Cycling traveling stories

My first trip to France/Mi primer viaje a Francia Oprime aqui para español My first trip to France was to the Loire Valley. The Loire a Velo, which is the path that follows the river is flat, stunning and like the majority of Velo routes in France, traffic-free. Cycling in France is great, as there are many cycle routes called Velo and if there is no Velo route and you have to cycle on minor roads, there is hardly any traffic. The food is great, and the landscape is beautiful. After my first trip, I have been to France many more times. The only problem for me is that I don't speak French. I should learn, I know.  My first Warmshowers hosts offered to pick me up at the airport, I always find that so generous because apart from offering their place to stay, they are also offering you their time, driving to airports is time-consuming and in general not a very pleasurable experience. They were there waiting for me,  they had this yummy lunch ready for me and whilst having lunch w...

Two days, two angels/Dos dias, dos angeles Oprime aqui para español On this occasion I was cycling in the south of Germany and after spending two glorious days cycling around Lake Konstanz, a storm came. It lasted four days, four days of torrential rain. On the first day of the storm, I bought a waterproof set and carried on cycling, I looked like a bin bag on a bike but there was no other option as waiting in a hotel on my own for the rain to stop was going to be a lot worse than cycling in the rain. On the second day of rain, I was cycling near the Alps, meaning it was quite hilly and still beautiful. Suddenly this UPS delivery guy stopped his van and asked me if I wanted to go to his sister's house who lived nearby, for a cup of coffee. I said yes and he rang her, she said that I was welcome, he gave me the address and I went. She and her beautiful kids welcomed me, we had a cup of coffee, some delicious apple strudel, a chat and even played some board games. After about three ...

Elfriede, one of my angels/ Elfriede, uno de mis ángeles Oprime aqui para español In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I would write about my experiences with very special human beings, whom I call my "angels," and how they have enhanced my enjoyment of bike touring. Angels are very special humans who descend from heaven exactly when they are needed most. Before I share the story of one of the most remarkable encounters I've had, I think it's important to provide some background on Google Maps, the main reason I needed a few angels.   Up to 2019 I used Google Maps as my navigation app, tried some other apps but was never happy with them. They must have been really bad as at that time Google Maps for cycling was terrible. I don’t know how it is now as I use cycle travel. Cycle travel has decreased my need for angels,  freeing them to help other cyclists who still use Google Maps.  Why was Google Maps terrible?  Because it would plan routes through fences, fi...

The blind cyclist/El ciclista ciego Oprime aqui para español One of my most remarkable experiences whilst cycling. Contacted this Warmshower host and he said that I was more than welcome to stay. He told me that on the date when I was supposed to arrive it was his birthday and, if I didn’t mind, he had planned to go to a concert by the city’s philharmonic orchestra in a very nice park (I could also stay in his flat if I didn’t want to go). Why would I mind? I was over the moon!! When I got to the flat, there were a few more people than I expected, my host and his partner, two of his friends, another cyclist who was cycling around the world (there are a lot of cyclists cycling around the world, this is fairly common in the world of cycle touring), and his guide dog. They lived in a relatively big flat and had a big car, so we all fitted in and off to the park we went. They took this huge picnic, we all sat in the park, enjoyed this fantastic orchestra whilst having beautiful food; lik...

Oprime aqui para español First ever solo touring day, Holland… flat. Learned my first lesson quickly: when cycling along the service road of a motorway, must get on the right side (not as in right and left, but the correct side) as soon as possible as it could be many many miles until you can cross the motorway to get to your destination (same applies to rivers); that was a hard lesson to learn so early in my trip. Got to my first ever W armshower host. Was a bit apprehensive, had never done this before, and did not have a clue what to expect. No problem, as she wasn’t at home when I got there. Whatsapp wasn’t that common during those days and I did not have data on my phone, so I just sat on the stairs in front of her flat and waited thinking that if it got to a certain time I’d have to look for a hotel. Ten minutes later I had the first of many many encounters with my angels (Will do a section on angels). My first angel was a lady who lived in the same building, she asked me what I...

Warmshowers and cycling levels/Warmshowers y niveles ciclisticos Oprime aqui para español Apart from my first trip, I have always cycled on my own, I prefer to stay with Warmshowers. Warmshowers is a hospitality exchange platform for cyclists, there are thousands of cyclists in the platform all around the world. Ideally, you should offer your place as a host as well, not using it only as a guest; sometimes this is not possible. So far, I have stayed with hundreds of cyclists, and they have stayed at mine, never had a bad experience, not even a neutral one. Every cyclist that I have met has added something positive to my life. This blog will mostly be about my experiences with them. Staying with Warmshowers is not always possible so option 2 is camping, option 3 knocking on somebody’s door to ask if I can camp in their garden, and lastly Airbnb/Booking.com. A lot of cyclists wild camp but I haven’t dared to do so. I think that for the foreseeable future, I’ll stick to the first four...