• A few minor stats to begin:
• 102 days on the road
• circa 5500 kms pedaled thus far
• 38,000 metres of elevation climbed
• presently in country number 7
• minimum temperature -3, maximum temperature +36
• days of rain – too many to count
• bags of dog food – 6
• flat tyres – only 1!!!!
• other mechanical issues – NONE since I’ve had a few parts put on properly after Edmonton bike ‘mechanics’ put them on backwards. Surly Shirley is built like a brick sh*thouse!! Now I’ve gone and jinxed it, haven’t I?

Why has it taken you so long to write a post, madam?

The lack of production has been weighing my mind down. Since leaving Scandinavia, the dearth of stable internet connections has plagued me. I lost an entire post in Germany that took me a day to put together, along with an edited video which involved hours and hours of fiddly nonsense. It just went POOF into the ether, never to be recovered. I was whooped! In case you haven’t intuited, living life outside 24/7, with a dog to care for, in foreign countries and on a strict budget can be all-consuming. To preserve my sanity and the ability to focus on the larger task at hand (survival), I put aside the digital world for a while. Anyway, I reasoned, I would have quiet time in France while on hiatus with family in a short while. Well, haha!! The French visit turned into non-stop hive of action with me mucking in to prepare a giant fancy-dress surprise party for my beloved cousin’s 30th. Great fun, but not conducive with quiet, writerly isolation!

Never mind! Here I am now in this cool little Czech city and I am certainly spoiling us with civilised inside-living for 5 days, still-iffy internet, cheap beer and the mental space to plan the next move – but holy cow, there is a lot to catch up on!

Denmark

I only had to pedal a few hundred metres to get from my Gothenburg accommodation to jump aboard the very grand high-speed ferry to Fredrikshavn in North Denmark. What a pleasant experience for both Murph and me! Finally we were welcomed into a warm, comfy lounge with floor to ceiling views out into the gorgeous, shimmering sea. Norway – you are almost perfect, but take note of the ferry thing, please!

I felt confident in the big change of itinerary I had planned while staying in Gothenburg. The original route – Hamburg, Cologne, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal – just felt too easy and familiar now that my confidence was up. The new trajectory would roughly have us going through Central/Eastern Europe and ending in Crete – or maybe Sardinia. I was in good physical shape and feeling mentally strong enough to take us through the unknown, so off we went aiming for Berlin, then the Czech Republic. First though, we had Denmark to navigate.

There were a few choices of routes through Denmark and I really didn’t think much about it. I simply put us in a line following the east coast in search of some beach time for Murph and me.

 

 

 

I had also discovered an app that revealed the locations of the wonderful, small free camping and shelter places all over Denmark. This was very cheering. I had become so used to the freedom of wild camping, the thought of loud, crammed and expensive commercial campgrounds churned my stomach. Here’s a few examples of these very Danish provisions designed for hikers and cyclists:

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I shuffled inland after a couple of days upon seeing evidence of larger towns that could, perhaps, conjure more stimulation. That provided little relief, and in fact, left me following mile after mile of flat wheat fields and same-y hamlets with no services. I did meet quite a few very lovely Danes though, and this was incredibly morale-lifting.

Line and her very handsome little chap! She and her mother were using a really beautiful shelter and invited me to join them despite having reserved it only for themselves:

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I became desperate to get to the end of it so just put my head down and pedaled. My final destination in Denmark would be Gedser where I would take the long-ish ferry to Rostock Germany.

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A bittersweet farewell to Scandinavia. Hello Germany!

At last I arrived at Gedser and hopped aboard another comfy fast-ferry that would speed us to the teeming port of Rostock. We arrived several hours later to a full-on tall ship extravaganza – the Hanse Sail Festival (more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanse_Sail), with all sorts following us into harbour. Colourful, noisy, exciting – and just what the doctor ordered to re-invigorate my flagging enthusiasm!! 

After a giddy afternoon in Rostock, and a little tipsy on Kirchbier, I continued following the Eurovelo 7 route which joined up with the very popular Berlin to Copenhagen radweg. This meant there were a lot of other cyclists of varying abilities enjoying this easy and safe itinerary.

Once I got my new-country bearings and started moving south through the interior, I really started to notice that we were in the former East Germany. There was, at times, a forlorn ’70s air to it, and I got the impression that life was still hard-going for a lot of people. Towns were a bit unkempt, there were a lot of abandoned and collapsing houses and industrial buildings. The campsites were dumpy and depressing, and the service was a bit on the surly side.

Despite this, there were clearly a lot of other folks doing their best to turn the collective frown upside down. Still, I was looking forward to getting to Berlin to surf on some urban dynamism. It took me 4 days to pedal there, and I should be shot because I didn’t take one single photo during that time! I know now that I was suffering a little long-term traveller’s malaise. I recognised the feeling from my last big cycle and knew it was just a matter of stopping for a few days somewhere and doing something completely different.

Berlin! Alexanderplatz – another planet.

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This was my first visit to Berlin, and despite an unshiftable weight of adventure fatigue, I was pretty excited. I had always imagined that Berlin would be the kind of behemoth city-of-the-world that I could melt into. My instinct was right – it was mind-blowing, but in a much different way than my dear old city of London. Berlin felt like a Jackson Pollock painting – seemingly random, abstract splatterings of colour and expression all over the place, but if you took the time to untangle and interpret it, there was cohesion and meaning. There was enough suffering and rebirth here to fascinate for ten lifetimes. If it wasn’t for my complete lack of talent for the German language, I think it could be Murphy’s next home. 

I wanted to linger there, but I needed to make my way to France for cousin Annabelle’s big 30th surprise party. I also desperately needed to get my mind off of cycling for a while and breathe a different oxygen. Trains and planes were impossibly complicated with bike and dog, so I hired a car and drove us the 1300kms to Burgundy. I would return a week later and carry on with the cycle.

