Category: europe

I didn’t sleep too well at the hotel, I think I’m just too used to camping now and miss that too much. Although it was nice to use a private shower and try out a bit of polish television. In Spain I thought it was bad they dub over the voices in films but in Poland its worse. One guy translates the words over the top in a monotone voice whether its male or female. I think the same guy does all the films too.

I had a nice breakfast at the hotel and left quite late. The security guard was intrigued and came over for a limited chat. He asked what I thought of Poland but the most positive answer I could muster was “Its ok”. Luckily for me he didn’t quiz me on my answer else I’d have to be brutally honest its not the prettiest country. All the buildings seem to come in a shade of brown or grey with some exposed brickwork and a whole lot of graffiti. Maybe it will get better and I’m being too ‘cup half empty’.

There is one major from Piotrkow Trybunalski to Warsaw and it was marked down as another dualc carriageway. I was worried I’d have the same problem as yesterday and get kicked off. Today I’d decided to just risk it and act dumb. Luckily for me where I got on it just said no horse and cart so on I went.

Wasn’t long before I saw a few no cycling signs but I just sailed past as though I hadn’t seen them. I kept doing this all the way to Warsaw. I’d been cycling like a mad thing all day and covered the miles needed on the dual carriageway. It wasn’t pretty but it got me to Warsaw so I can have a rest day tomorrow and wash my smalls.

I woke up early to the sound of rain on the outside of the tent. So on went the waterproofs once again. My shoes and socks were still wet from the previous day, so I put my waterproof socks on to keep my feet dry and I hung my wet socks from the back of the bike to dry out.

I decided to let my GPS get me out of Katowice. It lead me down three dead ends and I zigzagged all the way across Katowice. The day was not off to a good start. Then a bird defecated on my shoe, it was about an inch from brushing my left cheek!

When I was finally out on the road I needed I must have done 10 miles already and wasted so much time. I was finally off the poorly maintained roads and onto the dual carriageway.

This is where I get some speed up and try and claw back some of the time lost in Katowice. I was doing well into I got to Czestochowa where I hit a no cycling sign. So I had to figure out an alternative route. I knew there was a road called the 91 going north but wasn’t sure I was high enough to join it yet. So I did a few miles on the dual carriageway before I figured out how I could get on the other road.

Once I joined the 91 I was riding on very long straight roads through forests. It would have been quite pleasant if it wasn’t for the cars going past too fast. This road went on for a lifetime. By the time I reached Piotrkow Trybunalski I was knackered and couldn’t go on to the next campsite which was another 20 miles at least.

My fiance gave me the heads up on a hotel and I booked myself in for the night.

There were a few storms during the night but nothing to keep me awake for too long. My tent did get invaded by slugs at one point. I thought I’d take a picture of them all stuck to the outside of the inside netting but then I rolled over and went back to sleep. They were gone by morning.

It looked quite bright but due to the rain in the night I dressed sensibly for the weather and donned the waterproofs. Wasn’t long after leaving I was getting too hot and had to trim it down a bit.

Czech Republic doesn’t seem to have many flats. So I’m struggling to get into a decent rhythm and struggling earlier in the day than I would normally. Today was different. I wasn’t going to let the hills get me down and I powered up the climbs as well as I could.

I quickly reached the border to Poland, this was my halfway point. As with most border the amount of lorries on the road really male it quite unbearable. There was black sky in the distance, I was trying to work out if I could hear any thunder but the sound from the traffic was too much.

According to my GPS I still had over 30 miles to go at dinner. I was hoping to be closer than that. Luckily I joined a dual carriageway that was pretty flat and straight. Apart from the fact it started raining heavy all afternoon I got to Katowice in good time thanks to that fast road. Not the prettiest road in the world but functionally perfect.

I’d met a nice Czech lady on the campsite who I wasn’t quite sure about. She was by herself with three very young children and had been all over the Europe staying in asylum centres. She’d been at the campsite since March waiting for a passport so she could get to England. She also believed that God would show her the right direction. I’m not going to comment. Anyway, the weather looked like rain but at least it was cool.

Today I was heading to a town called Hranice purely because it had a campsite and was a good distance from the Polish border. Although places with campsites usually have something worth seeing.

