Category: Life in Germany

My original plan was to spend a year in Germany – what I good thing I decided to extend that a long time ago as a year would have been nowhere near long enough! February has been a bit of an odd month as will be explained below. But the first hint can be gathered… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 11

January 2015 Cycling statistics for this month January was fairly snowy in Germany with lots of strong winds as well. Despite the weather, being on three wheels meant I was still able to ride 844.29km which was pretty good. Here is the list of my rides. And this is a map of all the rides… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 10

December 2014 So 2014 is at an end – a year of great change (moving countries) but a brilliant year overall. Cycling statistics this month Here are my figures for December’s cycling – a nice gentle month at 465km (I had almost two weeks off due to visiting the UK and then having family over… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 9

November 2014 Cycling Statistics for this month This month I passed two reasonable milestones – the first was 9000km for the year (target is 10,000 so I was ahead) and the second was 80,000km since I took up recumbent tricyling six years ago. And, as you can see from the information below, I’m only 261km… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 8

October 2014 Cycling this month This month I missed my target of 1000km by less than 1km. This was because I had two days off the bike feeling slightly under the weather and didn’t have a chance to make up the rides as it was at the end of the month because I thought the… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 7

September 2014 So the month of September has drawn to a close and my ‘year in Germany’ is halfway through. Except that it will come as no surprise to my regular readers that I’m having such fun I am planning to stay an additional six months – to have Summer 2015 in Germany as well.… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 6

Cycling statistics for August 2014 This month I have cycled 1,242.74 km at an average speed of 17.9 km/h. Of that, Alfie did 721.44km and Penelope 521.30 (which tells you that we had some warm days in August). Here’s a map of my cycling routes in Kreis Viersen (plus the trip by car to the… Continue reading Six Wheels in Germany – Month 5

Last year I found myself helping out with the control (obligatory stop) on the London Edinburgh London Audax (long-distance cycling event). You can read all about that here. Because I enjoyed it so much, when I heard that there was a similar (but longer) event taking place in Germany that went through Köln, just an… Continue reading Helping at HBK Audax Control

Report from July 2014 New blog feature – a Google Translate button here —-> This gives non English speakers the chance to have a really good laugh about how Google translates my words into their language. More languages can be added if you wish to request them (I am trying to keep the list shorter… Continue reading Six Wheels in Germany – Month 4

Readers of my blog will remember that I had to import a potato peeler from the UK (courtesy of friend Olaf who was passing through my corner of Germany on his bike). This is because the German potato peelers just don’t work for me. My landlady Gudula didn’t believe my peeler was as good as… Continue reading The Potato Peeling Championships

So it’s now the end of Month 3 in Germany. What have I noticed this month? (You can read about Month 1 here and Month 2 here). People I’ve met Gundi in Köln/Cologne I have a German friend called Gundi who lives in Colchester and who I met through a cycling group there. Gundi contacted… Continue reading Six Wheels In Germany – Month 3

Yes, I’ve made it – I’m now living in Germany! Leaving Events First of all, however, I was able to enjoy several leaving events (I think I counted nine in total). These included Black Forest Gateau at a church housegroup, several meals with friends and, on the Saturday before I went, a cycle ride around… Continue reading Auntie Helen flees to the continent 2: I’ve arrived in Germany!!!!

Yes, I’m crossing the English Channel and going to live ‘abroad’. The title of this post, “Auntie Helen flees to the continent”, is a quote from the minister of my church who explained to a church meeting why I couldn’t organise our event in the Essex Book Festival as I had for the previous five… Continue reading Auntie Helen flees to the continent…