Preface

Camino de Santiago

Camino de Santiago is probably the most famous Christian pilgrimage, whose rich tradition dates back to the Middle Ages. The Spanish word Camino basically stands for a path, road, or a journey. There are several different routes leading to Santiago de Compostela, the final destination of the Way of Saint James and the place where the apostle Saint James I buried. The most famous and frequent is the Camino Francais. It starts in a small French village in the Pyrenees, Saint-Jen-Pied-du-Port, continues through the Pyrenees to Spain and leads through major regional cities such as Pamplona, Burgos and Leon. On the way, a pilgrim might also admire picturesque nature, observe the local way of life by visiting small villages on the road, taste the Spanish culture and of course, meet many other pilgrims whose inner motivation for this ultimate journey may vary from person to person. One could rise a question what really motivates a pilgrim to walk 800 km in 30 days, and what gives him or her strength to withstand soaring heat, fatigue and often unrelenting pain after many a kilometer. I cannot provide a sufficient answer to this question; I can only speak for myself. In my case, I wanted to get my priorities right, change the air and taste another adventure. It is also true that on the pilgrimage, one has plenty of time for contemplation, meditation and introspection. I have also experienced this phenomenon and many things that have been worrying me are now crystal clear to me. Maybe through the physical exhaustion one can truly achieve the inner peace. My personal journey led through Eurovelo 6, the biggest cycle route from the Black Sea to the Atlantic, the Vélocéan and the Vélodyssée, cycle routes along the Western France, and finally, the Camino Francais. This arduous journey took me more than 40 days which is an equivalent to undertaking the Camino Francais on foot. In short, I can tell you that it was an enlightening experience and I am immensely happy that I undertook it. This blog is only a summary of my memories.

For those who do not really like reading

Day 1

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

Last winter I thought I was too old for adventures, but I got itchy feet again. The truth is that you will never be too old for anything, unless your lazy mind manages to persuade you that you are. Therefore, it is always be only your mind that will eventually determine what you can accomplish. This ultimate trip was not just a spontaneous decision, but it had been planned carefully several months in advance. I had to save up some money first to upgrade my bike and to buy several indispensable things such as reserve batteries for my laptop and cell phone. In this blog I am going to share some of my travelling experiences that might be interesting or inspiring to you.

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It was a strange feeling when I left the familiar surrounding that I know from everyday cycling and set my foot (or wheel) in for me unknown territories, bearing in mind that I will return firstly after 2 months living like a tramp. It reminded me the well-known scene from the Lord of the Rings as Hobbits leave their homeland because Marchegg, the first Austrian town I was passing by, bears with vast fields and the river a striking resemblance to this movie scene.

Right from the beginning I was nicely surprised with perfectly marked bike routes. At least from Marchegg to Vienna, it was virtually impossible to go astray.

Unfortunately, my travelling started  with a serious problem with my knee right from the beginning. To keep you in suspense, let's say for reasons then unknown I got a terrible twinge into my right knee every now and then and each move of the knee was accompanied by terrible pain. This started as I arrived in Vienna and I contributed this to the overall fatigue on the first day. Therefore, I went to my favorite Kebab Kiosk to feed, literally. I thought I could eat a horse, but I ate only one kebab and one burek.

Just before leaving Vienna I made a quick break, when an old lady came up to me to asked whether I was not looking for accommodation. She was totally horrified when I thanked her an said that I am going to stay in a tent for the next two months.

However, the pain in my knee was getting worse and more unrelenting. I did every 5 km with an immense endeavor and was seriously afraid that I would have to give up on my fabulous summer adventure.

Later in the evening, I was on the brink of total exhaustion. I passed a huge water power station and at that point I made an ominous mistake: With that last energy I managed to summon, I rode like frenzy for 15 km with the motto "now or never“, unfortunately, the exact opposite direction. That means that instead of continuing, I set my camp 10 km nearer to home on the opposite side of the river from the direction I came. This was supposed to be a nice morning surprise. Having arrived tired as hell, I decided not to build a tent. What a coincidence that 15 minutes after I had lulled myself into a sleep, a big thunderstorm with heavy wind came out of the blue (or in this case would be more suitable to say out of darkness) and sprang a nasty surprise on me. I never knew that I can build a tent so fast. Just in the nick of time I managed to build my shelter and put my luggage into it.

My bike tent, a marvelous invention as it is, is extremely easy to build and has almost no weight. However, with its only one pole, it proved not to be very stable in strong wind. Therefore, I spent the night holding the tent from inside to prevent the ultimate collapse, until I gave up the fight at 2 am. The tent acted like grass in the wind and I got struck with the construction several times. Fortunately it was agile enough and did not break.

I have decided to add some pictures to each blog entry. Unfortunately, my cellphone was not always able to take a good snapshot and some of them might not be of a good quality. Moreover, as I realized in horror, all pictures from the Camino itself (Day 33+) were taken with wrongfully set 800 ISO which made them look more like impressionistic paitings than real pictures. Sorry about that, I hope that they have at least some documentary value suppsoing that from the artistic point of view, they are totally rubbish.

Link to photos

Day 2

 “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

After an almost sleepless night, I tried to boost my spirits by appreciating everything what I had to get through the last day. This self motivation did not last long, especially when I recoiled in horror by finding out that my last strenuous effort in the evening just moved me the opposite direction and I had to bike all the way back. Furthermore, as I woke up, I could not move my knee – it felt like a nasty inflammation. Immediately I grasped after my medicaments for joints with the sincere hope that it would help. My riding was truly through the pain – luckily after getting through the worst moments at the beginning, the knee became a little bit less sensitive. It is like if you injure your hand – it hurts mostly at the beginning and the pain gradually eases away. In my case, it eased only to the point when I got back from always more frequent breaks and had to warm my knee up. The hellish pain is truly difficult to describe. I do not enjoy bitching over things that do not turn out how I expect them; therefore, I will remain rather short in these descriptions. In general I can only say that my first days definitely did not live to my expectations.

