The bad tourist’s perspective of Austria…

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Amy

So, we cycled to Austria. And since we got here, we’ve been sucked against our will into a chasm of sickly-sweet inactivity, barricaded inside with a million home comforts, and been force-fed baked goods and wine, daily. Every second spent on that unnaturally big, cushioned sofa is a slip in control; we no longer have command of our own senses. Every sip of warm Ovaltine makes us wearier.

You turn the sun on with a switch. Music is played here. They have ovens and fridges and windows.

“Here is a key”, they say. “You can sleep inside if you like.”

No, no. We couldn’t possibly sleep inside.

They have a special room where you go to the toilet. The room is warm. There is a pyramid of toilet rolls sitting on a shelf; an altar of soft white cubes pointing to the gods. Can I take one? Is this a trick?

One of the first Swiss-German phrases Adi taught me is from a song:

Du muesch doch nid geng so pressiere

You don’t always have to hurry, it sings, as I sip, bite, sit, watch, sleep.

We’re finding it difficult to leave.

We have been here for two weeks and have left the house a handful of times to…

Walk the streets of Feldkirch town centre aimlessly, but curiously, admiring the narrow cobbled pathways and views of mountains in easy reach.

Go to an Art fair. We managed to get free tickets from a friend of a friend. It wasn’t as impressive as other Art fairs I’ve been to in London for example, but had some nice pieces including furniture and handbags made from bike inner tubes. Despite recycling old materials to make new, useful objects -a humble work ethic, the buyer is expected to pay a small fortune for the artist’s ingenuity. It isn’t about practicality or accessibility after all. It seems such honourable ideas are also a commodity as soon as they become fashionable. Hmmmmm. Art.

See a band. A friend of Lisa’s was singing in a bar, so we went to support her. We had lots of shots of Austrian spirit and not- so- Austrian spirit, and danced and drank until closing time, with a crowd of fellow dancers that had followed suit. By the time the music stopped and we flung our bodies out of the building, it was apparent just how hideously… supportive we were.

Visit the Buddhist monastery. It was a peculiar sight to see a Buddhist monk walking briskly around the stupa, clutching his prayer beads in deep concentration in the middle of Austria. We watched for a while, then walked to the top of the mountain where we saw views of Feldkirch, the same views that many others saw just before they jumped. It was a common place for suicides apparently, the knowledge of which added more spiritual weight to the place, I thought.

Go to a bad reggae night. We weren’t sure it was possible to play bad reggae on a dedicated reggae night, assuming that the person DJ-ing was sufficiently into reggae to be DJ-ing at a reggae night. We were wrong.

We think our DJ had self-esteem issues and was trying to play songs that would please everyone. Hence, most of it wasn’t really reggae, but vaguely reggae inspired pop. We’re not even hard to please; just a couple of classics would’ve been fine. But waiting desperately for just one little Toots and the Maytals cheese-fest proved futile, so we left. We did however, acquaint ourselves with a couple of the bars in Feldkirch, and so enjoyed ourselves nevertheless.

But since we are bad tourists, most of our fun was had at Lisa’s flat.

Lisa is training to be a clown…

Her and Adi met a few years ago at a Rainbow gathering in England, and then again in Portugal a year later. Having never been to a Rainbow myself, it was fun to hear all their stories of travel, the rainbow rituals and songs, and the crazy, weird and wonderful people they met. It definitely made me curious about travelling that way, going from one rainbow to the next in various European countries and living in a non-organised community for a while. If we go on any more cycling trips in the future, perhaps incorporating rainbow gatherings into our plans will make for some interesting twists in our trajectory, and quite possibly, save us from spending so much money!

***

Inside this terrible cocoon of well-being, we have:

Spent lots of time chatting, eating, drinking and hanging out with Lisa, her son Taiyo and her friends…

Played around with light painting photography for half the night, in a fever of inspired ideas that didn’t always deliver what we expected. We put the camera on a really slow shutter speed, drew out shapes with our bike lights and changed positions for different effects (no Photoshop required). Here are some of the better ones…

Enjoyed waking up on the balcony every morning.Our sleeping bags have impressed us with their resilience against cold November nights. It has not rained once, and we’re feeling extremely lucky regarding the friendly weather on our trip so far. Either we are lucky, or it’s the calm before a colossal storm on the way back. Time to bring out the waterproofs soon, I think.

Made a hell of a lot of Züpfe, which they call zopf here, and it’s sweet, rather than savoury. We’ve stuck to the savoury, Swiss recipe though. Getting bolder in our culinary ambitions, we experimented with putting sausages into the züpfe mix, then another time: bacon, onions, olives, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. …Our audacity was rewarded!

We also made a Mars bar cheesecake which everyone LOVED. Lisa enjoyed it so much that she dropped it on the floor, twice, forcing us to rename it “drunken cheesecake surprise”. It did not deter us from devouring it like wild animals though.

And most recently, just as we were thinking of leaving in fact,

Adi and I both got a cold

Lisa is at clown school for the weekend, so we’re in the house feeling sorry for ourselves, but mostly eating nice food, drinking mulled wine and working our way through the English books on Lisa’s bookshelf. As soon as we’re better, and against all temptation, we shall get on those saddles and make our way back to Switzerland.

We’d like to visit the Italian part of Switzerland as well as Graubünden –one of the Swiss cantons and the only place in the world where some inhabitants still speak the ancient language of Romansh.Therefore, we’ll be taking a long way back. It’s going to be colder and harder than before we left, but after a couple of weeks of luxury, we’re ready for it.

Even though we were bad tourists and didn’t see Austria in all its glory, we had a great time here and I’m sure when we’re cycling against wind and numb fingers, and pitching our tent in the rain, we’ll look back at our former, bad selves with envy.

