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Bad news from Bad Urach

Day 11
Distance today: 40.58 k
Distance in total: 1045 k

I was hit by a car. My right elbow has a fracture and my arm is in a cast.

It was an odd accident. I reached a t-junction on a quiet road through the town of Bad Urach where I needed to turn left. Immediately after doing so there was a pedestrian crossing with couple of people on it, so I freewheeled to allow them to finish. I was moving at walking pace. Next thing the leading pedestrian looked over my left shoulder and shouted something. Then I heard a car's engine and felt it hit me squarely from behind. I don't remember the fall it happened so quickly, next I knew I was on my feet, in pain and shock but aware I was fundamentally OK.

I sat down. My arm hurt. Several people checked on me, including the driver and policemen who were actually parked on the corner. I explained my German was limited, the police spoke English well enough. The driver, in a Mercedes, was a short middle-aged man. He was desperately apologetic, as he obviously had to be. He simply didn't see me. I think he registered the pedestrians and accelerated into the space that had just been in while watching them and didn't clock my presence. The police took the pedestrian's account and photographed the scene, marking out where my bike finished with chalk as they do for dead bodies. Later I was offered the chance to press charges but I didn't see any point, it was just a bad mistake, not an act of recklessness.

An ambulance took me to the town's small hospital. After xrays, a ct scan and a lot of waiting around I was given a light cast and instruction to seek further advice in London as I may need surgery.

The police have been very helpful. Once I was out of hospital they set about finding me a hotel for the night. I picked the wrong week to have an accident here. Every room in town is booked for a biosphere conference, except the expensive and terrible one I'm in now. It only has a basin, the toilet is in the corridor, I've no access to a bath or shower.

The police still have my bike. They thought the frame was bent but I'm not sure. The rear mudguard is ruined but the rear wheel looked superficially OK to me. (Update, it's not).

I'm OK. I'm not in any pain but I hardly slept. As I'm right handed some practicalities like brushing my teeth are rather difficult. Bit disoriented. I need to get home, something my insurance should take care of, I hope today.

Going to call time on this blog. I'll rearrange it and add photos when I'm able to, it will be under www.nickstricks.net somewhere. Thanks for the messages of support along the way, hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.

Nick

Forbidding forecast

Day: 10
Distance today: 95k
Distance so far: 1005k

A good day. The sun shone throughout and the forested scenery was a pleasure to travel through. A few stiff climbs at the start were hard work, but expected, and led to exhilarating speeds on the way back down.

The second climb of the day was purely to get off a busy road. Worth it I think, I don't like sharing limited space with fast moving trucks. One came very close to an accident because of me. He was actually being considerate, swinging out wide when passing me. The car that appeared round the corner in the opposite direction probably didn't see it the same way, he had to come to a standstill to avoid a collision.

Both start and end towns are pleasant. Knowing the distance wasn't too great I had a leisurely breakfast in Bad Herrenalb, a slow-paced spa town. I finished in Tubingen which is a gem that my short stroll round hasn't done justice to. It has a castle with excellent views across the surrounding forested plain. The streets are quiet and cobbled with small alleyways to explore. The buildings are uniformly attractive in a medieval style.

I'm currently sipping a merlot to go with my pasta in a high standard Italian. By typing away I hope they think I'm writing for a travel magazine, the food is excellent at any rate. My budgetary regime is a curious one, my spend on the evening meal probably surpasses everything else added together. It also represents the only variety in my diet. Breakfast is always pastries, lunch cheese and ham sandwiches, supplemented during the day with many chocolate bars and haribo sweets.

I chatted briefly to a Dutch touring cyclist at the campsite. He was on his way to Rome. As with everyone I speak to, I told him I was on my way to Munich. He told me he was worried because there was already snow in Austria. The same Austria that I'm down to go through next. I'm only looking as far as Munich for now, will think things through there, but snow in Austria might figure in that analysis given I wanted to go home when the wind was a bit chilly on Sunday.

Tomorrow could be a bit tricky, it's quite long, a fiddle navigationally and may not be flat. Hope the merlot sends me to sleep.

