Quick note in praise of the work of the Bikestation to promote cycling and to give old bikes and bike-parts a new lease of life. I took three of our old bikes to them a couple of weeks ago (Bruce blogged about that here), including one with a broken frame, and today they willingly took a unicycle, bike rack and elderly turbo trainer.  I hope they can find good uses for them!

Alas, no opportunity to move all of these items by Urban Arrow, so had to use the car.  Getting towards the last stages of the decluttering, though, so I need to try to find a way to bring in pedal power again before I am done.

Since we are still not able to go away touring, my main project in the last few weeks has been decluttering the house, which is sadly necessary after many years of not making good decisions about items accumulated.  I found a way to incorporate cycling into this today by hiring an Urban Arrow cargo bike from the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling via Laid Back Bikes in Marchmont.  Turned out to be great fun!

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This is a blog about cycle touring.  I have not updated it since last summer as we have been doing less interesting things –  like working –  over the winter.  We have plans to do a longer cycle tour this summer but, alas, life has intervened and Bruce, aka The Real Cyclist, is unwell and so our plans are on hold.

On the original plan, we had chosen a route (the Iron Curtain Cycle Trail – EuroVelo 13 – see http://www.eurovelo13.com/ for details), applied for Russian visas, started a slightly alarming course of inoculations, bought a new tent, made packing lists, tried fitting everything on the packing list into the panniers, revised the packing lists until all the items would fit and, in my case, upgraded my bike to have a hub dynamo to power lights and a phone charger. Unfortunately, life has a way of reminding us that plans can be changed without notice.

We are currently waiting to get the results of Bruce’s latest tests.  Once we know what is going on, we will rethink our plans.  We still hope to get away but with less time and possibly less fitness, we will need to rethink our route.  Fortunately the EuroVelo network is very extensive and lots of bits of it would be possible without camping, so there are still lots of options.

More on this to follow.

We had a lovely journey yesterday from Duiven to Utrecht. There were excellent cycle paths, mostly alongside two major roads – but separate from the road, wide enough for at least three bikes comfortably abreast, shaded by trees and with a lot of very smooth tarmac. The route was gently undulating. One of my most pleasant cycling days ever.

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I confess that I was not sure we would manage the 95 miles or so from Cologne to Duiven in one day. We were coming back to the Netherlands for more miles on excellent cycle paths and to do a bit more exploring. I had been looking into train times and which trains would take bikes but in a moment of madness decided that would be too soft an option, so we went for the cycle – and booked the hotel in Duiven in advance so we were committed.

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After another dramatic thunderstorm overnight, we cycled to Cologne in a slight mist which kept us from overheating. We followed the marked Rhine cycle route on paths and mostly quiet roads and it was a very easy journey, with a long coffee stop at a wonderful cafe in Dormagen. Continue reading →

There is a Neanderthal museum a few miles east of Düsseldorf at the site where the original bones were found more than 150 years ago. Sadly the cave where they were found fell victim to quarrying, but there is now a very well-thought-out modern building and series of outdoor exhibits where it used to be. The setting in the valley is glorious and we spent several very happy hours there.

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We are in Düsseldorf in a heatwave and it is far too hot to blog, but here is a picture from the Rhine Tower looking back towards Duisburg, where we started our day.  Only about 17 miles by a direct route, but 21 miles when I missed a turning.  Another scorcher forecast for tomorrow so we are staying here for two nights.

After a short cycle, we spent yesterday morning at Rose Biketown Bocholt while the nice mechanics fitted a new bit of kit to Bruce’s bike to charge his phone from the hub Dynamo on the bike. Bruce has his phone fixed to the handlebars for navigation. I’m too nervous to try this myself but it is very handy (joke, laboured variety: the German word for a mobile phone is das Handy). Continue reading →

We seemed to dodge the curse of day three, mostly. The day started badly with heavy rain, so we dawdled over breakfast and packing hoping it might stop. No such luck. Continue reading →