Germany

We arrived in Hamburg, Germany after leaving Amsterdam and were immediately greeted by David's friend and past roommate, Nicolaj. The first night was dedicated to catching up and reminiscing but the second night Nicolaj took us to a water fountain show that the city of Hamburg puts on during the summer. Hamburg was full of neat parks and port areas which Nicolaj showed us. He also took us to get German bratwursts so we could experience the real deal. They were really yummy.

After this point David and I knew that we had to take a train to Denmark since it was too much to bike with our extremely limited time left. Luckily for us when David told Nicolaj about our plans to sell our bikes in Copenhagen Nicolaj responded that he was actually looking for two bikes, one for him and one for his girlfriend! The exchange couldn't have worked out better and we left out bikes with him, feeling good knowing that they were in good hands.

The next morning we got on a bus and took off for Copenhagen to meet David's family.

The Netherlands

After we left Lueven, Belgium we headed to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. When we got to Rotterdam we met up with Ted and then rode to his house a few kilometers outside of the city. Ted and his family were all really nice and outgoing, Talking to them was extra enticing because they were American as well. They told us about their experiences living outside the United States and how it compared. The next morning me, David and Ted woke up early and Ted took us to the starting point of a bike path that would take us directly to Amsterdam and saw us off. At the time, I had no idea how grateful I would be that Ted introduced me to one of the most incredible bike routes I had ever seen.

The North Sea Cycle Route is a 6,000km chain of routes that goes through several European countries. The section in the Netherlands that we rode on was a perfectly paved, two lane path which rode adjacent to the water the whole way. There was nothing but cyclists, hikers and horse riders on the path, the weather was perfect and the sights were amazing. It was truly the best bike ride of my life. I recommend to anyone that encounters it to rent a bike and experience it themselves.

After our incredible ride, we got to Amsterdam and checked into our hostel, The Flying Pig. Since we had been staying with warmshower hosts, hostels were a new concept to us. We locked up our bikes and went and met our roommates. Everyone in the hostel was really nice and we got to exchange fun travel stories at the hostel bar and lounge. That night we ventured out into Amsterdam and checked out the unique buildings and water canals that flowed through the city. The next couple of days we played the roll of tourists and explored Amsterdam's streets, parks and stores and then headed to Hamburg Germany.

This is what we rode along for the majority of the route:

Amsterdam has a series of canals that run through the city. Just one of their several forms of transportation including walking, trains, trolleys and, of course, biking.

Belgium

After 4 nights in France, we were off to Belgium. We woke up at 3AM and headed out of Paris. The hours that followed were a stressful, hilly ride directly into strong wind. It took us over 10 hours to make the 80 mile ride to Amiens. From there we used the train system to finally arrive in Kortijk Belgium where we met up with my grandmother's cousin Liesbeth.

Liesbeth lives in an old style cottage that was built sometime in the 1700. While it is older and less modern that we are accustomed to, she made it like home for us.

Liesbeth and Me

The cabin was made for smaller people

She was very nice to us and greeted us with warm food. The next day she showed us around her garden, and the rest of Kortrijk for a nice relaxing day which ended with a nice meal at a fancy restaurant. It was truly a nice experience staying with her.

Kortrijk

More-trijk

 

 

 

After two nights it was time to move on and we easily completed the 65 mile ride to Leuven. This trip took us through the capital of Belgium, Brussels.

Something in Brussels

 

Berry, violet, apple.

Leuven is the home of  my relatives (who I have met once before) Jan and Sabine who welcomed us with spaghetti, in their very nice home just outside of the city. They both teach at the university and live in a more modern Belgian home. That night we met their daughter Eline who showed us to some drinks outside on their bar plaza area, followed by an hour or so visiting with Sabine and their son Louis. The next day was spent looking around Leuven followed by a pleasant wine and cheese tasting with some of Jan's friends and colleagues.

Today we will ride to Antwerpen to catch the train to Rotterdam. We will stay there for a night, and then it will be off to Amsterdam.

Paris!

Bonjour!

Tonight David and I are packing up our things and preparing for our ride to Amiens early tomorrow morning. We ended up staying in Paris for 4 nights with our host from warmshowers.org, Magali, Patrice and their 4 year old daughter Gwenn. All three of them have very outgoing and active personalities and have been so great to us since we arrived. Magali and Patrice told us about their 6 month bike tour across Japan, Australia and more as they towed Gwenn behind them in a trailer a few years back. I personally have found this very inspiring and amazing! After getting to know them though, I really don't expect anything less.

As for Paris, its everything everyone expects it to be. David and I spent an afternoon checking out the Eiffel Tower and then had a very yummy french meal later in the evening. The weather has been amazing, around 75 during the day and 60 at night (of course, this is all measured in Celsius which has been a little frustrating to translate since 23 is what is presented here). Last night we made pasta with salmon, sun dried tomatoes and chopped onions to thank our hosts. They had two friends come over and we all sat around talked for hours. Some of the things we talked about were bike touring adventures (one of their friends had cycled around the world!), feelings on French- American politics and relations, living abroad and, of course, sports. One of their friends even knew who Tim Tebow was! It was a really great night and I enjoyed having that personal experience with our hosts and their friends, definitely something you can't get in hotels.

Tomorrow we are hoping to complete our 80 mile ride to Amiens, FR early in the day and then take a train to Lille, FR and finish by biking to Kortrijk, BE to stay with some of David's family members. I have never been to Belgium before but David said its incredible so I can't wait to see what it will be like. Wish us luck!

London

Top of the morning to you governor. After a spot of tea with our mate Rob at his flat, we thought we'd have a go around London. Lets get to the bloody photos already. Cheers!

Obligatory

In leu of a red phonebooth

Buckingham Palace

Brompton Folding Bike

Rental Bike

A Ride Through England

After getting everything squared away in London, we set off for our ferry in Portsmouth. We left early in the morning to ensure that we had plenty of time to make it several hours in advance. After my little airline fiasco, we thought that we would make sure to prevent any future missed trains/planes/boats. Little did we know what was to come.

 The ride was about 50 miles which made it seem like it would be easy to get to the ferry on time.

So we hit the road:

The English countryside was incredible:

The route took us through a series of small villages and towns. Farms were abundant. This one was as good as a zoo:

The roads here are pretty terribly marked, and often have several names, or no names. It is possible that I will never understand why anyone would make a road system like this. I start bitching when I get to a US city that uses street names instead of street numbers. These roads instead, usually have signs pointing to the place where you are going, rather than giving you a solid name for the road. You kind of have to follow a the route by knowing all of the intermediate destinations in between, instead of knowing about the names of the roads. This makes interfacing with maps pretty difficult. Rob had made a pretty clear route for us, but we ended up veering off on a few places, slowing us down considerably. One time we made a costly error that ended up adding 10 miles to our route. I guess it was fun to see Godalming, but not really. By the time we made it to Portsmouth, it was 10 minutes before our ferry was set to head out. They want you to check in 90 minutes in advance, so they just close all of their doors. Even though the ferry was visible on the dock, we were out of luck for the night. Bitches.

We checked into a hotel clearly priced for people who had missed their boat, and got some much needed rest. The next day we got some food and bike service in Portsmouth, then it was on to Le Havre, France by ferry a day late.

Check Out Our New Bikes

After a day of running around London navigated by our friend and host Rob, we finally both had two working and comfortable bikes to use on our tour. We did a bit of work on them, loaded them up, and were good to go. Check them out below:

David's 90's American Specialized Sirrus (£180 = $300)

Monica's Pink Peugeot (£140 = $225)