Back 2 weeks already and preparing for the next trip, I guess it’s time to wrap up the last one: I hated it 😉
While with some distance, it sounds funny and not so bad anymore, I really hated this trip. Nothing life-threatening happened but there were some factors that made this trip not a fun experience:
- Heat: Being constantly exposed to temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius and having your day dictated by it, drained my body and mind. There is nothing one can do about it…I know. Cycling in this condition is difficult for me. Also, it limited my willingness to camp out in the wild after sweating the whole day and having my whole body stick to everything. Without a chance to jump into a lake or river I am too old to get into a sleeping bag like that. For sure, the wrong season for this part of Europe.
- Nature/Beauty: After the exceptionally intense and long drought that hit Europe and the harvest season being over, most of the landscape was a dull brown…dead. On top of that, littering was everywhere along the roads. Awful.
- Sightseeing: There was much less to see than on previous trips. Some cities were nice and had some beautiful old buildings. But in general, I found most of them dull.
- Technical issues: Flats are a common thing. But this time also the pedals and seatpost gave in and even fixing them on the road didn’t solve it.
- Hiccups: And then there was the constant stream of shit happening. From hotel rooms being booked up or the owner not showing up to paying for damage to the rental car I didn’t cause and trains that wouldn’t take my bike. I had the feeling that whenever I was feeling OK (not great, but OK), something else would strike.
Maybe it’s only a reflection of where I am mentally in my life right now. Or, maybe I’m just always angry. Who knows? Who cares? Maybe it’s OK that sometimes a vacation sucks.
The ferry spit me out in Ancona (Italy) and my idea was to cycle to Verona. I had thought that, after the rest days and since the route is mostly flat, I’d be able to do the 550k in a week. But after the first day and cycling 100k it was clear that this was a stupid plan. I changed my direction towards Bologna. The city has never been on my radar but was quite nice for a day.
Since I already booked the train from Verona, I had to get there via another train ride. On the platform I was happy to go home, really happy. Then the conductor asked me if I had a reservation…for the bike. I didn’t. It didn’t matter that the train was nearly empty; me and my bike got kicked out. And the stupid fool I am, I didn’t think fast enough. Otherwhise, I would have left the bike right there and boarded the train. So, I had to take the local trains. First Brennero, then Innsbruck, Kufstein, Munich and finally, in Schwandorf, I decided to take the last stretch by bike.
Funny that this changing of trains was exactly what I wanted to avoid by taking the other one. It’s no fun with a bike. You never know if you can just push your bike in, or you have to become superman and lift your bike up several steep steps into a small door. Even more fun with panniers.
In total, I cycled 2.337.7k in 46 days. That’s only 50k a day but I had a lot of days when I didn’t cycle. On the days I did, I averaged 75.4k. Sounds a lot? Not really. Remember the guy I wrote in the first post, Heinz Stücke? He cycled 648,000k in his 51 years. That’s over 1,000k, every month, every year (and mostly with a 3-speed bike!). Now, that’s an achievment, not what I did.
Nevertheless, I am proud that I made it to Thessalonik. But I will have to ponder for some time whether sometimes it isn’t better to just give up, instead of waiting/hoping that at some point it’ll be better.
Will I ever do bikepacking again? Hell……………………………………………yes. My comparison is to a mother giving birth and in that moment thinking, “Never again”, while 2 months later turning to the husband: “How about a 2nd child?” 😅
An overview of the route, pictures and text can be found on Polarsteps.
Love,
Matthias