26.10.2013 Harlingen over the Deijk

On 26.10.2013 took the train from Rotterdam to finish my trip over the deijk. The wind was 6 beaufort and in my back !

29.08.2013 Pieterburen to Sexbierum

In the morning i did take a look at the Seal station in Pieterburen. Hundreds of young and/or injured seals are treated and released in the wild again after succesful treatment.

The afternoon was horrible and especially around the Lauwersmeer i had head wind all the time.

After 600km on the bike without any flat tire, i will call it a day tomorrow and will take a train home to Rotterdam.

28.08.2013 Delfzijl to Pieterburen

In the morning i took a small look at Delfzijl and even this short look was not worth it.
More interesting was a stop in Uithuizen. There is the  beautiful little castle of Menkemaborg.
In the evening i reached Pieterburen.

27.08.2013 Emden to Delfzijl

After a day a rest yesterday and washing all my clothes, i made it to to the real house of Otto in Emden. Of cause Otto does not live in the lighthouse but obviously in his Otto Huus.

Crossing the German- Dutch border i expected nothing spectacular, but just a little Cycle map saying Welcome to Holland ? really ? Thats it ?

25.08.2013 Aurich - Greetsiel - Pilsum - Emden

Yesterday i made it only from Jever to Aurich and it was a nice and easy relaxing day. Today I had a 90km journey ahead of me and it was a really interesting day. My first stop was in Greetsiel, which is really nice, but crowded with tourists.

I then continued on the lighthouse of Pilsum, which is the actual house of Otto :-)

From Pilsum I cycled further along lots and lots of wind turbines all the way to Emden.

23.08.2013 Eckwarden - Jever

In the morning at 09:45 i took another ferry to cross from Eckwarden to Wilhelmshaven in order to avoid cycling around the bay of Wilhelmshaven (around 80 km)

In Wilhelmshaven my bum started to hurt and i invested at a local shop 90 Euros in a spring suspended seat post (see below) to ease the pain

 Today I only made it as far as to the castle of Jever.

22.08.2013 Cuxhaven - Bremerhaven - Eckwarden

On my second day i cycled from Cuxhaven to the Metropolis village of Eckwarden. Onroute i had to cross the river Weser from Bremerhaven to Blexen. On arrival in Eckwarden i felt lucky that at least my GPS still knew where i was. My mobile had no connection anymore.

21.08.2013 Hamburg - Cuxhaven

First leg of the trip was to Cuxhaven and i took my first ferry to shortcut the way. The ferry below is advertised as the Eiffel tower of the north and is crossing the river Oste at Hemmoor.

2 days on Helgoland, little Galapagos ?

Helgoland arrival by 4hr fast ferry from Hamburg. On Helgoland you will find rare birds and lots of seals.

The Best was swimming with the seals in the North Sea

Test Ride Den Haag - Hoek van Holland - Rotterdam

On sunday i took a test ride of 70km from Den Haag via Hoek van Holland to Rotterdam. The bike itself  had no problems on the trip, my bum had. The biggest learning was that after a hard day of cycling, i will not start camping. I will try to find small hotels along the way. Here is the most beautiful part of the trip on sunday. Scheveningen to Hoek van Holland

Along the way there even have been speed bumps for cyclists, especially the racing bikers.

Not only that i decided NOT to camp, i also learnt that the bike GPS is a really cool thing. I will never go without my Garmin Oregon 550 anywhere ever again.

Backpacktrip reloaded 2013

After a few holidays in Asia the last few years, i have decided to do something different in 2013. I will go on a cycling trip from Hamburg To Rotterdam. Depending on the exact route it is about 800-1000 km. As a first step i have fixed my 16 year old bike and i hope the bike is ready to go.

The route is part of the North Sea cycle route which goes from Scotland to Norway http://www.northsea-cycle.com/ ! I will make only part of the way and will even use a few tricks to make it possible at all for my old and lazy bum. I will probably take 3 ferries which will shortcut the way a bit.

This will be the first part of the trip and the second and last leg from Delfzijl to Rotterdam to follow.