Km on the clock: 750

It was still raining the next morning but the weather forecast predicted sunshine for that day. The guest house manager said to me: Just wait for a bit. The sun will come out soon for sure. So I took my time at the breakfast buffet.

It was around 11 am when the rain stopped so I put the panniers on my bike and started cycling in direction north. The terrain was pretty hilly. Every hill was another challenge. Cycling during sunshine  was a great feeling after pedaling through permanent rain and surviving Doomsday the previous days.

I arrived the city Eschwege in the early afternoon and was wondering that so many people were dressed like hippies or were wearing rubber boots. My first instinct was that it might be a thing or temporary fashion in this town. The closer I came to the city center the more I heard loud music and started to realize that it is not a thing. The Open Flair Festival was taking place that weekend. So I pushed my bike through a crowd of drunk people wobbling over the streets. I grabbed a drink and enjoyed the festival atmosphere for a while.

I followed the trail alongside the river Werra when I left Eschwege. The river is surrounded by hills and woods. The castle ruin Hanstein on top of one of these hills make the whole valley flair perfect. The partly muddy trail was lined with blackberry bushes which literally forced me to nibble from them. I can highly recommend to cycle the Werratal-Cycling trail.

That night I finally got to use my tent again. I set up my night camp behind a corn field right at the river Leine just a few kilometers outside of the city Göttingen. I realized that I cycled about 90 kilometers that day which was my personal best and then got some good sleep.

While packing my stuff the next morning a farmer with his tractor appeared to cut the lawn around the corn field. I was a bit afraid that he would chase me away but instead was only waving at me to say hello. I was not sure if wild camping is also not allowed in Lower Saxony like in Bavaria. Relieved not to get in any trouble I headed into Göttingen.

I spent some time in Göttingen got a coffee and later a Döner kebab for lunch. I think I have never seen a city with so many kebab places before. I passed a spot where literally five kebab restaurants were right next to each other. All their advertising were saying that they have the best kebab in town. I decided for the restaurant which offered the most space to park my bicycle. I cannot tell if this place served the best kebab in town but I was satisfied with the result.

It was the first time that I had a mental down. I was actually surprised, the last day just went great for me and ended with a personal best. It was really hard to keep moving if your mind is not in the right place. I caught myself a few times thinking: Just give up and go home. The next train station is coming soon for sure. At the same time I thought: Giving up is not an option.

Apart from my personal mind games I realized that there was something wrong with my left hand. The left part of it felt numb and I was unable to compress my pinky and ring finger with the rest of my hand. A bit scared that I probably close to an apoplexy or heart attack I kept cycling to the city Hildesheim. I just did not want to camp somewhere in the wilderness that night just in case it was something really serious. Although the weather was perfect for camping. So I ended up in a hotel in the city center of Hildesheim that night. Staying at a hotel gave me the security that the ambulance would at least find me if I was about to die. That would be for sure way more difficult if I would have camped somewhere outside.

Well, I did not die that night. I went to the emergency room for a medical check the next morning. After a few electro shock tests and a computer tomography it turned out that a nerve in my left elbow was incarcerated from putting too much pressure on it. The doctor gave me two options for the regeneration. Either to put the left arm into a cast or take some strong pills three times a day and make sure that my cycling position is straight all the time from now on. I chose the pills. I thought: I made it so far so I will not give up cause of some stupid injury yet. I had no idea that it would become that difficult to cycle in the same position for the next days.

After some sightseeing in the historic city center of Hildesheim I made my way further up north to the city Celle. By the way, Hildesheim is beautiful. It is one of the places that I would definitely visit again. I went through several small towns in the eastern suburbs of Hanover and made it to the city Celle that day. I luckily arrived at a hostel right before a thunderstorm came up. Making it to Celle that day also meant that I cycled 750 kilometers in total. The same thought that I had after 500 kilometers came up to my mind: From now on it is only going downhill.

