Belgium, Luxembourg, Gemany, France!!!

I've crossed a lot of borders and done a lot of cycling since my last blog and I've loads to say, so, if you'd like the short version here it is - I'm loving it!! Meeting great people, seeing beautiful places and just having an amazing time!!

The longer version goes like this:

From Marche en Famenne I hit the hills towards La Roche en Ardenne. There was some solid uphill at the beginning but then wonderful downhill which I assumed would mean more uphill but I was wrong which was great!! All down and flat for the rest of the day, lunch in Houffalize and then on to Bastogne to stay with a lovely couchsurfing family.



I was on the road for the first part of the day and a cyclist on a racer joined me for the uphill, he was impressed at my speed with my 'gross sac' so that was a nice boost! The bike path from Houffalize was lovely but very quite, it's nice to see other cyclists once in a while.

 

 

From Bastogne I hit the road to Germany which meant a long day cycling as I had to cross Luxembourg first. I followed the Wiltz river bike path which was flat and quite and all of a sudden I was in Luxembourg, I think the arch below was meant to symbolize that but it didn't say anything. I arrived in Wiltz town and then the uphill began! I cycled on to meet the Sure river and then followed that until it joined the Mossel and followed that to Trier in Germany. It's mad following a river from it's source and watch it grow and then join with a massive river with cargo boats!

 

Luxembourg is a funny country, they speak Luxembourgish which is a mix of French and German and they don't seem to have rules about smoking and working. I asked for directions from a man smoking while cleaning tables in a restaurant which I thought was strange and then later on in the day, I stopped for food in Echternach, a pretty town on the border with Germany and when I went in to pay the lady was smoking while cooking!

It is a very pretty country though with lots of trees, hills and rivers. 

 

 I finally arrived in Trier in Germany, 130km later! Robin from warmshowers was waiting for me and brought me to his place where he kindly hosted me. Trier is a great city, lots of Roman architecture and history. It was a great place to take a day off and I treated myself to a massage which ended up being a pretty painful treat, I guess all the mileage is bound to lead to painful massage!

 

 

 

 

 

I met Magdalena from warmshowers the next day and she brought me to a lovely Bbq with her friends in a vineyard and I stayed there for the night.  It was great to chat with Robin and Magdalena and all their friends, everyone was really friendly and had great English which was great because I haven't a clue of German! 

 

 

 

So far on this trip I've been surrounded by French, Italian, Dutch, Luxembourgish and German, it's been quite confusing but I've been enjoying the challenge of trying to speak different languages but when it comes to German, I'm out, I understand turn left or right but that's about it!

 

Magdalena and her friends cycled with m to the Mosselle then they headed North and I went south along the Mosselle and then joined with the Saar. The cycle paths in Germany are so busy, it's so different that Belgium, my bell is my best friend here as you have to use it to prevent bike crashes!!

I stopped in Saarbourg first, a beautiful town with a waterfall in the middle of it. It was amazing all the cyclists there of all shapes, ages and sizes. Nobody seems to have an excuse not to cycle, if you're not fit enough they just use an electric bike. It's such a nice day out, cycle to a lovely town in the countryside for the day then back to the city.

 

 

 

Cycling along the Saar was beautiful, in the valley among the trees, really beautiful! The only down side was that it was way longer than I expected, I thought I had an 80km cycle to get to Saarbrucken but after 95km and in Saarlouis I was still 25km out and starving. I was finding it hard to get food in the small villages along the way so I asked a man through a game of charades where I got food. He kindly cycled along with me for 10km and had some kind of German conversation with me and brought me to the next food stop. I ate, walked round looking for Wifi and then just gave up and booked a room in a hotel with Wifi. I'd a great sleep!!

 

The next day I was off along the Saar again to cross the border into France. The cycle paths in Germany were beginning to feel a bit rushed and not so sociable. I passed one man and without saying anything he tucked in behind me and used me as his wind break for about 10km. I passed another man and he too joined in my trail. It's not very comfortable having 2 guys tucked in behind you without either even saying hello. Anyway, they left and I continued on to Saarbrucken which became famous because of steel production. There was massive industry along the river which made me really happy that I hadn't been tempted to swim in it at any stage!

