I’ve cycled a fair distance in the last five years – 42,000 miles – and have done the vast majority of that distance on one type of tyre, the ever-popular Schwalbe Marathon. But six weeks ago I decided it was time for a change, and time to fit the Panaracer Minits Tough tyres that I… Continue reading 40,000 miles and a change of tyres
Author: Auntie Helen
The Joy Of Essex 2 Cycle Ride
I led a ride around my bit of north east Essex about six weeks ago and it was very well received, although lots of people who wanted to come weren’t able to. So I organised a similar ride for Sunday 11 August which more people were able to attend. It turned out to be a… Continue reading The Joy Of Essex 2 Cycle Ride
Dinner with Velomobiles
Eight days ago I found myself having breakfast with a bunch of velomobiles and a recumbent bicycle on their way to LEL2013 (cycling from London to Edinburgh and back to London again in four and a half days). I saw two of the riders at the Great Easton control on the way back from Edinburgh,… Continue reading Dinner with Velomobiles
Volunteering at LEL2013
LEL2013, or London Edinburgh London, is a long cycle ride (Audax) whose 1400+km have to be completed in under five days (116 hours, 40 minutes to be exact). It takes place every four years and I know a lot of friends who had been preparing for it for ages. I wasn’t originally involved but following… Continue reading Volunteering at LEL2013
Breakfast with Velomobiles
It’s not every day that, by 7:45am, you’ve seen five velomobiles ride past. [field name=iframe1] Today, however, is the exception to that rule and I not only saw five velomobiles but also one recumbent bicycle (not sure of the type) and, of course, my own recumbent tricycle. This little corner of Essex isn’t usually a… Continue reading Breakfast with Velomobiles
How to remove a stubborn wheel
Alfie the trike has now covered 15,000 miles in two years. This has included cycling through snow, much rain and, last month, flooded cycle paths in Germany. Before I went on my Konstanz to Koblenz cycle tour I did a bit of trike servicing and discovered that I couldn’t remove my front right hand wheel,… Continue reading How to remove a stubborn wheel
The Joy Of Essex Cycle Ride
I don’t only tour in Germany – I also cycle in England! I’m a member of two cycling forums, CycleChat and YACF (Yet Another Cycling Forum), and have previously organised some cycle rides in my corner of Essex which people from those forums have attended. Having not led a ride for a couple of years… Continue reading The Joy Of Essex Cycle Ride
Ko2Ko – Kempen to Hoek van Holland and Great Bromley
My last day of my tour!!! There are five bakeries in St Hubert and during my week long stay here in March I visited four out of the five. Now was my opportunity to get the full set by having breakfast in Café Poels. The plan was to have a bread roll (standard German breakfast)… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Kempen to Hoek van Holland and Great Bromley
Ko2Ko – Köln to Kempen
Today was my last full day of cycling in Germany (tomorrow I will be catching the train through Holland, although there will be some cycling at both ends of that journey). Here is the map of my progress through Germany. And this is today’s route. After a good breakfast (this Hotel was such incredibly good… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Köln to Kempen
Ko2Ko – Koblenz to Köln
Here is the map of where I have got to so far on the whole tour: Quite a long way really! And here’s today’s ride, also a long way. Once again I had a hotel room without breakfast (which was 8,50€ extra so I didn’t bother), so I was out of the door at 8am… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Koblenz to Köln
Ko2Ko – Walluf to Koblenz; I made it!!!
As you can see from this blog post title, I made it to Koblenz today! Here’s the map of my entire route. This is the map of my ride today. Today was going to be a long ride (55-60 miles) so I made sure I had an early start. I hadn’t paid for breakfast with… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Walluf to Koblenz; I made it!!!
Ko2Ko – Worms to Walluf
How far have I got? Here’s the map! I enjoyed my hearty breakfast at the Asgard Hotel – there was a lot more variety than usual which was good. I was all ready to check out at 8:30 and went down to the Tiefgarage under the hotel to collect Alfie. I saw this car which… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Worms to Walluf
Ko2Ko – Speyer to Worms
So how far have I now got? Koblenz is just over 100 miles away, so pretty near! And this is my map of today’s ride, detailed below. I had decided last night not to have breakfast in the hotel but to get something when I was underway. I ate a banana and orange in my… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Speyer to Worms
Ko2Ko – Karlsruhe to Speyer
It was another early start by me this morning – I seem to be waking up early and raring to get on the road. Today I cycled to Speyer, which turned out to be an exceptionally nice city. Here’s my total distance travelled so far. And here is my route today, which as you can… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Karlsruhe to Speyer
Ko2Ko – Kehl to Karlsruhe
I woke up at 7am and headed downstairs for breakfast within half an hour. Breakfast included some little pancakes which was nice! I finally got round to photographing this leaflet that several hotels have been offering – it’s a moan at a few countries (Britain, Denmark etc) for not reducing VAT on overnight stays. You… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Kehl to Karlsruhe
Ko2Ko – Breisach to Kehl am Rhein (Strasbourg)
Please note that the URL of this page is incorrect (it says Weil am Rhein to Kehl am Rhein). I was having a senior moment when I started the blog post and it can’t be changed now! Here’s the overall progress map with Koblenz right at the top. I’m currently 220 miles from Koblenz following… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Breisach to Kehl am Rhein (Strasbourg)
Ko2Ko – Weil am Rhein to Breisach (with a short detour into France)
So how far have I got in my journey from Konstanz to Koblenz? Koblenz is just above Wiesbaden on that map. Still a fair way to go then! This was today’s trip, from Weil am Rhein to Breisach. I enjoyed a good breakfast and then fetched Alfie from the garage. I noticed there was a… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Weil am Rhein to Breisach (with a short detour into France)
Ko2Ko – Waldshut-Tiengen to Weil am Rhein
After a great night’s sleep in my luxury room it was time for breakfast. I took time to sort out my tubs of teabags. I had brought two tubs with me, I could now fit almost all the remaining teabags into one tub. That’ll be less luggage to carry tomorrow. This is the map of… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Waldshut-Tiengen to Weil am Rhein
Ko2Ko – Stein am Rhein to Waldshut-Tiengen – via Koblenz
I slept in a little this morning, not going down to breakfast until 8:30am. On offer was the most sparse breakfast of this holiday (and in fact of any German cycle tour I can remember); just bread, cheese, two choices of cereal (both muesli), preserves, butter, orange juice and tea/coffee. One of the ‘breads’ I… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Stein am Rhein to Waldshut-Tiengen – via Koblenz
Ko2Ko – Höchst to Stein Am Rhein (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Switzerland)
Saturday 1 June – Breakfast in Austria, Lunch in Germany, Dinner in Switzerland. or Konstanz Kraving (with apologies to K D Lang) (this title was suggested by Deano from YACF) The forecast today was rain – loads of it! However, when I went down to breakfast it wasn’t raining, nor was it raining whilst I… Continue reading Ko2Ko – Höchst to Stein Am Rhein (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Switzerland)