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Km on the clock: 530

The next morning I enjoyed the breakfast buffet including rolls, scrambled eggs, yogurt, orange juice and hot fresh brewed coffee. I sat at the window, looked out of the window across the market place to the church and asked myself: How can I protect myself from the heavy rain if it would be as bad as the days before? First, I decided to arrange myself better plastic bags than the ones I had the day before. Seriously, the yellow plastic bags are not recommendable. Second, I should get some rain shoes to make sure that my feet would stay dry and warm.

I asked the hotelier for plastic bags. He kindly gave me some big blue ones which made a way more solid impression to me than the yellow ones. I went to every single sports and bike shop that I could find in this small town to ask for rain shoes. There was only one shop which had a single pair of them. Unfortunately they were too small for me.

Going to all of these shops also gave me the chance to do some sightseeing in Meiningen. I visited Elisabethenburg Palace where a primary school enrollment event just ended. I felt a bit sorry for these six years old kids because it was their first day of school in their lives and it had to be on a Saturday. I really hope for them that it will be the only day that they have to attend for school on weekends.

I left Meiningen and started cycling in direction the state Hesse. I was a bit disappointed that I could not get the much needed rain shoes which made me concerned about another day in rainy hell. At the same time I was also glad that I had new plastic bags with me and that it did not rain yet. I hoped that the weather would stay like that for a long time knowing that it would not. The sky was covered with dark grey clouds.

I do not know exactly where but at some point I crossed the 500 kilometers mark that day. It was probably around that time when the heavy rain started again. So I stopped at a bus stop and created a rain poncho and a new pair of rain shoes out of my new plastic bags and celebrated the halftime of Expedition1000GER with a handful of gummy bears.

When I realized that I went half way through the country I thought: From now on it is only going downhill. Well, it did not. This area of Thuringia is quite hilly so I had to use the first gear of my bike a lot to climb up the hills. At some point I caught myself making faces while pedaling uphill. I am sure it was not a pretty picture. Everyone who ever went to a gym and observed people lifting heavy weights knows what I am talking about.

I arrived the village Richelsdorf in Hesse that evening and decided to stay again at a guest house for the night. The weather conditions just did not allow to camp outside. I even started to ask myself: Why do you even carry all that camping equipment with you? Just send it back home. At the same time I hoped that the weather would become better the next days. There was a group of elderly men at the bar of the guest house looking quite funny at me when I walked in in my plastic bag outfit. I checked in, got some dinner and dried once again my clothes for the next day.

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Km on the clock: 450

I left the camp site quite annoyed the next day. It did not have to do anything with the camp site itself. Actually it is a very nice place and has a lot to offer for families with kids. However, of course I was lucky enough to camp right next to two couples who decided to start a fight in the middle of the night which made it impossible to get some sleep. Although several guests asked them to be quiet because of the kids they did not seem to care. Finally after a while they calmed down and I and everyone else got finally some sleep. Paying €20 for such a night seemed as such waste of money to me.

I headed further up north in direction Nuremburg. It was a bit hard to motivate myself that day for cycling after a night of rather shitty sleep. At least I got a free beer out of it when I checked out at the reception.

Nuremburg is a very cyclist friendly city. The bicycle lanes are broad and the signs lead you through the city easily. Arrived at the Hauptmarkt I sat down at the Schöner Brunnen for a picnic. The weather was good so I took my time to rest for a bit and also took some pictures. Full and rested I started to explore the historic city center. Only after a few minutes a guy in a suit and a briefcase appeared right next to me. Bernd was a local and was just curious about my story. He told me that he already saw me taking pictures at the Hauptmarkt. We started talking. I told him that I was cycling the length of entire Germany. He told me that he hiked the length of Germany just one year ago. This journey took him six weeks. I think that is pretty impressive achievement. Having something in common kept us talking. He offered me to show me a bit around and gratefully accepted this offer. We ended up at the Kaiserburg Nuremburg and afterwards he gave me the directions to Erlangen.

