Day 17 Purtz - Prato allo Stelvio

Sunshine... yeeehaaa!.  

carried on up the Reschen pass into some much bigger mountains.  Got slightly lost after Pfunds and ended up on a mountain bike track which petered out. After doubling back a mile or so we worked out that we had to cross the river into Switzerland and take the road to Martina. Although this is marked on the map as a main road it is actually really quiet and great to cycle on.  The scenery got better and better although somehow I haven't managed to get many decent photos. At Martina we turned left, back in to Austria and up the main climb of the day following the hairpins up to Nauders. All the way up we were accompanied by dozens of Motorbikes and the occasional Aston Martin.  The road never seemed too busy but it was a pretty stiff climb with gradients generally ranging between 7 & 10 % occasionally a bit steeper.

By Nauders we were starving so had a large lunch in the sun, unfortunately we weren't quite at the top of the pass yet and the legs started to struggle a bit after lunch, however we were soon at the top and over into Italy

At the top of the pass the cycle track undulated along the side of a couple of lakes which put a bit more pressure on legs which thought they had done enough for today.  The descent down the other side was fantastic, the cycle track was like a tarmac toboggan run all the way down through a whole series of small villages.  brilliant!!

Today's miles 50

Total miles 939

Today's ascent 3734 feet

Close encounters with snakes - 1

Day 16 Lermoos to Prutz

Today started off dry but cold, we had a mile or so of fairly flat country and then started up the Fernpass. The main road was very busy but the cycle path, the Via Claudia Augusta ( or Via Cloudier Augusta as we know it) is almost all off road over this pass.  The climb was steep but steady on good forest roads.

And the view over the other side at the top was amazing with the road twisting away hundreds of feet below us.

By this time the rain had come on so it was on with all the waterproofs again and off for some proper downhill mountain biking. Initially it was fast forest track, although we couldn't afford to pick up too much speed with a full load on.  Then it was into some proper single track with rocks, wet roots , cows and horses to negotiate!

Even with a full load it was still all rideable, although I wouldn't have liked to have been going in the other direction.  I was also glad that my back tyre had packed in yesterday as it would certainly never have survived today.  

We stopped at Nassereith for coffee and apple strudel, it was really cold at this point (about 9 degrees and chucking it down) so we had to put some more layers on.  A short uphill section soon warmed us up so we carried on through Imst (tricky navigation again), Landeck and on part way up the Reschen Pass to Purtz.  Despite it raining all day we've really enjoyed it, it would have been much nicer to have had better views, but it was a really good route and we felt really good on the hills.

We've now used up the second of our three spare days, we had originally hoped to do a bonus loop of the Stelvio Pass if we had been on time and the weather had been good, since neither of those have happened it looks like we'll need to give it a miss (this time!)

Today's miles 45

Total miles 888

Today's ascent 2765 feet

horses passed at very close range - too many!!!!

Day 15 Schwangau - Lermoos

'Much better day today.  Fairly leisurely breakfast at the campsite then on to have a look at Nueschwanstein castle, but decided not to stop as it was already really busy and my back wheel was so shoogly that it was almost unrideable.  So off into Fussen where we found a really helpful bike shop beside the station who soon sorted me out with a new tyre.  Fussen and the surrounding area looks well worth another visit to spend some more time there.

But onwards into Austria, today's climb was fairly steady apart from a really steep bit of off road section just after Reutte, not only couldn't we cycle it, but we had to resort to teamwork to push one bike at a time up between us.  This was when we really felt the weight of a 35kg bike!

After that the going got easier with breathtaking views along the way. We stopped off at the Tyrolean ski resort of Lermoos for the night.  Stopping I plenty of time to carefully check out the good variety of restaurants available and eventually decide on the worst one. (At least I hope it was the worst!)

 

We have now evacuated to cafe Sam for a decent pudding of chocolate cake and a small refreshment.

Tomorrow we'll head on over the Fernpass and see how far we get towards Italy. 

Today's miles 34

Total miles 843

Today's climbing 1965 feet 

Day14 Landsberg - Schwangau

We had a bit of a tough day today. Although we have only reached the edge of the alps tonight, today's route was very up and down resulting in us doing over 3000 feet of climbing, some of it pretty steep.  Someone must have snuck into our tent last night and filled Sandra's legs with lead, she was really tired from the start but insisted in struggling on to our planned destination at Schwangau.  The countryside was much more interesting today with lots of wee alpine farming villages unfortunately the rain came on heavily in the afternoon and that combined with our tiredness took the shine off it a bit.

