Category: Europe 2023

~80km today, again rather unpleasantly hot, but nice scenery, and some hills. Last night’s campsite was part of a Canoe club, where they were holding a birthday party for (I assume) one of the members. So it was a bit noisy, but luckily I had ear plugs with me. They seemed to sing happy Birthday READ MORE

Quite a long day today – 101km. The weather was much cooler and I had a tail wind, which helped a lot. I was slightly dreading the navigation for this bit, as it was a bit off piste, and not following the River Main (essentially cutting the corner off and avoiding Frankfurt. I’m sure it’s READ MORE

I’d expected today to be fairly gentle, but it turned out to be quite tiring. It was about 65km, but the heat made it very difficult Then it was on to Mainz. I’m staying at a nice campsite just on the other side of the river. After setting up camp I took the bus into READ MORE

Lots more river riding today. I think it was about 70km, but something went wrong with the trip recording. The first major stop was Koblenz, where the Mosel joins the Rhein, at Deutsches Eck. After an indifferent Currywurst and Frites (insert joke about it being the worst), I headed out south along the river. There READ MORE

72km today. Headed south through the rather industrial north of Cologne (past a huge Ford plant), then along the riverfront through the centre. After the centre there was a more recently (re?)developed waterfront. All very nice, but somewhat soulless. Then it was on to Bonn. This was further than I was expecting. I was there READ MORE

A rest day in Köln today. I got the bus and train into town – it was about a 10 minute walk from the campsite. I’d planned to head into Bonn to do some sightseeing too, but realised I’d bought the wrong ticket, so will save that for when I pass through tomorrow. There was READ MORE

Just a short post today… cycled from Venlo to north of Cologne. Was about 85km in total. I encountered my first hill just outside Venlo, before the German border. For Bristol readers it was about 1/3 of a Park Street. There was some Sunday morning Greyhound racing in the park after the hill. Then it READ MORE

Cycled to just outside Venlo, via Eindhoven and Helmond, today. This was about 70km. I was curious to see Evoluon in Eindhoven; I’d been there as a child, but it was derelict at the time. Sadly I was there a bit early to see the exhibition on retro futures. It’s certainly a striking building. The READ MORE

I’m into my second country… Belgium. I’m not sure how many times I crossed the Belgium Dutch frontier today, but I suspect it’s in double figures. I did about 75km today , and am camping just west of Eindhoven. The campsite I was aiming for is currently hosting a (free) festival, which I may cycle READ MORE

I’d (optimistically) planned to cycle to Baarle-Nassau today.  I did about 55 miles, but the heat was getting too much.  I saw a sign to camping at Liesbos, a couple of miles away, and decided to call it a day. There were a lot of cyclists on the ferry, and I’d got talking to another READ MORE