"The Hunt...!"

Too ridiculously hot to cycle today, so drove Harriet's car down to the Southern Everglades. Once away from the suburbs there are enormous hedgeless field growing fruit and veg - lots of potatoes and pineapple, then avocados and beans. Workers are weeding and picking in the hot sun.
In the National park the road is very quiet, with short spurs off to viewing platforms on lakes, boardwalks through mangroves, or on slight rises above sea level there are Hardwood Hammocks - small stands of trees. We spot a road sign we are not familiar with in Devon!


At the visitor centre Park Rangers provide tarpaulins to cover parked cars in order to protect them from the Black Vultures. Apparently they love to peck at rubber trim, and windscreen wipers... I saw one flock pull a tarpaulin off a vehicle. An alligator near the waters edge enjoys his lunch of Turtle - a foot sticking out of his mouth. It seems reluctant to share lunch with the vultures.


The Park road ends at Flamingo Bay, where Osprey nest on top of poles and tall trees. One dives and pulls out a fish. A large pink bird overhead is a Roseate Spoonbill. Trees are full of roosting Snowy and Great Egrets.
The boat chandler sells us two coffees for three dollars. We sit in the shade and watch a few canoeists and fisher men in shallow motor boats, pottering around at the mangrove edges.

Location:Flamingo Bay

Gators at Shark Valley...

After dropping Harriet off at the airport for her flight to New York, we drive to Shark Valley Nat. Park in the Everglades, to pedal the Bromptons on a traffic-free tarmac track. There are alligators, egrets and herons alongside, then we reach a massive observation tower, with views of lakes, mangroves and woods. Vultures circle, and 3 sorts of heron flap from tree to tree below. A stiff breeze stops the heat from being oppressive. Other cyclists on hire bikes admire our steeds.

Location:The Everglades

Breakfast in America...

Seems like every car in the UK is sharing the A303 with us towards Heathrow, bumper to bumper, for 5 hours(!) Fortunately we are in no hurry. We do get a long look at Stonehenge as we inch past.
I pedal up a 2000ft mountain, (in the Holiday Inn gym) while Mike battles with the wifi system to check us in on line. Next morning our boxed Bromptons weigh a bit more than allowed, but Virgin don't mention it. The flight leaves on time as we enjoy "The Bridge of Spies" & " The Minions" (yeh!) with a glass (or two) of bubbly.


We start our first Miami morning watching circling Vultures and flocks of White Ibis, from Harriet's balcony. Hot from sun up at 6:00. A light (!) breakfast at our favourite cafe, Daily's.

Trains and Giants...

Heading west for the first time this tour. On the roads of Wroclaw on a Saturday morning we have few cars to contend with, only trams and tram lines. Soon in the countryside passing wheat and potatoes. Strawberries are sold from road side stalls. As everywhere, lots of railway crossings, many with no barrier, and frequent trains. It's like UK must have been before Beeching - every town and village has a busy station and lots of freight carried at a sedate pace. Gradually we gain height as we see ahead the first mountains of the trip. As with many names here, theirs is unpronounceable to us, but translated means Giant Mountains. Sometimes the road deteriorates to cobbles and sand but mainly just potholes, and the gradients are not too steep. We make very good progress so have time to take a slower forest path, having lunch sitting on logs in a beautiful valley.

That was Sunday, and there has been a delay posting the blog until today, Wednesday, because.....

We are just congratulating ourselves on a good ride and entry into Czech Republic, when I (Mike) find a particularly loose bit of track and take a tumble. Unfortunately it was one of those times when you know straight away it's not trivial! With the brilliant help from a passing Czech cyclist, and the emergency services, I am soon in Trutnov Hospital. A dislocated right ankle and small fracture in the same leg means I will not be riding anywhere for sometime.


Susan is in a nearby hotel with our bikes and gear, and we are looking at arrangements to get ourselves home in the near future.





Miles to date 2080

Location:Wroclaw to Trutnov

Nuns and Gnomes...

