Rome to Aarhus by bike

There might as well be dust on my screen when I see the browser flick into this blog. I've been postponing this moment for ages. Well, to be precise (and here I cite the website I quickly googled to calculate the figures about to presented - http://www.easysurf.cc/ndate2.htm), it has been exactly 266 days, or exactly 38 weeks. Which is nice I guess because it is a round number and round numbers are hip.

At this moment I am wondering how many blogs exist which at some point feature their author moaning about their laziness to post which turn days into weeks, weeks into many weeks, then weeks into years. And whether if each one of them was represented by a cubic meter box, if we could stack them up to go to titan, the largest moon of Saturn. By the way, if you enjoy ted talks then after your leisurly read go here to watch this video.watch the video below. It is also very hip.

I'm guessing moaning is a common way to restart once you've had writer's block, or really just a gradual accumulation of events which turned the backwards reciting process so cumbersome that I let it snowball. Well, in those 266 days (also known as sexy 38) a lot has happened and a lot has changed.

Shortly after my last post, in the month of July, I flew to Rome with Sally (my bike), guitar and gear and met up with Meng. We did the whole touristy thing in Rome then Dave joined us about 2 days later. This was the start of my third euro-velo trip... I wish I had my maps with me but for reasons that will become clear later refer to here for a rough trace of the route we took.

Rome to Aarhus by bike

Italy

We totally underestimated the ride from Rome to Florence. In fact, we had planned to take it easy in Italy so we could spend more time in its wonderful cities and generally just go easy on ourselves before the swiss alpine marathons. What was meant to be a breezy 3 day ride to Florence, turned out to be a sizzling hot struggle into off-road hills and sketchy sleeping in abandoned houses with bats flying over our heads. On the second day we were already off our bikes pushing them up these ridiculous hills we came across. I think we only got around Viterbo when we decided to take a train up. Bad start.

When I show my friends photos from the trip they laugh because most of the travelling pictures from Italy and Switzerland we're on a train. Which in itself was a mission because we had to constantly hop on and off regional trains with fully loaded bikes! But still, we got enough time to see Florence, Venice and Padova where the 'cesca and her lovely friends hosted us for a few nights.

To be fair most of the train rides were planned, since we had to get up to Davos, we did a bit of Alpine cycling near the border with Italy and Switzerland. But to get up to Davos, we had to take a train. It was the best train ride of my life (from Tirano to Davos). The ride goes up the mountains, around bridges that snake up and into tunnels, then over the top of forest canopies where you can see the glaciers further ahead. The ride is incredible and I instantly feel in love with the place. I've never been much of a mountain boy, having grown up in a smoggy city and only gone skiing once as a kid (when I left copious traces of diarrhea and vomiting on the snow and was run over by a snowboarder), the whole experience was fairly new to me. I mean these were real mountains!

Switzerland, Germany, France and Luxemburg

We arrived in Davos a day before Jerome, our 4th member to join for the marathon runs. We had underestimated the fact that there was little to no accomodation in Davos since the town was overrun by ubber fit ladies and gents from all around the region and some world. Anyway, we ended up going up to the forest and camping there for the night near a weather laboratory. I had a tin can ready to make a hobo stove because our gas canister was running extremely low. Luckily this wasn't necessary, would've been very hard to find dry wood as well because it had been raining. Once Jerome arrives he extremely kindly offered us to crash in his hotel room, just in time to go running the following day. Dave and Jerome ran the 78km (GEE-ZUS!) with a total ascent and descent of over 2000m I think, just so crazy I still can't believe they made it. Meng and I, in quite shocking contrast, "only" did the half-marathon of 11km with about 600m ascent and descent. I ran with the Portuguese flag strapped around my kneck and hanging back like a superman cape which was quite amusing joke around with when running through the crowds of cheering locals, "HUP HUP HUP" they went.

Dave was incapable of walking later at night, and the next day he had to go catch a flight to Croatia, which marked the end of his trip. I think in total he only rode his bike for 2 days. I can't wait for the next time when we gather again to laugh about this!

So after the marathon day Meng and I hit off on our bikes. We cycled 2 days down a long valley which took us all the way to Zurich where we stayed with a friend of Dave's and he took us rock climbing (my first) and other shenanigans. After Zurich our next friend stop was in Brussels. To get there we cycled non-stop to Basel, then up along the French-German border (french side) to Strasbourg, where we met a sweet anarchist couple from Leipzig who we busked with. Oh yea I haven't mentioned that this whole time I was carrying a guitar on the back of my bike, although it already had a small hole in it, ouch! After Strasbourg we had a cheeky coffee with Chris and Jess who were passing by then went up to Luxemburg and then through to Belgium...