On the road again: Part 2

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Amy

Cycling through forests, over crackling leaves in the mid-morning. It suddenly feels like autumn. The air is chilly, but shafts of sunlight come through the trees and make silhouettes across the reds, yellows and burnt oranges. This is a beautiful time and place for cycling. I must remember this later, when we’re huddled over the fire, exhausted and wondering how the cold shell of the sleeping bag will actually manage to insulate heat when I’m inside.

Today, after our morning cycle, we got ourselves to a trusty Lidl, where we bought loads of cheap but nice food, including two bottles of mulled wine.

We found the perfect spot to have lunch; a little bench under a tree up a big grassy hill. Our legs had to work for it, but it was worth it.

We ate bread, pate, cheese, grapes and jam and sipped the warming sweet wine whilst enjoying the view.

Time flew by and when we got on our bikes again, it was getting late. We decided to keep our eyes open for the next nice place where we could camp before it got dark.

We went through a massive forest and found a place by the river with a fireplace, benches, and a big patch behind some trees to put our tent. Adi sharpened some sticks and cooked cervelaz sausages on the fire. We fell asleep listening to the river gushing above our heads.

29 miles.

In the morning, I was tired and struggled up the hills through farmland and across villages until lunchtime, when I was grateful for a rest and some hot tea. Some of the farmhouses we’ve cycled past have machines where you can fill up with fresh milk; unpasteurised, straight from the cow (almost)! Today, we filled up one of our water bottles so that we could make hot, milky comfort drinks, but Adi kept drinking it, so it didn’t last that long.

Animals have become a regular feature of the scenery on our trip. Hearing the bells of cattle chiming in the distance is often comforting as we ride along, like the calming rhythm of temple bells. It’s not something you hear in the city. Today we saw lots of animals, some more unusual than others. All of them seem curious at the big, chunky, speeding things with humans on top. We took some photographs of them, but couldn’t give them any of us…

After a long lunch, we carried on through forests in search of a camping place. We found several nice spots, but were compelled to keep going by the illusive fantasy of finding a hut to sleep under and a fireplace. This led to us cycling much more than we had planned, through big towns in the dark until the next forest, when our hopes were dashed again. We almost made it to Romanshorn, when we decided to call it a day in a forest 7km earlier. We left one side of the tent open and slept next to the fire with the burning embers still providing warmth.

45 miles

Today we were excited to get to Romanshorn, as we knew the next part of the journey would be fairly straightforward – following the Bodensee all the way to Austria.

We Cycled a long way before we realised the lake should be on the left side of us and not the right, so we had to backtrack for a big chunk of the morning. However, we had lots of fun and found a park with these cool tractors to keep our simple souls entertained…

Just after lunch, we crossed a little wooden bridge into Austria…

We followed cycle routes in the direction of Feldkirch and as the light drained from the sky, we looked out over pink streaked mountains.
When darkness finally fell, we camped in a hidden bit of forest in Altach with a raging fire right outside our tent to keep us warm.

45 miles

The next morning, we cycled the short distance to Feldkirch. We were supposed to be staying with Adi´s friend Lisa, but due to no internet access and poor organisation, we hadn´t written down her number. This meant we would need to look for a place with WiFi in Feldkirch.

It was 10am and the sun was out. We walked into the centre of town and looked up to the towering mountains that surrounded us. We already liked it here.

As we waited to cross the road, a screaming mad woman came at us from out of a car with open arms. Turns out, it was Adi’s friend Lisa, who was just on her way to a flea market with her sister when she spotted us. We followed them on our bikes back to her flat. We’d just entered the town as she was about to leave and were impressed with our accidental timing and luck.

We quickly got changed, explained apologetically that we hadn’t had a shower in a week and drove to the market together.

The market was huge, with all kinds of knick knacks -the completely useless and the brilliant. We bought lots of sweets, a couple of head-torches that would be invaluable for the rest of our journey, some portable speakers that we thought we could duct-tape to our bikes and listen to music on the way back, and a new purple hat for Adi –all dirt cheap.

We went back to Lisa’s place and washed everything we had. We loved her flat with its giant, welcoming sofa and the posters and art all over the walls. She also had a huge balcony with a double bed on it, and we decided that that was going to be our “bedroom” while we were here.

At night, we cozied up on the bed in our sleeping bags, with the familiar chill on our faces and the familiar night sky. We woke up with the sun and opened our eyes to views of the mountains. We weren’t ready to give that up for a warm room just yet.

On the road again: Part one

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Amy

Last Saturday, we prized ourselves away from our nice warm bed to face the 45km cycle to Schönbühl. It wasn’t a long trip, but the first stop in our journey to Austria. Technically, we were going the wrong way, but we wanted to visit Adi’s Dad and Käti, his partner, and then cycle to Bern for a psytrance party before really heading to Austria.
It was a pleasant ride, sunny and past lots of farms and places where Adi grew up. We enjoyed being on the road again, but I was not used to it and after three hours, as the air was growing considerably colder, I was glad to sit down in the warm with a cup of tea, some züpfe and lots of biscuits.

As it got darker, we left for Bern and met with Adi’s friends (Timon and Rene) who were doing a psytrance live-act at six in the morning. We put on lots of layers, as it was going to be a long, cold night.
We drove to the forest in Biel where we were met with music, ultraviolet banners, a fire and lots of dancing. Naturally, we joined them. Despite wearing every item of clothing I owned, creating an interesting stylistic medley, we had to dance to keep warm. It was then I realised that these were the conditions we would be camping in from now on, and there would be no frantic boogying to generate heat. I hoped our sleeping bags would be up to the job.