Bridging the gap

Day: 9
Distance today: 145k
Distance so far: 910k

I was in a better state of mind on the bike today, which was a good thing because I was there a long time. I covered more ground than any day so far, not all of it in the right direction, but there were also plenty of delays that meant I arrived in Bad Herrenalb over 9 hours after leaving Landstuhl.

The problems started on leaving Landstuhl. I asked at the hotel if there was a supermarket nearby, the reply suggested there were so many it wasn't worth giving specific directions. Predictably I couldn't find one. Equally unsurprisingly the two cash machines I tried didn't work. My disdain for the town was now such I just wanted to get out so left without resolving either problem.

The biggest delays came from the tricky navigation, I had to stop a lot and went off course a couple of times. The biggest navigational issue though was more substantial. After yesterday's problem with my map showing a non-existent campsite, this time it appeared to show a non-existent bridge. Not a small bridge either but one over the Rhine. Had it been blown up? I've not seen much news this week. It took me a while to realise the map was showing a shuttle ferry crossing that was indeed in operation so I made use of it, I guess I can no longer say I've cycled all the way from Dunkirk. The alternative, making use of the next bridge, would have involved re-entering France, the border being only a mile away, which I found surprising as I thought I'd left France well behind days ago.

The day's ride was largely flat and uneventful, though it did go through lots of pretty hamlets with timber framed houses, and the roads were often through vineyards or orchards giving off a warm aroma. One village had a banner indicating a shop was the 2009 European Weisswurst championship winner. I expect there's not a great geographical spread across the continent to that competition.

The start and end of the day were more dramatic though, taking in two pine-forested parks. It began with a climb and then very long sweeping descent through the Pfalzerwald, the road lined with memorials, presumably to motorcyclists. The day ended in the Schwarzwald. Entering it required ascending the hardest climb of the trip so far, four kilometres of uncompromising gradient. At the steepest point I considered walking, and would have been no slower doing so. I believe that tomorrow's short ride could be punctuated by a lot more of the same.

Sonntag Geschlossen

Day: 8
Distance today: 115k
Distance so far: 765k

Today was another difficult one, but not from a purely physical point of view.

It rained all night so I didn't sleep so well. When I got going there were a couple of frustrations, first I made a hash of navigating out of Trier, then the road I planned to take was marked as private. As it went steeply up hill I didn't want to risk not being able to get through.

When I did finally get up to speed, something like 25 of the first 30k was climbing, though this was rewarded with a largely downhill day thereafter. The weather was unpleasant, light rain on and off and a persistent cold wind. Not enough to cause real discomfort but enough that it wasn't fun. The scenery was forested but not dramatic. As it was a Sunday, and I was in Germany, everything was closed. A combination of fatigue, homesickness and the general lifelessness of the day started to get me down. Then it really got me down. For a while all I wanted was to stop and get off the bike. I was tired but not exhausted, I just wasn't interested. For the first time the idea of getting to Munich and going home became a seriously appealing idea.

It probably didn't help that my plans were vague: I would cover as much ground as I could along a route and then look for somewhere to stop when the time came. The time came in a place called Landstuhl. This had a campsite marked on my map, but I'd not verified any details. I was already worried after someone asked me where I was going when stopped at a service station, and he didn't know of the site.

Sure enough I couldn't find it, because it's not there. Apparently there is a motorhome site, but I couldn't find that either. It was too late to get to the next marked site near a lake, and I knew no more about it. At least I was in a town so I could find something to eat on a Sunday. So I decided I'd have to get a room. There were lots of signs to hotels, but I couldn't find them either, I just kept going round the one way system. I realised one was out of town up a hill. After cycling ten minutes there I buzzed the door twice before a detached voice told me they had no free rooms. Dispirited I returned to town and followed another sign down an unlikely residential road that was being dug up. The hotel had a room where I am right now. It costs 68 euros, compared to a campsite that's normally less than 10, but today I think it was worth every cent.