Corpus Christi is being celebrated in the city today, so all the shops shut and the city is very quiet as we stroll to the Cathedral. A service is well underway, with a hundred or so outside the big open doors, those who could not fit inside, amongst them lots of nuns. Everyone is silently praying. We wander on around the cobbled streets of this pretty area, returning 1/2 hour later to the Cathedral. There are now thousands filling the streets. The hundreds of nuns are on their knees on the cobbles. Still all silent. The bishop and a chanting white robed male choir emerge, and everyone else sinks to their knees. We join this enormous congregation as we slowly walk the streets to another two churches where a short service is held again.


Always only unaccompanied beautiful chanting - no other noise from the growing crowd. The traffic and trams are stopped by police and army. After three stops, we are too hot under a cloudless sky to carry on, and leave this mass of folks, our clothes smelling of incense.
After a coffee we carry on exploring. There are charming 6 inch high metal statues of gnomes, in various poses, scattered around the city. They are semi-hidden, so a sport of spotting them has developed. Our hotel has one lying asleep on a window cill.


There are grander, fine modern statues all around the city too.


The former Salt market square is now a flower sellers market. There are lots of such pedestrian/ cyclists only zones that make it so pleasant to stroll the city. Parks, like manicured natural woods, and avenues along the river have plenty of places to sit and people watch. We spot a lady tram driver, hop out of the cab of her full tram, and alter the points so she can rattle off down a side route.

Location:Wroclaw

Bridges and dumplings...

My out of date paper map shows a ferry over the Oder as we head East. On the new downloaded map, there is a bridge, which turns out to be brand new with a 20 ft wide cycle path! Looking through the Perspex side panels we can see the cobbled lane down to the old rowing boat size ferry. At the next town, we are saved from joining the cars over the river again, by taking the nearby tram line bridge, along with other locals pedalling with their veggies in front baskets, from the market.
There is a pretty good dedicated cycle way all the way into the old centre of Wrocow (population 600,000). We book into another business type hotel who store the bikes securely in a linen cupboard, then we set out in the stifling hot afternoon to explore. First impressions are it's like Prague, but without the hoards of tourists. Rattling along are cheerfully decorated trams everywhere. Several large cobbled market squares with little stalls sell smart local food and hand made goods. We buy a map of Austria in one of the many university book shops. Tomorrow shops will be shut as it is an important Catholic holiday - from what we have heard there will be street processions like the Easter ones in Spain. The hotel receptionist assists us in finding a small, very Polish, restaurant where we choose to sample 4 different sorts of dumpling, mostly of pork and cheese. They are more like big ravioli and very tasty.


The Poles don't do puddings, (there is not even a word for it) but they find some cinnamon apple cake and added some ice cream, just for us.


Miles to date 2045

Location:Bzreg Dolny to Wrocow

Cabbage patch...

Heading East. Glorious weather and roads for the first 40 miles, through oak forests then farmland on good tarmac quiet roads. Fields of potato plants and folks picking cabbages by hand. A man uses a small strimmer to cut the hay in a field of several acres - it will take him days! Storks walk about in the crops, and many of the abandoned factory chimneys are adorned with a nest.


Then the road surface is more hard work as the potholes increase. After 55 miles we start to look for a stop for the evening. Poland does not appear to have campsites or B&Bs and some quite big towns have either no, or closed down, hotels. By the shore of the River Oder at Brzeg Dolny, the hotel we had been promised on a website is found. A business type hotel with modern ensuite, great power shower, balcony, use of a swimming pool, free wifi and breakfast - all for £23. We spend the evening planning the next stages of your journey.


Miles to date 2020

Location:Glogow to Bzreg Dolny

Colourful...

As it's a working day we stick to minor roads, sometimes cycling down the middle, where the only tarmac remains. Through beautiful oak and pine forests, interspersed with wavy grass meadows sprinkled with corn flowers. We pause in Kozuchow's cobbled town square where the shops are the usual, small, old fashioned, clothes and shoe shops. Dirty windows and lacklustre displays are not enhanced by peeling paintwork. The next village, Byton Odrzanski, is smarter with a square surrounded by historic, Dutch gabled houses and shops. The Poles use a lot of strong colours, with many houses painted green, red or pink.