%bicycle touring
We got back to Rene’s at 10 in the morning and spent the whole day in bed, telling ourselves that we would leave tomorrow, after sufficient recuperation.
The next day, we had a drink with Adi’s friend Salome in Bern and then saw this funky light show projected onto the government building.

By night, we cycled out of the city in the right direction. It was cold and raining lightly when I caught sight of a patch of green out of the corner of my eye. We sped towards it. It was huge, unspoiled, with beautifully trimmed grass; a perfect place for camping and, we very much suspected, a golf course.

Our suspicions were confirmed the next morning when we were awoken by the sound of a lawnmower and a man shouting in Swiss- German. We quickly got dressed and stuffed things hectically into our panniers, before Adi went out to face them. He told me afterwards that one guy just had a smile on his face and the other was a bit more serious, saying something along the lines of what were you thinking?

We got on our bikes and giggled along the road. It rained in patches, but after a while the sun came out and stayed all day. I quite liked the change in weather from France where it was too hot, to here where the sun was out but it was colder and better suited to cycling.
We found a place to sleep just up from the cycle path where there was a fireplace, so we set up camp and made a huge fire. %bicycle touring Many forests in Switzerland have these areas with a fireplace and some benches. Some even have huts that you can rent, or else use as a shelter in our case, so we’ve been searching in forests for places like these to camp when we finish our cycling for the day. Every night we’ve found a fireplace, but no luck yet with a shelter.

45 miles.

We woke up late and got going by ten. We followed cycle paths all the way and briefly looked around the city of Aarau…

By late afternoon, we were very happy to discover we had reached the first 1000 miles of our trip!

We took leisurely breaks and went shopping, so by night we were still pedalling, having not covered much ground. We turned off a main road and went up into some fields where we could see forest ahead. We thought we might find one of these huts and then we wouldn’t need to pitch the tent, just put the mats and sleeping bags under the roof. But after much hopeful searching in the forest, we surrendered. We pitched the outer tent over dry leaves next to a field and dotted tealights around it like a humble grotto in the cold.

We had only done 35 miles but were very tired.

Snapshots of Switzerland…

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Amy

I thought I’d write about what we’ve been up to these past couple of weeks. While it seems like all we’ve been doing is sleeping in and ploughing through the first 3 seasons of true blood, we’ve also done a couple of noteworthy Swiss things, such as…

Enjoying my first taste of homemade fondue…

Cheesy, creamy, rich and washed down with a traditional shot of kirsch. The kind of food that gives you a headache afterwards. I liked it.

Being taught how to make Züpfe by Adi’s mum…

Delicious, warm, fluffy, soft, like-bread-but-not-bread thing.

I promised Adi I’d make him fresh züpfe regularly when we get back to England (since the UK is still in its pre-enlightenment years food-wise, and has not yet discovered the delights of such like-bread-but-not-bread things). It has now gone from a verbal warning to a written one, so I’d better follow it through (or else the DELETE button is my friend and if he mentions it, I’ll just pretend he’s going crazy) (shhhhh).

Being eaten half to death by mosquitos…

This, I don’t have a photo of, sorry (instinct only allows for the following action: see mosquito taking a bite –KILL MOSQUITO. Do not stop to take photograph). Pretty much my whole upper body has been bitten. It’s a bumpy, swollen, weepy mess, yet it remains, apparently, an appetising hot-spot for the entire mosquito community and his wife. I’m holding out for the day when they’ve bitten me so much that they’ll start consuming their own poison instead of my blood. Then they’ll be sorry.

Hiking in the mountains…

Adi’s parents drove us to a place called Schwarzsee (black lake), where we got a ski lift up the mountain and then took a small, two hour hiking route back down again. It was good for us to get the exercise and be outdoors. A friendly reminder to our bodies that we’re still alive, before we start losing all the muscle we’ve gained because of our lounging ways.

Listening to a whole lotta’ Swiss-German…

Again, difficult to provide pictorial representation of this one, but if I did, it would be a picture of me looking confused and Adi and his family/friends laughing at an un-translatable joke. I’ve actually got used to it now. At first it was strange not being able to speak a word to Adi’s Mum and to rely on him to translate everything. So much of conversation is unplanned, picking up on snippets of random chatter and responding without even thinking about it. We manage to communicate in our own way though. Sometimes we just babble and make gestures and point, which is at least an attempt at engaging with each other. I’ve gotten used to being quiet too and just letting them talk. I imagine it’s nice to be able to talk to your son that you haven’t seen in over a year in your mother tongue, without the interjection of hurried English paraphrasing for my benefit. So I leave them to it and often get the gist through tone, expression and pace. Plus, it’s a perfect excuse to daydream and have no idea what’s going on around me –one of my all-time favourite hobbies.

Visiting Switzerland’s capital in the rain…

Though I didn’t get to see much of it, we walked around the charming medieval streets of Bern and I knew I wanted to go back and see more.

So far, we have only seen snapshots of Switzerland. We’re eager to do some proper cycling trips and see it more intimately. Our plan is to cycle to Austria in the next couple of days and stay with one of Adi’s friends. We can’t wait to be on the road properly again with a new country to aim for. Tomorrow we will go back to Bern for the weekend and then offwego.com, wooohoo!

Solothurn

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Amy

A wave in my belly. A jolt in the saddle. The gentle lift and drop of my arms on the handlebars. Tiny shudders in the wheel and then release: smooth, floating. Straining eyes scanning over blue outlines, faint edges, hints of objects and borders that keep me in a perceived straight line. A slip of the wheel, the spin of something hard and the sound of a falling rock. The only time I’m grateful for a car being behind me is now, when their headlights briefly illuminate the road ahead and the shapes become trees, the delicate lines become curbs and for a few seconds, I can see what lies ahead.