 

 

As soon as I crossed the border to France the pace seemed to totally relax. The first town I passed was Sarreguimes, a really lovely floral town that used to have a massive pottery factory - way nicer buildings that steel factory buildings!! I had a lovely dinner there and I could kind of understand what people were saying again which was a relief.

 

I followed the Saar again to Mittersheim where I had the first swim of my trip, it was fab and then the final 7km to Fenetrange, a great little medieval village. I called into a great pub/restaurant - Aux Oubliettes and was brought over to my room in Au Pied du Chateau. It felt like I had a whole castle to myself for the night and the staff were so nice, gave me plenty of local wine and pizza - yum!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, I took off cross country from Fenetrange to meet with the Rhine canal. It was nice to be cycling on the road again and to have ups and downs as I had been cycling on the flat beside rivers and canals for a while. I had a great day cycling, the highlight was probably the 5km of downhill through a beautiful forest to a lovely village called Lutzelbourg and from their on I just followed the flow of the Canal to Strasbourg! I had my lunch while watching a boat go through a canal lock and then a nice French couple joined me for the last 20km of my cycle to Strasborg and gave me tips on where I should visit. First stop the European Parliament for a pic with the Irish flag and then off to meet Mary and John!

 

 

 

 

So now I think I'm half way, I left Ireland 2 weeks ago, I meeting Ivan in 2 weeks, I've 1000km done, which is hopefully more than half and now I begin the next part, which is going to involve a lot of uphill!! But, I'm having a blast and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Everything has been great so far, great people, beautiful scenery, good food and nearly always fun cycling so here's hoping  the rest will be the same, I'm pretty sure it will :)

Belgium

Before I start to explain anything about Belgium you should watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceg6NQKHd70

I'm definitely confused by it, especially when it comes to the greetings. In Flanders I'm told it's 3 kisses to say hello, in Walloon, the French speaking part it's 1 and then of course there's all the other nationalities that live here so it could be 2 or a shake of the hand. But I guess it's good that I've learned all this as it means I've met a lot of people!

David Kitching showed me around Brussels the first night and tried to explain why the drivers in Brussels are a bit nuts. There are cycle paths and as long as you're on them it's ok but if a cyclist ventures onto the road, they'll get the horn!!
We met with other Irish folk and of course we had loads of friends in common in true Irish fashion. We went to an amazing mushroom restaurant - Café de Spores, even the dessert  had mushrooms in it - surprisingly delicious!

I'd a nice cycle to Antonella and Marzio house through the parks and wood on Friday, I even learned about Irelands wind energy production along the way!

I hadn't seen Anto and Marzio in 6 years, it was so good to catch up again! I spent the weekend with them and their friends, went to a honeymoon party, breakfast party and birthday party and a tour of Brussels- super weekend! And they fed me loads of food, fueling up is definitely my favourite part of cycling!

 

 

Myself and Marzio hit the road on Sunday to cycle 60km to Alda and Ed's house. There was cycle paths along all the main roads at the beginning so that was great and then of course they disappeared so we had to do some route finding but we got there, only 30min late - very good by my standards! Ed had a great dinner and desert ready for us. I met Alda and Ed 6 years ago when I was hitchhiking from Italy to Switzerland and we stayed in touch so it was great to meet up again. Alda brought me to Leuven on Monday. It's a really nice university city. Lot's of interesting buildings and gardens and bikes everywhere. They even have a very cool underground bike storage park.

oh and we helped save some ducklings that were lost and fell down the drain on the street.

Alda joined me in the afternoon as I made my way to Petite Gesves. It was great having the company and the local knowledge to find the bicycle route. All went smoothly when we were on the route but of course all good things come to an end and not long after Alda waved me goodbye the cycle route also disappeared. I ended up changing my route a bit, not really on purpose more just cause I was on the wrong road. I also learned that when a road sign says it's a dead end even though it looks like a road on my map I should probably believe the sign, I guess some mountain biking is no harm!