We did see the alps from a distance but by the time we got to the places where the views should have been spectacular the clouds had closed in

However by the time we reached our campsite the rain had gone off, we've been really jammy so far in that we've managed to pitch our tent and pack up every day so far in the dry.  The campsite is excellent with good drying facilities and an excellent restaurant which even served proper vegetables...the first for weeks!

All day my back wheel has felt like a 50p piece, on inspection it looks like my back tyre is stuffed, I think a brake pad must have been just rubbing against it.

Tomorrow's plan (weather dependant) is to have a look at Neuschwanstein Castle, then into Fussen to find a new tyre then onwards into Austria.  

miles today 49

Total miles 809

Ascent today 3068 feet

Day 13 Oberndorf - Landsberg am Lech

Another cold day, about 12 degrees, but dry all day.  Fairly unexciting cycle today along the plain of the    river Lech.  A lot of the route was on dirt roads and forest tracks which made it a bit slower going.

We passed through a lot of fairly nondescript towns, stopping for Lunch at Augsburg ( twinned with Inverness), had the usual hassle finding our way out of a big town.  Landsberg was very picturesque

Apart from that we've nothing much to report so here's a picture of the coo scratcher from yesterday ( a bit of farmyard porn might increase ratings !)

Hopefully we'll get sight of the alps tomorrow.

Today's miles 60

Total miles 760

Day 12 Dinkelsbhul - Oberndorf

The weather was a lot colder this morning, about 14 degrees, fortunately the wind was behind most of the way.  Another day of undulating farmland and quite a few forest tracks with short sharp climbs in them. Not particularly exciting countryside, the highlight of the morning was a farm with an electric back scratcher for cows! ( Douglas would be impressed ).  lunch at Nordlingen and the weather brightened up a bit until we got to Harburg where the heavens opened and the temperature dropped even more.

At Donauworth we had coffee and cake to warm up and a bit of debate as to whether to stay at the campsite at Donauworth near the town, or carry on another 5 miles to Oberndorf, the risk with that was that we didn't know if there would be any where there to eat. We took our chances and carried on ending up in a good wee campsite with a cosy bar, dinner was available at the nearby football club. Scored!

Today's miles 57

Total miles 700

Day 11 Rotthenburg - Dinkelsbhul

Sho....! ( they seem to say that a lot round here), as it is Sandra's birthday we decided to have a day off. So after a leisurely breakfast in Rothenburg we just did 41 miles and 2400 feet of climbing and stopped after lunch at Dinkelsbhul, yet another fantastic medieval town where you expect to see Hans Christian Anderson strolling round the corner at any moment.

Today was yet another change of scenery, for the first time in about 500 miles we weren't following a river, instead it was rolling farmland and forests, very much like Moray or Aberdeenshire,  we also spent most of today on quiet back roads and a few forest tracks.  It was good to have some changing terrain rather than just flat all the time.  Our legs seemed to cope well with the hills but we know this is just the warm up for the bigger stuff to come in a few days time.

 

At Feuchtwangen we stopped for a coffee, and as there was a bike shop there we got a fresh supply of oil for our chains.  Also, since all the way along the Rhine and Main cycle routes we've been regularly tinged at by Roadies passing us, or tutted at by other tourers and electric bikers for passing them without tinging, we bought bells.  Needless to say we haven't seen another bike since.

Since we started we have been constantly been running about half a day behind schedule, mainly due to it taking longer to get off the Ferry than expected and taking ages to get through Amsterdam.  With today's "rest day" we have now cashed in one of our 3 spare days and can now try to keep to our original rough itinerary, although now a day behind. Time to look at the maps!

Today's miles 41

Total miles 643

Day 10 Reicholzhein - Rothenburg

Change of scenery again today as we left the Main and followed the much smaller river Tauber up through Tauber-bichofseim, had lunch at Weikersheim and had a wander round the palace gardens

Today's route had the most hills to date, not only was it generally up hill, but the path was pretty undulating.  If my bike computer is correct we had a total 2342 feet of ascent today. 

We ended up at Rothenburg which is a fantastic old town on top of the hill above the river

The cycle paths have been amazing, that's 600 miles so far, virtually all on way marked cycle tracks.  Despite our various diversions they are really pretty easy to follow. The only problem is if you miss any of the signs, it can then be a bit tricky to find the route again. 

Today's miles 64

Total miles 602

Day 9 Kahl am Main - Reicholzhein

Onwards up the River Main to Aschaffenburg, fairly flat agricultural land passing through lots of fields of wheat and Maize.  Stopped at Aschaffenburg (20 miles) for breakfast and to buy a new phone!  Carried on into a bit of a headwind to Miltenburg for lunch (sausages again!)