This is the unique sensory experience of cycling at night with bad lights.

It is both fear and exhilaration. Panic and calm. Though, if they were in a fight, fear and panic would probably win.

We have been in Switzerland for just over a week, staying at Adi’s Mum’s house. Most of that time has been spent “recovering”, some of it partying and the rest on small day-trips. Today, in a bid to offset all of the chocolate consumption necessary to become truly acquainted with Swiss culture, we cycled to the nearby town of Solothurn. We enjoyed it so much, that we ended up staying there way past our bed time and thus undertaking the risky business of night-cycling to get home.

The 20km ride there was fun and breezy. It was strange getting on my bike without my panniers. The frame felt flimsy and light and my brain had to adjust quickly to the absence of so much weight. My muscles also took time to reassess the situation and were aching strangely, as if opening up old wounds. Once again, the ride was sunny and bright and we followed the way of the river Aare. We briefly stopped in the town of Wangen an der Aare, which struck us as a typical Swiss looking town (not so remarkable since we’re in Switzerland, but it’s nice to see a country conform to your images of it every now and then).

When we got to Solothurn, we went to a restaurant popular with “the stoners and wasters”; Adi proudly informed me as we slumped comfortably in chairs in the sun and sipped beer with the best of them.

I asked Adi lots of questions about when he used to live here; what he used to do, what it was like etc. I like doing this, piecing together his history. I get excited about finding out the little gems of someone’s life, when he remembers something and talks of it warmly. Adi doesn’t remember everything, but he’s a great storyteller. He describes the character’s of his friends in few words, but in such a way that I get a sense of them and look forward to meeting them. The other day, I finally met some friends that he had talked much of before in England and it was funny because they already felt really familiar.

We cycled around and Adi showed me bits of the town. We looked for the house where he used to live with a bunch of hippies when he was younger, a shabby little thing where they didn’t pay much rent. The house was in front of a block of offices and they used to sunbathe on the roof and watch all the people inside working. Now it was gone, made into a car park for said offices.

Adi was eager to show me the most beautiful place in Solothurn, so we cycled to the hermitage, St.Verenaschlucht. It was late afternoon and we got off our bikes and walked the winding little path through the canyon, past trees and streams and over rocky bridges.As twilight approached, tealight candles were dotted around atop bits of bark and grooves in the rock face, sparsely lighting the way to the chapels and beyond, to a restaurant. It reminded me of an enchanted forest, a place where fairies might live. I would happily go there and situate myself in some little crevice in the rock and read for a few hours if I lived in Solothurn. When we reached the restaurant, we had a cup of tea with cream.Outside it was getting dark, all the beauty of the hermitage had melted to black and we knew it would be one of those rides home.

The earth was shaky, the path unpredictable and the tealight candles were few and far between. We slowly got ourselves out and into the main streets of Solothurn, then onto the intermittently lit cycle paths and roads where we followed our noses and bad headlights all the way home…30 miles.

Serious mileage

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Amy

Day seven of our trip began with a lay in. We cooked the usual breakfast of leftovers from last night’s dinner, which in this case, was a spectacular spaghetti bolognaise. All of our meals tend to be pasta based, as we need all the carbohydrates we can get. First time I’ve ever been on a high carb diet and I’m well happy about it. We fried some eggs and put them on top too for protein and some semblance of an English breakfast.

We left at about 11am due to our lay in and continued on the bike path.

For lunch we indulged in a kebab (the only shop open at 14.00, as most places close in France for a siesta) and we also couldn’t resist buying some items from the patisserie. Everywhere we go there are patisseries and chocolatiers with exquisite arrangements of sweets, truffles and cream cakes calling to me and my convenient high carb diet. Today it got the better of us and purely under Adi’s bad influence; we bought four naughty looking treats. I spent the afternoon riding in a sugar induced delirium and with the sun as strong as ever, every scene was a little fuzzy and undulating in the heat.
That was also the day we said goodbye to the budget. We’re not very good with money, but we’re great with cakes.

We cycled some more and found this forest with rows of white spindly trees stretching all the way across it. We knew that these would be our lodgings for the night.At night, as it has been such hot weather in the day, we have been using just the inner tent (the mesh) to camp in and not the outer tent. The bad side of this is that in the morning, when the trees and grass are covered in dew, so is our tent and sometimes the sleeping bags are a bit damp on the outside. The plus side is that when we’re exhausted from a days’ cycling and we’ve finally cozied up in our sleeping bags, we get to look up at the stars until we fall into our slumber.

There’s nothing like an unachievable goal to get things moving and this morning we thought we’d step things up and make one (fully intending not to achieve it of course). We planned to stop less often, take a shorter lunch break and complete 70 miles of cycling. So off we went. The morning started off chilly, but we knew it would soon heat up.

Usually, we start off with a few layers of clothing and one by one they get peeled off. Then it gets to afternoon and it’s unbearably hot and we realise there’s nothing left to peel.

We were trying to do 35 miles before lunch break, but of course we needed some snacks on the way. Then a little while after, we had to fill up our water bottles and sometimes the only way to do that is to go into a pub and buy a drink. This took another little slice out of our 70 mile day. We soldiered on though, and managed to do 33 miles before lunch.

Just before we started eating, we realised to our horror, that the maps we were using to get from Orleans to Switzerland were actually DOUBLE SIDED. This means we had twice the amount of ground to cover as we thought and wouldn’t be getting to Switzerland any time soon. Quite depressing, as you can imagine.

After battling the will to have a post lunch nap, we got on the bikes and carried on eating the miles.

