Cycle Tour - Panamerican

	europe by bike – a cycle ride through 18 countries (april to september 2003) –11 604 km. below are the reports as i went along. the pictures were scanned in from my slides, so the quality is not too good.

This page is under construction (modification of texts)

lucia cycling along the salzach river

hola, ciao, hello, ahoy everyone (10.05.2003)

yes, its been sometime now now since i left switzerland for my cycle ride. lucia and i started off in salzburg on a very lovely spring day, we then headed towards passau along the salzach and inn rivers. in passau we then headed north over the ´bayern hills´ and then into the czech republic. we followed the moldau river (near its source) on the german/czech border (former iron curtain) down to czesky crumlov, then budweis (yes, obviously we had a budweiser beer there!!!), then along the moldau, past the town of tyn and the beautiful castle of zvikov to prag.

in the heart of the czech republic no one could speak german or english and luckily lucia speaks a bit of polish which is similar to the czech language, so while i would check up on the route for the next day, lucia would learn another couple of czech words!! (i prefer her doing that, she learns languages much easier than i do!!!). when i planned the trip i thought the route would follow the river but instead it was a constant up and down over all these hills (one after the other), but the scenery and farmland is certainly spectacular and different to western europe.

ceske budejovice (budweis)

zwikov castle

we spent 2 nights in prag, our first ´rest day’. after 2 nights camping out under the many stars somewhere along the moldau river it was great to catch up on some washing and enjoy the luxury of a hotel in prag! in the cities lucia always wants to see everything!!!, dragging me from one place to the next - i ended up being more exhausted after this sightseeing day than a hard day of cycling!!! anyway off we went again, still following the moldau river until it flows into the elbe river near the lovely little city of melnik (has a great pub and a good local band playing there!!), another 1 1/2 days later we were back on the czech/ german border in a hilly countryside (elbe sandstone mountains), very scenic. We decided to do 2 days of hiking in the area, it certainly was worth it!! we then crossed the border into germany (the road has been partly washed away during the terrible floods of 2002), but with a bicycle it´s somehow always possible to get through roadblocks!!!

back in eastern part of germany we spent another night in Rathen, a festival was going on (walpurgisnacht - marks the beginning of summer (or the end of winter?), meeting a few people, chatting away and having a few beers...until we realized that we were talking with the bürgermeister..(interresting chap), well he invited us for more beers .. yes we realized very quickly that we were in germany!! they love their beers. A day later we were in dresden. yes, another rest day turned out to be more exhausting than a day of riding!!

lucia cycling on a hiking path along the elbe river

it was also time for lucia to go back to switzerland. a sms from dad “i´m on my way to dresden”, ok, great!! it ended up that dad rode with me for another 2 days to wittenberg (dad was really fit!! never had to wait), and it was his birthday, so we ended a hard day of cycling with a good meal, beer and wine ... and then dads snoring....!!). 7 days have passed since i left dresden (nearly 700 km away) and now i am sitting in hamburg (just off the reeperbahn!! shivers... the night life here!!!!). i really needed a day of rest, but i´ve ended up going to bed late and walking around all day again!!(another festival - hamburgs harbour is 814 years old..another reason for a beer!) ... and tomorrow i am heading up towards the north coast.

i plan to cycle another 900 km along the north sea coast of germany and denmark, including some walking around the islands of amrum, föhr and fano. in denmark i will meet up with jette, a danish friend of mine, hopefully she (and her son) will be cycling with me for a couple of days before I take the ferry across to norway at the end of may. a typical cycling day.. (out of my diary):

08.05.2003 ........ then i could not wait to catch the ferry to the other side of the elbe river, (there is a campsite on that side), my water bottles are empty (it has been hot all day), after 109 km i need a rest. I arrive at the ferry - NOT IN OPERATION (repairs), o well.. a nearby farmhouse to fill up my waterbottles and plenty of bushes and a nice flat patch of green grass to pitch my tent between the dyke (cycle route) and river settles the problem, an hour later my petrolcooker is in operation, noodles are nearly ready and the sunset (glowing red, red, red!!) on the horizon is fantastic, my legs can rest and thats how i like it. it´s bedtime ... into my sleepingbag... shivers!!! can´t those frogs just shutup, one could think they are having a meeting where 100 000 are attending....

19.May. 2003
i am now in ringkøbing (on the ringkøbing fjord) on the west coast of denmark (56 degrees north). the days are starting to get longer, i have cycled another 650 km since hamburg and have now done a bit over 2100 km.

on the german/danish border

the ´wattenmeer´ along the german and southern denmarks coastline was absolutely stunning, especially the nature reserve, millions of birds!! such as wild geese come in flocks of hundreds, the birds come to the wattenmeer in may (exactly when i passed by) as a main ´refuelling´ stop from their summer places in africa (some even come from south africa). They gather here at the wattenmeer and leave between 16 - 22 may to their summer places in iceland, siberia and other arctic regions

the wattenmeer gives the birds everything they need for their long journey - millions of snails and the wattenworms crawl around in the rich swampy ground of the wattensee. it is absolutely fantastic to watch these birds arrive from the south and watch them fill their hungry stomachs before they leave in huge flocks (making the sky dark).
i have visited and cycled through the islands of foer, amrum and rømø. Amrum is very beautiful with all the sanddunes. also along the narrow stretch of land between the ringkøbing fjord and the coast there are mainly sanddunes with a lovely gravel cycle route going through this scenery. the cycle route as a whole has been very enjoyable so far. the easy section is now over and now comes the difficult section (wind and rain can be harsh on the highlands of norway), but if the weather is good, it´s the most spectacular place to be! i have had a lot of wind during the past week making the going very hard at times.

