The hills have arrived

…and gone for now. Coming into this part of the ride there were two possibilities. I either worked enough into my legs to get me through the tough part of the journey, or I’m spent, pack up and go home. Fortunately it’s the former.

I hit a few hills in the Osnabruck area and I chewed them up. I say hills as any weekend cyclist reading this may laugh if I call them mountains. A couple of 1km long 8% inclines had my lungs and legs burning but surprisingly I enjoyed it, I found my pain limit and sat on it. A very welcome change coming out of flat Netherlands and also took my mind away from the monotony 80km at cruising speed brings.

Plus, after every climb there will certainly be a descent, so it’s a small price to pay for the satisfaction of going fast that we have already established I really enjoy.


I’m pretty confident now that physically I have enough to get through. I’m a few days away from conquering 1500km, which leaves me with only a quarter of the way and the important challenge of getting to Prague.

It’s hard to control the emotions now I have made it this far, I keep thinking about all the things that can go wrong. When I was still in France I genuinely thought I would be so relieved when I pass Hanover and head for Berlin. How I was wrong.

Someone (turns out quite wise) told me before I left that the physical challenge is easy to overcome, the mental challenge will be far greater. I laughed it off.

This is when paranoia and unnecessary panic sets in, but I just need to kelp calm and stop thinking “s$#! I might actually pull this off”. Hey even I can’t believe I have made it this far, I would not have bet on me.

Germany is interesting. Before I crossed over this way I was told to have a currywurst. “Jag you need to get one from the local street stalls”. So I did. How wonderful. Do you think a currywurst diet is sustainable?! I’ve also had some of the best Turkish food in Germany…

I made a few changes to my itinerary mainly to make it a little more interesting. I threw in Rheine as I read a little bit about it and it sounded nice. I was not disappointed. I stumbled upon a medieval fair in Stadthagen that was as awesome as it was weird.

Hanover took quite a beating during the war so it’s a relatively new city and I just couldn’t get comfortable riding through so I made my stay quite short.

My infatuation with all things Medieval has sent me on a detour through Celle (where I am now) and then Braunschweig instead of Wolfsburg.

The sunshine is gone now so it’s getting a little harder to get on the bike in the morning. I just received an email that will get me through the morning madness over the next few weeks. It’s going in my jacket pocket, because often it’s that little thing someone says that makes a world of difference.