We cycled to a town called La Charite-sur-Loire, which had some interesting medieval buildings and cobbled streets. We needed to get some dinner, so just made it to a Spar before it closed, where they sold us mouldy mushrooms. However, I’m sure the town has many redeeming qualities that we didn’t have time to explore. Here is what it looks like from the other side of the river on our way out. We did not yet know the mushrooms were mouldy.

We found yet another forest just below our bike path and decided to camp on the outer side of it where there were some nice patches of grass. We cooked a delicious meal (minus mushrooms) and fell asleep under the stars again.

We had done 67 miles.

The next morning we overslept until about seven, and because it takes us so long to cook breakfast, get dressed, wash up, pack up the tents/mats/sleeping bags and load the bikes, we didn’t actually leave till about nine. We also discovered that Adi had been bitten by a big fat tick in the night, so I had to pull it out with some tweezers. Due to its stubbornness and my lack of technique, some of it was still left in his skin. A friend of ours recently contracted limes disease TWICE from ticks, so we were a little paranoid and decided to go to a pharmacy in the next village…

They pointed us in the direction of a doctor a few doors down and we waited to be seen. Not long after, Adi came out with a slip of paper. The doctor had removed the rest of the tick and given a prescription of antibiotics for two weeks and some antiseptic lotion. Unfortunately, the bite was in Adi’s armpit and he told me that the doctor had his face there with some tweezers and a magnifying glass for a really long time trying to remove it. After a few days of cycling, Adi’s armpit isn’t a good place for anyone to be for long periods of time, medically trained or not. Anyway, this scenario slowed us down for the whole day as the pharmacy also didn’t have the prescription, so we had to cycle to a big town to another pharmacy and get some shopping. We took ages to find the Eurovelo too, as it was quite badly sign posted and we ended up going all over the place. Eventually we found what we thought was the right path and by this point it was getting dark, so we set up camp just below the path.

30 miles.

The next day, we discovered that we weren’t on the right path at all and were going completely in the wrong direction, so after some manoeuvring in circles we got ourselves back on the right route.

The weather was so hot for the next couple of days that I found it really hard to get a good rhythm going and would run out of energy very quickly. My bike felt heavy and I pedalled slowly along the long roads, almost falling asleep on my bike, but cycling on autopilot. We had to make a lot of stops and it was quite frustrating for Adi who was eager to get further. At the pace we were going, it was going to take much longer to get to Switzerland than anticipated. We had been cycling all day, from first thing in the morning to just before it gets dark at night, but depending on how many stops we made, for how long, how many hills, and how slowly we cycled, there could be a huge difference in how much we’d get done. These few days we did about 45-60 miles a day. Looking at the map, there was still so much work to do and it was disheartening at times. We never realised when we set out on the trip how far away it actually was! Working through it mile by mile, road by road, map by map, you suddenly realise the scale of the task. My legs, arms, back, neck, wrists and even fingers were aching from the intensity imposed upon every muscle for the most part of twelve hours a day. But when we had a bit of breeze, a good pedalling rhythm through the most beautiful, natural settings, knowing we were one map closer to our goal, it was so worth it. Our laden machines would fly down the slightest declines and float round bends with our bodies so effortlessly sometimes that we forgot all the toil that came before.

We never worried about where we would sleep at night, because every day some unknown little patch in a perfect place would suddenly reveal itself just when we needed it. And even if it didn’t, we were so tired that we didn’t care where we slept, we were just grateful to sleep.

It was the beginning of October and though the mornings were a little fresh, the day soon heated up pretty fast. It was getting a tiny bit cooler though, and this made all the difference to my ability to cycle fast and for longer. Today we decided to get back on track and aimed for a 70 mile day again. We wanted to get to Switzerland in two days, enough time to visit Adi’s mum, get clean, then head to Bern to see Adi’s friends and go to a Psytrance party that was happening on the weekend. We were halfway through the first side of map five of the Eurovelo maps. On slow days, we were doing about half a side of a map a day. We needed to be doing a whole side to get there in time and today, if possible, a side and a half if we wanted to get to Switzerland tomorrow or at least near the border.

So…

I went as fast as I could, and we only stopped for short breaks. We cycled through the Alsace, a beautiful region of France before you get to Switzerland. Everywhere was rolling hills and rivers and moody skies. We got some red bull down our necks too which helped things along and we cycled and cycled and cycled all the way into the night and halfway through map six. We realised that our bike lights weren’t very strong when it was pitch black and we could only see about a metre of ground ahead of us. The one who was in front had to bear the brunt of any holes or gravelly bits on the road and shout out a warning to the one behind… it was a bit like cycling with your eyes closed and just feeling your way over every bump and discrepancy, operating on a mixture of luck and reflex. When we were too exhausted to carry on, we found a huge bit of open land by the road. We walked our bikes as far away from the road as possible and headed towards the trees at the back. Smack-bang in the middle on some flat grass, we pitched our tent. Having run out of gas for our stove a couple of days ago, we were now mostly eating bread, cheese and other fillings for all meals. We grabbed a kebab earlier so weren’t crazy hungry, but still a bit peckish after the cycling, so quickly had some bread and olive oil to line our stomachs for the night. As we were practically gulping down the bread, we heard what sounded like wild beasts in the forest, running and screaming out some primal groan. Every now and then you hear these sounds in the night and can only wonder at what they could be. We’ve got used to them and the random things flying into our faces and the insects in our tents and the many movements of the night in the outdoors.

78 miles.

In the morning we got to see our camping place in all its glory…

Today we were planning to get to Switzerland, or at least close. We started a bit slow and stopped for snacks and energy drinks in the morning. I managed to perform one of my artful manoeuvres of throwing my bike to the floor and injuring myself in some way again. This time the chainring scraped 5 little lines of flesh from my calve, leaving me with an impressive claw-like wound, adding a bit of drama to the bruising and black grease covering my legs. This isn’t just cycling, this is EXTREME cycling.

