On a day where Russia has blown the Kachovka dam on the Dniepr river – a war crime visible from space – it seems somewhat flip to be posting pictures of our peregrination around Germany, as of yesterday exactly half way through our planned 12 weeks on the road. But life goes on, as do … Read more …
Long-distance tandeming and blogging as we go is a strange old experience. There are two continuing conversations. One is for real and delightfully constant with Her Stoker Ladyship on the back (Stoker is what serious tandem riders call the rear partner). Tandeming is after all a VERY sociable thing to do (though they do say … Read more …
Today’s brief (as in, words) post needs just to capture two magical days in Berlin with old friends and Daisy’s rear inner tubing systems, with four (FOUR!) massive, monumentally explosive blowouts thanks to a stretched outer tyre, wrong and misrouted rim tape (my bad), and sheer wear and tear after nearly 2500 km. Photos will … Read more …
With thanks to Szymon, our wonderful host (with partner Kamila) in Szczecin, Poland, for the above shot of Daisy’s 80-kg (or so) road train in focused forward mode, we start our sixth week on the road with 310 km pedalled over the last three days (50 of those without battery!), well over 2000km in total … Read more …
We’re on the train back to Szczecin from two nights in Gdansk, so herewith some musings on cycling Poland, Russia/Cold War memories (40+ years since we were both last here) and Putin/Ukraine (I think this is crunch time for Russia). There are as usual pictures at the bottom of this post (with captions hopefully explaining … Read more …
We’ve realised that Gdansk/Danzig is going to be a bit of a stretch, so today, just into Poland along the Baltic coast (see maps below), we’ve turned south towards Szczecin, where we’ll park Daisy and do a two-day train trip to and back from the city that gave birth in 1980 to Solidarity and ultimately … Read more …
Experimenting with a quick post from just beyond Greifswald, after a fabulous two day 200km+ run around Germany’s premier holiday island of Rügen (accommodation already in v short supply) and with Jutta fast asleep mid-afternoon on the bench opposite. Portfolio of pix to illustrate, though difficult to capture the staggering around in the mid-night dark … Read more …
Very slow internet in Stralsund, so here’s a very brief update with a phew photos (or should it be few fotos – German is so much more consistent) of two days riding north from Lubeck then east, seriously into the Baltic and old Germany. Yes, taking advantage of our new Deutschlandtickets on DB German railways, … Read more …
It was very good to pause in Hamburg, to see the city writ both large/real and small/model in Wunderland, to cruise the container port and to hear the fabulous Tallis Scholars live in the stunning, overwhelming, brilliant Elbe Philharmonic. Let the following, however, just be an excuse for some hopefully inspiring photographs, with our impresive … Read more …
With just short of three weeks tandeming behind us on our 12-week jaunt through Northern Europe, we’re settling into a pretty solid routine of about 70km a day, regardless it seems of how early we start or how far we intend to travel – feeling a bit guilty about the electrics, but it really does … Read more …