Feeling a bit better about things under a roof and after a proper shower. Still going to take a view when I reach Munich though, if I'm not enjoying it I'll come home.

I've been able to replan the week a bit. Seems like every time I deviate from campsite I've looked up in advance then things go wrong. It's remarkably hard to plan without full pc web access. I managed here with my phone a moderate WiFi, but it took me an hour to sort out three sites. Beginning to think that some sort of campsite guidebook would help, with the 95% of pages you don't need torn out.

Upshot is that tomorrow I have what looks a long and tricky to navigate route to Bad Herrenalb (which will put me a day ahead of the original schedule again) but at least it looks from the web that the site exists and it is open late. And I'll be fueled by my hotel breakfast.

Trying Trier

Day: 7
Counties so far: 5
Distance today: 55k
Distance so far: 650k

A day I'm not sure I made the most of. Spent the morning strolling round Vianden. It is very pretty. The castle didn't open that early so I only saw it from the outside. Turns out it was in ruins until the '70s, since which they have performed an impressive piece of restoration. The town's other claim to fame is Victor Hugo stayed for about 10 minutes and they've made the most of it.

I set off not terribly early, but deliberately for once. I crossed the border to Germany immediately, then followed it down the river Sauer, a very nice ride and easy, just what I needed after yesterday. I then took a shortcut towards Trier so I'd arrive in the town close to the campsite. It may have saved distance but it probably cost time, it was a route full of brutal undulations.

The final descent was dramatic and could have been more so. My gears stopped changing and I looked down to see a cycle top I'd been drying on the back of the bike had become tangled in the rear gears. I was lucky it didn't cause the wheel to seize, it could have been very nasty. As I fixed the problem the rims of the rear wheel were still hot to touch from all the breaking. The top was fine, if a bit oily. Will be wearing it tomorrow.

Trier dates back to Roman times and has plenty to take in, including a very imposing cathedral. Unfortunately I've not actually seen a great deal, I was more preoccupied with finding clothes pegs and a new map. This being Germany nothing will be open tomorrow as it's Sunday so I had to get on with it. Bit embarrassed by the clothes pegs, girlfriend Claire pointed out this gap in my inventory as she happily reminded me. I now have 36 of them when I need about 6.

Struggling a bit physically. My legs feel like they've taken a solid pounding from the undulations, just walking up a flight of steps is tricky at the minute.

Tomorrow might be difficult. I'm out of sync with my schedule, half a day ahead, so I don't really know where to aim for. There are camping spots marked on my map but mobile internet isn't proving up to the task of finding anything out about them, like whether they still exist. There's no clear route either, and I can see a lot of arrows marking steep roads. I'm going to just ride and see where I get too, may not be that far.

Luxemburg in a day

Days: 6
Countries: 4
Distance today: 135k
Distance so far: 595k

Today I suffered. Made it to Vianden. Very hard work and I'm shattered.

Having previously indicated how an early start was vital, today I was slower than ever to get going. Partly due to a bit of a natter with my Dutch neighbours on the way to Spain in their motorhome. They used the same mode of transport to go to London for new year and now have a £1000 fine hanging over them for entering the low emission zone. There was also a great deal of condensation on the tent which I've yet to work out how to deal with, though the tent does a great job of keeping it away from me during the night. After first stirring at 7.15 I didn't really get going until gone 9.30, so I was chasing the day from the off.

I passed through Rochefort (nothing to do with the cheese) and St Hubert, both of which looked like they merited further inspection. Will have to think about this a bit, I won't be getting so much out of the trip if I can't stop to see things.

Between these towns was the first real climb I've faced, getting on for 10k of solid ascent. My legs didn't take too kindly and tightened up badly. The scenery was fine though, this was the Ardennes forest at its best.

It then reverted to fairly non-descript farmland until the border with Luxemburg, but there were still continuous quite severe undulations that slowed progress and sapped my strength.