On the way, we met a couple called Isa and Simon from France who were also bike touring. They had the same bikes as us (one blue, one black) and the same saddles. We were very excited to see them and stopped to chat for a bit. They were cycling all the way to Istanbul for the winter and then going to Indonesia. We were a tad jealous that we were only going to Switzerland!

After lunch and some more cycling, Adi stopped to take a photo of a bridge. As he did so, the couple rode over it, so we stopped and said hello again.

We rode with them for a while and it was nice to be in a little group with our bikes full to the brim with stuff. We got a lot of funny looks from people. We parted ways at Montbeliard, where they were staying with friends and exchanged email addresses. When we said we were trying to get to Switzerland that night, I think they thought we were a bit mad and I started to feel it too.

Much cycling later, we decided to come off the Eurovelo early and take regular roads down to the border, as the Eurovelo made quite big detours before going to Basel. It was getting late again and we needed to camp somewhere, so we headed down towards Altkirch. Once again we got ourselves a kebab for dinner. It was getting cold at night, so it was really good to have something warm to eat. We were achy and tired and cold, but had to continue cycling to look for a camping spot. We saw on the map that there were some forests nearby, so we went in that direction. We ended up cycling up a small road and into a huge farm. A dog was barking at us, so we had to keep going. Not really sure of where it was heading, we went through long gravelly tracks towards some trees. For a while we both thought we might have to just camp somewhere at the end of the farm and get up early before we got told off as we’d come too far to go back. But just at the end, we found this space by a little lake! It looked amazing with the stars and the light shimmering over the water, so after pitching the tent, we took a photograph.

75 miles. We would get to Switzerland tomorrow.

Today we left as soon as we got up, so as to avoid any heated words with farmers. We cycled for about half an hour and stopped by a bench to have our breakfast; the usual bread, olive oil, Gruyere and Jam.

We went on some nasty main roads in the direction of Basel. Some of them were huge, like motorways, with lorry’s zooming past us and making the bikes wobble in their aftermath. Others had big mountainous climbs again and again. It was fair to say we were pretty flustered afterwards. After much upward struggle and skilful traffic avoidance, we enjoyed a very long, sweet descent, which took us all the way to a bike path leading to the border.

We finally whizzed through the border without being checked and into Switzerland. I could see Adi smiling in front of me and it made me smile.

A mere five minutes into Basel, Switzerland and we bought ourselves a map and sat in a pub to have a beer and cup of tea. I was yet again in a foreign land, but for Adi, it was nice to speak Swiss German again and be in familiar territory.

We cycled along the Rhine and for the first time in a while, took it easy. Our plan was to get out of Basel and then to call Adi’s parents who would pick us up and take us back to their home.

It took us a couple of hours to get out of the city and we cycled in the direction of where they lived so they wouldn’t have to come too far. It was getting dark and we found ourselves on the main road with bad lights.

Guess who had an accident.

In the half-light it’s not so easy to judge where the curb is while you’re in the flow. My front wheel skimmed the edge and flew sideways, throwing my bike underneath me. It was a busy road, at night and in mid fall, I was sure I was going to get knocked over. Adi heard the fall and shouted for me to get out of the road, so I heaved my bike up as quick as possible and over the curb. We were by some train tracks, so there was no pavement –just some gravel and stones. Luckily there weren’t any cars behind me in the short time that lapsed between my bike hitting the ground and me getting it over the curb, but it could’ve been bad.

At that point, we decided not to take any more chances. We got to the pavement on the other side and walked to a nearby restaurant. Adi used the phone to call the husband of his mum who would pick us up. We drank tea inside and waited as it started to rain outside. We couldn’t believe the good timing of our trip. In England it rained as we left, in the 16 days it took us to get to Switzerland we had glorious sunshine every single day and just as we arrived and were about to stay in a nice warm house, it started to rain again. What luck!

Ueli (Adi’s Mum’s husband) came and drove us the next 36 kilometres to their home. We strapped our bikes to the trailer and enjoyed the (mostly uphill) ride, sitting cosily in a car…

45 miles. We’d made it to Switzerland, yey!!!

Total miles: 794.5

Total days: 16

Total dead hedgehogs on roads: 16

Total accidents: 5 (all Amy’s)

6 days in France

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Amy

We are in a town called Jargeau, France and 6 days into our epic cycle to Switzerland. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to find wifi here, so after 5 days of wild camping, we finally indulged in a night in a campsite that has hot showers, wifi and electricity. It feels a bit like paradise for only 8 euros each.

Our week so far went like this…

Just before we headed off, we bought all the things we needed to make it a comfortable ride (including a very extravagant Brooks saddle that we’ve had our eye on for some time). Our bikes surpassed their bike status and have become machines. With all of our panniers, sleeping bags and tent add-ons they have expanded outwards, demanding as much authority on the road as a car and being almost as heavy.

We left England in the rain and our friend cycled to the ferry port with us in the early hours. He even made us a flag to put on the back of our bike!

We got to Dieppe and I cycled straight in front of a lorry before I had a chance to grapple with the concept of driving on the right side of the road. I mostly have the hang of this now, apart from the odd blip, but I’m soon reminded again by a friendly beep of a car horn and look of terror in the drivers eyes as I speed nonchalantly toward them.

We went in search of Avenue Vert, which is a part finished cycle route from London to Paris that has only got as far as Forges-les-Eaux. It was still wet and cold at this point and the road was really muddy and slippery. It was here I had my first fall . Luckily it wasn’t too bad and I got away with a bruised hand and grazed and bruised knee. Since then, I’ve had two more falls, both for really stupid reasons (one because my foot got caught in the hood of my jumper as I swung my leg around to get off the bike and the other one was from giving Adi a hi-five). Now I have bruises and scratches and permanent chain-marks all over my legs that I wear proudly like battle scars.

