Cycling traveling stories

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...

Some things that I've learned/Algunas cosas que he aprendido Oprime aqui para español   I'm back from my travels, super happy to see my kids and friends, and also to make cakes and chocolates whilst enjoying this beautiful English summer. I've been solo cycling for 10 years now and every trip is a new and wonderful experience. Luckily there were no mishaps apart from a storm that scared the poo out of me. I think that everyone should do something like this at least once in their lifetime. By this I mean, traveling on your own not knowing what the day is going to bring, meeting new people, and learning so much from them. I decided to write a blog about the people that I have met in all these years, especially my Warmshower hosts and guests. Before starting with this I would like to share some things that I learned during my travels (I've learned a lot more but it would be too boring to read) Make a list of all that you’ll need and take everything, modify the list when y...