So I left Nuremburg again and headed further up north. I passed Erlangen and cycled alongside the Main-Donau-Canal in direction Forchheim. I heard that Erlangen is also a beautiful city. However, the view on the Erlangen skyline from the canal was not very impressive. Most of time I got 1970s housing blocks to see. It actually made a quite depressing impression to me.

It was already turning dark and I did not even find a place for the night yet. Due to my previous night experience I did not have any desire to stay on a camp site again. So I camped in the wilderness close to the canal path. I felt like an outlaw that night because Bernd from Nuremburg told me that wild camping is illegal in Bavaria. Anyways, I did not care. It was already too dark to keep pedaling and to find another place to stay that night and I was actually also too tired to keep moving. Besides that, it was just such a nice spot to camp.

That moment when I finished setting up my tent it started to rain. I thought: Perfect timing! I crawled into my tent, had sandwiches and gummy bears for dinner and read one of the books which I brought with me. In Moods of Future Joys tells Alaistair Huphreys his epic 4 ½ years cycling journey around the world. It was quite weird to read a story about a guy who got thrown stones at in Ethiopia while every person I met so far was very friendly to me.

The next day started great. My legs felt good for the first time on this trip. I was such a great feeling to cycle without any paint. Even the weather was very cycling friendly. I thought: Today I am gonna go far. I kept pedaling alongside the Main-Donau-Canal and successfully raced the ships cruising down the canal.

There was a Blues and Jazz Festival when I arrived in Bamberg. Unfortunately I did not bring enough time to enjoy the live music acts. Instead I did some sightseeing in the historic city center and which was packed with tourists from all over the world. Especially Asian people seemed to occupy every single sight.

I decided to get some food before I leave Bamberg again. I found this small Indian food/pizza place just a few steps from the Grüner Markt. Ravi, the owner of that place, made me a delicious prosciutto pizza and refilled my water bottles for the other half of the daily distance to cover.

After some time the drizzling rain turned into really heavy rain. It was pouring and I got wet all over. Not even my rain jacket and rain pants could not stand this massive amount of water. Even my boxers and the inside of my shoes got wet. My wet feet turned into wet and cold feet very soon and my hands turned wrinkly like I took a long and hot bath. Taking a hot bath was something I could only dream about in that moment.

I made it into the town Ebern in northern Bavaria and checked in into a Mexican guest house for the night. A great Mexican food smell came out of the kitchen and brought up some good memories of my backpacking trip in Central America five years earlier. I used all the space in my room to hang up all my wet clothes of the last two days and got some good sleep.

The next morning started quite strange because there was no one around. Not a single person was in the guest house. So I packed my yet dry clothes and equipment together, dropped the key in the mailbox and kept moving. The weather was good for the first couple of hours. The sky was only cloudy but I could tell that it would rain again. I cycled about 30-35 kilometers in direction Thuringia. So far I simply enjoyed the views and kept pedaling when I was on my bike. Long distance cycling on your own is somehow meditative. At some point you do not even think anymore because every single thought is thought through and you simply pedal. However, that day I felt the need for some entertainment so I started to sing. I was really glad that nobody was around me because I know that I am an awful singer. But I had a blast.

Before I even arrived in Thuringia it started to rain again but this time it was even worse than the day before. I thought: How is that even possible? I experienced the worst rain of my life already yesterday! I am not exaggerating if I say I felt like doomsday. The roads were also full of slugs and it was impossible to go around them all which means cycling through this armada of slugs turned into a massacre.

I crossed the border between Bavaria and Thuringia and came into the village Milz and watched out for a place to get out of the rain for a bit. The first place that I could find was a butcher store. I walked in there and asked if I could stay there for a bit until the rain stops or gets at least less and if they probably would even have something hot to drink. To my surprise that store was even used as some kind of grocery store and café. So I sat down at the only table, took off my wet jacket and drank a mug of hot coffee. While I was sitting there I looked out of the window I realized that I did not see a single other cyclist over the last two days. But at the same time I was not even surprised cause of the incredible awful weather.

The rain stopped after some time so I paid for the coffee and a smoked sausage and kept moving. I realized that even my feet were already a little bit wet from all that rain so I organized some plastic bags and wrapped them around my shoes. My feet stood dry and even warm for a while.