On the way, we had to wait for a moving bridge to reconnect whilst a big pirate ship went past (it wasn’t exactly a pirate ship, but it looked a bit like one and was the first vaguely impressive sight we saw).

We prepared ourselves for the possibility of the whole trip being cold and wet and after a bit of lunch and a beer in our lovely waterproofs, we embraced our fate and cruised down the lush green path of Avenue Vert in the light rain, singing and whooping… we were on our way to Switzerland!

It looked even more dewy and magical in the rain (or maybe it was the beer) and we passed this wonderful little house!

Luckily we found a school in a village up from the cycle path where -amazingly, there was a big sink and some open toilets. So we had a wash, filled up our water bottles and found a spot along the avenue where we camped. We had cycled approximately 22 miles and it was pitch black.

The next day we woke up at 9.30am, which was quite early for us and set upon our way.

After only one mile, we stopped and had a beer in a little bar! Since then, we’ve become a bit more hardcore, I promise…

We cycled in the glorious sunshine to the end of the Avenue and then followed the map for the next leg of our journey.

In one of the villages, we sat and had a very French looking lunch in the gardens of a beautiful old house that has been made into a museum.

That night, we ended up camping in a little patch in between the road and a farm. We cycled approximately 36 miles.

In the middle of the night, I kept worrying that a big lorry would accidentally veer off the road and right into us. Every time one passed, it was so loud, it actually sounded like it was heading for us. Then there was the sound of the cows. I swear I could hear one running really fast. And again, I feared it was running towards us in an attempt to attack. Never before have I seen or heard a cow run. I guess I had a bit of the old night-time paranoia. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep.

We’d already agreed that if we were going to get any kind of serious mileage done, we’d have to get up a lot earlier. And thus our 6am rises started.

We were greeted first thing in the morning by a bunch of curious cows…

After our first proper climb up a hill, which left me half-dead, we cycled through a beautiful forest, which was more or less downhill all the way. We went through some gorgeous villages and past the most breathtaking landscapes. The sun was still shining and mile after mile we kept seeing the most amazing scenes that were too many and too stunning to capture in photographs… but alas, we tried.

We cycled approximately 36 miles and camped on top of a hill above the river Seine. Adi managed to get a picture of our dwelling place as the sun was coming up whilst I was still adjusting to the counter-logic of being up at 6 in the morning.

It was really foggy when we started and the first village we came to looked very romantic, shrouded in morning mist.

We got off our bikes and walked over the river Seine.

It was a truly exhausting day, with uphill climbs practically the whole way. I started to get very heavy and achy legs and each hill, despite me being in the lowest gear possible, was an excruciating struggle. Adi however, seemed to breeze through them a little more easily and I blame his ridiculously long legs and on my part, a magnesium deficiency. Adi blames it on me being a wimp.

On the plus side, we had cycled the length of a whole map! It was very exciting getting out map number two and having some physical evidence of what we had achieved with our little legs.

Approx. 36 miles again.

That evening we felt cheeky enough to sleep in a park behind this medieval ruin. It was very nice indeed!

The next day was also fairly hilly. We went through some long roads with the sun beating down on us and it often felt like we were in the middle of a desert somewhere. We discovered that France is basically closed on Sundays, so had to ask villagers in their gardens if we could borrow their hoses to fill up our water bottles etc. Fortunately we had enough food for lunch and dinner. My legs were still feeling pretty traumatised. They are quite short and not particularly powerful and I’ve suddenly given them an obscene amount of weight and a load of hills to pedal their way up, so understandably, they are putting up a bit of a fight. As Adi said, it’s my little legs against the French landscape (and the French landscape is definitely winning at the moment), but at least they’re still fighting.

After cycling around forever, trying to find a place to camp, we finally came across a huge forest. We went right into the middle of it and were very much alone. It was then we decided to watch a zombie movie on Adi’s laptop (good idea Adi)! After about 15 minutes of it, we were so exhausted that sleep finally triumphed. Watching movies isn’t a realistic option with our new schedule.

We had cycled approximately 39 miles.

The next day, we were determined to finish the second map and make our way down to the Eurovelo 6 cycle route. This is a route that goes all the way to Switzerland (and beyond), utilising low traffic and no traffic roads and cycle paths. It follows the lovely river Loire and should be fairly plain sailing for bicycle tourers.

We did indeed make it off the second map and down to the river Loire, where we joined the Eurovelo.

In our excitement over reaching our goal and cycling 45 miles that day, Adi put out his hand to give me a hi-five as he often does. My front panniers were so heavy with the food shopping we’d bought earlier, that I lost balance and fell, hurting myself on the exact same places I had at the start of my trip. The 4 Savlon antiseptic wipes I had brought with me were originally a courtesy emergency measure that I never thought I’d use, but in fact were getting more regular usage than my soap. I’m hoping that if I don’t buy any more, I wont have any more accidents. It makes no sense, but saves me buying antiseptic wipes.

We were hoping to hit a campsite/hostel/swimming pool for a much needed shower. Hair was getting greasy, skin was getting dirty and we most likely smelt pretty bad. I couldn’t tell if the black all over my legs was bruises or bike grease (turns out, it was a mixture of both). Unfortunately, we didn’t find one before the sun started to go down and we realised we had to set up camp and cook while there was still light. So once again, personal hygiene had taken a back seat, but we’d kind of gotten used to that. We camped on a bit of green below the Eurovelo path.

This was the view as the sun was coming up in the morning.