I pulled over to have a lunch at a bus stop in a small village where I later fell asleep. After waking up and jumping on my bike I realized that it cannot go on like this. I was unable to continue due to unbearable pain and tried to figure out what the problem could be. Interestingly, I found out that somebody was playing with my saddle and the high difference was so subtle that I did not realize that. However, my knee did and in that position it was utmost wrong from the physiological point of view. I set up my saddle properly and it was much, much better. My knee still hurt, but I could bike and that was the most important. I was happy beyond belief that this was not the bitter end of my Tour de Europe. The other night I could enjoy a good night sleep.  I was exhausted, but happy that form now own, everything will be just alright.

Link to photos

Day 3

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

Today I woke up with high spirits, my knee was also getting better and I was ready to finally enjoy my trip. I did about 120 km, in the end you will understand why :P I passed through beautiful Austrian villages, enjoyed great weather, listened to my philosophy audiobooks, and generally, took the best out of the day.

By the way, I am not sure how much you are into philosophy, dear reader, but I would like to mention that I have a new favorite philosopher. His name is Spinoza, a quite unknown philosopher, very religious, yet outracized from all religions because he just could not keep his mouth shut and poke his nose where he should not. That guy was both ingenious and ingenuous (now you can finally learn the difference:) I am not saying that one should strive for perfection as he did, but he was clearly a very amusing guy. For instance, his greedy sister wanted to rip him off about his inheritance after their deceased father, but he, as a philosopher, had to prove adamantly that he was right, and spent a fortune to win the trail, just to make her admit that he was right. - afterwards he told her that she can keep everything anyway :P That is what I call ingenious and ingenuous at the same time. As if he did not think about the future that he might need that money. The other day, there was a rumor around in Holland where he was living in a certain period of his life that he was a French spy. When he heard of that, he wanted to publicly declare in the front of everyone on the main square that he was, clearly, not a spy. Just in the nick of time, his landlord managed to lock him in his room to prevent this unmitigated disaster. His work, however, seems very logical and precise, with a spark of irony in many statements and axioms. He would clearly be a saint had he not stood up against certain axioms of the Church. What a pity that he never got recognized during his lifetime. It was clear to him that his papers are so controversial that they could not be published officially. Nonetheless, his masterpiece about ethics was widely recognized after his death and caused quite a stir in intellectual circles. Better for him that he was dead; otherwise he would be accused of heresy by all means at those times. Maybe one day the Catholic Church will recognize him as a saint  -  that would be a nice gesture. In such a case, he would be clearly proclaimed the patron of irony and sarcasm.

On the other hand, I was quite disappointed by Sartre and I am contemptuous about his lascivious lifestyle, allegedly intellectual drug addiction an many other things that probably made him the most popular philosopher of all times. Not my cup of tee, however.

That's about my impression from philosophy and now let's get back to the real world. Early in the afternoon I met a Czech family on a similar bike trip. It was so cute; they even had their little babies in a small bike caravan. Now I know how I am going to spend my holidays in the future. All inclusive 4 star hotel? Nope, nothing for me – after 2 days I would be bored to death.

I have to pose a question: How much do you like shopping? Well, I mean food, obviously, because it is crystal clear that women enjoy shopping trinkets and men shopping cars, electronics, and sport stuff. But what about food? I guess you know that feeling when you enter a supermarket while being totally hungry. Well, this feeling was strongly intensified by my exhaustion and utmost hunger that day. When I entered a Lidl supermarket, it was like coming to the paradise – so many different things, yet so little place to put it in. The hunger I am talking about is the feeling of having no energy at all after a very intensive workout. Basically, your whole body is shaking and you hanker after excessive calories. Those who do sport will damn well know what I mean.

In the evening I ate 4 big muffins just as if it were a little snack. Try doing that without any sport before and you can have pretty bad stomach ache. It is a caloric bomb, indeed, but it worked just fine because I got enough energy put off my exhaustion for a while and to continue.
I made another roundabout that proved to be a big mistake because the road was totally dilapidated. I should have taken the original route. I had to move extremely cautiosly to save myself from troubles with the bike. I risked a little when I rode on a narrow dam instead of the beaten road because falling down from there could have been quite nasty.

This day I wanted to arrive near Linz, but in the dawn the rain set in. It would not be a good idea to build my tent in the city park; therefore, I decided to continue despite inclement weather conditions. It was a very unpleasant ride and furthermore, my last cell phone battery went flat, thus I was unable to locate my position on the map. No directions, no place to build my tent, heavy rain and dark – that was not a pleasant situation I was caught in. The only good option at that time for me was to carry on nevertheless, put on my light gadgets to tune up my bike into a moving carousel, and go on the car road to Linz. Around 11 pm the road connected to a highway and I was forced to find a place to stay in the nearby city. I tried to look for a place where nobody would come and that would be safe from the thunderstorm. I found such a place in the bushes on the corner of an open area. I quickly built my tent and set myself to sleep. What a coincidence that I built my tent only about 10 m below a train bridge! You can imagine that I did not enjoy a good night sleep then.

