The journey to the other side – part one (Dave)
After leaving Kathmandu and a brief stopover in Abu Dhabi to visit friends, the family was briefly reunited at Iris’s parents’ house in Austria, where the kids are attending school until the end of June.
So, with a bit of time to spare, I’ve taken the opportunity to hop on my bike and cycle to the other side of Europe – from Austria to the Atlantic Coast in Spain.
One of my early Couchsurfing hosts asked me ‘why am I doing this?’ and after spending much of the first week in cold and rain with mountain views obscured by low cloud, I was sometimes asking myself the same question but with a few more expletives in the sentence! Anyway, I’ll come back in the next blog with an answer to that question…
I’m about 1,300km of cycling into the journey, so about just over halfway to the coast and I am now in the beautiful Pyrenees close to the border between France and Spain. My journey has taken me through Austria, Slovenia, Italy and now France and thankfully, the cold grey skies at the beginning of the trip have made way for the sun and far more pleasant cycling conditions.
Meanwhile, Iris and the kids have been having an ‘interesting’ time adapting to life and school in Graz as you’ll see in the second part of this blog…
I had a lovely stay with Harvey and his family in Abu Dhabi…
…which had transformed dramatically since my last visit there fourteen years earlier. Back then it was a relatively (compared to Dubai) low rise city but since then skyscrapers have sprouted all around!
As always, the time in Graz with the family was super relaxing with all kinds of ways to spend time with the kids…
…and gave time to gear up and convert my mountain bike back into a tour bike…
…and then set off to Spain
I’m not a fan of ‘selfies’ so instead you’ll see a lot of pictures of my bike in this blog, or ‘bikies’ as I am calling them. This one was taken outside my hostel in the first night of my trip in the north of Slovenia.
My planned route mostly follows one of the Camino de Santiago (Jacobsweg in German) routes which I picked up as I looped back up into Austria on the second day. My route also includes parts of the EuroVelo 8 route and Tour de France.
The weather was wet and cold with temperatures not breaking double digits for the first few days on the road. Every now and then the cloud would lift enough for a glimpse of the hills and mountains surrounding the countryside as I approached the alps.
The spring colours sometimes felt out of place in 5 degree temperatures.
But the weather added some mood to the lakes in the early morning like in this bikie at Seeboden
I had a relatively sunny fourth day on the way to Sillion where the spring colours contrasted with the fresh mountain snow
The next day I took a diversion to beautiful Lago de Braies just on the Italian side of the border. I arrived early and was surprised to have the place virtually to myself. It was well worth the climb!
After anywhere from five to eight hours alone in the saddle each day there are three things that you appreciate so much more than usual: a hot shower, a cold beer, and really good company. Couchsurfing and Warmshowers have been brilliant for all three but particularly the latter. I’ve stayed with some inspirational and fascinating people including a family that has tour cycled with their young children through Central America, the leader of the youth division of the Protestant church for Austria, an incredible chef, and a couple who uses languages as a medium to live and work around the world. I stayed with Elisa (below) in Bolzano. Elisa is an author and documentary director on various subjects, but mostly around environmental sustainability.
Never ever order a cappuccino with a main meal while eating with an Italian unless you’re prepared to be mercilessly teased, ridiculed, and shamed. I then proceeded to dunk my chips in the cappuccino to demonstrate how we do things in New Zealand. Elisa was not impressed. When I told my next hosts in Rovereto about this they were considering throwing me out from their house!
Lake Garda in the north of Italy was also in a moody state.
I passed by the west side of the lake which had over 20km of tunnels. Thankfully due to the number of road cyclists around, motorists have been incredibly respectful and patient and I never felt in danger. In fact, that has been the case right across Europe so far…
I chose the west side of the lake to experience the first part of the new ‘floating cycleway’ which will join up with other cycleways to form a complete cycle / walking loop around the lake when the €100m project is completed in 2021. I reckon it will be a sensational ride when done!
To make up time and also escape the bad weather and the dull flat plains across Northern Italy, I took my bike on a train to the west of Italy to Cuneo. The countryside as I was approaching the Southern part of the alps was just beautiful and it was such a relief to see the sun.
As I approached the alps, the snowline looked ominously low so I stopped in at a bike shop to see if the 2,500m pass was open. It wasn’t and is still covered by a metre of snow due to the unseasonally cold weather. Not only that, but the tunnel was closed to cyclists due to maintenance, meaning a ten minute train ride to the French side of the pass…
…which was spectacular cycling!
I’ve been learning many things while Couchsurfing like how it is possible to eat stinging nettle soup, how to chop vegetables properly (!) and many of the hosts have shared some great tips around sustainable living, which seems to be a common theme with the Couchsurfing community. Thiubout gave some tips on how to travel Europe without spending any money at all by sometimes sleeping on the top floor of stairwells in apartment buildings and asking bakeries for leftover food that would otherwise go to waste…
I continued down to Monaco, which was uninspirational. Cycling through it, it didn’t feel like a glamour town that it has a reputation for, but rather quite a tired 1980s atmosphere.
It took a while to navigate around the Grand Prix that was on that day
And then on to Nice…
Cycling around the old town for half an hour, I didn’t hear a word of French spoken, but lots of English, German and Russian.
It was lovely to catch up with the Browns who are also taking a year out from New Zealand, based in Valbonne.
Cycling through the south of France has been beautiful, with some delightful villages along the way like here in Gourdon
And some lovely open countryside
Almost every night I’ve been Couchsurfing or with friends, but the one time so far I camped was a great experience in the canyons of Verdon.
The next night it was back to Couchsurfing on La Tour d’Aigues having a great meal, wine, and conversation with Mathieu and Cecile and their lovely family.
Poppies were in full bloom right across the countryside
In Montpellier, I explored the city with Laurent and several other tour cyclists he was hosting. A feature of this beautiful town is one of the largest pedestrianised zones in Europe, giving the place a relaxed feel, and the art around town including painted buildings like this one.
This is at Col de Peguere, one of the iconic climbs in the Tour de France in the Pyrenees. Quite a few road cyclists passed me on the way up, gliding past at twice my speed leaving me only a brief opportunity to admire their incredible calf muscles. Since I wasn’t on whatever performance enhancing drugs they had, I took the advice of one of the tour cyclists I was Couchsurfing together with in Montpellier and cranked up some Rammstein, a German heavy metal band akin to Metalica. It got me up the hill but I found that Rammstein would be far better enjoyed if you don’t understand German, with the soppy, poppy, love focused lyrics somewhat taking away from the hard core, leg pumping music.
The Pryanees is a joy to cycle at this time of year with vibrant lush colours all around and a distinct hippie bohemian feel, reflecting the type of people that the place attracts.
Back in Graz (Iris)
I don’t care why you’re doing it! Its an amazing thing to just do- a little bit crazy -an awesome undertaking-and a fantastic way to enjoy Europe ! Loving your work Mr Humm.
N
I don’t care why you’re doing it! Its an amazing thing to just do- a little bit crazy -an awesome undertaking-and a fantastic way to enjoy Europe ! Loving your work -and the bikies- Mr Humm.
N