On crossing the border the scenery again became forested and I was launched down an exhilarating three mile descent. For a while it appeared all roads in Luxemburg were well surfaced, clearly signposted and downhill. The stretch of road between Wiltz and Kautenbach must be the nicest for cycling I've ever been on, flat through a shade of trees with beautiful views, on a pristine surface and almost no traffic.

Then it started to climb. It was uninterrupted for four miles and again my legs tightened up. Hoping for the reward of a long descent I was disappointed. Instead it undulated significantly into a stiff breeze for several miles more. Really starting to struggle, I was overwhelmed with relief when I finally got to a sign showing two miles downhill at 10%. In no time I was at another sign: Vainden 1k, Deutschland 1k. Luxemburg crossed in an afternoon.

Vainden is dominated by a Disney style castle, beneath which cafes line cobbled streets. Despite this I'm not actually that keen. It feels like an artificial tourist town, and is dominated by large groups of motorbikers for whom the town appears to be some sort of centre of pilgrimage. The campsite I'm at is pretty rubbish too, close to a busy road and little else going for it. I was going to reward myself with a day off tomorrow but instead I plan a short hop to Trier.

Ahhdennes

Days: 5
Distance today: 100k
Distance so far: 460k

The sort of day I had in mind for this section of the route when planning the trip. The roads were largely quiet and well surfaced, the sun shone and pleasant green scenery evolved around me. I'm in the Ardennes where agricultural land has been superseded by forest, and the terrain is rolling rather than flat.

The only issue of the day was some navigational difficulty. At one point I managed to do a complete triangle with two kilometre sides having mis-understood an instruction from a local. Forget what I said yesterday, I should spend less time talking to locals and more looking at my gps. I stopped for lunch in Walcourt, a very attractive town dominated by a huge church on a hill overlooking a cobbled square. Yet somehow despite its prominence it took me about ten minutes of wrong turns to get to the square, and there's only really two streets in the town.

I'm staying in Houyet at a campsite with a great location in all but one respect. It's bounded on one side by a slow moving river which you're able to camp right next to. Ducks play and large fish can be seen swimming in the clear water. This is overlooked by lush green forest on the hillside above. On the other side of the site runs a train line, along which immeasurably long freight trains hammer past, shattering the idyllic calm with their metallic roar. Mercifully this doesn't happen too often.

Partly because of the navigational issues, partly because distances are always turning out further than expected, my progress during the day is slower than hoped. The situation isn't helped by my normal inertia in getting out of bed, and my inefficiency at decamping having done so. I'll need improvements somewhere tomorrow or I won't complete what could be quite an ambitious journey to Vianden in Luxembourg.

Wild frontier

Days: 4
Distance today: 60k
Distance so far: 360k

I planned a very easy day, deciding to use some of the slack in the ride to Munich up front so as not to overdo things early on. This gave me a simple ride to Hergies on the French side of the border south of Mons, and time in the morning to use an internet cafe to sort out an admin issue.

On leaving the cafe I walked my bike to the other side of the road to make a phone call, and heard a funny sound. A bungey rope I'd carelessly let dangle from the pannier rack had caught on the rear wheel and wrapped round the hub. It had wedged in quite tight but I was eventually able to extract it and it doesn't appear to have damaged the bike, though the bungey was destroyed. That was only the first bit of potentially disastrous absent mindedness of the day. Later I'd cycle a distance with a pannier open, I'm still surprised my trainers that were lightly resting in the top didn't fall out.

On leaving Tournai at the start of the day my phone gps was playing up for a short while. It meant I had to check where I was with a local busy trimming his fence. He gave me some tips on the best route to take for the next few miles, which makes me think I should spend more time chatting to locals and less checking the gps.

I crossed the border three times during the day, and at the unlovely town of Quievrain it was announced that you were entering Belgium. Oddly the Belgium side of the frontier was packed with mini-casinos and sleezy video shops. A common sight maybe where a country with strict vice controls runs up against a more permissive one, but France/Belgium?