Link to photos

Day 4

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  ~St. Augustine

The fourth day I had a little chill out in Linz. I still needed to get there because I was about 10 km away from Linz. In the morning it was extremely difficult to start biking as my butt hurt a lot. That eventually became my major problem with biking as soon as pain in the knee faded away. I visited Linz 2 years ago with a friend of mine during another low-cost journey (visiting Austria on train and sleeping in a tent). Therefore, this time I did not need to do much sightseeing and could just hang around, watch a knight tournament during Linz historical festive days (great timing, indeed), and recharge my devices in McDonald where I had, by the way, an interesting experience. One Afro-American guy, about 14-years old and obviously tipsy, came to the “restaurant“ and started harassing customers by begging for food with inarticulate mumbling. He was saw off by several customers, but the funniest one, also an Afro-American was terrified by his obnoxious behavior and kicked a fuss there. “What the fuck, do not take my food, man“, he screamed at the guy when he “served himself“ with some fries of his allegedly new friend. In the end, the manager had to spring on defense of the customer and kick that guy out. It was quite funny to observe that. I and one elderly woman were particularly amused by this scene and ended up talking for about an hour. She was really garrulous and therefore it was not a problem to engage in a conversation either with her, or with the other guests. Almost everyone looked incredulously when she told the newcomers about my plans to go by bike to Spain and it was quite funny to see their reactions. 

Before leaving Linz, I wanted to ritually have shower in the same fountain as two years ago. What an irony that after I was nicely washed, it suddenly started raining. This rain accompanied me for at least 5 hours and I was completely soaked from the top to the bottom. In some moments, I even experienced such heavy rain that I could not move and see anything. Even my so called waterproof jacket got wet.

Despite my rest in Linz, I was quite tired, maybe due to my rushed pace during the rain. Interestingly, you tend to ride faster in the rain. This can be either due to the fact that the pavement is wet and therefore you can move more smoothly, or simply because it is cold and you want to warm up and ride faster. I did manage to get to the designated place, but it was rather in the dark and quite late. I vividly remember my riding along various meanders of Danube and I could not wait until I reach my goal. I even ate my last Horalka to get more sugar for last kilometeres (my favorite sweets, typical Slovak sweets). As usually, I built my base about 10 pm. This time, however, in an area full of fishermen and campers. Finally a conventional alternative (last night beneath the railway road was not particularly pleasing but it is funny now in the retrospective).

Oh, I almost forgot - I saw a plethora of glowing worms! I could barely see any since I was 7. They are so amazing! It is like a miniscule Avatar. I drunk few gulps of whisky and fell asleep with the sense of accomplishment for the day in the beautiful area of Danube caught in the hills in almost untouched nature, far away from any signs of urban areas. 

Link to photos

Day 5

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel's sake.  The great affair is to move.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Waking up early in the morning in my camping spot near the river was just fascinating. I totally enjoyed my morning walk, quick breakfast and later set off for the journey. I woke up earlier because I wanted to attend a mass on Sunday. Luckily I found a church on my way in a small Austrian village, and smelly and dirty as I was, I went inside to the utmost surprise of the locals. I even managed to charge my cell phone battery. Later on, I continued to Passau, made few quick phone calls with friends and family because I wanted to make the most of my free Austrian minutes and in the later afternoon I came to Passau, the first German city in Bavaria near the Austrian borders. To my big surprise, I was to find out that my cell phone internet roaming was not working as I had expected and I was to cope with this problem until I arrived in France.

I do not know whether you have visited Passau, but it is a very nice city with its own urban charm. Passau is not so huge and spectacular as some major metropolies, but it is definitely very cute and its promenades around Danube on a small island where the city centre is located, turn it into a very romantic place.

I have seen many interesting things there; however, one experience outshines all the others and that was my visit of a praline factory. It was really like entering a chocolate paradise. I was totally overwhelmed by the plethora of various chocolate and praline sorts and even though it was rather expensive, I succumbed to the temptation and purchased some pralines. I do not consider myself a specialist, but I am definitely a gourmet who can appreciate tasty food and drinks - it somehow comes from my nature to enjoy deeply  everything that I can perceive with full joy. Those hand-made pralines, winners of countless competitions, carefully selected by the chocolate master were gorgeous - I was just in the seventh heaven! 

For the rest of the day, I motivated myself with one praline per break - a well deserved reward, indeed. I think, I will practice this with other sweets as well. 

The whole day was awfully hot and I think that at some point I got a small sun-stroke. I had to lie down for a while before I was able to continue. Due to a bad road description, I got lost several times and significantly lagged behind. This became even worse as the darkness fell and I totally lost my sense of orientation. In the end, I gave up and built my tent somewhere behind Deggensdorf, in German a dagger village, which was definitely not as small as I had expected from its name. I did not choose an ideal place for building my tent because there were still few people walking around, probably on a drink night out, seeing my tent and saying “Bist du tepad?” I was pretty scared that night and could not fall asleep easily. Fortunately, in the end, there were no problems at all.

I was mildly disappointed by the quality of the bike road as I went from Austria to Germany. In Austria, you had the vast amount of roads well paved, but the first 50 km of Bavarian Donauradweg were mostly narrow country roads through which you could not ride fast. Maybe it is deliberately so to give Germans a sense of adventure as they spend their vacation fishing and camping along the dusty road. I saw many people who obviously wanted to get in shape on their active vacation. This kind of road offered definitely plenty of opportunities for a wide variety of sport activities. The road itself leads along the Danube as a form of a dam and there are many small bars, restaurants and accommodation on the way. Presumably, this road offers for the locals a good source of income from the tourism. 

Link to photos

Day 6

 Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.  ~Seneca

I started the next day with high spirits that I would catch up on my schedule and instead of taking breakfast right away, I indulged myself firstly after 20 km. I was heading to Regensburg, a well-known Bavarian city where I wanted to do a little bit more sightseeing as in Passau. As usually, the first 40 km went pretty smoothly. I pulled out at one small town to replenish water, wash my clothes and buy some food. Speaking about the food, today I had a typical Bavarian salad. It basically consists of ham, ham, some onions, cucumber and again, ham. I bought it at a local store, but still, even for a readymade food, it gave me a good taste of the local cuisine.