This area of Thuringia was very hilly and all the hills were surrounded by heavy rain clouds. The hills seemed to steam from all the rain and some of the roads that I had to go had a rise of 10+ percent. I literally pedaled through no man’s land. I came through lots of small towns and villages. All of them were characterized by old fashioned Fachwerk architecture. All of these places seemed like ghost towns to me. There was not a single person was on the streets and literally all stores, restaurants and guest houses were closed. It felt strange going through those places.

Finally, I made it to Meiningen. I was very cold and incredible wet. Of course, my self made plastic bag shoes did not stand the rain hence my feet were wet and cold again. It was that cold that day that I could not even feel my fingers anymore. They were just numb. It was almost impossible to open the packages for cereal bars or crackers. Due to the weather I checked in into a hotel for the night. As the night before I placed all my stuff all over the room to dry.

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Km on the clock: 250

It was still raining when I woke up in the guest house in Durach. I felt well rested and was happy that I could catch up the missing sleep from the previous nights train ride. I took my time at the breakfast buffet hoping that the rain would stop anytime soon. However, it did not stop. So I started to pack all my stuff together, put on my rain jacket and rain pants and got ready to roll.

After some time I passed the town where I have been already the evening before. I tried to follow the signs for the bicycle trails. It seemed like I was sometimes either blind to see the signs or there were just none. Hence I got lost a couple of times but gladly found right ways to go after short amount of times. The landscape started to change slowly. As the landscape was shaped by mountains on the first day of the trip meanwhile more and more corn fields characterized the countryside of the Allgäu area.

Luckily it stopped to rain in the afternoon and the sun came out. At some point I passed the town Bad Wörishofen. This placed seemed to be occupied just by elderly people. I think it is a sanitarium. Generally I noticed that the people on the country side and in the small towns were very friendly. Literally everyone was saying hello, some even stopped for a short chat asking where I am going to. Flensburg! I always answered. There were usually only two kinds of reactions to my answer. It was either laughter or shaking the head. Usually they answered: That is crazy! but everyone wished me good and safe trip.

While riding I decided through my last night’s experiences to watch out for a place to stay earlier than the day before. It is turning dark quite early in the south of Germany. You really should be settled around 8:30 pm otherwise it will be dark and finding a good night spot is way more challenging. In Flensburg it is still light at that time in summer. Even at 10 pm. That was definitely a new experience to me.

However I found a great spot to wild camp on the country side approximately not too far from Königsbrunn. So I camped that night between a corn field and a small forest just 200 meters aside the road. I got great sleep that night thanks to my new sleeping pad. It is incredible comfy and makes me not to miss my bed at home too much.

The next mornings breakfast was rather Spartan compared to the one at the guest house the day before. I only had a handful of crackers with jam that I took from the guest houses breakfast buffet, some lunch meat and a half way mashed peach. It was time to restock my supplies again. So I stopped at a small store in the next town. After a few minutes browsing in that store the owner started to talk to me but I did not understand a single word cause of his thick Bavarian accent. I guess he realized that I did not understand him very well cause of my face expression. So we kept our conversation short. It is incredible that accents can make such a huge difference. Although we both spoke German it was very difficult to hold a conversation.

I made my way more up north, went through Königsbrunn and finally entered Augsburg. It felt like a first little milestone to make it to a bigger city. However, after a short period of time I felt already a little bit annoyed of this place. It did not have anything to do with Augsburg itself. The city is beautiful. Especially the historic city center where I spend a few hours is very beautiful. It is more about the fact that there are obviously lots of traffic lights in the cities. Thus you have to stop every few hundred meters and wait for the green lights. That means you do not really progress in sense of distance. I guess I rather cycle through the country sides and villages. Also, I realized that no one said hello anymore or stopped for a chat. I assume that is a general difference between cities and villages. In the villages everything is more personal because everybody knows everybody while life in the cities is more anonymous.

