Day 34 Amsterdam

We roll early and easily NW towards Amsterdam. WGL only once and we recover easily since all roads except major highways have parallel bike lanes. We arrive at camping Zeeburg in the early afternoon - the same campground we departed from over a month ago. The day has been cloudless and especially hot. We set up camp and wait a few hours in the shade before venturing into town. It was bike rush hour when we hit town. Hard to describe - picture bikes 3 abreast in each direction moving as a continuos stream. Bikes passing and somehow merging and flowing through intersections. Young and old, business women in heels, young women with skirts and dresses hiked high, Moms with babies in front and sometimes another on the rear rack, no helmets on anyone. Mostly on traditional black upright seating three speeds all passing and weaving around two gawking helmeted recumbent riders. No warning sounds as they pass by within inches. Stressful and a rush at the same time.
We ride around town bike people watching. We share a brownie and start looking for a place to have dinner. We end up seated so we could watch the bike parade. The burgers and beer were good though the atmosphere was the real plus. At 8 the high clouds that had formed started sprinkling and we needed to get to camp to cover our gear. Navigating back to camp at dusk became a challenge.
WGL and after a couple of backtracks and numerous mapchecks we finally roll back to camp. Our first night rain of the trip and we take shelter under a tree and hide under our bivys for the night.
Note the road side bike trash container - throw and keep rolling.
Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 33 River dike headwinds

Salami and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. We follow the Maas river northwest toward Nijmegen where some heavy fighting took place during W.W.II. Westerly winds are a battle when the river turns towards the west. 12 MPH is the best we can do into the wind but we do reach a campsite. Being Sunday the stores are closed and we are low on food. We hear of an open restaurant down the road so we set up camp and head out to dinner. We see the prices, finish our beers and leave. We expect to have salami sandwiches with no cheese but John is determined and searches the nearby town and brings back Chinese food. Very good after a 75 mile day, and we have enough leftovers for breakfast.
Note the photo of the bike route map we follow. No road goes directly anywhere one wants to go.
Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 32 giving up on trails

We've been riding dirt trails and pavers for a good part of the trip but the trails this morning were the worst - soft sand and gravel. In Germany since the roads have no shoulder the route follows any farm road or dirt trail. In towns the route is on the sidewalk. Often lucky to ride 12 MPH. The last several days we've been meeting up with Leo at each camp site. We leave an hour or two before him and when we get to camp he has been there for over an hour. He's the one we borrowed a hammer from to fix my rack. He carries front and rear panniers cooking pots and an 8 LB Coleman tent. We'd like to think it's only that WGL but I suspect he's just got strong legs. Toay we fought the gravel for a while in the morning and after I took a spill we opted to navigate on the streets. Nice to ride fast and the drivers are courteous. We roll into Roemond confident that we are still ahead of Leo. A quick stop at a street fair in town and off we go. We are in our first town since leaving Germany where we were not able to find wifi for internet. Dutch McDonalds has free wifi and works with our phones (German and Swiss ones do not work). As we are waiting to cross the street to Mickey D's here comes Leo. We should have followed him, but we sent our emails instead. After that WGL and ended up at the same spot we entered town over an hour ago. John's compass navigation got us finally out of town and to our campsite. Again Leo had his tent set up and had been there over an hour. Beer and sandwiches for dinner.

Again example of our navigation difficulties note the picture of John at a directional sign. Left for Linnich and tetz or right for Linnich and Titz. Sometimes the choices are difficult.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 30 Rhine castles

From last nights campground it was a short hop to a ferry crossing of the Rhein. Then WGL. Since we couldn't find our planned route we followed the bike signs to Mainz and then in to Bingen where the Rhein enters a narrower valley and castles appear around every bend. We easily follow the river to our campsite at St Gorst. Nice cafe dinner and to sleep with Big Agnes at sunset.
Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 29 Camping

From now on WGL (we get lost). Getting used to routing confusion - C'est la vie. Took 11 hours from Heidleberg to go 65 miles (less than 6 on the bike). Reached a beautiful lakeside campground around 7. Met a Netherlander at camp heading home from Athens and he was carrying a hammer for pounding tent stakes. Used the hammer for repairs on my bike rack as the weight is bending it.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 28 Heidleberg

Up before the sun and first birdsong we roll to the hotel of the biergarten we beered at last night. John had gotten the wifi password so we wanted to download our email. That done we noticed they were open for bfast so we went for it. The ride next followed the typical, we got lost. In our defense getting lost is not always our fault. We'll follow the bike route signs but many signs are missing so we have a 50/50 chance of getting it right at a T intersection. We pick a direction and follow it and end up at a manure chute (actually happened). Then we backtrack and pick the other direction. Another intersection and another 50/50 chance and so on. Today the bike route ended or maybe it turned off and the sign was missing and we ended up on a no bikes allowed freeway with almost no shoulder. A few miles down the road we were able to exit. On one trail or another we came across a very large adult jungle Jim. An interesting piece of challenging exercise equipment. Looks like fun but might be tough to get insurance in the states.
Town signs are much less noticeable in Germany. In France there is a large sign marking town limits at entrance and exit. We rolled around Heidleburg for a while before we knew we were there. Approaches and routes look different by bicycle - it took quite a while before I had my deja vue moment - I had been to this town/castle before. Nice a second time. The TI lady when asked about ,camping pointed up river on the map and said 20 minutes away. It was off her map and she was unsure about distance. Hmmm, noticed this before when asking directions how far? is almost always answered as time. We opted to try the close in youth hostel. Very modern and hotel like with 2 bunkbeds to a room. 32€ each with breakfast buffet not too bad. One of our room mates was a Netherlander heading south to Athens. He had a great map book and I took pictures of out route to Amsterdam. He used a Garmin GPS with the route programmed in so no getting lost. I am not a planner and prefer to keep my options open but for my next ride over here I'll preprogram a GPS and avoid the road confusion.
Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 27 Baden Baden

