Crossing Forested German Mountains On Bicycles and Breaking Toes

When I started out on this adventure, I had the great idea of doing it on a fixie bike (one gear, always pedalling). Thank God that didn’t work out. My old bicycle has served me much better. I also made the mistake of thinking that Germany was fairly flat and rather than planning a decent cycling route, we drew a straight line across the map from Holland to Germany, and cycled up mountains, through National Parks and everything else that got in our way. At times, we managed only 30 km during a full day of cycling. Despite this, we made it. This is a little part of my story in which I crossed Germany….

After cycling through Holland (and getting arrested), we were elated to arrive in Germany and greeted by blue skies and pretty flowers.

2 pretty spring flowers

5 an old house with pretty flowerboxes

Then we found hills. At first, we cycled over them on smooth roads.

6 cycling into the distance

7 cycling offer into the distance

Then we found ourselves in the forest.

3 cycling through the german forest

Deeper and deeper we ventured into the forest, the surface deteriorating from smooth tarmac to gravel paths.

13 cycling through the forest on a dirt track

Then we finally got back to a road (after many hours / days).

11 more hills

On the road, I cracked my toe on the tarmac (because I cycle bare foot), ripping the end off. I was left with a very cut toe and a broken toe (always remember to pack duct tape).

8 hurt toes

I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for myself.

10 sympathy for myself

Sometimes, even the road hills were too much to deal with.

17 pushing up a hill

We cooked dinner on the road as we went. Sometimes we ate vegetables (that we mostly found skipping).

9 broth dinner

When we were lucky, we found shelter to sleep in.

12 sleeping in a bus shelter

Other days, we slept in the forest.

18 preparing food in a forest

Wherever we were, we took advantage of our local environment.

19 cooking on tree stumps

It wasn’t always easy for us to wash, but we did the best that we could.

20 charcoal face

Every morning, we took our time to make porridge and hot drinks for breakfast. We always filled the porridge with delicious fruits that we had picked from wild trees the day before.

21 porridge and coffee in the forest

We had two big pots and no bowls, so always ate together.

22 eating out in the forest

I had never thought of Germany as a particularly pretty country. However, after this cycling experience (despite my frustration at the hills), my opinions have changed.

14 german hills countryside

16 pretty german hills

During our journey, we tried to interact with as many locals as possible. One guy let us sleep in his garden. The locals came in all shapes and sizes.

15 big horn cow

And so it was that we were welcomed to Germany. From this point on, our journey continued east in search of Czech Republic.

More coming soon. Once again, do you prefer to read picture stories (such as this), or prefer text heavy articles? Your feedback will be duly noted and acted upon. Feel free to comment below with your opinions or send me a private message.

By | 2013-12-12T02:22:00+00:00 August 12th, 2013|UK to Slovakia on £30 Bikes|8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Thumb Away 12/08/2013 at 20:56 - Reply

    As much as I favor your photos and videos, I love sitting down to a good read.

    • Jamie 13/08/2013 at 07:05 - Reply

      I can appreciate that. I think in future, I will post most many of my stories as visual pieces, but then try to do a long written summary piece of highlights / experiences (rather than me splurging my day-to-day diary all over everyone) from an extended period of time, such as the last month of cycling from the UK to Slovakia. Something like this anyway.

  2. Enwil (@manishsuwal) 12/08/2013 at 15:29 - Reply

    I enjoy your photos, because it makes us feel like we’re on adventure ourselves and help us see what really happened with you guys, where you went, what you ate, etc etc.

    Photos and videos are the best!

    • Jamie 13/08/2013 at 07:01 - Reply

      Thanks for the feedback, hopefully got some interesting videos coming in the next couple of weeks.

    • Jamie 13/08/2013 at 07:02 - Reply

      Hopefully some interesting videos will be coming really soon!

  3. Alex 12/08/2013 at 15:28 - Reply

    Subscribe at Leslie comment, combine that two styles! Good luck in your trip 😀

  4. Leslie Patrick 12/08/2013 at 14:57 - Reply

    I like a mixture of both, however your photos are gorgeous, so please keep them coming! 🙂

    • Jamie 13/08/2013 at 07:01 - Reply

      Thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep trying to do both.

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