The pleasant houses and nice roads continued for a while, but towards Hergies the villages appeared deserted and the roads were unappealing concrete. Closing in on my destination I felt in the middle of nowhere and didn't have high hopes for the site. A sign lifted my spirits, three stars a bar, apparently. On arriving I found that the bar, and reception, were only open at weekends. The site was a ghost town of static mobile homes. It was the size of a small village but no-one was there. Showers required a key from reception, which would require a four day wait. I found another site on my map ten kilometres away in Maubeuge so decided to head there. As I was leaving someone did appear in the reception building but I'd already decided to go, it was fortunate he wasn't there earlier, staying would have been pretty dull.

Maubeuge and the surroundings aren't particularly attractive, a long, light urban sprawl. The site is basic but fine though. This stop was only ever to break the trip from Tournai to the Ardennes and not expected to be a highlight. Tomorrow should me quit France for good and bring more notable gradients.

On the carousel

Days: 3
Distance today: 85k
Distance so far: 300k

A far more relaxed day. After sleeping extremely well in the hotel I set off for Tournai. It proved to be a pretty easy route with few gradients, there was still a bit of a breeze but it was largely behind me. Pleasant Flemish villages arrived with satisfying regularity, each with a disproportionately large church and elaborate graveyard. The roads were perfect for touring, quiet, well surfaced and shared with patient, considerate drivers.

I reached the French border, again without it being denoted, and soon after stopped to eat my sandwich opposite the cathedral in Armentieres. I chatted to a chap outside a bookshop trying to recruit passers-by to a discount book service. People literally broke into a run to avoid him, he failed to get anyone to so much as find out what he was selling while I was there.

At the town of Seclin I thought I'd nip on to a more major road to avoid a small detour. The road was properly unpleasant with thundering trucks and not much space so I used my phone to find an alternative. The detour turned from a narrow road to a dirt track, and finally to badly maintained cobbles. I suspect the choice between direct but busy roads, and quiet but poor quality ones, will be something I will have to make again. The moral of the tale is to accept small detours. The rest of the journey was fine, returning across another unmarked border to Belgium, this time the French speaking part. It's odd that there's no announcement on the road when swapping country, more fanfare is made of going from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, I assume it's a deliberate indication of integration round these parts.

The small campsite is fine but operates curious reception opening hours, from 8.30 to 10 in the morning only. I could be gone by 8 after a free night's accommodation. British and German couples in their motorhomes seemed equally surprised, and for some reason seemed to think I would know what the form was.

Tournai is an historic town with a pleasant cobbled centre. There's a cathedral which is strangely hard to view with buildings shielding it from all angles. However the oddest thing is that the calm of the centre is shattered by a carousel, the sort with horses which only very small children or couples being ironic would ride on. They seem to have spent a bit of money recently improving the centre with an expensive looking water feature, when the simplest improvement would be to get rid of the fairground ride blaring out Teddy Bears' Picnic.

I went native and had dinner in a Friterie, where everything came with chips. I then went for a Belgian beer in a cafe, somehow picking the one where everyone else was in their eighties, and they all seemed to leave as I arrived. In fact they started clearing away the chairs as I arrived and it was only 8 o'clock. Now retired to my tent for my first night under canvas.

Flemish failure

Days: 2
Distance today: 85k
Distance so far: 215km
Countries so far: 3

Didn't make it to Ypres. I knew things would get hard, but didn't realise it would be so soon. The ferry was about an hour and a quarter late; then first thing I did on disembarking was to work out where in Dunkirk we'd actually landed, it didn't occur to me to check before. Predictably it was the wrong side of town for where I was going.

Then I hit the wind. It was every bit as strong as in England, and to begin with right in my face. No hills here, but all this meant was the wind was unrelenting. I crawled along taking a serious buffeting, leaning at a greatly exaggerated angle just to keep straight in a cross-wind.

Navigation also proved difficult. I got to a junction with two alternative road numberings, neither of which matched my map. The gps on my phone only seemed to confuse matters further. The sense of disorientation wasn't helped by the similarity at first glance between Brouckerque and Bourbourg, almost setting off into the wind to the wrong one. I abandoned looking at the road layout altogether and navigated town to town, easy enough as the sign posting in this respect seems quite good.