Bikes are also often colourful, and local ladies favour a strong, unnatural, red as a hair colour. This reminds me that so many Danes have lovely natural red hair. Glogow is a bigger town on the Oder, of mainly reproduction Dutch gable town houses. We assume nearly everything, except part of the church and fine town hall, were flattened in WWII, (by the Forces fighting to and fro across the border that was the River Oder).


Miles to date 1968

Location:Zielona Gora to Glogow

Sand, and a Statue...

Agnieszka and Bartosz point out a hare hopping about in their back garden, and describe how earlier in the year flocks of cranes descend on their lawn. We are so well feed on their families honey, salad from their garden and locally produced cheeses, breads and cured meats, washed down with a beer or two and red wine.
The route on Sunday morning heads virtually south on a very good road that is light with cars, as it is bypassed by a brand new dual carriageway. We pick up wifi at a service station along with buns and good coffee.
Sweiebodzin has a truly enormous statue on a hill, of Christ the King (massive, the little dots around the base are people!), and the church in the square spills out a congregation from a large confirmation with youngsters dressed in their white robes accompanied by families.





In a village the roads becomes terrible, at best large cobbles but mainly potholes and sand, causing me to fall off in one front of most of the village population, sitting at the bustop. I am sure there's no Sunday bus, but expect they are just waiting for such entertainment. No harm done but nerves not helped by this, and the very dilapidated bridges over wide tributaries of the Warta. We reach Zielona after 62 miles by 4:30pm, to find the forest camp site has shut as a posh modern factory has been built over it! Luckily there us a clean hotel with wifi, just next door. For 180 zloty ( £31 ) room en suite, breakfast, good wifi, and the bikes in our room is all included.





Miles to date 1923.

Location:Lipki Wielkie to Zielona Gora

Into Poland...

With our washing dried over the hotel heated towel rail, we set off Friday morning south to Schwedt, with some sandy / broken concrete cycle paths, but mostly good tarmac country lanes. After 60 miles we camp at a big, new canoe club, on the banks of a wide canal. Despite it being a warm sunny evening there are no canoeists, but all the 6 fellow campers are middle aged German touring cyclists. None speak English, but we manage a few pleasantries.


A nearby Lidl's provides our provisions.



Next morning we stow the tent in record time as a shower approaches, then set off in drizzle over the bridge across the river Oder and into Poland!
The first few buildings are all vegetable shops, then a large brothel! The next village on the map is just a very big modern petrol station and cafe, where we buy two very good coffees and Danish pastries the size of plates, for about £2.00.


The many shelves behind the tills are filled exclusively with Vodka bottles. The day is sunny from here on. We don't have to take the unsurfaced side roads as the main road is quiet so a very speedy cycle. At Debno there is a big busy street market of mainly second hand goods.The shops around the square have dusty windows and very old fashioned stock of granny clothes and shoes.
Through glorious oak woods and fruit farms to the city of Gorzow Wielkopolski. An enormous Tescos on the outskirts and a smaller one irreverently, on the central square opposite the church. We spend a tiny sum on two large bags of groceries, including a bottle of wine! Frequent trams rattle by. Our Warm Shower hosts are five miles on in a village, with a beautiful modern house set in an orchard of cherries, apples and nut trees. We hang the tent from two trees in the evening sun to dry out. condensation, then take it down dry 1/2 hr later, just before a five minute thunder storm and downpour-phew!




Miles to date 1861

Location:Pasewalk to Gorzow Wielkopolski

Unsurfaced route...

