Day 29 - Linz to Gmunden
Long day's ride today, heading into the Austrian Alps and lakes. Easy, but boring, on the Traun River cycleway - R2. Lots of long, straight stretches through the trees. One dodgy diversion, where we had a little trouble reconnecting with the trail. Had one of our more interesting lunches - smoked ma...
Day 28 - Niederkappel to Linz
What goes up must come down - so we had a nice 4km downhill back to the Danube to start the day. Nice riding along the river, with a ferry at one point. Lunch in Ottensheim, venue for the World Rowing Champs in 2008 and 2019. Accommodation in Linz was a nice AirBnB apartment, within easy walking dis...
Day 27 - Passau to Niederkappel
We started out from Passau riding on the northern side (left side) of the river. We stopped to check out the impressive locks at Jochenstein - remember, this is the main rout of the huge Rhine-Danube cruise boats. Shortly after we crossed the border into a new country - Austria - country #6. Stopped...
Day 26 - Regensburg to Passau
Another train day today. Took about an hour to get to Passau. Passau is right on the Germany/Austria border. It is famous for being the place where two other rivers flow into the Danube - the Inn and the Ilz. All three rivers have their own distinct colour. And as I type this now and check out the m...
Day 25 - Weltenburg to Regensburg
Interesting day's riding today. Firstly, we got the chain ferry across the Danube. Then an steep uphill and gentler downhill through forest tracks, to Kelheim. Kelheim is probably most well-known for being the place where the cruise boats from the Rhine hit the Danube, via the Main and Altmuhl river...
Day 24 - Ingolstadt to Weltenberg
Just another typical great day's riding along the Danube. Lunch in Neustadt. Our stop for the night was another trip highlight - Weltenberg Abbey. This is a working abbey and reasonably sized commercial brewery - combined! The abbey buildings surround a courtyard, which is a beer garden. Part of the...
Day 23 - Donauworth to Ingolstadt
Lunch in Neuberg. Another night of camping, in a large and expensive holiday park - Azur Camping - on the outskirts of Ingolstadt. We did not get to see the town itself, which was a shame - it is the home of Audi. After pitching our tents we went for a swim in the lake. After the kegeln and the pool...
Day 22 - Ulm to Donauworth
We would have loved to have biked the whole Danube, at least up to our turn-off at Linz in Austria, but we did not have enough time. Today we took the train from Ulm to Hochdtadt and biked onward from there. Main reason for visiting Hochstadt is that I lived for a year in Blenheim and still have str...
Day 21 - Ehingen to Ulm
Shorter ride today. Checked into our hotel in Ulm - Hotel Centro Stern. In securing our bikes in the underground car park, I managed to gash my forehead, which resulted in a fetching scar for the next couple of weeks. Ulm has at least two claims to fame: Birthplace of Albert Einstein The cathedral h...
Day 20 - Sigmaringen to Ehingen
Another nice day riding - a few hills at the end. Ehingen seems to be the home og German crane making. Stayed at Hotel Sternplatz. We had a very nice dinner at a greek restaurant, then I smashed Gareth at pool in the hotel bar. Observations of riding the Danube so far: early Danube is a very pretty...
Day 19 - Mohringen to Sigmaringen
Lovely riding today through a gorge. Lots of castles on the hills. Found our AirBnB in a quiet street on the outskirts of town. Biked into town where there was a French market in the old town square. Had bread, cheese, olives, beer and wine from the market for dinner.
Day 18 - Villingen-Schwenningen to Mohringen
Today was the day we started our Danube (Donau) journey. We started with about an hour's riding to Donaueschingen and Donauquelle, which is the "official" source of the Danube. Nice well-signposted cycle path from here. We had nice weather until about lunch time. Then a sudden, fierce thunderstorm b...
Day 17 - Tubingen to Villingen-Schwenningen
Jeremy made us a hearty breakfast to set us on our journey. Train to Horb. Then 70km to V-S.