After a dispiriting hour or more, with intermittent rain also making things worse, I turned east and started to benefit from the wind instead of fight it. Things improved but I was clearly worn down by my earlier efforts and felt quite weak for a while.

As a reminder of the history of this part of the world I passed a British memorial by the side of the road. It commemorates soldiers massacred in a barn nearby in May '40. I had to overshoot slightly and loop back to avoid stopping directly next to a gent who had chosen it as a convenient spot to stop his car and take a leak, only just a respectable distance from the memorial itself.

At some point I crossed the border from France to Belgium, if there was a sign I missed it. First thing I was aware of was a village that was smarter than the others I'd been through, with a distinctly Flemish square, then I noticed the car plates before checking on the map. Cycle paths also appeared, though they don't amount to more than a poorly maintained strip right next to the road. They were being made use of though. I didn't see a single cyclist in France, there were all sorts in Belgium. A large group of school kids gave me an encouraging shout, and I spotted a group of a dozen elderly ladies in a line, all on the same type of bike and in matching fluorescent tops.

I'd hoped to get going from Dunkirk relatively early so that I wouldn't have to rush to Ypres unaware as to whether the campsite was still open, the exact situation I now found myself in. I decided to give up on Ypres and stop instead at Poperinge some ten kilometres before. This appeared to have a campsite which I duly navigated to, only to discover it was a motorhome showroom. I was rather broken at this point and decided just to find a room. So I've already completely blown the accommodation budget by staying in a rather nice hotel. I'm reasoning that the circumstances are a bit unusual, hurricane Katia won't always be blowing and I'll usually be able to control the time I start cycling, but I certainly can't get used to it. Camping might not actually have been a great idea in the strong wind though, I don't really want to test my tent to destruction right away.

I'm going to abandon Ypres altogether, I can visit any time, and instead head to Tournai tomorrow which will actually put me a day ahead of schedule. Assuming I get there.

On the road

Well i'm on my way. Currently sitting on a ferry for Dunkirk in Dover, still looking a the white cliffs as we haven't left the port yet. We're at least an hour behind schedule due to the weather, and I'm a bit concerned about how much the boat is rolling given we've not set to sea yet.

The ride here today, from just outside Canterbury, was horrible. A strong wind was gusting wildly against me most of the way, bringing with it constant if not heavy rain. Not only was progress slow due to the wind and undulations, but navigation was pretty tricky too. The wind made my map holder flap like a crisp packet, and even when I could read it the map wasn't really up to the job. In the UK I tend to navigate by torn out pages of an old road atlas. It normally works quite well outside of cities, offering an appropriate amount of detail without being too bulky. However it does rely on village sign posts matching up with the map and that didn't appear to be the case today. Admittedly a self-indicted instance of getting left and right mixed up didn't help. My back-up is to use the gps on my phone, but with the rain I was reluctant to get it out much, even in its water-resistant jacket. Upshot was that progress was very slow and I was sure I would miss the boat, but the long downhill into Dover helped recover time. Over all a journey I expected to take an hour and a quarter took two hours.

Yesterday was much better. The route was from Putney to Littlebourne, near Canterbury, where my cousin Rachel lives. The sun shone and the Kentish countryside was a pleasure to cycle through. I saw two pony and traps, something I wasn't expecting to encounter until Albania. Towards the end I overlapping with a charity bike ride. "Not far to go", someone shouted. "No, only 3000 miles", I didn't reply.

It was hard work though. It's not a flat part of the country and I was reminded how much extra effort a fully loaded bike requires on hills, and how much it takes out of you. After feeling pretty good earlier in the day I did struggle a bit later on, in particular when crossing the North Downs. Made me think again that planned distances over mountainous stretches later in the trip will be too ambitious.

I was very grateful for Rachel's superb hospitality at the end of the day. A tasty chili and rice was perfect for refueling and I slept very well.

On the sea now, boat rolling rather. Expecting to be about an hour and a half late. Not sure where this will leave me for getting to Ypres this afternoon but will let you know...