In the afternoon I continued listening to my audiobooks. After finishing with Plato in the morning, I did a small recapitulation of Sartre and Spinoza. The last 20 km to Regensburg were awful. I was pretty tired and the soaring heat was killing me. Right after arriving in Regensburg, I went straight to the nearest McDonald's. Normally I loathe McDonald's and its products, but having free internet, an electricity plug, and tasty ice-cream is an offer you cannot refuse, especially after biking the whole day in the sun. What a pity that I did not have more time for sightseeing, Regensburg looks like a nice city that breaths with history. At least I can say that I saw something, as a fast-sightseeing tourist. On the bike it is namely very convenient to do sightseeing in a town: You travel triple so fast with minimal effort. I tried to soak into the city’s atmosphere as much as possible. In the evening, there was not much hustle - people were just hanging out, dating and enjoying the nice weather. While leaving for the Donauradweg, I went through an interesting bridge that was decorated with a myriad of small locks. Interestingly, it became a habit for lovers to engrave their relationship by putting a small lock on the bridge.

As every pilgrim to Compostela, I also wear a special sign: a small shell that is a symbol of this holy pilgrimage. Not many people recognize it, not even among Catholics. Today, however, I was nicely surprised as I overtook a young cyclist and she immediately caught up on me because she recognized the shell. We spent another 20 minutes engaged in a pleasant conversation before she pulled home. I discovered that a friend of her did Camino François on the foot and that was actually the reason that she recognized it. I am curious how many other people will know it, but I think the closer I get to the beginning of the official pilgrimage; the more people will be familiar with it. 

Tonight I have also missed the desired finish and stopped about 5 km earlier. Firstly, it was really dark and the paved Donauradweg ended, and secondly because I have found a perfect spot to build my tent. I have "claimed" a small half-island in a park and set my base there. Now I am sitting on the bench writing this blog and indulging myself with the rest of my small bottle of whisky. 

My daily routines looks like following: In the morning 40 km, lunch, rest until 3 pm, then until 6pm another 40 km, dinner, rest, 20 km, setting the base and preparing for sleep. According to my map calculations, I do about 100 km, but in reality it is about 115-125 due to wildly inaccurate route planning (e.g. turn right, which is actually a curve could by marked in my map software only with setting points that formed a triangle), and due to my to and fro sightseeing and losing directions.

Link to photos

Day 7

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.  ~Ray Bradbury

Today the road led me again through many German villages. Having woken up early, I had a good opportunity to see the brisk morning in these rural areas. Tractors and heavy machinery were everywhere on the road, farmers were taking care of their stock and you could smell the typical village scent. Not many times you have the opportunity to soak into this atmosphere, especially if you grew up and live in a town as me. I am only afraid that I am becoming numb to all what I see. I do not simply perceive things with the "wow" effect anymore, but find it somehow normal. However, the typical image of German villages goes far behind my experienced perception in Slovakia. In my country, villagers are happy to make the both ends meet and have a quite modest life. On the other hand, in Germany and Austria farmers appear to live quite comfortable life with standards that the Slovaks could only dream of.. You could barely find derelict buildings – everything was like new, out from the box, nice and tidy. There were many shining examples of the ideal family house.  Solar panels were omnipresent as if they were an indispensable part of houses and each small village had a perfectly equipped sport playground. I guess it is beyond all comparison with our Slovak villages. I just hold high hopes that one day, in a far and distant future, when our politicians stop robbing every Euro fond coming to our country, maybe Slovak people in the countryside will also enjoy a better quality of life. 

At noon I biked in the picturesque landscape of another national park with many hikers and bikers on the way. Unfortunately, I got lost pretty bad, this time due to poorly marked GPS data. Out of the blue, the way along the river stopped and one had to clamber on a steep hill that was impossible with my bike. I tried to find an alternative route, but got hopelessly lost in the forest where I had to push my bike uphill for good 40 minutes, meanwhile having been ferociously attacked by mosquitoes. When I finally reached the peak, I was not very sure with the directions so I asked one older German group leader. He was very nice and told me how to get down, but firstly wanted to show me a great view from the cliff. At least the view was worth of all the struggle. I was advised that in the monastery that you can see in this picture, one have a great opportunity to indulge him/herself with delicious Bavarian beer. You did not need to tell me much after my long biking travel in the sun to persuade me to go there. We were supposed to meet there and finish the chat we started on the cliff. This lunch break was actually a great idea. I needed to stop for a while anyway and nothing could be better as drinking well-deserved beer in a monastary that proud itself with brewing the first beer in the world! I was really lucky that I came across this place. 

Once again I bit more than could chew as far my map planning is concerned. As a result, I was lacking behind and had to bike until 11 pm. The next day, I was supposed to arrive in Ulm, where my couch host Judith was expecting me; therefore, it was important to be on time. The estimated arrival was at 7 pm, there were 100 “map“ km to make the next day and I was still behind later at night. Therefore, I tried to do as much as possible, but the roads were badly marked and in the dark it was really difficult to ride through forest lanes. Eventually I gave up and put my tent in a crop field near the forest. I was tired as hell, but that night, I had another scary experience that later did not let me fall asleep so easily again. Around 2 am, I was woken up by immediate squeaking and clatter. It was obvious that hogs were around, but then it was becoming even more intensive. Suddenly, I could distinguish two different “voices“. One of a small cub and the other, much huskier, of its mum. Apparently, the young one got lost and frantically tried to find its mother. Generally speaking, wild hogs are not dangerous for people, unless they are hurt or feel protective of their off springs. In such cases, they can become extremely savage and there is little that human can do to save his skin. I have heard stories of a hunt on wild pigs in which one big daddy had to be shot 7 times from close distance with a shotgun before it bit the dust. Not a fat chance that one could defend against a wild hog with a knife, unless you have a sword, katana, axe or any other heavy cold weaponry from the middle ages. I did not even have a small knife and no wonder that with my pepper spray locked in my tent, I did not feel particularly safe. I was really in anguish that the young one goes astray near to my tent and its big mamma would think that my very presence was the reason for all troubles. If that had happened, I would have been left totally defenseless, as there were no trees to climb on and even worse, I was in my tent, unable to run away in case the swine swoop on me. Even though I did the pleasant duty of marking my territory around the tent to scare away any animal intruders, one could never know if the stupid cub in its panic does not disregard these warning signs and trespass my claimed territory. I was only to hope that something like that would simply not happen. The horror spectacle last for about an hour, taking the scene few times quite close to my place until they finally found themselves. What a sigh of relief! I just love happy endings and I was really pleased that this story starred me only as an observer and not as an actor. 