The main thing I've learned though is that touring is a lot slower than cycling. Before I left I thought 20km/hr would be the average pace I'd be doing but I definitely overestimated my speed. By the time I include all my getting lost and checking my map I reckon 15km'hr is more realistic, although that was before I hit the hills to Gesves, I was at 2km/hr at one stage!! Hopefully though 15km will be the average.


 I stayed with Eliabel and her family in Gesves. It was my first warmshowers.org experience and it was great. They live in a lovely house and were so nice and welcoming. I really appreciate everyone hospitality, it has really helped to make this trip.

 

 

 

And so today I headed towards Marche en Famenne. It started with a lot of lovely downhill which I presumed would also mean a lot of uphill but I was wrong which was great. I visited a lovely town called Durbuy and then I followed a perfect bicycle path all the way to my destination where I'm staying at a lovely farm house where a group of friends live together.

 

 

Cambridge to Brussels

My super long cycle to London and Eurostar to Brussels

  

So I said goodbye to Lorna and took off from Cambridge at about 9.30 thinking I would have loads of time to get London and would be there for about 4pm but I definitely got my timing all wrong.

 

I mapped my route using a really great website that maps cycle routes all over the UK and gives options for the fast route, the balanced route and the quite route;   http://cambridge.cyclestreets.net/journey/ , it's the same as www.bikehub.co.uk

 

 

I went around in a few little circles leaving Cambridge trying to find National Cycle Route 11 but that was ok, I'm used to getting a little lost. NCR 11 is great, where I joined it there is a mile long art installation that represents the 10,000th mile of cycle route in the UK and a breast cancer gene that was discovered in the local hospital.



 

 

The rest of the route was really nice, some of it is off road goes and through lovely countryside and even church grounds and then it moves onto minor roads that go through really pretty little villages, massive wheat and oat fields and some beautiful red and yellow fields - poppies and rapeseed, beautiful! It's really well signposted so I had a few hours of not getting lost. I had a few good viewing spots where I could look down on the motorway and all the cars and lorries that I didn't have to cycle beside!

A nice pub in Arkesden was my lunch destination. It worked out really well as there was two other cyclists there and they had maps so we figured out the best route to connect to the bike route for London. I done ok getting to the town where the next cycle route began, only 1 slight detour but I still had a lovely cycle to Ware. The cycle route to London runs along the river Lee and is called NCR 1. I knew it started in Ware, I seen  river and a cycle route, it said London on it and was called NCR 61 so I figured that must be it. This was about 2.30 and I had a date for 4pm in London and I contacted her to say I should be there in time but by 3.45 I was only 10km down the road so I definitely missed our date! I took NCR 61 which was beautiful, all along the river but I ended up in Hertford and I started asking people if it was the right direction for London to which I got a lot of blank stares. I ended up having to get my SatNav out, follow the main roads to the next town that I knew was on NCR1 and restart my trip to London.

Once I got on NCR1 the rest of the trip was great, just follow the river, easy! I seen so many barges with people living in them. The cycle route was great because it as all off road but the surface made for slow enough cycling and there were a few times that I'd to get off my bike to open gates or go over bumpy cobbles but it was all part of the adventure.

I finally arrived into London after 6. NCR1 goes straight to the Thames so I didn't have to deal with traffic for about 25km. It was a bit of a shock arriving into central London and trying to deal with busy roads again but thankfully, Peter from SDG came to meet me and explained the cycling culture in London, the different networks and how it has grown so much. In Camden alone cycling has increased 225%. There's signs up advertising the fact and encouraging more people to get involved in the change. Peter is the cycling market leader for SDG so he had lots of information and experience on how change is possible. We cycled around a bit and it turns out cycling in London isn't that scary after all, drivers are used to cyclists and there's plenty of bike lanes. We ended up in a really cool café called -Look Mum no hands. It's a cyclists café, they've got a pump and a little workshop for people to get their bike fixed while having some lunch! http://www.lookmumnohands.com/

 

I left Peter and took off on my own with little Miss SatNav and found my way to Ciaras house and had a great time catching up with her and taking  it easy before getting the Eurostar to Brussels on Thursday.

