Monday, May 20, 2013

Day 344 - 353 Zürich (Switzerland) to Berlin (Germany)

Day 344, 0 km

My old (former) teacher from Vienna came and visited me and my sister in Zurich. I met him at the station and then we took a streetcar to my sisters apartment. We had a good time exchanging old memories, and he was very curious to hear about my trip.
 In the evening, when I had left him at the station again I did more sightseeing and window shopping in Zurich.
 I also visited a nice quiet church.
 Zurich is a beautiful little town.


Day 345, 135 km

I packed all my stuff and was ready to leave Christina at eight in the morning. Suddenly she suggested to follow me on her bike some kilometers.
 We took small roads north, out of the town. Christina was a very good biker. I thought she would follow me to the edge of Zurich but she continued to the river Rhine.
 After that bridge we unexpectedly came to Germany (the border had a corner) and then back to a Swiss town called Schaffhausen. There we admired the famous Rhine Falls.
 I took many pictures
 with my powerful zoom lens
 Then I said good bye to Christina and continued alone to Germany (again). I found a good sleeping place in the Black Forest.

Day 346, 170 km

I had a good wind from SW that day. Soon I passed Donaueschingen and discovered that the river Danube.
 But it was very small compared to its size in Vienna...
 I also discovered that many of the roads in Germany are not allowed to ride for bicyclists. There are special bicycle paths which are beautiful but difficult to find.
 I also saw many beautiful plantations in all towns I passed.
   

 In the evening I came to Karlsruhe where I found a big castle in the middle of the town.

Day 347, 130 km

I had big difficulties that day to find good bicycle roads. On my road map I could not see which roads were allowed for bicyclists and which not and more and more were not allowed...
 Sometimes there were good signs but there were signs when I needed them most....
 I found out that it always was easiest to ride straight through the centers of the towns I passed because then it was not so difficult to find the roads.
 I tried to ride on small paths along the river. There I found a fountain which again was unusual.
 But the water was good to fill my bottles.
 There were many boats of different sizes on the rivereRhine.
 In Mainz I decided to leave the river and make a shortcut over the mountains to Cologne/Köln.
 But the hill after Wiesbaden was very long and steep.
 When I was tired I found out that there was a fence only 20 meters from the road. Anyway, I was so exhausted that I did not hear the cars passing in the night.


Day 348, 155 km



Next morning I continued towards NW. The wind came from S so I often had tailwind. I passed several hills around 500 m elevation and had beautiful views over the Rhine Valley west of me.

In the evening i came to Köln where my sister Anna was expecting me.

Day 349, 40 km

I had a relaxing morning, planing my route from Cologne/Köln to Berlin. At noon I rode downtown to look at the famous Dome of Cologne
 On the bridge there were thousands of Love Locks! (on the other side of the bridge, closer to the old town, the distance between the locks was even tighter)
 The church was HUGE!
 This is the beautiful entrance, where I met an reporter from the newspaper "Kölnscher Rundschau" and told about my trip. He even took a picture of me and thought it would be a good story to write in the newspaper.
 I also went inside and looked at the impressing windows.
 The Dome was very high, This is a picture with the panorama view of my camera
 On the bottom of this cross you can see how small the visitors are...
 I also climbed up on one of the towers and had a nice view on the bridge with the Love Locks.
 South of the tower I could see the television tower and the skyscraper from Deutschlandfunk, where my sister works. I rode there to meet another reporter who wanted to make a short interview while we were riding along the river.
 But then it begun to rain heavily and the reporter had no rain gear so he became very wet.
I rode back to my sisters house and we decided to do more sightseeing in the evening. We went to a huge warehouse called Globetrotter. There you can buy all kind of outdoor wear and gear and you even can test in indoors in different climate rooms!
On the picture you can see kayaks which you could test on a lake in the middle of the store.
I bought some new rear panniers because my old one really were not waterproof any more...

Day 350, 135 km

While I adjusted the new panniers and packed my stuff Anna made me the largest food package I ever had.
I left Anna's and Thomas' house quite early in the morning.
 It was raining a little almost all day. Because of my eye infection (conjunctivitis) I still was wearing my glasses which was quite inconvenient.
 At noon I found a room with a view to eat my lunch.
 Above you see my new panniers which match to my safety vest and my laces!
The road was good (and allowed for bicyclists!) and I passed many nice houses. In Germany you can see solar panels on all kind of houses! I even had some tailwind that day.

Day 351, 115 km

The day was calm and rainy again. But I never needed to put on my rain clothes because it only rained a little.
When I had passed Paderborn route 1 turned to a highway were bicycles were not allowed, so i had to find bicycle paths again.
 Those brought me to the famous Externsteine
 There were steps and bridges so I was able to climb up on them.
 Many tourists were there at the same time.
 Then I continued some more kilometers but the back streets I found on google maps turned out to be small paths in the woods where it was impossible to ride because they were so steep and slippery.
Finally I found a good sleeping place on a old railway intersection (there were no rails any more...)

Day 352, 155 km and a lift of 215 km

The fog was so thick in the morning that I did not feel safe to ride. But because it was Sunday there was almost no traffic so I decided to do it anyway and whenever I heard a car I pulled over my bike and stopped.
Soon the fog disappeared and I came to the town Hameln (Hamelin).

 It was a nice old town, almost all houses looked like the one above. There even was a big Arena called Rattenfängerhalle.
Then I rode to Hannover, where I again had big problems to find bicycle paths. IT took me some hours and many turn-backs to pass that town. Finally I succeeded and now there were no more hills,
there only was a huge flat.
Because it was extra long weekend and nice weather I met many bicyclers that day. But not only bicyclists!
In the evening I got a phone call from my sister Birke in Berlin. She wanted to meet me already  the same day so she offered to fetch me in Wolfsburg and drive me to Berlin!
Because my schedule to arrive in Stockholm before June is quite tight I agreed and late in the evening I arrived in Wolfsburg. There I met her and her family.
Late at night we arrived in Berlin.

Day 353, 15 km

Today I had a really good relaxing day. First 9:30 we went out of bed. In Germany nobody is working on whit Monday, so even my brother in law and my nephew were at home. After brunch we made a bicycle tour in the surrounding and ate a lot of delicious ice cream.
I also made up my plans for the rest of my trip: I decided to continue NE to Gdansk (Poland, about 500 km from here) and take a  ferry from there over the Baltic Sea directly to Nynäshamn. I will arrive there on Wednesday the 29th May at 1:00 pm. From there I could take a local train to Stockholm (70 km) but I want to find out how it is to bike in Sweden.

If you read this and feel to join me the last 70 km please meet me at the ferry terminal! We could ride together in a slow speed and reach Stockholm in the evening!
Tell me about your plans if you want, contact me at wilfried.steinbach@gmail.com