After this the valley got narrower and steeper again, the Main although much smaller than the Rhine is still navigable by the big barges and cruise ships, although they need to use a series of huge lock gates to get up stream.

At Wertheim we turned off the Main and headed south again stopping off at Reicholzhein.  Tomorrow we head off towards the "Romantic Road". So far we've only gone up 2 hills so we're a bit nervous of how the legs will cope when asked to do some climbing. 

Miles today 74

Miles total 538

Sausages eaten - dozens!

Day 7 Lahnstein - Hattenheim

As suspected we had to double back to get on to the correct side of the river, but on the way we stopped off for breakfast in the local bakery.  As we came out the heavens opened with a torrential thunder storm with hailstones the size of peas, so back to the bakery for another coffee

8 miles later we were back level with our campsite but on the right side of the river.  The Rhine is really picturesque along this section, steep sided valleys with vineyards all up the sides, castles at almost every bend in the river. And red kites soaring overhead. 

Just  before Bad Salzig it suddenly became dark and we just made it to an underpass before the next thunderstorm.  This one went on for ages so we eventually just got the waterproofs on and went for it. 

By the time we had lunch at Sankt Goer the sun was back out and the temperature was getting up to about 28. 

Beer stop at Bingen, after which we got the ferry across the river again with only about another 9 miles to our campsite.  From this point on the Rhine widens out a lot and we could see the signs of the recent flooding on the bushes, parts of the cycle path were also flooded with stinky stagnant water.  Initially it was only a few inches deep so we could keep our feet dry, then it came up over our pedals, then I fell off! 

Not only did I get totally soaked, ( and smelly) but my wallet, passport and, more importantly, phone all got soaked.  I am now clean, Sandra has almost stopped laughing, but the phone still seems to be dead. Blog updates might be a bit more sporadic from now on.

The campsite we are in was under about 5 feet of water a couple of weeks ago and obviously some of the regulars are taking no chances

Miles today - 53.5

Miles total - 399

Unintentional swims - 1

Day 8 Hattenheim - Kahl am Main

We had a spectacular thunderstorm overnight with high winds, torrential rain and lots of lightning.  This was probably the first really bad weather we've had in our tent, fortunately it stood up well and seemed totally bombproof against the elements.

The weather had cleared up by morning although there was a fair bit of tree damage along the cycle path

At Mainz we left the Rhine, we had a choice between following the major cycle path along the River Main through Frankfurt, or cutting across country to Aschaffenbach.  Given our record so far with navigation we took the former route which turned out to be very straightforward with a good tailwind most of the way resulting in us ending up in Frankfurt (39 miles) by lunchtime.

We had a good wander round the city centre which had a really nice atmosphere and had to find a map shop to give us clues for a campsite for tonight.

We eventually ended up in a pretty smart campsite overlooking the lake at Kahl am Main

miles today 65

Miles total 464

Disasters today - none ( although phone still dead! )

Day 6 Bonn to Lahnstein

After checking that the next campsite was open and accepted tents we had an excellent buffet breakfast in hotel. No problem getting out of Bonn just followed the West Bank of the river most of the day. The landscape has changed quite suddenly, now instead if power stations and factories there are hills and castles lining the river although the cycle route itself is still very flat.

Coffee stop at Remegen very picturesque. 

Onwards and lunch at Andernacht. By this time it was getting a bit warm 37 degrees C.  That didn't seem too bad until we converted it to fahrenheit , 98 degrees is bloody hot!! Carried on through Koblenz stoping for ice cream. 

Camping site at Lahnstein was at the top of our second hill of the holiday (a proper one this time!) which had us gasping for beer by the time we checked in.  We knew that there was an outdoor swimming pool next to the site, but due to the hot weather the queue was about a mile long so we just made do with the showers.  Overall a pretty straightforward day with most of the miles in the right direction. Unfortunately it looks like we'll need to double back about 3 miles tomorrow to get back on the right side of the river. Give us another few weeks and we'll have this sussed.

Today's mile - 50

Total miles- 345

Day 5 Kaiserswerth - Bonn

Excellent start to the day, ferry all to ourselves over to the east bank of the Rhine. Negotiated Dusseldorf without incident whilst picking up breakfast there.  Followed the dykes virtually all the way to lunch passing varied farm land and some fairly industrial plant nurseries. Cycle paths are still better tan many of our B roads

Had lunch at Zons, a really nice wee fortified town.

