4th Oct - Rathenow to Wolfzburg

It was a really hard ride today but the evening totally made up for it. I turned up at a Warm Showers Host to a "Wellcome Emily" sign on the mat and the evening just got even better from there on :-)


I had a relaxed breakfast with Ronny and another shower and packed up and was ready to go just after nine. The only problem was that I had a flat tyre.






I thought that it must have been caused by a sharp object that caused the flat last night that I had not managed to find in the tyre (even though I had spent 10 mins looking for it). I took the wheel off and tried to find it again but there was nothing there and I could not find a hole in the inner tube and so I pumped it up again and then set off hoping that it was a slow enough puncture to get me a reasonable distance before I had to pump it up again. Unfortunately it was only 10km before I had to stop again. I bought some food for lunch at the local supermarket and then set to work with water in my pan and submerging sections of my inner tube bit by bit to try and find the hole. It turned out that it was not in fact a new hole from the same sharp object in the tyre that caused the puncture yesterday but in fact a faulty valve in the new inner tube that I had used. One more new inner tube in the tyre and off I set again.....


I knew that I had a long way to go and it was hard work against the headwinds however, it would have been fine if it was not for the fact that German bike paths are not designed by cyclists. I HATE German Bike Paths!


Surely the route by bike should be shorter than the one by car rather than 110km by car and 145km by bike? Surely bike paths should go somewhere rather just stopping in the middle of a forest? Surely the surface of the bike path should be smoother than a road because you have to work harder on a bike? Surely you should not have to stop every minute or two to lift your bike and luggage up a curb? Surely it should be faster to cycle in Germany on bike paths than on dirt tracks in mountainous Mongolia? Surely there should be signs for a bike path when a road suddenly has a no bikes allowed sign? Surely the limited number bike path signs should say where they lead?

Not in "Bike Friendly Germany" apparently... Bike paths in Germany are designed for locals that already know how to get around town without signs, that ride sit up and beg bikes with baskets on the front (or children riding bikes), are not in a hurry, only travel distances of less than 5km.



This photo was taken when the bike path lead me into a forest, turned into a sandy track and then just stopped. It was 10km to get back to another turning. The problem is that bikes are not allowed on many of the German highways - fine by me, if they just provided an alternative that did not take 30 mins to do by bike (over 5km on and off curbs and crossing roads in towns) when the distance on the highway was only 0.5km (and would have taken about 1 minute)!

Unfortunately, my batteries on my phone are only lasting for about 30 mins each now and so I can only use them in emergencies for GPS... It meant that every time I had to past through a town it took ages (even with just using my compass to keep to a general direction). The bike paths were fine when they followed a major road for a while but each time they arrived at a town it was a nightmare. Bikes are not allowed on by-pass roads and so you have to take the route through the town. There are arrows for bike paths at some junctions but rarely place names and when there are they then just disappear and you arrive at a junction and have no idea which way to go. I found that asking people did not really help much - particularly women! Unfortunately, from my experience it does appear that most women do actually conform to the gender stereotype of having no idea where they are or how to give directions!

As soon as it got dark I slowed down even more as my head light was not bright enough to light up the bike paths through the forests without it being dangerous to go really fast.



I really pushed to get there for about 6 but the head wind was just so strong and I got lost so many times that I did not arrive at Fritz's house until about 8. I had not had a great day on the bike but I received the most friendly welcome I could have asked for and my mood completely changed.

He had prepared a huge meal of pasta, king prawns and mushrooms followed by apple pie. Great conversation, a couple of bottles of very nice red wine and some blues music and I was a very happy bunny. I even had a cat to cuddle up with on my bed.

They have got just the sort of house that I would like in the future. Music speakers in all the rooms, loads of books everywhere, classic cars and motor bikes in the garage (along with touring bikes of course), a classic tandem on display in the conservatory, plants everywhere, a huge kitchen for actually cooking rather than to prepare a sandwich and one wall for a huge map of the world with pins indicting the areas that they are interested in visiting on their round the world bike ride.

Fritz and his wife Karin (who unfortunately was away on business that night) are very keen cyclists and recently spent 7 month biking across America. They are planning their next trip from Germany to Japan.

Their trip around the US was more hardcore than mine in someway as they had a rule to do the whole thing by bike and they moved on most days. I had more time off the bike, trekking and also exploring historical sites and cities. I also had some weeks where I did not move on each day. When there were issues with my Visa expiring I did have to get a train or a lift to make sure I excited the country on time and also when I was traveling with some other friends that did not want to bike I did have some time off the saddle and accompany them.


I love staying with people from Warm Showers as they really get it! When I was traveling in the US and Canada about 10 years or so ago, I also found the people really friendly and generous, as did Fritz and Karin.

I had no idea what time it was when we both decided we really should stop planning future bike trips and go to sleep instead - it turned out it was 3am!

I did not really enjoy biking today. It was frustrating. I hate turning up late to CS or Warm Showers hosts. I knew that Fritz had changed his plans so that he could host me and the last thing I wanted to do was turn up at 8pm in the dark! I wanted to get there at 6 and have a relaxed evening - after all I should only have needed to bike 100km to get to his house. In fact most of the biking in Europe has actually been quite dull and frustrating (bad headwinds/rain/bike paths) after the other countries I have been too. What has really made the Europe part of this trip is the people though. The architecture is too similar to the UK to be really fascinating and the roads flat and scenery OK but not awe inspiring. However, it has been great to meet such interesting people that speak fluent English and also interesting to learn from them about the histories of their countries and cultural differences.