Romantic Road (I): Bike the Reich

If I said I spent Easter "riding the Romantic Road solo", would that sound like a metaphor? 'Cause it's totally not. The Romantic Road is a real thing.

It's Germany's most popular long distance cycle route, spanning 420 kms from Wurzburg in southern Germany to Fussen in even more southern Germany. It's in Bavaria, but apparently the groups that make up Bavaria are quite individualistic - thus, it makes more sense to say it goes through Swab, Frankonia, etc. They created the route after the war as a tourist attraction, but the cycle version was only created in the last couple of decades when bike touring became popular in Germany.

I looked at the topographic map, and, seeing that the route is slightly uphill, decided to ride it from Fussen to Wurzburg instead. As it turns out, the whole thing is rolling hills, so it doesn't much matter which direction you ride it - you're going to get a workout either way.

From the south, the route starts at the Alps, runs along the Lech river, crosses the Danube, then runs along the Tauber river before finally finishing by the Main river in Wurzburg. It runs through a series of traditional Bavarian towns.

One note about the Romantic Road is that there are surprisingly few camping grounds along the way. If you're riding on a budget and looking to camp, your daily stops are pretty much dictated by where the camps are.

A few days before I was due to fly out, I checked the weather forecast, and was horrified to find that it was dropping to -6C at night in Fussen. That is not good camping weather, so I booked to stay in a hotel in Schwangau for the first night.

I packed my bike into a bag and flew to Munich at about 5am, rebuilt my bike, caught a train into the centre city, and then another couple of trains south-west to Fussen.

Unlike English trains, German trains have a bike carriage, even with bike seatbelts. On the downside, you have to buy a separate ticket for your bike. On the upside, the German rail service isn't a massively overpriced, outdated, crowded piece of crap. However, they're heading towards privatising their rail service, so I'm sure it'll be rubbish quite soon.

Shake-down Ride: Mildenhall

I have some new touring gear, so to test it I did a ride out to Mildenhall in Suffolk. I stayed in a camp ground out there that I've stayed in before. It's a very peaceful place, if you ignore the fact that it's located at the end of the runway at an American air base.

I think they're aware of it; check out the sign for the camping ground:

You'll no doubt be surprised to learn that a thin nylon tent does not do much to muffle the sound of a US military cargo plane 20 feet above your head.

I went to the local pub for a meal. The waiter wandered around with my meal, before asking me: "Are you the guy with the American accent who ordered a chicken salad?" I've never been so insulted in my life.

In Suffolk they do a very nice cider made out of strawberries and pears.

The bike held up well, so I was ready for my Germany trip.

Quiet Times

Late last year I was focused entirely on my trip home, so I stopped travelling. I actually lost 4 days of holiday last year that I never used. And it carried over to this year. From January to April, I didn't have a holiday. I was in a bit of a rut.

But although I haven't taken trips, I have done a few things. After the second quake, I've had a bout of Kiwi nationalism.

I saw Brooke Fraser in London. You'll have to take my word, because my photos were too crappy to post. I'm luke-warm on her music in general, but it was a good show.

I went to check out the former Roman town of Silchester, which is south of Reading. Silchester is interesting because, unlike most Roman towns, it was never built over. They have excavated quite a lot, including the former arena and the walls of the city. I took a bunch of photos, but I appear to have deleted them. Bum.

My touch rugby club held a Christchurch fundraising quiz evening. The organisers did a great job. The mood fluctuated wildly: Mostly it was a happy social evening, but when stories of post-quake life in Christchurch were read out, it would go very quiet.

I went to Twickenham (the home of rugby) to watch the Crusaders play the Sharks. I thought the crowd would be all Kiwis, but it was actually nearly all South Africans. As I sat down, it occurred to me that the whole thing might have been a trap set by the UK immigration service to round up 35,000 of us in one go.

After the Minute of Silence

I think that's my fourth minute of silence now.

With this Ring, I Thee Fled

We've just had holidays here for Easter and the royal wedding. I couldn't care less about either of those things (combine the royal family and crucifixion, and then you might have something), so I loaded up my bike and legged it for a couple of weeks.

No, it's not the Flipping Disney Castle

Paris: Sunday, Muddy Sunday

By the Sunday, I was sloshing about the city. I didn't have anything specific to do while I was waiting for my train, so I just wandered the streets and took some more photos.

Paris: An Umbrella-eye View

The Tuileries Garden

I went to the Louvre, thinking that no one would be out and about on a day like that. Check out the queue.

So, that's Paris in about 48 hours. With the Eurostar, it's so quick and easy, and not very expensive if you book the tickets in advance.

I do want to make one other comment about the trip. I've really liked most of the French people I've met, but I had some French flatmates here in Cambridge who were the 2 most reprehensible, sub-human specimens I've ever met. I would prefer to share a flat with Jeffrey Dahmer. So my opinion of the French could've gone either way at this point.

The people of Paris have a reputation for rudeness, even amongst the other French. But on this trip they were great. People gave us directions, the serving people were nice, no problems. I don't know if it was because it was outside the tourist season, or because we were speaking French, but for some reason they were behaving themselves admirably. Well played, Paris.

Paris: November Rain

The weather got incrementally worse as the trip went on. Friday at Pere Lachaise was very pleasant, but it was raining by nightfall when we did the boat tour. Saturday morning was fairly unpleasant.

We met at the Moulin Rouge.

We went to a flea market in the south of Paris. I don't think we saw the best of it. It was a real hodge-podge of old rubbish, but the weather was awful and we were probably a bit late.

In the afternoon, we did a walk to Sacre Coeur.

Then we went to the National Museum of Modern Art at the famous inside-out Pompidou Centre. I'd never been there before - it was very good. It had a Len Lye video.

Paris: City of Light

Paris is unquestionably prettier than London. We roamed the streets one evening, and took a tour along the Seine on a bateau-mouche.

This bloke, near Notre Dame, was twirling flaming batons.