Bike Related

Every now and again I will grab everything together and do a few days here or there up or down the Elbe or some such. I've collected my camping gear over a period of time and list it here for those that are interested. I do admit to being a tad finicky about equipment and tend to do a fair bit of research before committing. One thing is sure - get the best you can muster. Best does not equate to the most expensive! There are some sage words from Ken Kifer on this issue here. Sure, you can manage with a pen knife and a cape - but do you want to have to manage with that? Camping is not necessarily about pretending to be Davey Crockett or a member of the SAS. Dry and warm! There are some interesting comments about touring and the choice of equipment at Downtheroad.org - pretty factual and written from the perspective of people who have more experience than I could ever hope to muster.

Being a bit of a traditionalist I tried to keep my bike a "real tourer". Suspension, aluminium frames and gel saddles have no place on such a machine…

I quite enjoyed this article about being a retro-grouch! I don't agree with everything he said, but he does make some valid points about unnecessary invention.

• Bike during latest camping trip.

Based in Hamburg, there are some great opportunities for quick bike trips. You can potter around Hamburg itself or head out along the Elbe. Either direction is wonderful. For a quick day trip why not cycle out to Wedel? For longer, continue to Elmshorn and up to Husum along the Dyke. Maybe head south towards Magdeburg and onto Prague? See The Elbe Radweg web site for more details.

Another source is Map My Ride (click to see Hamburg routes).

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Some tracks are maintained , with photos, at gpsed:

GPSED

This was an interesting one. I first did this trip in 2003. Back then it was friendlier, cheaper and more enjoyable. Now it seems to me that greed has set in as well as a lowering of standards. Beautiful nonetheless, the ride is magnificent. Just don't get lost in Wittenberg - there are some quite scary areas….

It rained every single day of the ride.

Photos are standard mobile phone poor quality.

Cycling to Magdeburg 2007

A bit low on the photos since I had to rely on the mobile which was … yes, out of juice most of the time! This year I did Hamburg-Stade-Cuxhafen-BremerHafen one week (4 days) and then Hamburg-Elmshorn-Itzehoe-Husum the next. The second route was head wind all the way heading North except for one glorious morning where I cruised along at 27 Kmph without pedalling….

One of the great things in life is sitting on a restaurant balcony overlooking the north of the Elbe as the sun sets eating a nordsee-krabben dish while watching the huge cargo ships pass by. And then, content, you start hitting the Korn and the cold Pils with gusto and then, suitably fortified in more than one sense, joining in with the stammtisch who have been sizing you up for the past hour for more schnappse and discussions on Anglo-German relationships and, of course, penalties.

• Cycling Elbe - August 2008

I repeated a trip I did last year as its close, flat and convenient. And beautiful! A pedal to Teufelsbrucke, a ferry over the Elbe and then pedal up through (around) Stade on to Cuxhafen and then to Bremerhafen for a train trip back home. Probably my favorite place there on route was a small town called Atenbruch which has a wonderful cyclists hostel called Schleusenhof Döscher. A great little bar and restaurant overlooks the Elbe not ten minutes away and you can drink beer and korn and watch the ships go by! This time I used something called gpsed to store any piccies on the map! See the link below. The pictures are poor - the camera in my Blackberry Storm is remarkably bad.

• Cycling Elbe - June 2009

5 days in searing heat. Scenery stunning. Recommended.

Hamburg to Kollmar, to Marne (2 nights - was simply too hot on the wednesday), to Hörst-Hennstedt, to Dagebüll, to Klanxbüll and then the NOB Train back to Hamburg featuring a broken bridge at Friedrichstadt. Highlights were Kollmar (lovely cheap camping sight and a great ride into it), swimming in the Eide (21 m deep and undoubtedly full of monsters so I didn't venture far into the water …), and drinking 10 bottle of Dittmarsch Pils (brewed from their own well in Marne) at the campingplatz reception area in Hörst-Hennstedt.

The most frustrating part was the ride to Klanxbüll which went on for ever with signposts still claiming 16km a further 5km down the road. Oh. And a note to the sign makers. When there is an optional left branch to a cycle path show the continuing path too not just a left signal for a cycle path. I had to back track about 10 times.

• Hamburg To Klanxbüll