 

 

 I was excited about getting the Eurostar as I'd never been on it before but I fell asleep straight away so I can't report back anything about the journey except that it was very comfortable! 

And now, here I am in Brussels, drinking nice beers with Dave :)

 

Dublin to Cambridge

 

I've made it to Cambridge!!

 

I arrived in Dublin on Thursday and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to cycle around, well apart from the taxis parked in cycle lanes. Then off to Peter and SJ's wedding in Antrim, it's beautiful up there, I'm looking forward to going back. Great wedding, great weekend and great fun hanging out with the gang.

 

 With some of the crew at the Giants Causeway

 

 

     Elephant Rock, Balintoy, Co. Antrim

 

Got a lift back to Dublin with Denny then on my bike again to Rob's house, stayed there and got the ferry on Monday morning. I got a SailRail ticket, only €46 from Dublin to Milton Keynes and another €10 for the bike. It's great because it's an open ticket so because I would have to wait 3 hours for a train that could take my bike I just cycled on to Bangor and met the train there instead. Cycling off the ferry was a bit mad as it was just me and a load of Artic trucks!

 

  Getting the ferry, Dublin

 

It was a lovely cycle to Bangor, pretty hilly in places but lovely once I got off the main road and I got to cycle over the Menai Bridge which was cool.

 

   Menai Bridge, Isle of Anglessy to Bangor

 

Putting my bike on the train from Bangor to Milton Keynes was easy enough, someone else had parked their bike and taken up the half of my space but it's not very clear how to load the bike so I can see why it happened. I think we were meant to hang the bikes somehow but there was no instructions or pictures.

I left Milton Keynes station, went straight to a map and didn't learn anything from it, so I asked which way is east. Milton Keynes has a massive amount of cycle networks and at the beginning I thought it was amazing, bike parking everywhere, bike lanes everywhere, stickers pointing to the National Cycle network, all good until you want to find out where to go! I knew about National Cycle Route 51 before I left and that it goes East to West and through Milton Keynes and Cambridge. I tried to buy a map online before I left but I couldn't find any for that section of the route. I had a route along minor roads planned but there were loads of stickers for route 51 so once I had the direction sorted out I hit the path! However, after an hour and a half of cycling around and not seeing a single directional sign I was getting pretty frustrated. I asked a number of people for help too and nobody really knew about Route 51 except that it went by their estate. I came off route 51 and figured I should get onto the road and try and  to find my original route as route 51 was taking me south for some reason.

There's a cycle path alongside the motorway which I thought would be good but whenever it came up to roadsigns and a roundabout the cycle routes went to a maze underneath the roundabout with no roadsigns so it was really hard to figure out. I once again I ended up asking a fellow cyclist and thankfully  he could give me some advice. He first of all completely agreed with my feeling of lack of signage, he said it's the same for motorists and their road signs, good if you want to go anywhere in Milton Keynes but if you want to leave the city the signage is very bad.

 

 Cycle parking everywhere in Milton Keynes

 Cycle track along canal in MK

 National Cycle Route 51, stickers everywhere but no map or signs to say where it goes

 

Anyway, after the slowest 16km of my life (1.5hrs, I usually do about 22km/hr) I finally got onto the minor roads and followed my original path. The English countryside is lovely and the drivers are so polite and wait until it's clear to overtake and give cyclists loads of space.

 

I passed a Weetabix field while on my bike, think it's a sign for what I should eat for brekkie!

 

 Weetabix field!!

 

 I'd a nice cycle but because of spending so long in Milton Keynes I wasn't going to reach Cambridge before dark so my bike and I jumped on a bus from a small village, paid £5 and finished our journey to Cambridge.

 

I finally arrived at Lornas house at 10.30pm after leaving Robs house in Dublin at 6.30am, long day but great to be on the road! Cambridge is great, bikes everywhere and great to catch up with Lorna.

 

 

 Being a tourist with Lorna in Cambridge

 

  Modelling the Sneaky Path with Thomas

 

 

  Tree covered in a weird moth larvae