"Why does it feel good, why does it feel good, why does it feel so good?" Downloaded Spiller's Groovejet with Napster today. First heared it October 12th in Trier and loved it. A bit Seventies like!

The French.. Honestly. From 5.30 in the morning, another buggered up room mate's alarm clock went off, so he pressed the snooze button. Five minutes later it went off again, so he pressed snooze again. Five minutes later it went off again, and this kept on happening until I left the hostel with a temper as foul as the weather. The wet and slippery streets in the centre had me cycling sideways more than once, but I was lucky not to fall. I bought a road map and pitched myself against the wind, on my way to Verdun. Again I found myself cycling on an express way, so I took a turn at some point, which according to the map should have gotten me to a town called Rombas. Except on the map it looked less of a distance than it turned out to be. I was still going headlong against the wind, in drizzle and with lots of lorries whooshing past. Lorries carrying sand, losing some of it in the wind, can be quite annoying to contact wearing cyclists already struggling against wind and traffic. By the time I got to the ugly mining town, my eyes hurt so much I couldn't open either of them. I parked my bike for a bit, screamed angrily – the place was deserted anyway – and turned back. Fuck Paris and the French, to hell with reaching England, I'd go back to Trier. When I got to Thionville again, the last direct train to Trier had left. Thanks again, you cheese eating surrender monkeys. I had to grab a slow train to Perl, on the French-German border, and then hopefully connect from there. I wasn't in the mood. So bugger it, I rode to Perl by bike. When I got there, I decided to push on along the Moselle and get to Trier cycling. I took a few wrong turns over the hilly fields and at Nettel my rear tire sprang a leak. Only then did I get onto a train. Luckily I had made a telephone reservation for the hostel before setting off, because I got there well after dinner time. I ate something, and just to shrug it all off I went back into town and visited the cinema. Ideally, Coyote Ugly was on, one of the most idiotic (yet strangely satisfying) films I could ever imagine. "Can't fight the moonlight.."

Labels: travel

This morning I tried to get to the city of Luxembourg, but no luck. A fair wind slowed my progress frustratingly. I got as far as the village of Merten, just across the border into the duchy of Luxembourg. It wasn't all that far really, but I was beat. The last few kilometres I had been cycling on a pavement along an express way, which stopped abruptly in Merten. I couldn't see any other option but to get onto the expressway or to turn back. As the road had been shitty from the Luxembourg border already, I decided I didn't want to risk my life another for a few hours. So I turned back, pissed off. With the wind now giving me a shove back to Trier, I worked the pedals like a maniac. My average speed over the fifty or so kilometres was near 33 kilometres an hour, which on a pannier-laden bike going over narrow and bumpy cycling paths is exceptional. In Trier, I grabbed a train to Thionville, hoping that in France (home of the Tour de France) a cyclist would fare rather better than in Luxembourg. I got there near 4pm. The hostel near the station didn't open for a few more hours, so I bought a French SIM card for my phone and sat down at the Moselle to munch on a cake I had brought from Trier. When it did open, the hostel wasn’t a delight. I got a weird old bloke as a room mate who wouldn't stop speaking incomprehensible French. I pretended to be English, told him I found him 'rather annoying actually'. It seemed to work.

Labels: travel

Last time I was in Trier was 1995. And it was superb. Though our parents had decided to rent a cottage in the middle of nowhere and spent days bickering – rural Germany is hell – my sisters and I often went to nearby Trier and fell in love with this town. Elf and Mar found beautiful boys and great surroundings, and I felt at home. It's much like Nijmegen, with its Roman heritage and nice modern streets. Actually it's nicer than Nijmegen I think. If ever I'd want to be a German guy, I'd want to be from Trier. But oddly enough I'd rather not be a German dude. I went to the cinema this evening, to see Bruce Willis in "Disneys The Kid". Cute film, but Bruce speaking German (they dub everything here) took a bit of getting used to. It was a rainy Sunday otherwise, so I was quite happy to leave my bike parked in the hostel's shed. This Monday I still didn't feel ready to leave Trier behind – even though I do want to reach Paris – and spent another day walking through town, admiring it. I visited another film in the cinema: "Schatten der Wahrheit" (What Lies Beneath) with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. A very Autumny thriller, with lots of water, cold and death. I loved it.

Labels: travel

When I started this morning, I thought Trier might be 60 kilometres or so away. Three hours of cycling, nothing more than that. So I left rather later in the morning. Unfortunately I had miscalculated: not only did the Mosel meander a bit more than I had reckoned with, so did the roads just North of Trier. In the end I notched up 115 km, double my estimate almost. Still, Trier is a gorgeous town with lots of nice memories from holidays there in '94 and '95. I'm thrilled to be back, just a bit miffed I didn't get back sooner in the day!