Link to photos

Day 8

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home".  ~James Michener

This time I had a clear goal which I had to fulfill: I needed to be in Ulm at 7 pm as I had previously arranged with Judith, my couch host, through the couchsurfing website. Having had some debts from the previous day, I had to try something I never managed before – to make 150 km in one day, even after my almsot sleepless night. Unbelievable as it may seem, I did it, but I was totally beat. I started early in the morning, already quite tired and deprived from sleep. Once again, I decided to take breakfdaast after driving at least 30 km. During this time, I got hopelessly lost for several times again. Once I had really bad luck - I lost my way so I planned a small retour with my GPS. On the map the way looked pretty fine - a nice wood lane with few ups and downs. In the reality however, the path was not fit for biking at all. I fell down several times, was fully covered in mud and was hunt by a myriad of mosquitos. When I realized my mistake and frantically tried to pull back, my whole luggage fell apart and I had to fix it. That was an ominous moment because there was no chance to see off pestilent mosquitos and the swarn easily overran me. There were dozens of them on each limb within few seconds - I thought they would eat me alive. 

I learned few interesting things that might seem quite obvious:

1. In dark woods, nothing good awaits you.

2. No more retours in woods.

3. Screaming and swearing does not see off mosquitos

4. After you got bitten several dozens times, you can actually get a bad headache.

5. Watch the episode of Akta X about uncanny insects that eat humans. I felt I was getting through something similar.

The first part of the journey continued with other steep hills on the road from one village to another and having seen how terribly slowly I trudged through them, I thought that in the end I would be forced to call off my today’s arrrival. Thanks God the road became better and last 50 km to Ulm were perfectly marked. I cannot say that I enjoyed this day because I was pushing myself to the limits and did not have any time to enjoy much rest. 

I pulled over after 35 km, with a solid 10 km loss in a small town to have breafast. It is an unforgettable experience as I drank my ice coffee and ate cookies after arriving at the town totally hungry and exhausted. For such cases, I should have had an iron ration, something like the last portion of food intended for situations like this when things get out of hand. Afterwards I rode like crazy until I had another bigger break (45 m) in a bar. It turned out to be a classical pub, even without beer on tap, with Rammstein blaring out of the jukebox. Never mind, I rather needed juice for my electronic devices than for myself.

After my quick refreshment in the pub, I bumped into another crazy biker like me. He was heading straight to the Alps with the "turtle style" as I do (understand: bike, sleeping bag, tent and food). Riding in the picturesque Alpine land must also be an indellible experience and it is a nice inspiration for another trip sometimes in the future. By the way, I would like to say something more about the iron ration that I mentioned few lines above. After my morning ride without proper breakfast, I had been pondering for a while about purchasing some power bars and energy gels to create an emergency iron ration. Well, this guy was so nice that he gave me some for free as we somehow came to this topic because he bought them precauciously at the beginning of his trip and until his arrival in the Alps they were for him just excessive luggage. He said he could easily buy there another sport supplements and therefore would gladly give me some. This was such a nice coincidence; it was like you wish something and then it falls down right from the Heaven. I am immmensely thankful for this backup. He basically donated high caloric energy backup worth of at least 15 € to me. May his generosity come back to him!

Last 40 km to Ulm there was finally some nice and flat terrain, but I was already totally exhausted. Nonetheless, it really looked like I can arrive on time. About last 10 km from Ulm, I met another guy who helped me with directions. His name was Lukas and he also did several crazy biking trips around Europe. This summer, he is planning to travel in Serbia by bike and therefore meeting him was like running into another similarly crazy person like me, thirsty for advanture. He accompanied me to Ulm and when he found out that I had to get to Blaustein, a small town another 10 km behind Ulm, he decided to help me with the way there. As we rode through the city, I realized that without his help I would not have founded my way to Blaustein until midnight due to overly complicated bike roads in this big city. When we arrived in Blaustein, we exchanged our cell phone numbers and planned a meeting for the next day in case he is available.  

Without internet connection I was unable to find Judith’s address so I had to call her to pick me up. She escorted me with her car to her place where I could finally rest after this extemely challenging day. Judith turned out to be also a passionate traveller, never old enough for trying out crazy things and travelling around the world. We were of the same opinion that classical all inclusive vacation would kill us as we just need to explore new things and cannot stay longer at one place. She is a very nice person, works as a teacher on the highschool, likes organic food, practices Buddhism, rides a tuned Harley Davidson and totally loves beer - a really cool companion! It is really inaffable how I felt when I sat down and had few bottles of beer after my crazy trip to Ulm. The true happiness and sense of accomplishment is truly behind words, I wish you could actually feel it. Still, if you could, I would not wish that you had to go through the same as I did on the way to Ulm. We sat together on the balcony until midnight and exchanged various travelling stories. It was a really pleasant evening after all that hardship.