After browsing over the Stadtmarkt and having a delicious healthy lunch I left Augsburg after a few hours and pedaled further up north in direction Donauwörth. After some time I realized that my legs felt really tired. I thought: I really need to rest. I looked up the next camp site on my map and asked Google Maps for the shortest way to get there. That was such stupid idea. I should have stayed on the roads even if it was one kilometer more. So I ended up on some bumpy and rocky gravel roads which seemed like no one ever used it. Maybe a farmer with his tractor uses it once in a while. I had some serious doubts if this camp site even exists. Most of the time I had to push my bike. It was almost impossible to cycle it. I was really glad to see the camp site at the end of the road. I checked in and set up my tent right before it turned dark.

The next morning it was already incredible hot when I got up. I took a quick shower, had some breakfast and packed my stuff together. I was already sweating really badly after packing. I left the camp site and realized that there was a proper tarmac road if you enter it from the other side. I thought: I really should have stayed on the road yesterday. Then I would not have had to deal with that shitty gravel ‘road’.

The first part of that day was really challenging. My legs felt still tired, it was incredible hot and I had to go through a very hilly area. Seriously, that is a really shitty combination of circumstances! However, I kept cycling. Slow, very slow. And I did lots of breaks…a lot. I passed Donauwörth and headed in direction Nuremburg. Up a hill and down a hill. Again and again. Very exhausting! At some point I stopped at a farm in a small town to ask if they would refill my water bottles. The very friendly farmer did not just refill my bottles he even gave me an additional one. Some people are just wonderful. I stood there to chat with him and his parents. He told me that the land would become flat in a few kilometers. I was relieved to hear that. After leaving him and his parents and cycling a few kilometers the land became flat and I finally made some progress in sense of covered distance. At this point it started to rain again. Of course! I did not really mind the rain because I was kind of distracted by the beautiful nature around me. I plugged in my IPod and cycled on a gravel trail through the woods alongside a creek. This area seemed like some kind of canyon.

The rain got worse so I started to ask myself again where to stay that night. I thought it would be a good idea to stay at another camp site because there I would have the chance to dry my clothes over night. I gladly realized that there was one right on my way. So I headed there and checked in.

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Km on the clock: 55

Finally, I arrived in Oberstdorf after a 17 hours train ride around 10 am. Although the train was about 2 hours delayed in Hamburg I arrived on time. It seems like these ICE trains have lots of horse power.

As soon as I left the train station I was surrounded by tons of hiking groups - mainly middle aged and elderly people. Everyone was getting ready to tackle the mountains. My first stop was the tourist information center to get some information and a free city map of this place. Equipped with a map I started to explore Oberstdorf. My first stop was the local farmers market. This rather small market smelled incredible good like cheese, smoked meats and fresh fruits. After browsing over the market it was time to get some breakfast. I had some sandwiches which I brought from home on a square right behind the farmers market. I had a really good view on the mountains. While eating my sandwiches I was thinking: From now it is more than 1.000 km that I have to pedal within the next two weeks. Now there is no return. That is kind of scary! I never cycled such a long distance in my whole life. While I was all alone just with my thoughts I watched people paragliding through the mountains. They seemed weightless and were flying like feathers in the wind. Note to myself: Learn how to fly.

My next stop was the Nebelhornbahn. My plan was to take my bike on top of the Nebelhorn and then roll downhill – if possible all the way to Flensburg. Well, unfortunately the Nebelhornbahn does not transport bicycles and there was also a long line. So that plan died. The only alternative to experience the mountains is to push the bike uphill and that is what I also attempted to do. But to be honest, I gave up after some time. It is such a pain in the a** to push a heavily loaded bicycle up a mountain. I just stopped at some point and enjoyed the view for a while.

Going downhill was amazing but also a little bit scary. I had no idea that I possibly can go so fast with my bike. Back in the city center of Oberstdorf I restocked my supplies knowing that the next day is Sunday and every supermarket will be closed. Loaded with enough food for the next day it was time to leave this town and start Expedition 1000GER. From the Illerursprung I went direction north just alongside the river Iller. The more you go up north the fewer tourists are on the river trails. There were almost none after passing the town Sonthofen. I was told that the Iller trail goes all the way to the city Ulm.