We leave Jonas early in the morning as we have a challenging day's cycle, and he has to get to school early to prepare a Chemistry lesson. At 7am school grounds are already busy with pupils, and the rest are pedalling on their way. The Thursday market is setting up in the historic town square; refrigerated meat and cheese lorries parking, and a lady setting out her fresh herbs.
We are following a national cycle route south, west of the Oder River. Mostly unsurfaced tracks - the worst of sand, but cobbles or loose stone not much better. We do, however, meet a good number of other tourers, in small groups, including one pair of blokes on electric bikes with four panniers on each bike and a trailer each!
It is worth the difficult terrain, to ride along the dykes by lagoons where we see hundreds of cranes grazing, the first time we have seen them anywhere in such numbers.


The odd stork appears too. Just as we reach Pasewalk, after 65 hard miles, the sky darkens and for the first time this week there is rain - then a deluge. We dive into the only hotel and are soon ensconced in a huge room, the bikes locked in a store, watching tennis on the TV.


Miles to date 1728

Location:Wolgast to Pasewalke

Cobbles & bricks...

Once we navigate our way out of Rostock harbour we pass dozens of identical 8 storey blocks of flats, built in the Soviet era. Enormous pipes, carrying the centralised hot water, link the buildings. Occasionally there's a restored Trabant. There are still dedicated cycle routes to follow east, along the edge of vast strawberry fields, the nets in giant rolls at the side, waiting to protect fruit from birds. At the end of every row is a little bee hive. Then the route avoids big roads by diverting us through beech and conifer woods, where we meet no one except a few folks picking up wood. We emerge under the windows of an ornate castle and through their enormous iron gates.
To the north are lagoons with small towns and marinas along the shore. At one village of cobbled streets we enjoy buns from a mobile Bakery van, parked by the Rathaus. Greifswald is a bigger town, with magnificent squares surrounded by brick Gothic buildings including a Cathedral.


It has an enormous yacht marina, and a good cycle path on top of the dyke. We are staying with Chemistry teacher Jonas in his flat in Wolgast.


Miles to date 1660

Location:Rostock to Wolgast

2 mile bridge...

Whit Monday morning disappoints as there is intermittent drizzle. However we set out with a bag of Dorte's scones, still warm from the oven, through countryside still managing to be pretty, including acres of little Christmas trees, a staple crop. By lunch the rain is replaced by sun, drying a wooden bench and table for us to have lunch. There are these picnic spots every few 100 yds in Denmark! Then over the 2 mile bridge again to stay with Tage and Pia once more.


The dining table is installed in their ample glasshouse, where we eat barbecued bratwurst and all sorts of home grown salad, under two grape vines, overlooking the garden, fields and woods beyond in the long sunny evening.
Next morning we are heading south for a ferry to Germany, this time one more to the east, from Gedser to Rostock. The big ferry , full of lorries arrives at 11.00 and departs only 15 minutes later. We are joined by one more bike and a lot of lorries. The 50 mile, two hour crossing costs us about a fiver each - the bikes go free!


Miles to date 1540

Location:The commune to Ekilstrup

Harold Bluetooth's wifi...

Heading south now, retracing our steps. Dawn is at 3.45 and the dawn chorus, including a very loud Cuckoo, ensures no one lies in on the campsite.
The weather is the best so far, hot sunshine with no wind. A fjord in the middle of Zealand has a cycle track alongside. The occasional Sunday dinghy sails passed, gorgeous thatched cottages are dotted through the beech woods.


There's a fair in the grounds of Ledreborg Slot (castle) attracting thousands of visitors. The quiet stony cycle path through the estate loses its charm after 2 miles, so we decide to rejoin tarmac farm roads, but not before a deer jumps across our path. The museum of the house of the old king of Denmark Harold Bluetooth (the English translation calls him) is in an impossibly pretty rural location. The thatched house can be inspected outside but is closed for Sunday. Harold has left his wifi on so we pick up emails. We arrive at the home of Dorte and Heiner, one of a group of former estate houses around a peaceful green, that was bought by a collective 32 years ago. The families have a house each which they have restored. The outbuildings contain a communal wood pellet boiler, work shops, a communal dining room (used once a week) in beautiful gardens of veggies and flowers. The massive orangery produces tomatoes and grapes. Sitting in the evening sun on the terrace we hear of cycling in Japan from Dorte, who has just returned from a trip there.


