2nd of June - 6th of June 2012

Day 1 -5 

Transect Overview

Day 1 - Wageningen - Emmen (Southwest of Emmen 24km) - 159 km

Day 2 - Emmen - Schwaneburger Moor - 107 km

Day 3 - Schwaneburger Moor - Hemmoor -166 km

Day 4 - Hemmoor - Haithabu - 144 km

Day 5 - Resting Day visiting Museum of Haithabu (founded by the Vikings&once the largest city in Europe!) 

Day 1 - Droevendaal - Emmen (158 km)

 A short nights rest leaving at 10.15, way too late for the 1st day...

After a long but beautiful day through the rural areas of Gelderland, Overijssel & Drenthe reaching the campsite at 2030 and still in the mood for cooking a meal ;-)


Day 2 - Emmen (NL) - Schwaneburger Moor (D) (107 km)

Crossing borders - a wooden bridge, no signing whatsoever, the border is only on the map or in someone's mind...

THE BORDER   

Hallucinating or just a regular Fire Extinguisher Man?

The Magnetic Train Rails of the Transrapid - currently in operation in Shanghai! Going up to 430 km/h

If u are lucky u can find these signs....happens often when u seem to be lost and suddenly u find yourself in front of this sticker. At the end of day 2 I was lucky to find a campsite with room accomodation for a fair price, a Dutch couple running this memorizable nice little place direct at a nature area. After a wet day with head winds & constant drizzle I called it a day.

Day 3 - Schwaneburger Moor - Hemmoor Kreidesee (166 km) 

Waiting for the ferry to cross the first river (Weser). Interesting to note is the "fast" snack bar on the ferry. The crossing takes not much longer than 2 min. Just enough to burn your tongue on the hot coffee offered on bord.

No Brigdes - No Roads - Just Water

Impressions from the forest

The ever chasing rainy clouds of Northern Germany - aka "Schietwetter" - meaning Shit Weather - very much true indeed. Surprisingly there are still some hills here around, referred in the Netherlands as mountains - one cliche busted about this flat landsacpe. After my longest day ever in the saddle (166 km) I find a campsite at Hemmoor Kreidesee, THE hotspot for divers in Northern Germany. So next time buddy up and lets take a dive in the formerly used chalk mine, that is now flooded and a divers' paradise. You can even rent ur own submarine! 

Day 4 - Hemmoor Kreidesee - Haibathu (144 km)             

Crossing the Elbe Estuary & Ferry Guerilla Art!    

We are all different in size, shape and colours! ;-)

Crossing the Kiel Channel  (Nord- Ostseekanal) by ferry. This time for free! Huge container ships taking the shortcut right through this channel.

Day 5 - Haibathu - Resting Day

Andi from Essen just returned from Denmark and the North-Sea Cycle Route staying also at Haibathu Campsite. The first cyclist on the route staying on the same campsite.

Resting day is not only sleeping & eating...but laundry, preparation & preparing the bike for the "rougher" roads in Denmark as Andi had warned me...changing the outer tyres for sand & gravel roads.

But of course I got found some time to visit the Viking Museum in Haithabu (Hedeby - check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedeby), once the largest town in Europe - interesting and pleasant exhibition. 

At the archeological site a historical reconstrcution completes the tour.

Day 6 - tomorrow I will cycle in to Denmark. Next time I will be online is probably at the end of the week when I reach Hirtshals (ferry to Norway's Kristiansand). I will continue the Ochsenweg (Old Viking trading route, on which the cattle was brought to Hamburg).

So far it has been quiet exhausting to get used to biking every day again with the usual saddle pain phenomena & complete different day to day rhythm. Since I wanted to get as fast as possible to Denmark, I am still on schedule, reaching Norway on Day 10 of 52 days, leaving plenty of days to have a good ratio of riding and resting (tourst) days.


Hope everybody enjoys reading and seeing some pics of the road. Talk to you soon again!


P.S.: Thanks for all comments, emails, SMS, support & funding for PhilinCon. I will try to put at least once per week a new update. The route does not offer many WIFI spots so far.