Our lakeside campsite birds awaken us with the sun. A 7 am early start and a casual pace takes us to Baden Baden before noon. The spa seems comercial though the massage package did sound nice. Our next stop in Karlsruhe revealed no special features except maybe the old speed limit sign for tanks. We stop here for a pizza dinner though it turns out the donner calzone might have been the house specialty. Being Sunday the TI's are closed and wifi at mickey d's didn't work so we do not have a campsite goal. We roll north hoping to find some place but no luck until we find a nature perserve lake. It is 9:30 and almost dark now. We are in a realy nice Biergarden on our second beers waiting for full dark so we can go back to the lake and quick night swim to wash up and sleep in the bushes.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 26 Strasbourg

We awake to find a stork looking for eats in the grass near us. By 7:30 we roll and easily find our route. We roll into Strasbourg just before noon with our highest before noon mileage of 48. After much AFC (C stands for cathedral,chateaux or canal) this one really seems distinctive - very delicate details and one of the tallest in Europe. The streets and town square were some of the busiest we've seen. Locals and tourists everywhere made for great people watching which we did for a couple of hours. Later in the afternoon after it had cooled down we road another few miles to a nice municipal campground on a small clear cool lake. Shopping at the Super U, a cool swim and a pasta dinner at a local restraurant finished the day nicely.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 25 France/Germany

Our goal today is Colmar. We are up early and head into town for wifi at Starbucks - hard to spend almost $6 for a regular coffee. A quick morning tour of town and then we follow the Rhine north. In a few miles the bike route takes us to Germany but within minutes crosses the Rhine into France. We ride from one small town to the next. Large fields of corn and wheat greet us as we roll from one town to the next. There are no individual farm houses just small towns every mile or two. We follow the. Bike route and later switch to the country roads. This leads to another are we dead yet road since the traffic increases and the shoulder disappears. We ride the white line for a few miles before reaching Colmar. John has a blowout on this busy stretch and discovers that his rim tape has failed. Electrical tape is a temporary fix and we find a bike shop near our camping site and John buys new rim tape. Thunderheads have been. Building all day in the mountains to the west but we decide to ride the mile or so see the old town of Colmar. Just before we reach town the rain begins. We rush back to camp to cover our gear. After an hour or so the sun comes out and we finally get to see town. Smaller old buildings with much character, narrow cobbled streets and outdoor cafes make this a worthwhile visit. Salad, bread wine and cheese from Aldi makes a late dinner.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 24 Bern to Basel

We wake up at dawn at the cleanest most modern campsite we've yet been at. By 7 we are back in downtown Bern using the Starbucks wifi - almost $6 US$ for a grande regular coffee. We head west and soon again are consulting GPS and maps. We debate the proper roads and directions to take. Our first destination is 33km by road we however ride a beautiful bike trail. About half paved and a few hills we need to walk but still worth it scenically. The problem arises when we arrive at the first town. Instead of 20 miles we've gone 48 and averaged 10mph. Basel is starting to look impossible for today so we take the easy way out - train. We get to town around 4 and the Tourist info gives us directions to an out of town camping area. We are studying a map for a second time in 2 miles when a passerby gives us directions but suggests we go to the downtown hostel as it is closer to the charms of the city. She explains it is on her way home and suggests we follow her. We follow through back streets and alleys and arrive at the hostel. While chatting we her she explains that she and her husband are leaving soon to watch the Indianapolis 500. Since it looks like rain we are happy to be at a hostel this evening. Happy that is until they tell us that the hostel cost is $75 each! We roll back toward the campground and with a few map stops get to our $30 campsite.
Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 23 train to Bern

