(Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony)
15-09 to 03-10
Week two
Week three
Due to an unforseen problem we had to cancel our Danube river tour. We are a bit saddened by this but it could not be helped. In any case the Danube isn't going anywhere we just have to plan a future tour maybe following the whole length of the river.
Besides we really prefer to leave and return on our bikes, (for a change) with no other mode of transport involved. Needless to say that this will be a more hassle free tour.
We will be going to Jade bay, but unfortunatly not the one in Cancun, Mexico ;-( but the one in lower Saxony, Germany.
Making a loop (counter clockwise) following bike paths through Germany and Holland. This tour is about 1500 kms and about 75% flat so it will be easy going.
We will head East to Aachen were we will get on a cycling path to Bonn and on to Kassel where we turn North following the Wesser river to the North Sea.
From there we turn West hugging the coastline to Holwerd were we get on the LF3 cycling path heading South (+/-500kms) to Maastricht. Checking the ANWB camping guide, there are campings all along these route's, so we do not foresee any problems there.
Another great tour and season has come to an end. We had a great ride and the last five days in the rain has taught us a great deal about our equipment and way of doing things when we have to set up and pack the tent in the rain. Also we have realized that the current bags we have are totaly inadequate for the job. I know earlyer I have stated that we would be getting the Arkel bags when the time comes for new panniers, BUT, we are now seriously considering the Orliebs. Our equipment and clothes did not get wet but, we like the simplicity of the Orliebs. Clip on clip off, throuw everything (in clear ziplock bags) into the (waterproof) panniers and be on our way.
Anyway we did the kms we sat out to do and had a great time doing them. Saddly the Jade Bay was nothing near the color Jade, (mostly doe to the heavy industry surrrounding the whole area), it was more like a gray shade of brown with some nasty looking foam on top at high tide. The campings near the north sea, were more expansive than the rest but we knew that was comming.
All in all it was a good experiance and we have learned quite a bit. We havn't made any plans yet for our spring tour, were thinking of Spain and France but we shall see.
Click on Week one and enjoy the site.
It was a fantastic ride and we will be heading into the Eifel again, when we have more time that is. The weather was perfect if a little hot for the climbs (around 33c), but with enough water and rest stops we menaged pretty good. The only bad thing about this ride was the very busy and noisy campsites.
We met up with this Belgian couple that have done some quite amazing tours in the last 11 years, and we had a very nice chat with them. Here is a link to their site, www.susennieke.be We wished them safe travels as they were heading to Trier the next day with no time limit to their tour. Whenever they tire they head home, nice if we could all do that.
Preperations for our fall tour are continuing, we have found a camping in the center of Budapest (www.bikercamp.hu), and found out that there is a way to ride from the airport to the camping.
www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/3daytour
This whole area is very beautifull to ride in, and we couldn't have chosen a beter day.
They have printed several books on bicycle routes of this area, we will be investing in one also. There are signs everywere of these routes with names of towns and the kms.
We are slowly putting our stuff together again, we have about two and a half weeks to go for our next ride and are really looking forward to it.
We haven't done much training, mostly because of the weather and other obligations but riding along the Donau would be flat, unless we take a detour to see something in the hills. We will be doing +100kms per day and we'll have extra time.
We will most likely take a detour and check out Bodensee or Lake Constance, we have heard its a great place to cycle to and it'll only cost us an extra day, so we'll add it to our tour.
Thats it for now, we'll be adding more before we leave.
Weather has been crappy for the last several days and could not get on our bikes. It's only good for changing our plans for this tour.
Last week I crossed another milestone with 4000kms on the clock this year it now reads 4200 and I plan to hit 4500 before this tour. I will try and make it 7000kms before years end. This will be by far the most cycling I have ever done, and loving it ;-)
This comming weekend the weather will be good and we both have time to put a couple hundred kms on the clock.
I will be making one more update before this tour starts so, cya later :-)
The time has come, after a couple warm ups and an accident we are ready to go. The accidend was my fault, while looking at this nice house I drifted off to my right and bumped into Monique, and we both went down pretty bad. My biggest bruise was my pride while Monique had a large black and blue mark on her right thigh OOPS I also had to replace the water bottle cage, crank and pedals on Moniques bike.
Anyway we had a couple milestones this past week I've cycled over 4000 kms this year and Monique just passed 3000kms and we are starting our fall 1500 km tour. I think we'll pass the 6000 km and 5000 km marks this year.
The bikes are tuned up and tested, and we're putting our stuff together now for tommorow morning start. We will be a bit heavier on this tour as it will be a bit cold and wet.
This is our last post for now, cya when we get back ;-)