Day 16 - Tubingen
Nice country walk to Bebenhausaen - little village and monestary. Grabbed some beers and went pinting on the Neckar (Stocherkahn) Poor Millie got ticks Dinner was pizza and beer
Day 15 - Tubingen
Walked into town, about 30 minutes, and had a wander around. Had Jeremy's favourite, cheap, lunch - leberkase! This is basically a big chunk of hot luncheon sausage in a bun. Tasted great, but I don't think a lot of it would be good for your arteries! DJ GDaze sniffed out a record store and couldn't...
Day 14 - Stuttgart to Tubingen
Stuttgart is on the Neckar river and so was our next destination – Tubingen. The Neckar actually flows into the Rhine, somewhere between Frankfurt and Stuttgart. It would have been nice to ride all the way from the Rhine to Stuttgart and then on to Tubingen, but we had to make do with the Stuttgart...
Day 13 - St Goar to Stuttgart
Ferry across Rhine, from St Goar to St Goarhausen. And every time we took a ferry, this was a compulsory... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqZEp4Fb6qw Train from St Goarhausen to Stuttgart, via Frankfurt. We rode across Stuttgart to our accommodation – Hostel Alex30. It was like an oven! We had to...
Day 12 - St Goar
Quiet day. Walked up the river to the point opposite Loreley rock, where we had been the previous day. Then walked back down the river and checked out the castle in St Goar – Burg Rheinfels. Very cool! That night was a-ha. Like a lot of our planning, this gig pretty much fell into our laps. Firstly,...
Day 11 - Koblenz to St Goar
Today was our first experience of riding along the Rhine. This was an easy 38km ride along the western side of the Rhine. We reached St Goar by noon. There is another town, St Goarhausen opposite St Goar on the eastern side of the river. They are joined by a ferry. We had a few beers and lunch while...
Day 10 - Trier to Koblenz
By this time, we decided we needed a rest from riding, so we caught the train from Trier to Koblenz. This was a lovely ride through the winding Moselle valley, past many vineyards and castles. Koblenz is the point where the Moselle meets the Rhine. We checked into our apartment - Jargen Ferien Appar...
Day 9 - Wissmansdorf to Trier
This was supposed to be an easy day. We would ride about 8km to Bitburg, get my bike fixed up, then an easy 30km to Trier. First part was achieved easily. We found a friendly bike shop, who sorted out my tyre and sold us the proper pumps for our bikes. By now it was around lunchtime, so we found a n...
Day 8 - St Vith to Wissmansdorf
Very hard day – hot and hilly. We finished off the Vennbahn at Troisvierges, Luxembourg (country #5) – a little, one café town. We then headed toward Wissmansdorf, back in Germany. Before we left Luxembourg, we stumbled upon the Lancaster memorial at Weiswampach. This memorial commemorates two Lanca...
Day 7 - Monschau to St Vith
Day started with an amazing breakfast. A lot of the places we stayed at included breakfast in the price and this was one of the better ones. This should have been a comfortable 55km ride along the Vennbahn. It was an easy day’s cycling, until I missed the turn-off for Camping Hohenbusch. Our secon...
Day 6 - Aachen to Monschau
Today was the start of our trip along the Vennbahn - an old railway line, converted to a dedicated cycle/walkway - which runs along the border of Belgium and Germany, from Aachen, Germany to Troivierges, Luxembourg. It is a very easy, smooth, asphalted (mostly), green corridor. Easy cycling. We reac...
Day 5 - Sint-Truiden to Aachen
Another hot day, but we started early (about 08:00) and took on plenty of liquids. Stopped for morning tea in Tongeren – the oldest town in Belgium. Vey pretty. Stopped for lunch in Maastricht. Just grabbed a few things from the supermarket. Maastricht is one of Gareth’s favourite places as the Trea...