Labels: travel

With the panniers again attached and going down the 18 percent incline, my brakes nearly caught fire, but I otherwise got out of Koblenz just dandy. It wasn't until I hit a small town called Dieblich, where an enormous viaduct crosses the Rhein valley, that I decided to have my breakfast. 'Schwarzbrot' (black bread), some with cheese and others with honey.. Fabulous! From Koblenz to Dieblich the landscape had looked quite like what you often see with Märklin miniature railways. Rolling green hills, cutesy houses, roads and bridges.. It got more realistic after that, as I followed the meandering course of the Mosel river and discovered a downside about meandering water. Near a place called Alf, the Mosel bends sharply to the East, to Zell, then back West to Pünderich. At Alf, I noticed a thick rain cloud overhead. I swerved out of its path following the course of the river, but then followed the river right back into the rain. It proved to be a hail storm (ouch) but I didn't get frustrated, I just found it funny. At Traben-Trarbach I had another steep climb toward the hostel, when I had had enough of that yesterday. Not sure what the meaning of the name "Traben Trarbach" is, actually, my German sucks. I'd say Grapes-Mourning Creek. Interesting wines they must make.

Labels: travel

I thought I might as well do it the easy way today. To cycle from Düsseldorf along the Rhein to the South would've bored me I think. I've noticed now what it's like cycling by the river, through industrial areas and through nice cities. Cologne and Bonn might be interesting, but I'd want to get further down South, so I wouldn't have time to enjoy it there anyway. Instead of cycling then, I went to the train station, got my bike aboard a train, went to Koblenz, offloaded my bike, checked into a hostel and relaxed a bit more. Or not quite, actually. When I got to Koblenz, the IYHF youth hostel guidebook didn't really shed much light on where to find the actual hostel. That is, it showed the route, but the distances were vague, so that I must've looked very puzzled during my cycling round trip of Koblenz. When at a certain moment I thought "al right let's just follow this road then, see where it leads" I did eventually find a few road signs leading to the hostel. And to my worst enemy: a long 18 percent incline up towards an old fort, in which the hostel is situated. I didn’t stand a chance, especially with the panniers weighing me down. It proved a long, tiring hike before check-in. When I had unpacked, I grabbed my bike again to go shopping in the town centre, and bought a Nokia 6100 phone with infra-red. All I need now is a Psion mini-computer to satisfy my tech-savvy needs (and write my novel) but I might buy that in Nijmegen. Back to the hostel, I this time declared I'd conquer that mountain and thankfully.. I did.

Labels: travel

Cycling from the train station to the hostel yesterday, I noticed Düsseldorf is actually anything but the industrial town I had expected. So this morning I decided I'd stay an extra night. I needed to do some shopping anyway; contact lens fluid and a lens container, essentials that I forgot to bring. I eventually scored these items at the Karstadt warehouse, but the morning had passed into the afternoon by then. My Koga Miyata Traveller looked attractive without its bags attached, so I took it for a ride through the city. And I rode like I would have in Nijmegen: furiously. Without the stuffed pannier bags, the bicycle felt as though it didn't weigh anything at all. I raced up the Rhein bridge so fast that I managed to get both wheels off the ground where the road leveled out again.. Or maybe that's just how it felt. The riverside in Düsseldorf is nice too, with pubs and benches to take in the view.. It features a cycling path too, the tiles of which are spread out in a wave pattern. At some point I had to stop and stand still for a bit, not to get so dizzy as to throw up. Düsseldorf is a pretty town though, really. The youth hostel is on the West bank of the Rhein, where cute white houses somehow made me feel as though I might be in Brighton again. When I called my mother from the hostel, she was surprised I was still no further than Düsseldorf though. She's right, it's time I show more ambition.

Labels: travel

The cycling odyssey plan has changed. I still want to reach Scotland, but I don't fancy simply grabbing the ferry at Rotterdam. Instead, I'll go a long way round via Germany, Luxembourg and France, to get to the UK via Calais-Dover. No strict plan to adhere to though, I'll just see how far I get.

Though I really wanted to reach Cologne today, I'm not miserable about making it only as far as Krefeld. I left home by bicycle bloody early, and the best thing about going East from Nijmegen is that getting a holiday feeling almost immediately. Germany is so close by, and despite that, it feels entirely different. I cycled through rather a hilly landscape through to Xanten and wasn't used to a fully packed bike, but though it was tiring going over inclines, it was smooth otherwise. With Xanten behind me, the ride turned into a a bit of a search. Nijmegen and Cologne are both on the river Rhein, so just following it upstream should do. Except you can't simply follow the river banks. From Xanten onwards more and more small but steep climbs appeared, the river went out of sight and I got to the dreadful town of Moers. There, suddenly, all 'cyclable' paths ended and I needed to get onto the hard shoulder of a motorway. I took the risk, lucky to find another cycling path after a few kilometres. Just a bit further down the route I got to the neat town centre of Krefeld and thought that I would need to cross the Rhein to get to Düsseldorf. When I did though, I found myself in the direction of Essen. To non-Germans that won’t mean much, probably, but when you're there it sucks. I turned back from where I came, which frustrated me enough to grab a train from that point onwards, to get to Düsseldorf anyway. When I got to the youth hostel, I was afraid my poor German skills would mean trouble at check-in. More unfortunate still, a nice French girl handled the reception duties, and she didn't speak a word in German, Dutch or even English. So I noticed once more my French is shite. Oh well, I clocked up 140 kilometres on my first day, not bad at all. I slept like a log.

Labels: travel