wattensee, denmark

lighthouse in denmark

emil is 5 years old so we will take it easy. for me it does not matter because i only have another 300 to 350 km to cover on the west coast of denmark before i catch the ferry from hirtshals to kristianssand (right in the south of norway). i will then (beginning of june, not earlier due to the highland snows) be heading straight through the highlands of telemark, hardangervida and jotunheimen (about 8 to 10 passes). kristianssand will be my so called ´refuelling´ stop, the uphills start on the first day. from there on it´s highlands for hundreds of kilometers with only small villages until i reach otta on the northern side of jotunheimen. i plan about 10 days for this hard section, sleeping in my tent next to the road or on camping grounds (moose country).

goddag everyone (28.05.2003) after cycling my third leg along the north sea cycle route, which i followed for 1020 km (www.northsea-cycle.com), through the wattensea area of germany and the whole west coast of denmark, i am now here in christiansand. denmark was lovely and it was great to meet up with jette. jette and her son spent about 5 days with me. emil (5 years old) was not always able to keep going through all the wind and so they took the train for a longer section while i stayed on my route.
the weather in denmark was so so!! after a heavy day of rain which got me wet right down to the bone and took me about 2 hours to warm up again was followed by 2 days of hot and sunny weather. it was then time to say goodbye denmark. I took the ferry across to kristiansand…

here in kristiansand the weather could not be better (apparently the first sunny day here in about a month), it is so nice and it should last for another few days, so i have decided to leave straight after this e-mail and not to spend a rest day here as i had planned. i was able to do all the necessary shopping this morning and now i will head up towards evje and then follow the beautiful 'setesdal' with its narrow valleys and gorges (a geologists paradise) up to haukeligrend. by early next week i hope to reach rjukan (a few passes on the way) and then from there its a hard ride up past the hardangervida. my bike is now loaded with plenty of food, fuel for cooking etc and weighs about 53 kg (incl. trailer, spares, tent, etc etc). i hope to meet up with a norwegian friend in rjukan and spend a day there.'judy' (my bike), was in for repairs this morning, she has now a new set of cogwheels and a new chain (totally 'stuffed' and worn off thanks to the danish sand and rain along the coast). do not ask me how much a chain costs here in norway!! prices are extremely high!!!
'hillary', my tent has kept me nice and dry and is always the best shelter that i can have out in the wild, she needs a wash and is very smelly at the moment. i plan to leave her as smelly as she is because it will keep the trolls away.
i plan to sleep out in the norwegian forests and one never knows when the trolls are nearby!!! apparently they love hiding behind trees and observe us humans! shivers, i'm scared!!! well, got to get going, i have enough time to cycle this afternoon and evening. sunset is at 10:14 pm according to my gps so i can cycle till late into the evening, when the sun is low and creates great light and colours for photography.

hardangervida & jotunheimen mountains

crossing over the jotunheimen range

goddag everyone, hope everyone is doing great!! (12.06.2003)
after cycling my 4th stage, the 1000 km (ok, to be exact it was 998.2 km) from kristianssand, i reached trondheim up at 63 degrees north, 2 days ago, i needed a rest desperately after cycling up 9 passes and hiking up in the jotunheimen national park. my muscles needed the rest, my `ass` asked for a comfortable soft barchair and my stomach has been asking for a huge pizza,
salad and beer for the last week, after cooking all my meals on `susi` (my petrol cooker) and drinking water from the rivers! the long days (no darkness at all except for one tunnel that i had to go through a couple of days ago) and great weather (10 days of sunshine and 3 rainy days) has given me the energy to go on for long hours. the norwegians are all running around in their summer hyperactivity, you can chat to them at 2 am when walking home from the bar, sunrise on the horizon and one could think it is midday.

trondheim

It really is weird that one has so much more energy during these long long summer days!! (apparently the winter depressions called SAD -`seasonal affective disorder` can be quite bad up here, but in summer the people are crazy, just full of energy. sunset now here in trondheim is at 23:27 pm and i hope to be travelling in the midnight sun (24 hours sunshine, no sunset for 3 weeks)in a few days time. i hope to reach the arctic circle (650 km from here) in about 7 days time. until then i will be following the rugged and fjorded coastline up to Bodø.

further north i will be travelling with the midnight sun (in tromsø the sun does not set from 20 may to 22 july and up at the north cape the sun does not set from 13 may to 29 july). actually this might seem `cool` but sleeping in my tent which has a greenhouse effect as soon as the sun shines, is not cool at all! it actually gets so hot that one has to get out of the tent. believe me this has happened to me a few days ago while camping out next to a stream. getting woken by the heat at a ridiculous hour of the day, I had difficulties falling asleep as it is, also waiting for a moose to trod on my tent (i had pitched the tent on a moose path leading down to the river!!).

moose country along the coastal road

to be honest i have not seen a moose yet but only about 1000 moose warning signposts next to the road! ask a norwegian if he has seen a moose on the road! the answer will probably be no or if yes then it was about 15 years ago!! i have however seen other animals such as the polar hare hopping past my bike, lemmings making a squeaking noise as if they are ready to attack me, a few reindeer passing 10 metres past me and a seegull `shiting` on my head. on one occasion while riding up a pass in the midday heat, hardly no water left in my bottles a few norwegians having beers stopped me and told me i should join them for a beer or 2, ok i carried on cycling at 6 pm!!

felix cycling with me along the coastal road

trolls.....well i still have not seen one (only many stones looking like trolls), they turn into stone when exposed to sunlight)!!
well it was great having a rest in trondheim,(really lovely city), also meeting up with dag, a friend. this afternoon I will pack up and head along the trondheimsfjorden.yes i did meet my needs: the comfortable barchair, pizza, salad and beer
really was good!!

hi everyone (tromsö, 28.06.2003)
yes, at last i have arrived in the city of tromsø, a couple of hundred kilometres above the arctic circle. during the last 16 days i have been cycling together with felix (met him in trondheim). He was heading up to the`nordkapp` along the same route as i planned, so we teamed up and the going with him has been a great pleasure. we get along well, cycle about the same speed and have similar opinions when it comes to searching a great spot to pitch the tents! from trondheim we have now cycled a bit over 1300 km along the incredibly scenic krystriksveien coastal road (rv 17) with hundreds of fjords, steep cliffs and waterfalls.