Milan connections by bike are complicated this morning. Wanting a faster connection than yesterdays slow local train created complications. A true catch 22 - tickets and reservations for bicycles are available on the direct train but when trying to purchase them in Italy the program crashes and needs to reload. 2 agents and 5 crashes later the station agent sends us to a Swiss ticket office in town. There they explain that you can ride the fast train with bikes but you must purchase the tickets in Switzerland. We have 2 hours before the train departs so we head to the old city to see the the 4th largest cathedral in Europe. The main square around the cathedral is crowded and a number of people are attracted to our bikes. John does his regular recumbent ambassador story. Time is short and we get lost finding the train station but we eventually board without bike tickets. We get half way and are told the tracks are blocked and we must board a bus. Bus driver tells us no bikes on the bus. We think about riding but an Italian roadie tells us the pass is not good for bikes - miles long uphill tunnels with no shoulder. We go shopping for lunch at the grocery. We stop by the busses again and on this last bus there is room in the baggage compartment. Up the pass we go. Narrow and definitely not a good bike road. Great views. On the other side we hop another train and arrive in Bern. John finds a chocolate shop outside the train station. We find a map to the campground and guess what? we get lost again. We head down river when we should have gone up. Nice tour of the river with good bike trails and we finally arrive at camp - beautiful. I take a quick dip in the Arne river and we each have a couple of $5 dollar beers at the campsite - spends town. We eat bread cheese and salami. Did laundry in sink and dry in dryer. First wash for Johns shorts in 22 days.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 21 Florence to Milan

We spent the morning at the Academia to see Michelangelos David and other works. At 8:30 the line was already long but we were inside with only a half hour wait. Really a goose bump raising piece of sculpture. We walked back to our campsite and debated on whether we should do a quick hop to Rome or head north into Switzerland by train as planned. We opted for north however the quick trip turned into a long train hopping trip to Milan (connections further did not work). No bikes allowed on the high speed trains. We're on the 3 trains, with stops at every town, and a 7 hour trip. Milan is a big town (1.3 million) and we don't expect to find a campground. In the morning we will hop a train into Switzerland and begin our ride down the Rhine. According to Rick Steves it apppears that rooms are in the 100E range but he does mention a one star place that has rooms for 50. We finally find it and I go in to check out the room. Being thrifty I see it and figure it will work. John is outside with the bikes and when he sees the room he just shakes his head. One small bed (we again sleep in our sleeping bags) and one of us has to stand in the hall when the other one turns around in the room.
John wants to see the room before we commit next time.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 20 Pisa and Firenze

Our plan today is to walk the 5 Cinqua Terra towns and get back into town to check out by 10. It is 5 miles total between the first and last town and we planned to take the frequent train back. The trail literally hangs on the cliffs between Riomaggorio to Manarolla but the trail to Cornigula was blocked by construction so we just walked back. We chatted with an English speaking local who reminisced about picking grapes as a child on the extensively terraced steep hillsides. I finally asked which village he lived in. We chuckled when be said he'd retired to Florida. He comes back to visit in the spring and fall each year. We take a quick train trip to Pisa. The tower is more interesting to view than I had expected. Before long we are headed east to Florence. Tough navigation, much traffic, no shoulder and the edge of the road has many uplifts do to the tree lined edges. After many "are we dead" yet moments we roll into a larger town but being monday there is nothing open. We naw on our remaining chuck of cheese and grab a 3 Euro train into Florence. The tourist info outside the train station puts an x on the map where the local camping area just ouside of town is. This within waking distance campground takes us over an hour to find. Oh, but what a sweet location. At the campgroung cafe we have pizza and beer overlooking the city. Later we walk into town and experience a very active street street scene. Lighted cathedrals, musicians and crowed streets and cafes.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 19 Cinqua Terra

Our workshed campsite in Latte kept us dry and Big Agnes made for comfortable sleep. We roll up and down the coast. At one point the canyon we are crossing allows a clear look to the north and the close mountains are snowcovered. The last few days the roads though narrow have supported a continuous procession of quick road riders. In one small town the roads are blocked for a kids bike race. 5 to 10 year old kids on serious quality bikes. I've not seen such small wheels or frames in the states. We fight the winds and hop a train as planned to Cinqua Terra. We decide to stay in Riomaggiore since it is the largest of the towns - expecting a better chance of getting a room. We find a good room for 50E and walk the town. Pasta overlooking, the med was not enough so we grab takeout pizza later. Heading out to watch the sunset now. Tomorrow we plan on walking between the 5 towns.

Keep Rolling,
Pete

Day 18 Nice, Monaco, and Italy

No dew and very few mosquitoes last night. We are near Marine land so the seals barked all night. They didn't bother my sleep but John was kept awake by them and what he described as a Russian disco? Interesting but I slept through that also. Before long we were in Nice which was very nice:-) The promenade was very wide and we had a bike lane for for many miles. Nice has wide streets, great old buildings, streetfuls of pedestrians walking miles of shop filled streets. A large and attractive city. We roll on though - actually we climbed and climbed. The Alps reach right out to the med so it was up and down all day. We stop for lunch at a small town and find a pastry shop for lunch - John is a happy camper. Monte Carlo is next and on entering town there was a sign to the Jardin exotic so I thought why not visit this exotic garden for a rest break. The road started up the mountain and kept going up. We finally struggled to the garden for some great photos overlooking the city. Down we rolled through town and headed for Italy. More climbing and soon it begins to drizzle. Shortly after crossing the border we spot a campground and ask for a covered spot. We end up on a concrete floored work shed which we are happy to have for 15 E. We walk to town for a spaghetti plat du jour. The rain becomes a deluge but by the time dinner is over the rain has stopped. Short miles but a great day. Total expenses 91 E - much higher than yesterdays 34.

Keep Rolling,
Pete