Day 08+ Resting in Ulm

I can barely describe what a good feeling it was to sleep safely in a normal bed without apprehension of wild animals or wild people. After a quick breakfast, and a wonderful cup of coffee (Judith has a very expensive coffee machine and it was clear from the beginning that it was not just some coffee), Judith took me on her way to work to the city centre, and I could start sighseeing as a normal tourist. Firstly, I strode into the city centre that was waking up to the new day. I bought some snack in the nearby shop and enjoyed sitting in the main square and observing people. After walking around in the city centre, I had to get the McDonald's to write some e-mails. I was particularly pride of closing my FB account for undefinite time and of a pleasant news that I had passed the most challenging workshop in the last term. I went to celebrate it with a picnic on the world's largest church tower (Munster cathedral). Ascending more than 700+ steps was pretty OK, but at that high I felt quite dizzy. I could not believe that the man could possibly build this to the sky reaching building several hundreds years ago. I felt it could fall apart anytime when I went up, but afterwards my fears were consumed as I was having my lunch nearly at the top with a beautiful view over the whole city.

In the afternoon I called Lukas to find out whether we would meet as yesterday arranged. His plans with a boat trip fell apart so he was ready to go. We met in the Biergarten with another friend of him, a colleague from work whose name unfortunately totally slipped my mind.. After spending an hour with pleasant conversation, we went to the park to play a Swedish game of which I totally forgot the name. It basically consisted of throwing wooden sticks at the oponent player's structures– like a catapult battle. It could be a pretty dangerous game for drunken people, but fortunately, this was not our case – we had just few beers from the local Biergarten. Interestingly, it is common that every bigger Biergarten brews its own beer. Judith agreed to join us afterwards in the Biergarten and we went for few more beers. Lukas invited me for the dinner and I had a great opportunity to try out a typical Bavarians speciality – pork knee with potateo salad. It was a huge portion, but my hunger was greater and I gulped it all down with an ease. Actually, I thought that I hate such fat food, but for some rason I found it extremy appetizing, even to such a level, that I bought a supermarket version of this dish the next day. Later on I talked with Judith at home about travelling and stuff by few more beers for the rest of the evening. I must say that I am immensely thankful to both of them for their generous hospitality and making my experience of the Bavaria absolutely unique and awesome.

Just a little bit philosophy

I wrote this part sitting on the bench in the front of the Munster cathedral the other morning to elucidate on few facts about my trip. Do no worry, my philosophy reading has nothing to do with this contemplation. In fact, the lectures are so abstract that they are unapplicable for any deep musing about travelling.

Great many people could think that I went crazy when I decided to spend my holidays in utmost uncomfort and even cough up so much money for that. Still, to some people, my travelling experience that I have described so far might sound fascinating, but many would prefer reading about it in the comfort of their homes than experiencing them on their own. On the other hand, many other experiences sound horrific and one could easily feel pity for many unpleasant situations I had to get through. Be it as it may, behold, dear reader, that this tríp is not just about torturing oneself with utmost uncomfort. It might seem like that on the first glance, but it is actually enjoying the life in a completely different fashion as we are normally used to. Renouncing comfort, I found hapiness in mundane things and learned to value basic amenities that we totally take for granted. You will probably never experienc the true hapiness of drinking water unless you desparately seek for it. Similarly, one can hardly imagine the whole gamut of emotions that a traveller experiences when he eats his favorite meal totally exhausted, shivering from hunger and too feeble to perceive anything else. That same food, however, eaten in the front of the TV while being bored rigid, will never bring you the same happiness and satisfaction. Thus, renouncing comfort brings you happiness through pretty little things that we are normally not fully able to appreciate and comprehend. Therefore, this is not a torture, but enjoying, even overindulging the life, yet in a slightly different form. Waking up into  the new gallery of wonder every morning has also its special charm. Never the same place again, always something new and unusual. Moving forward towards your destination makes you see new things, talk to interesting people and think about the world from the different perspective, the perspective of a traveler. For this very reason it is fine to escape from your golden cage of comfort from time to time to see the world trough the other eyes and in the end, rethink and reconsider the blessings that you might have not been to able to appreciate during your hasty pace of everyday life.

Link to photos

Day 9

"A passport, as I'm sure you know, is a document that one shows to government officials whenever one reaches a border between countries, so the officials can learn who you are, where you were born, and how you look when photographed unflatteringly."  ~Lemony Snicket

I must say that today was an amazing day for biking. I felt as if I had abundance of energy. Quite interesting what one longer stopover can do.. After enjoying my two caps of great coffee by Judith and the farewell, I strode into a nearby Lidl shop to buy some food and as usually to the McDonald's to check my e-mails. I am so pissed off that my internet roaming does not work; hopefully I will find the way to fix it. 

The Donauradweg from Ulm was probably the most beautiful part of my whole journey so far. I rarely rode in the traffic, there were different terrain, both hills and flats, and everything as if mixed with care by an architect or so because once you were fed up with the fields, the hills came, when you lay panting without breath after riding uphill, there were some flat fields, forest and so on. The trail was beautiful, very beautiful. 

Once again, I rode quite a lot because all the meanders on the way made my map calculations totally inaccurate. It was supposed to be around 115 km but it was actually about 140. 

In the evening I came into a beautiful town called Sigmaringen. I did a little sightseeing, watched the festive days a little and took some nice pictures. It was getting dark and quite honestly, I did not feel like riding further, but I knew that I could not stay in the city, either. I had to push myself to move in order to get at least to the outskirt of the town, where I slept in a park.

After being so long alone only with my bike, I have decided to give it a name, similarly, as sailors give names to their ships. From this point, I will refer to my bike as Lucy just because I love this name in English.  I think I have already become well-versed with riding my bike. It has became such a habit, that it is as natural for me as walking. Riding Lucy 7 hours a day is a grueling task, but I bear It gladly. Normally, I keep the constant pace of about 20 km/h on a flat terrain and rarely exceed 40 km/h on a downhill. Of course, everything depends on the road, but I tend to be cautiod because of my shitty luggage. Sometimes, though, I msut admit that I get carried away and ride her like crazy on nasty terraiain to enjoy it more wildly. But of course, I respect all traffic rules diligently and never cross on red. 