felix standing outside at 1am (in the midnight sun)

after crossing the arctic circle we headed up to bodø and then took the ferry across to the lofoten and vesterålen islands. we cycled about 500 km along the coastline on these islands. the lofoten islands with it`s dramatic unearthly glacier-carved peaks was really great and we have been very lucky with the weather which allowed us to climb up one of these great peaks in t-shirts and shorts. the
hike up to the top has been one of the best hikes in my life.. the scenery from up there.. well can not describe it!!

after crossing the arctic circle we headed up to bodø and then took the ferry across to the lofoten and vesterålen islands. we cycled about 500 km along the coastline on these islands. the lofoten islands with it`s dramatic unearthly glacier-carved peaks was really great and we have been very lucky with the weather which
allowed us to climb up one of these great peaks in t-shirts and shorts. the hike up to the top has been one of the best hikes in my life.. the scenery from up there.. well can not describe it!!

reina on the lofoten islands

view from one of the mountains on the lofoten islands

after 3 days of cycling with felix we were becoming extremely fussy when it came to searching for a camping spot!! it had to be flat, dry, a good view etc etc, the wild spots in norway are so beautiful but obviously you will not find them right next to the road, so it ended up that every evening we would search for a great spot wit a great view. the one evening felix went off to look for a spot and came back to the road telling me that he has found a wonderful spot and that there was a surprise waiting for me, well we headed for the nice patch of grass inside the forest and what was standing there?? the biggest moose that i have ever seen, it however soon took off, it`s female running after him into the forest. so at last i got to see a moose!! the area was pretty damp, attracting the mosquitos, which can be quite irritating in the evenings... well actually also in the morning, as i discovered after searching a nice toilet spot with a great view. i was `crouching` in my usual toilet position and enjoying the great view, not realizing that a mosquito had made a nice perfect landing on my balls, sucked the blood it needed and flew off... well believe me, the first hour of cycling that morning was not too pleasant!!!!!

felix and i found many more wonderful camping spots next to the fjord, watching the sea eagles and seagulls swooping down to catch crabs and fish. we found some really `cool` spots on hills overlooking the northern atlantic. the 23rd of june is midsummers eve in norway (a national holiday), this year the 23 rd of june did not have one cloud in the sky over the lofoten islands, we had pitched our tent on a hill, 20 metres from the ocean and we could watch the midnight sun all night - yes this is truly the land of the midnight sun!! the sun never sets and its great to have the sun heating the tent at this latitude all night!

i am now used to sleeping with 24 hour daylight.. the long cycling days make me fall asleep!! midsummers eve was also spent with some locals on the lofoten island, had a taste of their home made liquir and listened to them singing the song of the `midnight sun`. on midsummers eve we also had the opportunity to watch a fox chasing some birds only about 70 metres from out tent. it could`nt catch the birds but it was sniffing for the eggs. as a result the birds were furious, making a terrible noise in the early hours of the morning.	felix cycling along the fjord on the lofoten island
midnight sun at 1.30am on the lofoten	on another occasion a seagull which had it`s chic near the roadside was distracted by a car, unfortunately i passed by at the wrong moment and the seagull which was quite angry attacked me!! well I was glad that i had my helmet on!! As a result i nearly rode into the ditch on the side of the road. the last fjord before bodø is quite boring to cycle around so we decided to organise to cross the fjord by boat. i phoned the postoffice and the lady on the phone said that there was a postalboat which would arrive at a certain place at 16:30.
i could hardly find the place on the map but eventually found it, a tiny little fishing harbour. would the boat arrive? Yes it did – norwegians are reliable! we piled our bikes and trailers on all the other packets and parcels on the overcrowded boat which first had to drop off some locals on some far offshore islands. the boatride (even though it was quite a detour, was worth it. after 20 minutes we saw whales!!, then i found a corner in the boat and soon fell asleep! we arrived in tromsø yesterday, we could not find a place to stay but luckily we met some local students (most of them seem to be marine biologists or some other biologists studying arctic fauna or flaura) and they are quick to organise you a room.	vesteralen island or caribbean?

climbing the blämannen

in the evening we joined in on their mid summer hyperactivity and went down to the city centre until about 4am when the streets are crowded with people!

actually i am now at a biologists house, using his pc to write this e-mail, he is studying the habitat of the common eider duck and he will be taking us birdwatching on a nearby island tomorrow morning where he tags and carries out his studies for his masters degree. then if the weather is good we will climb up one of the mountains in the lyngen alps in the evening, watch the midnight sun and walk down in the early hours of the morning. on monday we will continue. on the next and hardest stage (about 600km) up to the `nordkapp`.
got to get going, cheers for now

e-mail from 7.july

arrival at the northcape.
hi everyone
well.. felix and i ended up staying in tromsø until last monday evening. thanks to lena who organised us a room in her student flat we could stay for 3 nights. the night life in tromsø is really great and one could think that the locals start the day at midnight!!! anyway we ended up doing the same; chatting outside in the midnight and morning sun until about 7 am. on the last day lena invited us to join in on a midnight sun climb up the fantastic peak: blåmannen together with aili (her room mate from greenland) and another friend. the 5 of us and her dog set off at around 9 pm and we got to the top shortly after midnight. the view from this peak is just amazing!!incredible!! (ok, there was also not a single cloud in the sky which is rare for the area). i must say lena was a great guide. we had quite a lot of fun on the way, everyone telling stories of his/ her life. i found it very interesting to listen to aili`s life as a student for a year on the svalbard islands in the arctic sea studying the seals. well we got back to tromsø at around 5 am and then decided to sleep instead of joining in on birdwatching 2 hours later... that evening felix and i left tromsø and headed for the last 600 km to the end of europe at 71 degrees north (north cape). 5 and 1/2 days of good going, even though the last day was quite hard with 2 long tunnels, a few hills, wind and icy conditions we reached our goal on saturday at 7:17 pm!

north cape- the end of europe

it has been a 5327 km long cycle ride up here and it was a awesome feeling to stand at the end of europe where the road suddenly comes to an end!! we took some photo`s and then i had to turn the bike by 180 degrees. yes, it`s time to go home... another few thousand kilometers further south. after a windy night in the tent up at the cape we turned back and headed for honningsvåg. i will leave this place in an hour and head south via finland along the russian border.

