked two flights from Bucharest in 3 weeks time and set about making a route.

To be honest I have no idea what the next 3 weeks will bring. I hope to put a load of photos and thoughts from the road up here. Apologies if we go a few days without any updates, but rest assured we'll either be cycling or sleeping. Most likely therell be detailed descriptions and photos for 4 days of Dover and Calais followed by weeks of silence! I hope you enjoy the ride, theres a long way to go but I know itll be worth it.

From London NW1, Phil