I must admit that I was a little bit afraid of sleeping "wherever my wheels bring me" due to the infamous hog incident from the previous night out. Moreover, the place where I was heading was just woods, woods and woods in another nature park with only few tiny villages scattered around the place. I could expect almost with certainty some wildlife there. As if it were not enough, I looked up in google "self defense against hogs" against my better judgment and was horrified that there is really a fat chance that a human could defend against a furious hog unless you have a tree around where you could climb. Having totally scared myself, I did not want to take any extra chances. Therefore, I decided to stay safe and "fortified" my dwelling. Here you can see my little stronghold.

I can imagine how you are smirking over my precautious measures, but do not worry, hogs were not the only reason why I wanted to stay here. I just found it super-cool to stay overnight in such an observation tower and see the picturesque morning sunrise over the beautiful landspace from a little higher perspective. Here are some pictures to prove that it was worth of it even though I made my stopover 20 km earlier as I had planned. And of course, I would not lose any sleep over hogs, either, because there was no way they could get over there. Hogs might have not, but the police did. I thought I would have some troubles, but in the end, everything was just fine. They checked my ID, incredulously listened to my plans and in the end went away so I could sleep in my marvelous tower.

Link to photos

Day 10

"The traveler sees what he sees.  The tourist sees what he has come to see."  ~G.K. Chesterton

I started my day pretty early, around 6 am. After my rather quick breakfast, I took some pictures of the sunrise over the beautiful country and set off for the journey. I was really behind my schedule – for that day I had planned 115 km and supposing that I was 25 km lagging behind (again, wildly inaccurate measurements on my precious digital map), I knew I would not make it, but my goal was to make as much as possible.

Biking in the morning when not a soul is around has its specific charm. Just you, your bike, nature and the track. All your busy thoughts just wither away and you find yourself in a state of an empty mind – it is like meditation. No past, no future, no hopes, no fear, no thoughts, just you and the very presence of the moment.

This day has undoubtedly taken me through the most beautiful trails so far. Even though the most difficult, but it was still worth it. The nature was absolutely stunning! It is funny to say that I went through places where the others go to spend active holidays.

However, this amazing scenery took its price, too. I was incredibly tired after catching up on my debt from yesterday and I barely made more than 20 km from the new day by the noon. Moreover, this time my left knee started to act up and I was really afraid that it would be a harbinger of something more serious. This was a clear signal to take a lunch break, so I did. I stuffed myself with calories (beans, bread, 500 g ice-cream, biscuits) and left for the ride.

In the afternoon I got once again hopelessly lost due to my own stupidity. I went to the McDonald's at the outskirt of the town and wanted to make my life easier by planning “a little detour “. However, I did not have any map downloaded for this detour and I could only guess what could come. So I went straight to the woods, then to even bigger woods and in the end I was biking on an extremely difficult trail from which every heart of an MTB-biker would leap, but mine was just shaken - only my luggage leapt which was, of course, not desirable.. Fortunately, I found the way out of the woods after an hour or so and then I wandered only on paved roads. I was even further behind the schedule; therefore, I wanted to make the most of the day and biked until the dusk.

One of the worst biking experiences is riding in the dark on a poorly marked road where you can easily get lost. Does not matter how well your GPS works, it has no use if you have 4 or 5 roads in the same direction and you frantically go astray several times. It goes without saying that it is extremely frustrating to come to the last known point, especially if you are tired as hell. I was in similar situations almost the whole day, but in the evening it was even worse. That evening I also met a stranger from California who just wandered to Germany. He did help me with the way, but was incredibly garrulous – still talking about the movie industry, illuminati, freemasons and how they all ruined his life which was not very pleasant to the ear. I tried to make an early escape, but it was not so easy because I always have some stupid questions that can turn some people on for another half an hour of monotonous explanations. Fortunately, the way from there was very straightforward – obviously, I was in the Switzerland, it figures. My final evening mission was to get to the outskirt of a big Swiss town and far enough from the public eye. What an irony that I lost my way in the city for countless times until I arrived at a place where I could stay. It was already midnight and I was so tired that I simply gave up on building a tent and slept in my sleeping bag on a bench in an abandoned parking lot.

Link to photos

Day 11 and something

I made a mistake in my blog and since there is no chance to move entries freely, I cannot change the sequence. For this reason I have to add 2 days into this entry. Sorry about the confusion.

The journey to Basel was way easier than the arduous nature biking from the day before. In fact, I think that yesterday was the most difficult day. Steep hills, off-roads, constant ups and downs were too much for me, even though I thought that I am getting pretty fit. Today was fortunately as most other days – more or less flat on paved roads. I thought I could reach Basel early in the afternoon, but my tiredness and incredible heat held me from riding faster. Eventually, I arrived firstly at 7 pm. I was also to find out that my couchsurfing plans for Basel did not work out. My request was denied because the host was allegedly ill. On the one hand, it was a good thing because I did not have to rush anywhere, on the other; I had nowhere to recharge my laptop and cell phone batteries. My next bigger stopover was planned after 5 days; therefore, it was vitally important for me to have everything fully charged and that takes ages. Hence I had to stay in McDonald until they closed, for the night pull back somewhere outside the city and the next day come back to do the sightseeing.  I was simply left with no other option. It proved to be quite a challenge because the bike routes are perplexing even during the day, not mentioning what one could expect during the night. I went astray many times, swore great many times, and rode many a mile. I built my tent somewhere in a village behind Basel and was glad to finally go to sleep.