“ regards from nokia country” e-mail 13.july 03

hi everyone
well, it´s not always easy to write long e-mails, just never seem to find a pc to use for more than 20 minutes. i´m now sitting in the library in rovaniemi just off the arctic circle.
after reaching the north cape last saturday evening, felix and i spent one more day of cycling, washing our clothes and relaxing before we both headed off in different directions. after cycling for about 2000 km with felix it was somehow quite hard to depart, a friendship had grown, we listened to a song ´time of my life´, which felix had on his cd and then it was ´cheers mate, see you at the slide show in 5 months time´!!
from honningsvåg i took the hurtigruten coastal steamer across the fjord to the northen mainland of europe ´nordkinn´!! arriving there at 7 pm, I still had to cycle a good 75 km that evening over the nordkinn plateau to reach the óff the beaten track´ village of skjånes which is only accessible in winter by boat. i thought that the cycling in the evening would be easy until i realized that i first had to cycle up to the plateau (not too high at about 350m) but because it was late in the day the temperature on the
plateau was freezing. i had never been this cold on this trip. i put on my gloves, mountaineering cover mitts, covers for my shoes and even then I could still not feel a toe or a finger!!! stopping on top of this plateau only for a short time, (i could´nt take a picture, it was just too cold!!), i watched some birds next to a tarn (mountain lake), just listening to the deathly silence up in this barren land (reminded me strongly of my hiking days back on the drakensberg escarpment, looking across to the maluti mountains of lesotho in southern africa, on a cold winter morning!). i was feeling incredibly lonely, after felix and i had been joking around and always chatting while riding for hours, i was now not just alone but in a place where no one would dare to live! 2 cars passed me while cycling for 2 hours on the plateau (i was moving quite fast, just wanted to get back down to the sheltered fjord!!) but somehow the place really amazed me. while cycling along i suddenly had the feeling that i was not alone and i stopped my bike again, i knew something was watching me... i looked around for a few minutes and then realized that a beautiful red fox with a great fluffy tale was only a couple of metres from my bike. it´s the moments that are often not easy, that one never forgets!! the nordkinn plateau was really an experience after all the traffic that we had leading up to the north cape on the last section where we were forced to take the arctic highway (no other roads). especially the bus loads full of retired people going to the end of europe to look at the fog and paying about 35 swiss franks (ZA Rands 210) for the entry fee to see nothing!! (cyclists get in for free).
by the time i arrived in the little village of skjånes at around 23:00, i was too tired to be ´choosy´ regarding a campsite and so i pitched my tent behind the church, next to the graveyard. the midnight sun was shining through the clouds and so i was left in peace for that night. i do not think that the grave ghosts like the midnight sun!! well, at least they left me alone!!.
at skjånes i took the 8:30am boat across the fjord which only runs twice a week, which was the reason why i had to cycle during evening hours the day before. another 60 km of cycling in norway and then it was time to say ´goodbye norge´. i had cycled over 3000 km through the length of this lovely country and if one believes it or not (norwegians will not believe me), i had 34 days of good weather and only 8 days of which it was rainy or drizzly.i then entered finland at the topmost corner in a place called nuorgam (eu´s northern most point), taking a photo of the cornerstone, the first mosquito welcomed me to the ´land of lakes, forests and mosquitos` with a great bite into the back of my leg!! ok!! it was time to take out the spray that all the finish and norwegian people had told me to keep ready as soon as I get off my bike!!!.

1500km of forest roads through finland

from the northern most point in finland it has been a long and lonely ride down to rovaniemi (only 3 towns on the way)- forest and lakes all the way and from time to time you have to watch out for the reindeer which suddenly run out onto the road. once a ´really big chap´ was standing right in front of me, looking straight at me for quite some time, shivers... i thought he was going to charge me!! the look on his face, and his huge horns were not too pleasant. he did eventually run off after i whistled at him!!.

i covered a distance of 570 km during the last 5 days, pitching my tent in the forest as soon as i had enough for the day. i crossed the arctic circle yesterday (so it´s the end of the ´midnight sun´ for me), now i really need a 1 days rest before i head off on another looooooong stretch down to sumiainen in the south where i will be visiting pekka at his summer cottage at a lakeside. he will show me what a real finish smoke sauna is, how to enjoy a day of fishing with a few beers etc etc... as i entered rovaniemi last night, studying the city map, i met a local standing on the roadside, he asked me if i´ve been to a sauna yet? my answer was no, so he said before I go to the campsite i must come to his place and experience a finish sauna! i took on the offer and it was quite a nice experience chatting to someone in a sauna instead of sitting in a normal chair in the back yard.

crossing the arctic circle

it´s the normal thing here to sit in a sauna every day!!! it did get a bit too hot for me after he was throwing water over the stones every minute!!! i preferred the shower afterwards!!! well got to get going, got to catch up on some washing, have to service my bike, eat a huge pizza etc etc.
cheers for now.

greetings from helsinki 25.7.03

moi moi everyone

i have been in helsinki for 2 days now, having a brake, a beer and getting organised for the next stage - the 3 baltic states of estonia, latvia and lithuania and then head down to poland. cycling around the outer area of the russian region, kallingrad. i am not going across to russia (hassels with getting a visa) it´s been a great ride from rovaniemi down to helsinki.it´s been so incredibly hot and humid that i was able to cycle the whole 1050 km in my sandals!! (even the long dirtroad tracks).