I had to go back through Brno then head east. It was rush hour so it was busy but it wasn’t half as bad as trying to get out of Vienna. It wasn’t long before I heard thunder and the rain came down. I darted into the porch of a DIY store until it had past.

I passed a beautiful smelling factory then realised it was Nestle. This was in a town called Holesov where i stopped for dinner and had a sandwich. The rest of the afternoon was all up and down and dodging yet more thunderstorms.

Tomorrow I want to try and get to Katowice in Poland yet it looks like a good distance. There aren’t any campsites between here and there so if I don’t make it I’ll be stopping in a hotel. I should at least get to Poland.

Camping Vienna South was a great little campsite although the services could have been better, i.e. the toilets were overflowing and the internet was unusable. Although this was easily solved by using the one of hundreds of MacDonalds’ around Vienna.

I met some nice people there too. Len Ben and Kim, yet more aussies who buy cheap For transits and go touring Europe. Also, a group of English cycle tourers, about eight of them. They had cycled from Bristol then catching a plane back from Budapest.

Vienna itself is, well, nice. It’s got a very busy shopping centre which seems to mold right in to the older sights like the cathedral. It also has a whole museum district dedicated to art.

As I was staying in campsite South I had the whole city to tackle cycling north. I think it took me over an hour. The route was easy and well signposted, just once again the traffic light system let me down just like in Graz.

When I finally popped out the other side I got a good pace going on road number 7. This took me all the way to the border where I found a Tesco, but had no Czech currency to buy anything and couldn’t find an ATM. So I carried on.

I stopped for a lovely cheap dinner and paid in Euros. Then I had to get off the main road and head into the hills. The food wasn’t sitting right in my belly and I struggled all the way to Brno. I think I may have eaten too much.

Went through Brno and camped just outside next to a lake.

My alarm woke me at 6am as planned and I had yogurt and oats for breakfast. These are the oats I bought 2 days ago thinking they were porridge oats but they just sat there bubbling in the boiling milk, so I’m eating them with yogurt.

I passed my first sign of the day for Wien which read 118km. Not too bad, something I should be used to, but I knew I had a mountain to climb. Since I hit the Alps I’ve developed a phobia of mountains or any small inclines. I need to snap out of this as its starting to ruin my rides.

Sure enough I hit the mountain. The road was wide, it didn’t look like I was climbing, not with the shape of the land around it, but I was struggling. I think sometimes climbing these mountains is more a mental strain than a physical one.

I got to the top and enjoyed a long descent. I had only 40km left to my halfway point which was Wiener Neustadt. This felt good, what felt even better was the mountains were starting to disappear behind me and I was on a long straight road with a good pace.

This continued all the way to Vienna. I had to change roads from the 54 to the 17 which was pretty seamless. I had a bit of rain when I approached Wien, but I had made it, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I finally have my rest day tomorrow. Got some washing to do and time to look around Vienna. I worked it out that I’m actually closer (as the crow flies) to England than I am Finland. Slightly depressing thought but onwards and upwards on Wednesday!

In terms of finding a campsite I was limited how far north I was going to go. I couldn’t get as far as Vienna and the nearest campsite most northerly along the route was in Hartberg, only 60km away. So I had a slight dilemma. Do I cycle a short distance and have further to go to Vienna, or do I cycle as far as I can and find a hotel/hostel. The days ride would decide the outcome.

I was cycling through Graz on a Sunday. Perfect day for cycling through city centres. I think I was right not to spend a day here. It didn’t look like I was missing out on much. Every 100 metres I hit a set of traffic lights on red, then again round a bend. In the end I just starting going through them because there was nothing coming. I then hit my first hill. Really steep out of Graz, I was sweating and uncomfortable already.

At the top were more ups and downs and it was getting hotter by the minute. I’d only done 10km out of Graz and it felt like I’d been riding all day.

I got to Hartberg shattered. I checked the campsite out and it looking very welcoming. A friendly Austrian told me that it was too hot for cycling today and I should camp and get up early tomorrow. So that’s exactly what I decided to do. Spent the afternoon lying in the shade of a tree on my sleeping mat. I needed the rest!

This of course meant that I’d now be cycling tomorrow which should be my rest day. I figured that there would be more to do in Vienna on a rest day, so set my alarm for 6am and went to bed early.