...

As I wil have mentioned, that morning, I had to wake up earlier to do some sightseeing in Basel and to buy a Swiss knife. Both of these missions became fruitless because knives were too expensive and the other side of the city did not have much to offer. I totally squandered the whole morning! I should have rather gone away earlier... .  At least, I managed to buy some food for the day. I visited a small Turkish shop as those I know fairly well in Vienna. I bought Turkish bread, cookies and a sweet bar. For 6 Euros, what a rip off, but I did not care because I needed something to eat. Besides that Turkish bread was actually quite delicious.

In the afternoon, I passed the three country bridge in Basel. That was the beginning of my long staying in France. I totally forgot that I had better brush up my French so I changed my philosophy audiobooks for language audio courses. The first bigger city I visited in France was Mulhouse. After having been disappointed with sightseeing in Basel, I did not expect much. It was maybe better so because the city surprised me nicely with its natural, French style charm. You could clearly see that you entered another country even though it is said that Alsace is kind of a mixture between the German and French culture. However, I did not have much time for both sightseeing and recharging my devices; therefore, I tried to ask with my funny French a guide in the city cathedral if I could leave my belongings there. He was quite nice and said that it would be no problem so I took the most of the situation and pulled out my laptop and a back-up battery, too, and disappeared between he could raise any objections.

As usually, after finishing with the sights, I started looking for the McDonald's or an internet café, but I did not find any. At least I did some shopping in an air conditioned shopping mall which was quite a relief after having been exposed to scorching temperatures for the whole day. The best moment was gulping down 1.5 l cold cherry Coke that I bought in the nearby supermarket. I gulped it down within 5 minutes and I cannot remember deriving such a delight from drinking soda. I did my sightseeing, but around 5 pm it was the high time to go. At the beginning I was quite lazy, but the 3-hour break fulfilled its purpose. I rode like frenzy 45 km with almost no brake (just to take some interesting pictures and to drink a little). I do not know where all the energy came from, but I felt so great! It was like if I were Forest Gump, like ride, Marek, ride. I got tired firstly after the 40th km when my energy started to fade away. It was quite interesting to see how long it takes to restore energy after eating some sweets. In my case, it was about 5 minutes when a few cookies made a miracle. Seriously, I would like to know how it was possible that I could ride so long without a break. Was it the super-sweet Turkish bar, those Turkish cookies or the Coke? Assuming the energetic value of all of them, probably they all count for my bike rush. In the evening I took green salad for a change to prove (myself) that I do not eat junk food only.

For the sake of biking.

You might be biking on a long road that becomes dull after some time, go through firstly fascinating afterwards from your point of view just another typical villages, see thousands of sunrises and sunsets and pass the river from one side to the other for another countless times. Yet, travelling is not just about what you see, but what you think about it – as your minds wanders, you se things from a different perspectives and broaden your view. That is what travelling is about. Biking, as well as walking or jogging is very good for that because you do not need to concentrate much on your riding, it goes by itself. Supposing that there are are not many challenges on the road, you can zone out and take your mind for a ride, too.

Link to photos

Day 12

"Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions." — Peter Hoeg

So now I have it confirmed. The French bike routes are indeed easier than their counterparts in Germany and Austria. The road always meanders around some rivers or canals, is mostly flat and well paved. It is true that Austrian bike routes were also well paved, but I guess it was the tough German school in the Black Forest where I really pushed myself to the limits and in the end has become stronger and more resilient. Now I do not take breaks every 30 minutes, but after every 15 km what is the equivalent of 40 minutes. My pace has changed as well – from the usual 20 km/h to around 24 km/h. Interestingly, I do not feel tired on my legs, but on my arms and feet (I think I have even a blister which is really weird supposing that I do not really walk on the ground). Anyway, French bike routes are so far easy-teasy, just like a duck soup. By the way, speaking about ducks, there are plenty of ducks along the river whose constant gaggling sometimes does not let me fall asleep. Today, I have also had a duck paste for lunch – it was delicious, indeed which is typical for almost all French products. I think I will buy this stuff more often. In the course of the day, I have visited two beautiful cities: Montbéliard and Besancon. For Besancon I did not have much time though because it was already getting dark and I had to go. Therefore, my whirlwind visit included only clambering on the citadel and riding in the old town. I have also finally settled the problem with the internet provider so I should be able to find couch hosts easily.

By the way, I think I have developed a new kind of a sport drink. It is basically an infamious mixture of coke and wine and for this heresy, the French would probably hang me, but when I have it patentend, nobody will ever know. This mixture has the uncanny ability to boost your performance because it harnesses the advantages of both drinks which causes a synergic effect. It goes without saying that pure wine cannot be served in sports (unless you are a hard-core addict) due to its strong alcohol content. However, if you rarify it with coke, the lesser alcohol content builds away hindrances and makes your ride more agréable, but does not make you tipsy. Similarly, the coke makes the wine tasteier and the sheer abundance of sugar in coke is a great source of energy for endurance sports. It is not a secret that Coke disposes of vast amount of calories due to its high sugar content that could come in handy even during iron man championships. There is an interesting research behind this claim. Originally, Coke was sweetened by sugar which proved to have been rather expensive. Later on, with the advent of corn syrup, normal sugar was replaced by this cheap corn syrup which has, on the other hand, also the uncanny ability to bypass your digestive system. According to some studies, you are more likely to get on weight by eating normally and drinking Coke than eating excessively and drinking water. This occurs because when drinking Coke, your brain does not get a signal from the digestive tract that it has already obtained calories and consequently should refrain from eatimg nore. If you are interested in further references, check out the website killercoke.org. Anyway, Coke is a great toilet cleaner and medicine for bad stomach, and as I have proven right now, it could have some usage in sport as well.

Link to photos