sunrise at 3.40 am in sumiainen

i must say the whole trip through finland, from the top, right down to helsinki is a 1500 km stretch of forest and lake landscape which can get boring at times but the lakes are so incredibly beautiful and always a great opportunity for a quick ´cool down´ before cycling on to the next lake for the next swim. due to the heat and mosquitos i´ve been using the campsites instead of camping out in the wild. the campsites are always situated in such beautiful spots next to the lake (short grass = less mosquitos), are all equipped with showers, saunas, kitchen and toilets (usefull so that the mosquitos don´t bite your ass!! believe me i´ve had enough of these bites in certain spots!!!!).

so after the long days of cycling it´s a pleasure to jump into a lake (water temp. is up to 27 degrees celsius at the moment) and then have a nice cold shower.
i´ve actually met so many people on the way, most of them think i`m crazy. it´s incredible, people just stop their car on the long long stretches of forest and want to know why on earth i´m cycling through their country which just consists of forests, lakes and mosquitos. one finnish chap said to me: you are a bit crazy, just like ´forrest gump´. out of no where these journalists just stop me and want to interview me. as a result there was a picture of me and my story in a local newspaper the next day. mind you,
it´s typical, the journalists story was slightly different!! it´s always like that with newspapers!!!
at a certain spot ín the middle of nowhere´ i was somewhat confused to where i was (the place name had changed and was not corrected on the map). Luckily a very friendly lady ´Kerfu´ saw me standing at the dirtroad intersection with my swissflag on my trailer and started speaking german to me(she had
lived in switzerland for 10 years many years back). she not only told me which way i should go, but she also invited me to her lovely house deep in the woods for a peace of her homemade strawberry cake and icecream. wow, i could certainly not resist on this day which was so hot!! and wow.. was
that strawberry cake delicious!! it kept me cycling another 80 km that day!! her husband, reino (a distributor of ascom products) also gave me some fishing material so that i could catch my own dinner! their house was so lovely and of course their outside rustic sauna built in the 1940´s was really cute.
a few days later i arrived at pekka´s summerhouse, also deep in the woods next to a beautiful lake (i know pekka from the technical training course in switzerland). pekka immediately got his ´savu sauna´ (smoke sauna) going. it took 4 hours for the smoke sauna to be ready. after the smoke was out of the sauna (specialy built wooden house and the stones are heated by wood), we spent 3 hours rotating between sauna, jump in the stream and drinking a beer. i now understand why the finnish people enjoy their ´sauna lives´!!!the smoke sauna experience is really great and much much better than a normal sauna!!! spent a great evening with his family. the garden cottage that he let me use for the night was right next to the lake so i had a great morning swim the next day before continuing my journey.
110 km before i got to helsinki, something happened which i knew would come sooner or later.. my first major breakdown. the rim of my back wheel got a 7cm long fracture line. luckily it happened while cycling through the first big city (lahti) since rovaniemi and i could even ride it (gently) to the cycle shop. i´m glad it happened here and i hope nothing like it will happen in the baltic states or else i´m in for bigger problems!!! (probably the spokes were tightened too much)!
well, time for a shower and then see helsinki by night!! the place is quite lively! tomorrow it´s time to say goodbye scandinavia (which has been so great) and ´tere´estonia. it will be harder to travel now, most people not being able to speak german or english but there is always a way to understand each other!!!
ok, cheers for now!! keep well guys!
dani
ps: see link below of some crazy americans cycling in norway on their uni-bikes, in their report (day 8) there is a picture of felix and me, after having dinner with them.
http://www.unitours.org/tours/NUT/Update/Day08/index.htm

Greetings from Poland 9.08.03hi everyone
well the stage from tallin down to to the polish border (a bit over 1100 km) travelling through the 3 countries of estonia, latvia and lithuania has truly been exciting and probably one of the most excitingpart of my cycle trip so far.

wall of tallin

it just so happened that i bumped into martin and gabriel at the helsinki harbour (i call them the 2 crazy swedes!!!), i had met them at the north cape while still cycling with felix. they had taken a different route through finland and arrived at exactly the same day and time as i did in helsinki and that after 1700 km of cycling!!!martin's father has an apartment in tallin, so i was fortunate enough to be able to stay with them in the luxury apartment with sauna. a good opportunity
to do all the washing (by machine!! wow!!).

martin also had a contact in tallin, evelyn. evelyn was so kind enough to take us out to see the night life in tallins best disco and then showed us the whole city (old and new) the next day, showing us interesting sites, ex kgb offices, lookout points etc. the old city of tallin has been restored and is really lovely while on the outskirts the old russian built apartments look really terrible (over 40% of the population is still russian). it was not great cycling through that area the next day with drunken russians shouting something behind your back. i just ignored them all and rode on, not stopping at all.

fortunately martin is a cook and is really good at it too... so we enjoyed a great meal that evening.
i then set off a day earlier than the 'crazy swedes', planning to meet them in rapla where we wanted to visit the hilleberg factory (unfortunately it was closed). not knowing where to sleep i asked a local where that I could pitch my tent. toivo was his name and i was invited to sleep in his back garden. we ended up having a great barbecue with beer and wine. i got to bed at about 2:30 am. at 7 am toivo woke me up telling me that he is going to take the day off work to go cycling with me. he wanted to show me a lovely marsh and lake, well off the beaten track!! well it was truly lovely indeed. i really appreciated what toivo did for me.

beautiful lake in estonia

that afternoon i cycled on another 110 km, travelling east towards the russian border, the roads getting worse and worse until i ended up cycling on a terribly bumpy dusty dirt road. it was time to pitch my tent but where? the forest was too thick and the grass too long (too many mosquitos), suddenly an estonian was standing next the road in front of me next to his old russian ladda car. he could speak english quite well and wanted to know what i'm doing on this lonely dirtroad. i told him the story and again i was invited to stay on his honeyfarm deep in the woods.

