We think we might pedal far and heroically but history tells us what suffering, travel and hardship really is and which at times can be beyond understanding. A visit to the Museum Friedland as part of my June 15 ride to Friedland. Personally, I am an (Cycling) Immigrant. In Transit Migration and immigration are part… Continue Reading
Latest in: Strade Bianchi
-
-
A short ride from my new home town is a place that played an amazing part in post-World War Two life – it was at the Friedland Transit Camp that millions of displaced people, POW’s and refugees travelled through. It was near the small village of Friedland that the US, British and Soviet Zones of… Continue Reading
-
The rains had lashed us from above for a few days which saw the temperature fall. What is interesting is that unlike my experience of the UK it remains pretty warm here in Germany despite the deluge and now it is getting quite toasty again. I rode a pretty tough 50 kilometre this day with… Continue Reading
-
Another Bank Holiday snuck up on us and so we went for a ride… I also got to pick up a new chainset and gear ratios to replace my Carbon Campag Record. Super-tough engineering from Chemnitz! In Germany I have noticed that so many of the fields are bordered by wild flora and fauna, with… Continue Reading
-
Sunday it was hot at over 30, on Monday a massive storm hit central Europe and Tuesday we all kept under cover, but on Wednesday the sun shone and once again it hit over 30. I have noticed that many Germans have hydrometers and barometers (we have both) and watch the rise and full of… Continue Reading
-
I began May with a bike ride and ended it with another; in fact I rode quite a lot in this spring month. On Wednesday I went road riding but went off script and ended up on gravel, Wednesday I did the same ride on my cross bike and it was so much easier. This… Continue Reading
-
Despite my best intentions to go for a road ride I ended up including gravel, concrete Panzer Weg and cobbles. A quick post tummy bug spin taking in lots of quiet tarmac close to home was my thinking, but like many best laid plans I went off script. I knew that I would be crossing… Continue Reading
-
There is ‘London tight’ and there is ‘Roubaix tight’; this passed through my mind when after much bike preparation I hit the first stretch of pave at Troisville the first section of cobbles on the route used by the Paris Roubaix pro road race held in April. In the race the riders take in a… Continue Reading
-
With my favourite Jimi Hendrix song in my head I got a little carried away. I had intended a simple spin down to the Bahn, but I became adventurous and rode some great and new to me gravel roads. On route I managed to include two old watchtowers (hence the song) that once guarded the… Continue Reading
-
40 kms of rough stuff, kolonnnenweg and kopfsteinpflaster, mit cakes, watch towers and an old Jewish Cemetery on our May 5 ride. Cakes we consumed at Spinnerei Gartetal e.V. The ride – https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3620853847 Cycle Fahrrad Goettingen home page
-
Mayday is a public holiday in Germany and like most public holidays and Sundays retail life slows almost to a halt and it all seems a bit old fashioned compared to the 24/7 shopping fuelled frenzied lifestyles (and endless sales) which seem the norm in the UK. Except, even here in Germany there are those… Continue Reading
-
Where I go mad on a road bike… and I win Paris Roubaix. “Don’t play in the dirt it’s dirty” – an often used expression to curtail an action of an adventurous child, and if inculcated deep enough it could mean a lifetime of avoidance of all sorts of things. Thankfully I know that there… Continue Reading
-
Around the globe most of the land is owned by just a few people and this affects how much access we have to it. I’m not a believer that land is somehow French, German or English and for me talk of sacred soil is weird and somewhat nudging on nationalist fanaticism. What I believe is… Continue Reading
-
Today’s midweek ride with Gunnar Fehlau seemed to pay homage to the Spring Classics with a route that combined sections of Flanders like Kopfsteinpflaster, bergs and Ardennes fast tight flowing roads. I should add that of course we included gravel. Post ride Kitty seems to not be impressed with yet another ride by me and… Continue Reading
-
Light snow had been falling all day on Tag 21 on the German Haus, nonetheless David led us into the forest for an evening ride – we did feel a wee bit like Hansel and Gretel especially when we hit some truly gnarly single track made slick by the snow. This forest was planted in… Continue Reading
-
Its day 19 in the German Haus and kitty sniffs my shirt contemptuously post ride – ‘what another ride’, he seems to be saying. Gunnar Fehlau and myself this time and where took off our coats there was once a railway now just a relic in the gravel. We mixed tarmac and gravel (with only… Continue Reading
-
A 14 KM ride in 43 minutes early evening (6pm) saw me skip down the ‘Tilly Berg’ through housing and quickly onto the gravel paths that took me along the ‘watch towers’, across the Leine River, lingering at the Keissee Lake and onto the Bahn. Very few battles have been fought at this spot on… Continue Reading
-
With time a little tight this day our ride with Gunnar Fehlau included more tarmac than normal, but it was good tarmac and mostly traffic free. We rode between the Leine River and the B27 along the Leine Valley (and back). There were also a couple of awesome gravel descents. From May we can stop… Continue Reading
-
Inspired by the Gent Wevelgem women’s bike race we popped out for an hour. For the first time in a long time I felt a bit of sparkle or at least signs of life in my legs. Only a few short stretches of tarmac on this ride in between the ‘good stuff’. The ride: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3512812699… Continue Reading
-
I am a new immigrant; I am not an expat hiding behind a term because of prejudice toward immigrants, a prejudice that is oddly extolled by some people who themselves live in a foreign country. Whilst I am an alien I do blend in with the majority of people in Germany (even when wearing Lyrca),… Continue Reading
Velo Klubhaus 