Miles to date 1475

Location:Louisiana to the Commune

Hamlet's wifi...

We are camping in a woodland campsite for two nights so we can do a 45 mile loop north without our panniers for a change. Our nearest neighbours on the site are a young couple from our favourite city Leiden. They have no bikes with them as they commute on bikes so like a rest on their hols. The loop north is on firm off road tracks through beautiful beech forests, passing enormous calm lakes and the ubiquitous immaculate thatched cottages. We go through a point-to-point with at least 100 well turned out horses and their horse boxes. All the riders are ladies, mostly with long blond hair! The northern point of Zealand is in a small town, rather like Salcombe, with very posh holiday homes and stylish shops. The harbour however is full of small working fishing boats. We eat a brunch of mouthwatering Danish pastries in a bakers, so much better than anything called a Danish pastry in the UK. Then along the coast road with Sweden always so close across the water we can see individual houses and vodaphone is confused, sending us a " welcome to Sweden" text. Hamlet's castle at Helsingor is on a promontory visible for miles. It is very well preserved, surrounded by a moat and embattlements.


It's purpose was to stop boats sneaking past without paying tolls - hence big cannons facing out to sea. The castle wifi was free, and easy to log on, so we plotted our next route on line, and read our emails. We bumped into our Dutch "neighbours" enjoying their first visit here too.


Miles to date 1415

Location:Humlebæk area

Louisiana...

North out of Copenhagen is cycling paradise, with private roads linking farms and country houses that are barred to all but residents and bicycles! A postie is delivering letters from a crate on the back of his motor bike. After beech forests, 30 miles up the coast, is the magnificent Louisiana Art Museum. It commands a position above the shoreline looking out directly at nearby Sweden. It is a fine afternoon so we stroll the gardens taking in the large sculptures including many Henry Moore and Max Ernst.





Then the extensive galleries, many with the back drop of the gardens or sea, for Hockney, Gormley and the tall bronze figures of Giacometti.







Miles to date 1365

Location:Copenhagen to Humlebæk

Market and Mermaid...

We ride into the Copenhagen city island over a bridge busy with cycling commuters and the cycling school run. There is even a cycle taxi. An enormous stone paved square with two glass boxes is the posh covered food market. On northwards we passed the C19th rows of identical ochre painted houses used for navy's personnel. Next are old fortifications, then a tourist coach parked up shows us the location of the Mermaid statue.


She is a rather beautiful life size bronze on a large boulder just offshore, near a park. There was a short queue of tourists taking it in turn to jump across and have their photo taken with this famous maiden.
Two big cruise ships can be seen anchored across the bay. Finishing our circular cycle we go past the palace quadrangle where blue and grey soldiers wearing bearskin hats are waiting to change the guard. A very ancient policeman is stopping the few tourists from getting too close. Finally we pass the vast Tivoli gardens with the big amusement rides towering above the trees. At railway stations there are acres of bikes, and when we stop for coffee it is difficult to find a spot to lean our bikes as every spare bike stand and lamppost is already occupied with a pile of others.
Miles to date 1330

Location:Copenhagen

Fowls and Frescos...

Karen and Keld live in a restored farm cottage surrounded by an orchard of pear and apple trees, smothered in blossom. We spy on a nestbox of baby blackbirds through a glass panel on the side. The house is surrounded by woods, out of which deer emerge at dusk, kept out of their extensive vegetable patch by a high fence. Also staying this evening is Daniel, a retired American army officer , revisiting Copenhagen on his Bike Friday. He was last here as a exchange student 40 years ago! We all enjoy chatting over dinner and home grown cider. The Danes speak perfect English.
In the morning Keld shows us to a bird reserve where a Marsh Harrier and Red Kite are feeding. Then we visit the village church to see the amazing frescos on the ceilings. As we pedal North to the suburbs of Copenhagen we spot small "hills" , man-made burial chambers from 5000 years ago!
Our host near Copenhagen, Lars, pedals a recumbent three wheeler encased in a carbon body, to keep off the rain.