I made my way more up north direction Kempten im Allgäu. I passed this town and started to watch out for a good spot for my night camp. While pedaling a really bad thunderstorm came up. It started to rain heavily from one second to another. Before I could even take my jacket out of one of my panniers I was incredible wet and the thunderstorm got worse. I started to think: Maybe it is not a good idea to camp tonight!? I should probably try to find a room for the night. I stopped at every single Hotel or guest house that I could find but they were all fully booked. I was about to get desperate I planned already to stay the night inside a bank. I already found a possible bank to stay in for the night right next to another guest house. I asked the guest house guy if he possibly had a free room. Of course, he did not. However, he made some phone calls and found me a room in another guest house. It’s just three kilometers from here, he said. Well, it was more than five and I had to go to another small town direction the way I just came from.

It was already pitch dark and I was the only person on the streets. Not even a single car. The moon was covered with heavy dark clouds. The only light came from my front light. The roads were misty through the rain volatilizing on the sun heated roads. The only thing I could hear were cowbells coming from the hills around me. Cycling on this country road to the town Durach reminded me on a scenery of an old Hitchcock movie.

After this bike ride through the dark I finally arrived at the guest house – relieved to have a place to stay for this stormy night.

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The last couple of days I have been thinking a lot about what equipment I should take on Expedition1000GER. It is quite difficult to think through all the possible scenarios that could happen throughout this challenge. There are so many uncertainties, such as where am I going to go sleep every night or how is the weather going to be.

Since I planned to keep my travel budget on a minimum I definitely have to bring a tent, a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag. A tent is already quite heavy but at the same time it makes you way more independent because you never have to worry about to find a place to sleep at the end of the day. If you can't find a campsite alongside your route you can just camp somewhere hidden in the wilderness aside the trails.

I find packing the right clothes for a bike trip is way more difficult than to decide to bring a tent or not. So you start asking yourself: How is the weather going to be throughout the whole trip? Right now it is summer so you should think you only have to bring another pair of shorts and a t-shirt besides the one you are already wearing. Maybe it is also a good idea to even bring a pair of sweatpants and a sweater if it is going to get chilly during the night!? However, if the weather is going to be like the current Flensburg summer then I definitely have to bring a rain jacket and rain pants.

I also want to document this trip. I want to film, photograph and blog. That means I have bring some electronic devices such as camera and notebook as well as extra batteries and chargers.

Damn…it seems like there are so many things that I have to bring on that trip. Oh well…nobody said it’s going to be easy.

So I started to ask myself: What is it that I most likely cannot live without on this trip and that is necessary to document it properly? The result is this kit list:

• Tent
• Sleeping bag
• Sleeping pad
• Rain jacket
• Rain pants
• 1 pair of sweatpants
• 1 sweater with zip
• 1 pair of shorts
• 1 pair of swimming trunks
• 2 t-shirts
• 2 pairs of boxers
• 2 pairs of socks
• Baseball cap
• Sunglasses
• 1 towel
• Toiletries (only travel sizes)
• Toilet paper (very important – you really never want be without it)
• Lunchbox, water bottle, cup, camping silverware and a pocketknife
• Head torch
• Maps
• 2 books
• IPod and charger
• 2 spare tires and a repair kit
• 2 tension belts
• Action cam incl. extra batteries, charger and a few accessories
• DSLR camera incl. 1 extra battery, charger and microphone
• 2 64 GB SD-Cards
• Camera stand
• Notebook incl. charger
• Solar panel

All of that equipment is packed in 4 Ortlieb panniers (2 of them kindly provided by my friend Kevin), Ortlieb handlebar bag and two pack sacks.

I think that is not much stuff but I still feel like I over packed. I am sure I could live two weeks without all these electronic devices but how else should I document Expedition1000GER? What is it that you cannot live with on a trip?

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