Today we promised ourselves that we’d go to the next campsite we saw, however early on in our journey, as we really needed to wash and also get some internet and charge up our bike lights/laptops.

It was scorching hot again and actually quite painful to get off the bikes, as riding them at least provided some breeze. We went through nice smooth tarmac and also gravelly terrain. Once again, I fell off my bike. And once again, bruised the same places I had TWICE before. No more Savlon wipes. Apart from this, my legs were behaving themselves and not nearly as achy as they had been. I wasn’t sure whether it was due to lack of hills, or the fact that I’m slowly getting used to the cycling. I hope that I’m getting fitter and stronger, but I will find out when we get our next monster hill.

We had lunch by the river with a bottle of rose and continued the cycle in high spirits.

Adi was a little tipsy and decided to try and ride with his legs on the handlebars. Highly dangerous, but lots of fun!

Shortly after this picture was taken, Adi fell, but we were both still in fits of laughter. It was worth it, we thought!

We are now sitting in a luxurious campsite, having washed our filthy selves and all our clothes. We feel like newborn babies!

Approx 30 miles.

Suomi

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Adi

Yesterday I arrived in Kuopio, Finland with my friend Jacob. We are here for two weeks, so I thought I’d take some pictures and share them with you.

Today we took our first trip around town and to explore the nearby nature. The place is surrounded on all sides by lakes and forests and let me tell you, it is beautiful!

Near the house of our hosts (Anna Maria, her son Adam and father Tom) is a big tower with a rotating restaurant, a great place to see the whole area of Kuopio.

On our way down from the hill, I could not believe the amount of edible mushrooms there were. In Switzerland you have to go and search for them, but here you can get your free dinner without even leaving the path!

I must admit, I’m a bit jealous. It must be awesome to live here. Our hosts simply step out of their house and get to see this every day…

As we made our way through the town, I was tempted for a moment to have a Finnish subway. In the end I didn’t. I dont know why but I thought of you when I saw this, Amy…

Luckily we stumbled upon a market and instead of fast food, I got myself some delicious spicy salami and other treats.

I also bought some yummy Chai tea with vanilla and coconut in this little shop…

Afterwards, we went to check out the Cathedral of Kuopio, which was beautiful but quite small, more like a church if you ask me. We were unlucky though, as it was closed and I couldn’t take any pictures inside.

All this walking made us thirsty, so we went for a drink in this gorgeous blue “Ravintola” called Vanha Satama, which means Old Harbour.

After enjoying the lake for a while (and some ice cream), we made our way back to the house in the forest.

Guess what I found on the way home? Finland is officially the coolest country in my books right now…

A one litre can of beer! How awesome is that?!

After a great dinner with a little fried fish and the mushrooms that Anna Maria picked earlier,

I made a bizarre mandala out of fish heads…. I don’t know why, I just felt like it!

And that’s all from me, at least for today.

Cheers, or as the Finns say, Kippis!

My gorgeous shiny slick blue brand spanking new bitch-bike

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Amy

In preparation for our big trip to Switzerland we have spent the last few months figuring out all of the things we need and slowly haemorrhaging cash to pay for them. Cycling to Switzerland sounds so easy doesn’t it? Like cycling down to the shops to buy milk. Except the shop is 436 miles away, the milk is called milch and it’s the most time-consuming, expensive cup of English tea with Swiss milk you’ve ever endeavoured to make.

But even though it’s a relatively lighter way to travel, you can’t just hop on and keep going until you see the Alps. Bicycle touring requires A LOT of stuff, a lot of preparation and pretty good leg muscles.

Preparation and leg muscle is something we’ll be forced to deal with later, but right now we’re thinking about “stuff”.

First and foremost, a bike.

We did some research and realised that the best, most trusty bikes for touring are Surly’s. Surly is an American based company, but there are some stockists in the UK that get them imported. Unfortunately, this adds a hefty shipping cost to what would be a very reasonably priced good quality bike. However, from what we’ve read about these bikes, this is still an absolute bargain!

Surly make lots of different models and other bike paraphernalia, but the Long haul trucker (LHT) is specifically designed for touring, hence the name. It carries lots of weight, and the frame is made from good old steel. The geometry is designed for comfort and extensive use and the standard sizings make it easy to get replacement parts on the road.

We also bought Surly racks and Vaude panniers to carry all of the unfortunate Kg’s involved in being human.

Adi bought his bike first and loved it! We then bought a few other things including our Golite Shangri-La 5 tent, a Primus gas stove, some cooking equipment, a water bag, Swiss army knife, a travel pillow plus the bags and racks.

Then it was my turn. After sending one bike back because the frame size was too big for me, I received the bike that will whisk me away to distant lands, a size smaller and a lot more comfortable. The way that Surly’s are made means that the frame size comes up slightly differently to other bikes and a lot of people reported that they had to get a size smaller than they would usually get. This was the case for me and I’m glad I sent it back and got the other size, despite the extra hassle and expense.

It makes a huge difference to be on a bike that fits well. I’m no bike expert but the bigger one felt awkward, scary and a bit alien to me. I felt much more in command of the smaller one, like it was an extension of my body. That, to me, is the sign of a snuggly fitting bike.

Here are some pictures of me with my bike (Bitch).

She’s awesome and she rides like a dream!

Here is Adi’s bike…

And here is Adi attempting to ride my bike

Now all we have to do is buy the trillion other things we need to get going such as: good sleeping bags and mats, Waterproofs, a collapsible bowl for washing, plates bowls and cutlery, cycling shorts/trousers, bottle cages, handlebar bags, bike tools and repair kits and probably many other things that I will be kept up at night trying to remember. Phew…

Of course, we could just get a train or something, but no. We’re hardcore.