As the 3 of us cycle to the shops, a group of boys clap and cheer as he passes!







Miles to date 1288

Location:Barum to Copenhagen suburbs

Great Danes...

Our first Warm Showers hosts in Denmark, Tage and Pia, live in a modernised typical farm house on the edge of a little village. We learn from them that the closed level crossings that disrupted our ride to them are part of a project to upgrade the rail system, in preparation for a new tunnel from Lolland Island in Denmark to Fehmarn in Germany. Tage is a clarinet player in the Copenhagen symphony orchestra and Tia a local sixth form Chemistry teacher. Tuesday morning P leaves for an outdoors rehearsal as they are playing a concert outside, this evening, in the Tivoli Park.
We set off north, crossing the longest bridge yet, 2 and 1/2 miles to the island of Zealand. Fortunately it is not windy or raining (for either us or Tage)! Black and white Eider Ducks bob on the sea below.





The Margarita tourist route is perfect, car free, through hamlets of ochre painted thatched cottages, red churches, and a Slot (castle).





The field edges and gardens are a mass of white and mauve flowering lilac.


Miles to date 1250

Location:Falster Island to Zeeland

Island hopping...

Everything in Germany has been a lot cheaper than in UK, so on anticipation of Denmark being a lot more expensive, we eat a cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and endless inclusive coffee, at the campsite bakery, before setting off North across the island, to catch the fast car ferry to the Danish Island of Lolland. It runs every 30 mins and is the size of a cross channel ferry. We are the last passengers allowed on the 9.30am boat. There is nothing to secure the bikes to, but the sea is remarkably flat as the ship powers across the Baltic. After ambling along a rail trail we explore car-less country roads to a lake area, where thousands of Greylag Geese are grazing, and a White-tailed Sea Eagle is mobbed by buzzards.











Miles to date 1190

Location:Fehmarn to Eskiltrup

Windy Baltic...

Our WS host lives in a big modern oak frame house, on the edge of a wooded nature reserve, just outside former East Germany. We have a fascinating evening, hearing of the recent Arab conflict from two young refugees who escaped from Syria, (one by a boat journey across the Med. which he said he would not wish on anyone). They are now studying German at a nearby college. Our hosts are part of a group that help them with their studies.


Early Sunday morning is an ideal time to cycle through the empty centre of the ancient Baltic port of Lubeck, with it's copper twin-towered cathedral, and enormous gatehouse. North along the coast, a resort reminds us of Exmouth, but with many more small, very smart cafés. Along a gravel path on a dyke by the Baltic, then the windiest thing we have ever done! Crossing the bridge to the Baltic island of Fehmarn. Not far from the end is a campsite by the beach. A bit of a struggle putting up the tent, but before we are finished, our caravan neighbour, German Sylvia, produces two chairs for us so we relax, and swig a large beer.



Just as we are cooking our tea, the sun disappears and the rain lashes for 10 minutes. Despite the lid blowing off the Trangia soon we are eating spicy rice and veg, inside the tent and the sun reappears to allow a breezy stroll along the beach. Denmark tomorrow!





Miles to date 1136

Location:Lubeck to The Baltic Island of Fehmarn

The Barum Shuffle...

It was difficult to drag ourselves away from breakfast with Susan and Christian as they are so interesting, S an art restorer in the local East German museum and C a piano teacher who also made the divine blackberry jam. Also plays a good game of Dutch Shuffleboard, a game we were introduced to last night.


S speaks excellent English, so we learnt a lot about her life in the old East Germany.
Not far up the road we cross the wide Elbe river at the very old port of Lauernburg, where it is worth negotiating the big cobbles on the streets to see the ancient old brick built centre and pick up the first wifi in days at a riverside cafe; so we post a couple of blogs.
Next onto a tree-lined canal path, reminding us of the Canal du Midi. There are other tourers, including families, with even the littlest carrying big panniers.


Miles to date 1072

Location:Barum to Lubeck