on the honeyfarm	tiit was his name, lives a very basic and simple life (very poor) with is wife and 2 sons. just after arriving at the honeyfarm we all got into his little car and off we went to buy some beers and meat for a barbecue. of course we had to go for a refreshing swim and bath in a nearby lake. (tiit has no bath at home, only a well to get water). tiit plays the guitar and he sang some estonian songs next to the fire outside, an evening that i will never forget! as i wanted to leave in the morning he wanted to give me a kg of his honey and another kg of his homemade jam (wild berries), unfortunately i could not carry it all (it's just too heavy)!! i will never forget tiit for his great heart which he has!
The estonians that i had met so far were all so very kind to me and a great giving heart which just made me think for many hours while i was riding that next day!!! and on i went, more dirt roads, more dust in my eyes, more great estonian forests, especially the south eastern part of the country really impressed me. after crossing the border into latvia i then turned west again (yes i've been zigzagging through the countries to get to see all the national parks!).	the dirtroads through estonia
	somehow i lost contact with the swedes (mobile phone was not in order), but pure coincidence had it again that we met up in valmiera, a little town in latvia and since then we've been cycling together. the first stretch of cycling that we did together was through the beautiful gauja national park along a seemingly endless bumpy dusty and sandy dirt road, boy were we happy when we hit the tarr road again... do not be happy too soon, thats what we learnt during the last 700 km!!! the tar roads usually suddenly come to an abrupt end and it's back on endless dirt roads.
up to 80 km of dirt roads a day and another 30 km on tar roads in the terrible heat (it has been hot for many days now, cycling in only shorts and sandals for the last 2000 km). occasionally huge timber trucks would come roaring past, swirling up dust which sticks to your sweaty body and dry lips. we were always fortunate enough in finding great camping spots next to beautiful lakes deep in the forest where we could go for our swim and bath which was usually necesary.	the 'crazy swedes'

if we were cycling through farmland areas we would ask farmers (sign language, they usually only speak their local language and russian)if we could pitch our tent next to the potato fields, or on another occasion we slept on an abandoned russian farm. the farmers were always kind, giving us fresh water from their wells.
the scenery has been great: if we were not cycling through the lake and forest areas we were cycling through farmland which was covered in stalk nests on telephone poles, old chimneys from ex russian factories etc etc. an occasional 'watch out' when a snake would wriggle across the road, nearly
riding over the 'creature' or when large buses roar past you so closely that you end up cycling off the road into the grass!

another big zigzag through lithuania and then it was time to say goodbye to the baltic countries. i will be back someday! the 'tourist free' areas really impress me and there are great places to camp out in the wild! we hardly ever saw a tourist pass by on the roads we took. we entered poland yesterday and then we cycled down to augustow where we are having a days break. we all need it, the cycling has been hard, long days and on the last two days we've had the wind against us and a few sudden thunderstorms (which are luckily over after 5 minutes)!!

old castle ruin in latvia

cycling in latvia

martin and gabriel are really great guys.its great to be cycling with them, especially on the difficult stretches where we can help each other. They are so full of energy and usually we end up cooking great meals on our petrol cookers at night. while cycling we are usually up to full of s*%$!!! we now plan to cycle down to krakow, then cross over the tatria mountain range into slowakia. martin and gabriel will then go west, cross the alps and cycle down to gibraltar while i plan to cycle down to budapest, but first we will be cycling in poland for about 2 weeks.

for those who send me e-mails, thanks a lot, unfortunately i can not answer all of them personally or else i would be in the internet cafe too long!! but thanks!

keep well and cheers for now.

Greetings from Krakau 19.08.03

i am now in the beautiful polish city of krakow after cycling another 800 km through poland from augustow in the north east along the polish/ belarus and polish/ ukraine border down to zamosc and then we (together with the swedes: gabriel and martin) headed west to krakow. we have been in krakow for 2 days now, having 2 rest days because there is so much to see here.

the cycling here in poland has been a great pleasure. the side roads that we take are easy going (flat and tarred) and not much traffic. after we left augustow we have mainly been sleeping in the forests away from the villages
and roads. except for some wild pigs making a noise while passing our tent at night and the snoring going on in the other tent. the camping out in the wild has been peacefull and we never encountered any problems even when we once pitched our tent in a military zone- we did leave the place very early. the next morning!!!! one sais: you can do everything just do not get caught!!

polish farmers out in the field

fixing another punctured tube

on the second day we cycled through the bialowieska forest on the belarusian border. the huge trees in the park are really stunning and riding through the forest was the perfect thing on such a hot day!! other than the forests we cycled hundreds of km through farmlands and little villages scattered in the countryside. it's so peacefull when passing the villages. the old people sit on their wooden benches outside their basic homes and watch what is going by on the street. for many of them it must be the first time to see cycling tourists because once they see us they watch us until we are out of site.

many of them just laugh or shake their heads wondering what these idiots are cycling through the countryside for. the question is always the same: why are you doing this? are you crazy? how many kilometres have you done? do you not want to sit down and have some vodka and sausage? or a beer?

actually the only people that we have encountered that cause problems are the drunken guys but they are too slow to do anything to us! our bikes are faster than a pair of wobbly legs! alcohol consumption is a big problem here, one can buy beer and vodka at any time of the day and many of the little shops in the little towns have a larger variety of vodka and other alcohol than groceries!!! sometimes we have to make it clear that we are cycling and that we can not sit down and have vodka even though they want to be nice to us!

on sunday we spent all morning cycling through little villages and it is amazing how all the villagers flock to the catholic church for the sunday service. actually the whole towns are dead quite during the church services because everyone is at church. the churches are so packed full that most of the people stand in the churchyard, listening to the preacher from the outside (doors and windows open so that everyone can hear)! i've never seen this anywhere else on earth and it's amazing how these people have faith!