Manneken Pis (Belgium) and the Netherlands

When we finally reached Brussels we were greeted by the wonderful Weisserth family and Fried who treated us like their own. There was wonderful food, beer, chocolate, fries, bbq, music, sightseeing, risky risk and YAHTZEE! We really had a great time there! :) At the end of those few days it was Meng's turn to say goodbye, and my turn to follow suit in my solo ride up to Denmark. Within 2 days I was already in Holland and for the first time I experienced what so many people had said to be the land of the cyclist. And it was true. Although those constant traffic lights were a bit annoying and there was a lack of lush greenery, it was still very easy to be cycling there. It didn't take me long to get to Amsterdam where Meng had decided to catch a train to. So we met there along with his friend Steve and Ron, a fellow cyclist who I met on the ferry to the northern part of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was a pretty magical place. There is a certain vibe in that city which I find it hard to describe. The unexpected is expected, and particularly one incident created ripples in the fabric of time/destiny whatever you want to call it. Ron and I had became good friends in those few days and he had decided to join me up towards Germany for a leg of my trip. I was really excited to have someone to cycle with, even if the prospect was just for a few days. But on our last night in Amsterdam, everything changed. We were out in a main square, having just joined a small group of spanish people, i laid my bike first against a post nearby and Ron followed next to mine. Moments later we were sat on the beach talking and the next thing we know his bike had disappeared. Ron's reality shifted, and in that moment I lost my cycling partner. I stayed with Ron for another day while he got some time to reorganize his plan for the rest of his trip, that last night we snuck into the university compound and slept out of sight under a clouded sky, in the middle of the city. At dawn we parted ways and I pushed onwards towards Germany.

I am a Hamburger

The way to Hamburg went pretty smoothly, I had some incredible hospitality from a turk in Germany, despite virtually not speaking a word of english. I guess I must be incredible at German. MEIN STUHL IST KAPUT! The fella worked in a chicken factory and his shift started at 4am, so I had to start before dawn. Problem was it started raining, I was tired, and had no idea where I was. And thus I slept for the first time in a bus stop. I rode for moments in the rain, pitch black, then when I saw the sheltered bus stop I figured that was a much better place to be in. And so it was! I didn't sleep for long, the sun was up soon after that. And a few days later I was already in Hamburg. But the idea of the bus stop stuck...

In Hamburg Tim and his family took great care of me, we went out partying and I had time to recharge my batteries. The day I left their house it was pouring it down with rain, I still rode into town to have breakfast with Louise who I hadn't seen in a while, she offered me to stay so I could escape the rain but I wasn't too intimidated by the rain. Plus I was excited about my last leg of the trip, up to Denmark! Mistake 1...

Hej Denmark!

I had no idea that what followed was a stretch of nearly 5 days with non-stop rain. Sometimes lighter, sometimes heavy. It felt like an eternity of rain. All my clothes were wet, my tent was wet, the humidity in the air made the salt in my condiments box stick and my sleeping bag was wet. And by this point I had traveled a considerable amount of latitude north, so the hot boiling days of Rome were well gone. Instead the wind was starting to pick up and I was beginning to debate whether the flip-flops were still a good idea. I had to be careful with my footing because my feet kept slipping, and it was starting to get cold. To make matters worst I lost my compass and I no longer had any bearings except for a very low resolution map of Germany. I began to make extensive use of the bus stops for shelter at night. Surprising how nice some of them were in this part of the world, and it was certainly better then having to pitch up my tent in the rain.

I remember when the sun first broke out after that long period of rain. I had just eaten an early dinner, in preparation for surrendering the day. The rain had stopped but the clouds were still up. I was riding along a quiet country rode when up ahead I saw the ray of light. I was so excited I began racing after it, when I reached it I stopped and looked up. And I let the rays hit my face. I think I even lol'ed I was so happy. I took my jacket out and let the sun hit my skin, hoping it would dry me off. That night I slept in a forest and the rain had finally stopped.

By the time I reached the border with Denmark my throat was starting to get itchy. There was a lot of "oh no..." in my head. Despite hitting the landmark of my last border crossing. I still had about 500km from Flensburg to Aarhus. By the afternoon I was already rolling in the hills of Southern Denmark. I say rolling, it was more dreading my life! North is the most infrequent wind direction in Denmark. That northernly wind was the last thing I needed! I had to cover my throat with a scarf to minimize the wind chill but still the air going in my mouth affected my throat. Also having a scarf around my neck didn't help the sweating! It didn't take long for me to call food break on an unsuspecting bus stop (oh yes again the bus stop!) with a nice glass wall between the wind and I. To top it off it the sun was out so in the windshield it was actually quite a nice place to sit and eat. I took the chance to unashamedly hang my wet clothes and underwear along the bus stop rails to dry. Much to the surprise of local passerby's. When I was ready to go I got up, moved my bike and ops, puncture... Big sigh of "what next?"... Well, what happened next was that 2 fellow tourers passed by the junction about 30 meters down and saw me, just as I saw them. We waved, as most cycling tourers do to each other, I turned and got back to my problem at hand. Moments later bike wheels roll up to me and I hear a "Need any help?" in a german accent. Those two fella's turned out to be Konrad and Richard (aka. Harry Potter and Gimpox). They were two best friends from Dresden who were on their way to Norway to go rock climbing, we talked and they offered me some snacks while I fixed my bike. Then since we were going in the same direction we decided to cycle together. Those guys turned out to be my saviors. I was so depleted of energy yet they helped me out with cooking feasts at night and making hot tea to try and soothe my throat. They became great company with their jokes despite my deteriorating condition. We found a beach in Denmark (yes...) where we decided to crash for 2 nights, sleeping in a pagoda style altar and chilling in the sand. After that we made a final push towards Aarhus and on Thursday 2nd of September 2010, I finally arrived! Us three went to Chris' house where I was supposed to crash until I found a job, gimpox and harry stayed for a night a went on towards Norway in the morning.

In total I clocked 2,416km on the bike.

End

That's it for this post. Next time I'll catch up on what happened after Denmark, how I slept in some student's kitchen in Oslo before heading to Lithuania to play in front of 600 people in Lithuania and how I ended up back on the other side of the world in Macau!

Hopefully it won't take 38 weeks! :D