After lunch things got a bit tougher, the temperature got up to 37 degrees, which wasn't too bad as we got a breeze while cycling.  We navigated through Cologne pretty easily too,

However the campsite we were aiming for at Langel (about 54 miles) was closed (there's a theme developing here!) so we carried on to Bonn where the German cyclist next to us this morning had said there was another campsite.  Needless to say there was none to be found! Ended up searching round the centre of Bonn for a hotel, which we eventually found.  We are now showered and fed and feeling a bit chirpier  (though fairly knackered ), we're going to have to check ahead for accommodation from now on.

The bikes are locked up in the beer cellar so I can't check the exact mileage, but best guess is

Miles today - 74

Miles total - 295

Hills total - 1 it's still as flat as a pancake although it's starting to look a bit lumpier ahead

Day 4 Neidermormter- Kaiserswerth

  Set off from Neidermormter nice cycle tracks and country roads to Xanten for morning coffee. Really nice looking town. Site of an old roman town looks like it is worth another visit. On over our first hill according to the map! Didn't really count! On to Orsoy for lunch good lunch despite not knowing what we were ordering (must learn the lingo) then ferry across the river, mistake. 

Very industrial arrived in Duisburg city spent an hour trying to find our way back out the other side ended up doubling back on ourselves to get back on the West Bank. For all you bike tourers stay on the West Bank,Duisburg seemed pretty grotty and not worth the hassle. The last 20 miles were pretty straight forward despite some help from a recumbent cyclist who didn't know his North from his South!  We eventually arrived at a great campsite, right on the riverbank, with wine in the fridge and complimentary plastic chairs. Luxury!

Miles today - 72

Miles total - 221

Hills total - 1 ( a wee pimple!)

We're both pretty chuffed with the number of miles we're covering, if we could only link them up in the right direction we'd be laughing!

Day 3 Soest - Neidermormter

Decided follow some of these today, that improved the navigation greatly ( although still dodgy in places)

Had breakfast in the centre of Amersfoort where they were setting up tables in the Square for a celebration breakfast to mark the 10th anniversary of some hotel, however we were wanting to press on today so we didn't hang about.

We had lunch in Arnhem then carried on up the Rhine and ended up in a campsite just south of Niedermormter. There wasn't much in Niedermormter and most of that seemed to be shut.  After pitching the tent we set off in search of some food.  We had seen a sign for a cafe about 1km away but it was shut, as was the ferry across to the larger town of Rees. Things weren't looking good!

We decided to have another look in Niedermormter and soon found the pub, it was shut too.  Things were definitely not looking good!

Fortunately we then heard some Euro-pop belting out from the local fire station and soon discovered the were having some sort of gala day (we never really found out what was going on), and after working out the complicated beer voucher system we managed to get ourselves sausage & chips with curry sauce and a few beers.  Sorted!

Miles today - 80

Miles total - 148

Hills so far - none

Day 2 Ijmuiden-Soest

Got off the ferry in pouring rain and gales. Never mind, on with full waterproofs and off we set.  Fortunately a German Motorcyclist soon suggested we'd be better off riding on the right hand side of the road!

The first 15 or so miles into Amsterdam were pretty straightforward if a bit boring, through the ports and industrial estates.  Had lunch in the centre of Amsterdam by which time the sun had come out.  After lunch the route was far more interesting although we were definitely navigationally challenged.  First of all trying to navigate through the centre of Amsterdam was a nightmare. Then we (I) decided to change from our planned route, unfortunately this took us off the photocopied sections of map I had taken, after a quick trip to a map shop in Hilversum we ended up at the campsite at Soest, only to find it closed!  Fortunately the elderly owners were just returning home as we were about to head off in search of somewhere else and decided to open the place up for us. Result! 

Miles travelled today - 52

Miles total - 68

Number of times we stopped to check directions - thoosan's!

We're Off!

ŶBeautiful sunny morning to cycle through to Aviemore, still nervous about getting the second unbooked bike onto the train. This wasn't helped by the station attendant saying that the East Coast Guards can be a bit funny about bikes packaged as luggage. Sure enough the guard was particularly arsy but eventually agreed to take it. Phew!

No more hassle on the way to Newcastle, managed to avoid most of the stag & hen parties on the train and a good cycle path from the train to the ferry (which had a top notch buffet.)
Miles cycled today - 16
Calories consumed - thoosans!

Three Days to Go!!

Severe flooding throughout central and Eastern Europe suggests that we could get a bit damp going through Germany, riverside campsites could be slightly soggy!  The link below relates to areas further east than our proposed route, but I suspect the Rhine will also be pretty high.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2339619/Floods-Europe-Burst-dyke-leaves-entire-German-town-submerged-aerial-shots-reveal-devastation-recent-heavy-rain.html

Hopefully water levels will have gone down by the time we get there otherwise we'll need to stick to the high ground 

(Alternatively we could get a couple of these)