THE TYPICAL DAY: what really keeps us going is our large breakfasts that we have in the morning which is the main meal of the day. every morning we have a huge bowl of muesli each. one orange, one banana, one kiwi and a handful of raisins land in each bowl. in certain places we were fortunate enough to find many wild berries in the forest so before we had breakfast we went berry picking. the berries obviously also land in the muesli bowl. this usually keeps us going for the first 50 to 60 km before hunger strikes again. Lunch is also huge and is always followed by a 25 minute sleep under a tree before we set off to do the next 60 km in the afternoon until hunger strikes a third time! first pitch the tent, then a cold wash in a lake, river or from the waterbottle and then the cookers get going... a great relaxing time of the day, while the cooking is in progress we do our stretching sessions which is just as important. after dinner it's route planning time, writing and reading followed by snoring...
nonesense with the swedes never seems to stop!! overtaking the other guy could mean that water will be splashed in the others face, always followed by a "i'll get you back for that" a result might be a banana peal under the other guys bum or a frog or a huge spider will be thrown in the others tent!!
we really have a lot of fun and often the days just fly by!!
yesterday afternoon i went to oswiecim (auschwitz I concentration camp which is now a museum). It was interesting to see what happened here during the world war II, not at all nice!!!!! heaps and heaps of shoes, glasses, hair brushes etc etc can be viewed in the barracks - stuff which was taken away from the prisoners. seeing how they lived, how they slept, the experiments that were carried out on children, then seeing the place where they were shot, hanged etc -- terrible!!! it makes you think!!today, is truly a relaxing day: sleeping and eating!! now we are getting ready for the tatra mountain range. we plan to cross over into slovakia in 2 days time, crossing 2 to 3 passes and then cycle along the 'high tatra' in slovakia. gabriel and martin will then go their way towards switzerland, over the alps down to gibraltar while i am heading down to budapest in hungry and then i will head west down to slovenia.
now we can't wait for the passes! it,s been relatively flat for the last
4000 km!
ok, time to go and get a bite!
cheers for now and take care!

Greetings from Zadar in Croatia 04.Sept.03

hi everyone
yes, its been more than 2 weeks since we (martin, gabriel and i) left the wonderful city of krakow in poland. it's not very great to cycle in and out of these cities - the fumes and the heavy traffic is annoying, but it was a matter of 20 km and we were back out on the open side roads of poland leading us up to the tatry mountain range. the scenery changed suddenly. more hills, more climbs and more sweat! but also more great downhills! just like we wanted it!(the days were still very hot). after 1 1/2 days of cycling over hills and passes we reached the slovakian border. it was also the fist time
since days that we got hit by an afternoon thunderstorm, also the first time since days that martin had a puncture - it always seems to happen when it rains!!!

we chose a route straight through slovakia (north to south), which meant we had to do 3 passes, one over the high tatry and two over the nizke tatry. we had to squeeze in the 3rd pass in one day because the pass was going to be closed to traffic due to a car rally taking place the next day. well, it was quite hard, the 2000 m in altitude in total and 120 km that day really tired us by the time we got to the top of the 3rd pass just as it got dark. we had also run out of water and not a stream nearby! anyway we cycled to the nearby village where the village bakery was baking bread for the next day - wow, a real wood heated oven like 50 years ago and the bread - wow!!

camping in the slovakian hills

a real wood heated oven like 50 years ago and the bread - wow!! just the best we have eaten in years!!!! we got our water there as well as plenty of fresh bread before pitching our tent on a nearby farmers field. (the countryside in the mountain region of slovakia is much like the jura in switzerland - just beautiful!). well, after 2 nights out camping in fields and forests we reached the hungarian border. slovakia will stay in our memories as one of the greatest places to cycle (nice long passes, up to 20 km downhills!! - ok, it's also 20 up! but i always say: what goes up must come down!), a lot of great scenery and not many cars, just peacefull!

the huge ‘gulasch’ pot in the backyard

our first night in hungary was also quite an experience. we had reached the border town of balassagyarmat in the evening so we were looking for a place to sleep, a guy saw us looking for accommodation and said we should sleep at his place, why not? the bedroom was ok and he had a huge pot of hungarian gulasch going for about 4 hours over a fire outside in the backyard. just the great smell of it made us stay!!! boy , was that gulasch good!!! i can't remember how many servings that we had, obviously we were served some hungarian 'schnapps' as well, only afterwards did he tell us that it was 70% alcohol! after a town party we hit bed, dead tired!

the following day we cycled down to the danube river, where 'it was time to say goodbye' (the song we had sung at every border crossing). gabriel and martin decided to go upstream up to the alps while i decided to go downstream to budapest. we had a great time together, will never forget it!
i reached budapest that same evening (hell of a traffic!!- i swore it will be the last time i'm cycling into such a big city, trucks nearly knocking you off the road!) budapest was my rest day. should i call it a rest day? i was walking around all day looking at this and that, getting more tired than when i am cycling. i felt just like a japanese tourist, except that i left out the photos that they take at every ugly brick wall! well as usual, one day in the city is more than enough for me and i was glad to get back on my bike and do another 140 km stretch down to the balaton lake in south/western hungary. i stayed at a campsite (was not used to so many people after all the wild camping in the other countries). cycling
along the balaton lake had too many tourists for my liking and i soon switched to some hilly country-roads with lovely scenery, vineyards, peach trees etc. another 2 days and i arrived in slovenia. slovenia was just a great place! lovely countryside but very hilly. it was on one of these steep 15% hills on a hot day that my cyclometer clocked the 10000 km mark for this trip. having not much food left, i had a sip of water and a chocolate bar and continued on my journey. 3 nights in slovenia, sleeping on farmland and campsites brought me to a lovely 'gorge like' valley (river kupa) which marks the border to croatia.
i crossed over into croatia at the bottom of a long 15 km hill which i had to go up. boy, was i looking forward to the long downhill on the otherside - it would take me straight down to the adriatic sea (my second goal of my trip), but o no! at the top of the pass i got hit by the worst thunderstorm that i have experienced in years. the fork-lightning was crashing into the ground all around me - i had to get off this pass immediately!! but the wind was so bad and the hailstones were hitting me hard (just as if someone was throwing stones at me!! - luckily my helmet did protect my head from the hailstones). i could not take it anymore and found an old building to shelter myself from the storm. after an hour however, i decided to carry on, the storm had still not died down, i went down the pass very very slowly (due to the extreme wind), until i reached the adriatic sea. pitched my tent and went to sleep!!