The campsite I stayed at was run by two lovely little old ladies and it was cheap too. I was approached by an Austrian mountain biker. He told me an easier route from what I had planned. I was planning on sticking to the Austrian/Slovenian border and then heading north. He told me that there is an old road to Graz (R70) that has now been replaced by a motorway (A2). He said it has a few steep hills but is definitely the easier route. So that was what I did.

The road was a bit up and down but almost flat all the way to a Griffin. I then had my first climb. Then a steep descent followed by yet another steep climb. That was really how the day panned out on a whole. The Austrian had told me that I need to keep heading east to get away from the mountains. The photos I have taken over the last few days seem to be nothing but mountains. I’ll be glad to get away from them and give my legs a break. Although they have been the setting for some of the most beautiful views I’ve seen on the trip.

As I got closer to Graz the mountains did seem to recede, they were now just steep hills. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier on the legs. I’m not going to stay in Graz. The campsite I’m staying at is really expensive and it’s a Sunday tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have a proper look around another day.

Left slightly later than I’d wanted. This usually happens when I have to cook breakfast. Also it had rained in the night so taking my time meant the early morning sunshine dried the tent out.

My legs felt drained from the day before but I had slept well and the rest had done me good. I haven’t been on the net for a few days so I’ve been unable to check what lies ahead. Maybe this is a good thing. If I know I have a huge climb it doesn’t do much for my spirit.

Turns out I had a few huge climbs, very steep climbs indeed. The route to Bistrica was all up and down but I could cope with this. It was route 101 north that was so so steep. It was a wide road too so the gradient wasn’t obvious, but looking back I could see it was steep and my legs could feel it. Checking my GPS I only had 3 miles to the border but I was going a lot slower than 3 miles an hour and I had to keep stopping every few hundred meters to cool down. It was tough.

I finally reached the top and crossed into Austria. The route then went just as steep down as it had up. It was great fun but heavy on the brakes.

A few more steep inclines before I was out of the mountains. I stopped for a sandwich at some random place, I’m not even sure if they did food but they knocked me up a great ham sandwich with mayo, tomato sauce and lettuce.

By this point I’d had enough. It was still the hottest part of the day and my legs were almost jelly. I plodded on to Lake Klopeiner See where I’ve pitched my tent for the night and had yet another cooling swim in a lake.

I’ve been going three months today so I should be halfway through.

The previous night I’d been to the campsite shop and bought some pineapple slices and sweet bread like things fully of sugary slop. They weren’t pleasant but I swear they were 600 calories each so I thought this would give me plenty of energy for the morning.

I was glad to be leaving Italy. It’s a beautiful place but the people are odd. They have bizarre illogical methods and rules that don’t work with me and I always seem to be breaking them. So today I was heading for the mountains of Slovenia, Lake Bled to be precise. I’d heard it was a gorgeous lake in a beautiful setting.

I quickly started climbing my first mountain. The first mountain I’d climbed since Arezzo in fact so I had to give the legs a good push to get them going. It wasn’t so nice moving so slowly, I was used to whizzing along the flat planes around Rimini and Venice.

I soon got to Gorizia. A town that seems to share itself with Italy and Slovenia, meaning I had a very unceremonious entry into Slovenia. I instantly got in to trouble, the road signs don’t seem to point where I had noted down the previous night, so out came the GPS.

I followed a beautiful turquoise river all the way to Seli Pri Volcah. I couldn’t figure out why it was such a bright turquoise colour, perhaps someone could let me know? The lake at Most Na Soci was the same, I took a photo of it but the colour doesn’t show up.

I then headed deep into the mountains. The mountains were a lot larger than I’m used to, towering above me. I had many small climbs but I was waiting for the big one, and after dinner it came. 4100 feet to be precise, it was a killer! I ran out of water halfway up so stopped at a bar. The barman was an athletic enthusiast and made me up a homemade isotonic drink of sugar, some kind of salt and water from the river in his yard that he swore was drinkable.

I finally made it to Bohinj absolutely knackered. My legs were shaking and I felt I couldn’t go on another mile. I had some sultanas and sweets for the sugar and plodded on towards Bled.

I was stupid today, I bit off more than I could chew. I’ll try not do that again.

Arriving at the campsite on the side of Lake bled I took a cooling swim. What I’d heard was correct. It really is beautiful around here and Slovenia is a gorgeous country. Tomorrow I should be heading out of it though, and into Austria.