Day 4 - Leuven to Sint-Truiden
Hotel Stayen – attached to Sint-Truiden football club. Dinner was pizza and coronas https://www.hotelstayen.com/
Day 4 - Overijse to Leuven
Another hot day – average riding temperature 31C! Leuven was always on the itinerary - home of Stella Artois and because the Belgian beer bar in Wellington is named Leuven. Nice lunch at Bar Luis. http://www.barlouis.be/en
Day 3 - Ronse to Overijse
Hard day’s riding. Followed a river most of the day. First night under canvas. Dinner at Den Bonten Os. Food not cheap, but beer good and cheap! Camping Druivenland https://www.campingdruivenland.be/en/#rt-head-anchor http://www.denbontenos.com/
Day 2 - Ypres to Ronse
Before we left New Zealand, I had chatted to a guy at work, who assured me you did not need to pre-book camping sites, but just turn up in the town. That was good in theory! Like a lot of our first week’s cycling it was very hot. We tried to follow the official Flanders cycle path, but it was too zi...
Day 1 - Dover to Dunkirk
Left our B&B. Soon discovered that one front pannier each was not a good idea – unbalanced the front of the bike. Rode down to the ferry terminal. Beautiful day for the 08:00, DFDS ferry crossing to Dunkirk. Calais is the main port for ferries to France, but arriving in Dunkirk meant we were closer...
Day 1 - Dunkirk to Westvleteren
A couple of other cyclists were getting off the boat when we disembarked. Gareth took the lead, the other two went next, and I was last. Unfortunately, I had to readjust my panniers. By the time I took off, the others were in the distance and setting a cracking pace. There are a lot of long boring s...
Day 1 - Westvleteren to Ypres
Eventually it was time to wobble off and find our first night’s accommodation in Ypres. After another hour or so of riding, we found our accommodation for the evening – Camping Jeugstadion. This was a pretty good holiday park, about 5 minutes ride from town. We just had time for a quick shower bef...
30/7/2018 - Guildford to Dover
On Monday we took the bikes for a spin. Then back round to Joan’s to drop off last of the suitcases. Then on to Gareth’s old allotment. Bumped into a couple of his mates! Packed up the van. Picked up Jordyn. Drove down to Dover. Had a wander round town, beer at the White Horse Inn and then dinner a...
29/7/2018 - Guildford
Sunday we walked into Guilford and picked up some last-minute supplies, including a travel clothesline, which proved to be a godsend on our travels. We stopped in at the Britannia pub on our way back to the Coach House, for a traditional Sunday roast. Then round to Dyer family’s friend Joan (age 98...
28/07/2018 - Guildford
We had a big day planned for Saturday. Firstly we had to pick up our rental van from Woking. We then drove up to Wimbledon to pick up our bikes from Ben Thomson’s Cycleworx. Ben is a Kiwi from Wanganui. We were introduced to him by our old bike mechanic in Wellington, Declan Cox. When we investigate...
27/7/2018 - Heathrow
We arrived at Heathrow on Friday afternoon. Gareth’s son, Jordyn, picked us up at Heathrow. After weeks of dry weather in London, the heavens opened up as we drove out of Heathrow! We had 3 nights in a comfortable little AirBnB in Guildford – The Coach House.
27/7/2018 - Guildford
That night we had dinner with Gareth’s friends and family, at the Maybury Inn, Woking.
26/7/2018 - Wellington
This is an account of the adventures of Stephen (The Cat) Bennett and Gareth (GDaze) Dyer in Europe 2018. This was our ‘once in a lifetime’ trip. We identified a few places that we would like to see around Europe and then tried to join them up with rivers – figuring that rivers would not flow up or...
26/7/2018 - Singapore
We flew out of Wellington at 20:45, to hook up with the Singapore Airlines, Auckland to London flight, which left at 23:55. But not before our first incident! We were having a quiet drink at the Wellington terminal, when Gareth realised that he had left his brand new Garmin watch at home! Luckily he...