it has stayed windy for the last 3 days but not as bad as the first day. i have now cycled along the islands of krk, rab and pag (taking the ferry between the islands). i had not met touring-cyclists for days but then on krk i met charlie and helen (s. african and new-zealand) and we have somehow always met up again at the campsites enjoying a beer or 2, which just has to be when meeting a s. african!! i've been taking it easy along this route because i'm well ahead of my schedule. now i've reached the southernmost part of my trip, here in zadar (exactly 5200 km from the north cape).my plan now is to take the ferry across to ancona in italy, cycle up the coast to venice and then up through the dolomites and alps back home. i hope to end off the trip with a few great mountain passes.i will be back in switzerland on the 20.09. really looking forward to seeing
you all again!
c u soon dani

croatia- adriatic sea

sunset in zadar

THE END - 18th September
well, after my last e-mail i had to rush off and enjoy a last swim in the adriatic sea in zadar before packing up and taking the ferry across to ancona in italy. i took a night ferry and so rolled out my mattress just next to the passage and went to sleep until someone accidentally walked over (onto) my legs! well, i then squashed my body under some seats and slept quite comfortably! i arrived in ancona early in the morning, right in the middle of italian rush-hour traffic. boy was it bad! all these fumes, a mixture of burnt diesel and petrol in the air. after cycling along the coast for 20 km I decided, 'thats it'!

just could not take this italian traffic and so i headed onto some small side roads leading into the interior of the country which was very peacefull but also very hilly. the little old villages are mostly
perched on the hills (for protection in the olden days) and so the roads go from one hill up to the next instead of around! i did not mind, the countryside (just farmland) is very nice, until it came to finding a place to pitch my tent... ok, eventually i found a spot on some farmland between some bushes, it was already getting dark and so i could not be too fussy. what i did not realize was that there was a chicken pen behind the bushes (chicken and goose farm). what i also do not understand is why these cocks have to crow so early in the morning!! a hell of a noise, 3 hours before my alarm clock setting!!!
eventually i could not take the noise, packed up and headed towards the little country of 'san marino', perched on a hill it must be one of the smallest countries in the world with great views right down to the adriatic sea - the downhill was great fun! i spent another 2 awful days (unbearable traffic on every road! even the side roads were bad) through the flatlands of the po river delta area, until i reached the foothills of the alps! At last!! wow, the place i love! the scenery suddenly changed and i found some great camping spots, next to vineyards with ripe grapes for my muesli pot!. i spent 2 days doing passes in the dolomites with it's towering jagged peaks souring far up into the sky (southern tirol), passo boldo, passo san pellegrino and passo di costalunga.

the weather was not always fantastic on this stretch but i never got cold, thanks to the steep uphills and very fast downhills!! in bolzano (bozen), the weather had turned good, which was just perfect for my third and last aim of the trip to cycle up the stilfserjoch pass (a 2500m climb up the valley from bolzano). the last section was quite steep with it's 48 hairpin bends. i had a sudden surprise when my 'old man' (dad), brother and sister in law were standing in bend number 29. a great place to meet after being away for 5 months. arriving at the top (it had started snowing) there was nothing better than to enjoy some wine and warm food with my family before the long downhill into the italian valley! i was alone again, and had another 3 passes to do before reaching st. moritz in switzerland. the last night in italy was a crazy situation again, it was getting dark and in the last moment i pitched my camouflaged tent between some trees just off one of the hair pin bends. i knew it was hunting season and that one should not camp out in the wild unless you mark your tent with flashlights and other shining objects, not that a hunter will mistake one as a wildpig when crawling out of the tent…

reaching the top of the pass

... anyway... these hunters are up at the same time as the cocks as i had to realize early the next morning when a gunshot went off, few metres from my tent! ok, the hunter will only shoot one buck, I thought!! WRONG! more shots went off and i suddenly did not feel too comfortable in my 'hillary' tent and decided to start to whistle and talk loud so that the hunter will not take me as a wild pig crawling out of a hole!! - i packed up quite quickly!! within minutes i was on then road! ps. it's not always good to have a green tent!

on top of the bernina pass, switzerland – home again!

it was a great moment that day, crossing the border into switzerland at furcola di livigno, two guys were blowing the alphorn at the border, yes..i was back in my country! after 2 days rest in st moritz (a day of hiking and a day of mt. biking), i crossed over my last few hurdles: albula pass, luzisteig into liechtenstein, then through the toggenburg and rickenpass back to lake zürich. stopping 8 km before reaching home, sat on a bench in the vineyards overlooking the lake and thought. i thought for at least 1 hour. i had been so lucky on this fantastic trip, met so many nice people and so so so many memories that i will never forget, so i thought and thought and thought…

i can not explain what one goes through on a long trip like this, you have to experience it yourself: meeting people, seeing great things, mountains, glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, oceans, the birds and animals around you, the smell of saltwater, fauna and flora, finding a new route, getting lost, being scared, being threatened, being lonely, experiencing the long hills, feeling your muscles burn, chafed legs after a long day, the heat and sweat, thirst, hunger, the cold when passing a waterfall, numb fingers, the cold raindrops crawling down your back, hailstones hitting you, extreme winds pushing you off the road, pitching your tent and cooking when you are so tired that all you want to do is sleep, tears, laughter, dreams.... this all is so intense when travelling on this 'thing', the 'iron horse' called a bicycle.
i read somewhere: 'a journey is a person in itself, no two are alike. and all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. i find, after months of struggle, that i do not take a trip, a trip takes me.’
yip, this 11604 km long trip on my bike has taken me through 18 countries. a journey that i will never forget.
i am now looking forward to doing this trip again as a slide show and i hope i can share some of the adventures with you! (i will let you know closer to the time!).
thanks to everyone that made this trip so special, i will not start listing, but special thanks goes to, 'schwob' (felix) and the 'crazy swedes' (martin and gabriel) with whom i cycled for thousands of km, sharing fantastic moments and going through hard times together, motivating each other and just having fun.
looking forward to seeing you all sometime in the near future!

cheers
dani