 Upon arrival in Montot, France after barely surviving the German autobahn. My fun Uncle Francois and good friend, Le Jim. Below that, a fancy-dress surprise party awaiting cousin Annabelle.

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After a busy and slightly fraught visit, it was back into the rental car for the 1300 km return to Berlin. I needed a vacation from the break from my vacation (channeled a little Gertrude Stein there).  First, I had a date to keep with former Walks on the Wildside customer, now friend, Nadine Harbarth. Nadine and her partner Jairo moved to Berlin from London after the birth of their first child. They love it and haven’t looked back. Wonderful to see them all, and of course my little ex-charge, Cobo the terrier. 

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While I was visiting Berlin, I stayed on a lakeside campground in Potsdam. OMG – it was crammed to the rafters, extremely expensive and so noisy that it impossible to sleep. I resolved to do some sneaky stealth camping in the endless empty forests as I made my way to the next big milestone, Dresden.

From Potsdam, I joined the very popular Elbe River bicycle route and things really started to look up. Great weather, lots of characterful places to stop and explore, and reasonably comfortable riding. I also returned to the occasional forest stealth camp which gave me back restful sleeps and great sense of peace. The only slight negative – since arriving in Germany, there were plenty of cobblestones to negotiate which made things a bit uncomfortable, especially for poor old Murph, but I just took my time and picked my way through them.

My interior life also took on a renewed lightness. The break in France, though not at all physically restful, served to completely detach my mind from the intense daily routine of long-distance cycle touring. All was clear and buoyant again.

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It really was lovely here along the Elbe. The locals seemed cheerful and relaxed, the cyclists I met were having a splendid time and the infrastructure was better than north of Berlin. I even had a new Jonathan and Sarah Jane in the form of two Hamburgers, Connie and Jurgen! I kept bumping into them in random places along the route and we had many laughs despite a bit of a language barrier. Jurgen and I managed to down quite a few pints together!

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Dresden

Dresden!!! Amazing place. Absolutely flattened by Allied bombs late in the war with tens of thousands of civilians killed. Restored with great devotion and attention to detail – work still being carried out today.
Czech border only about 25 Kms away now. Goodbye Germany!

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Entering the Czech Republic

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The main reason for making the big diversion to eastern Europe rather than the more familiar west, was to explore the Czech Republic. Prague would have been the obvious focus, but I wanted to get a feel for life everywhere there. I stopped and explored most of the towns along the Labe (the Czech Elbe). I found the ride towards Prague pretty challenging! The path threw me a bit of everything; cobbles, mud, large gravel, STAIRS!, diversions onto fast motorways – all a bit tough and grubby after Germany. Towns really tried hard to tart up their historic buildings and there was a bustle about them, but it was obvious that there was more left to achieve. All in good time!

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Prague

Arriving on the outskirts of Prague, I spotted a paddle-sports complex that offered cheap tent camping. There, we had a pleasant stay and top-drawer access to the World Cup Canoe Slalom Competition. Very exciting and fun to watch!

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I didn’t hang about Prague for long. The following day, I packed up and took a little spin through the touristy bits. The place was crawling with tour busses and river boat cruise passengers. I took a couple of snaps and quickly made my escape.

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Once again, south of the main city, things improved vastly. I went from feeling a bit disappointed in my Czech experience, to absolute delight! Holy cow, did the riding get tough though!! EV7 now veered off the river and into the big hills. It was the first real climbing I did in weeks and weeks, and it was endless and steep. Strangely, I was kind of getting off on it despite the 33c temps. My progress did slow right down, but it was not a problem. I met a wonderful group of locals at a campsite and thanks to them, I finally felt more connected with the real Czech Republic. We did have a bit of a session on the old Budvar though!

The next day, and with a very furry head, I started away for a bigger university town that my new friends told me about. I wanted to find a pension there and have a few quiet days to plan the next part of the journey – and to finally get this post out.

České Budějovice

I love this town. I completely lucked out with my perfect hotel, the atmosphere is alive, young and positive, and it’s simply gorgeous. My three-night stay has turned into five and I’m feeling completely refreshed and well-prepared for the next challenges.

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Now, here in southern Czech Republic, I have to decide the rest. Will it be the eastern Adriatic, including Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece, or the more predictable Italy, north to south? I’ve ruled out Spain and Portugal because it’s so damn far away now. For Pete’s sake, winter is coming!

I still won’t commit firmly to anything, but after a hefty amount of research, I’ve now ruled out travelling through Croatia and Albania towards Greece, mostly because the reportedly-terrible roads will be too hard on Murph. There were also widespread reports on the internet of the intentional cyanide poisoning of thousands upon thousands of stray dogs in Albania. For me, this is an unforgivable medieval cruelty which causes an unspeakable death for these poor creatures. A very good reason to boycott Albania, and of course, a very real concern that Murph could be exposed to bait. Overall, a shame, because my daft heart really did desire the road less traveled. My dear girl comes first though!

So, at the moment of writing this, it looks like we will continue on Eurovelo route 7 to Austria (which is only about 70kms down the road), joining our old friend, the Danube, then jumping south through Bolzano, Italy and hopefully, all the way to Sicily – or Sardinia – from there. I think it’ll be a magnificent last leg despite my familiarity with Italy. We will have some gruelling climbing through both Italy and Austria – I think I’ve lost my mind, but I’m actually looking forward to that! I’ve even been researching a detour to the infamous Stelvio Pass, but it may be a case of overconfidence. My knees would surely detach from my body and go on a Gilet Jaune-style protest.

For now, Murph and I bid you farewell from Czechia. All the good folks from Wabamun are on my mind, particularly my sweet Dad and Mum!! Hugs to you all.