La Vuelta en Bici

01/08/2015

By the way, this companion helped us a lot over the whole trip.

01/08/2015

Just to keep the habit here you can see the tracks of last three days!
This was the rainy part in Germany.
But nevertheless we are lucky that we all arrived home safely.

30/07/2015

Day 29:
Hey guapos!
The day before yesterday we reached our official goal- Cologne.
In Cologne we met up with Kevin and Olivier, two awesome friends from Valencia, as well as Philipp Lammers, and used the time for a little party!
Yesterday we had one of these hangover days.
Today, since we (Philipp Schulte, Philipp Geers) live close to Münster, we left Niklas behind and moved to Münster.

28/07/2015

Guys, we made it today!

Driven kilometers: 2150 km
Average kilometers per day: 98 km
Maximum kilometers per day: 135 km

Start: 2nd of July
End: 28th of July
27 days!
5 days of rest (no biking)

- Only one flat tire
- Four broken spokes
- One broken rear wheel
- Three days of rain
- Two packages sent home to Germany in order to reduce weight (almost 20 kg)

27/07/2015

Day 26:
Heyho guys!!
A lot of wind, a lot of rain and a lot of mountains.
Today it was no problem for us.
We just reached Bad Münstereifel!
We did 110 km and crossed the mountains of Eifel.
And we completed the mark of 2000 km and tomorrow we will hopefully reach Cologne!

27/07/2015

Bonjour!
Sorry again for the delay. Yesterday we crossed the Luxembourgish and than the German border. So we had to change the simcards etc and didn't have connection until now. But it means we finally reach GERMANY!
And the weather is quite German 😉. It is already constantly raining for three days.

Day 24:
Our tents proved to be better than we thought, they survived the thunderstorm without leaking and we reached Metz quiet soon.
We visited the city, and in the evening we went to the flat we found with Warmshowers, a flat sharing website for bikers. Together with our lovely hosts, Bruno and Caroline we had a fantastic dinner.

Distance: 42 km

Day 25:
After the breakfast with Bruno and Caroline we left Metz towards Germany. We made it to Menningen, a little village close to the Luxembourgish border in the Mountains of the German "Eifel".
It was raining the whole day and we were completely soaked. In order to find a dry place to sleep, we rang at some doors and asked the people if they had a dry place for our three tents. That's how we met Anton aka. Tony, a sympathetic old man and the former mayor of Menningen 😉. He let us sleep in his carport.
He offered us beer (Bitburger, the local beer) and smoked sausages and also prepared us a good old German breakfast this morning.

Distance: 124 km

25/07/2015

Good Morning!
Bad weather is going on.
Realising that we are going north.

24/07/2015

Day 23:
Hola guapos!!
Today we drove 121 km and completed the 83 % of our trip to COLOGNE!
We started in Langres and had good conditions: Sun, nice roads with few cars, and tailwind. In Neufchâteau we found a nice bar to have a little break, and of course, if you are in France you need to have a croissant, a baguette and a coffee, which we did.
In the afternoon the weather started to change and the sky was almost constantly overcast. At 8 pm it started to rain and a storm came! Luckily we just finished putting up our tents.
Now we are still sitting in our tents, hoping to stay dry during this night, while it's lightning outside!

23/07/2015

Day 22:
Hey Guys!
We drove a total distance of 102km, to Langres.

22/07/2015

22/07/2015

Day 21:
Today we can declare a new record. We actually wanted to reach Dijon tomorrow, but we did it today.
Accompanied by unfavourable conditions - the first rain during our trip and headwind almost all the time - we managed to cycle the incredible distance of 135 km!

We just found a camping spot (surrounded by wine fields again) and ate a loooot of delicious and healthy food, to be ready for tomorrow again.

21/07/2015

Day 20:
Thanks to some lucky coincidences, we met Fabien and Zoë, in Lyon and could stay in their apartment.
They were really nice and helpful, even though they didn't know us at all.
The apartment was really cosy and it felt like being home from the beginning.
The night in Lyon we used for watching a movie in an open air cinema, and had some beers with Fabien, Zoë and their friends.
This morning we bought some delicious Croissants and ate them in a cool café.
Leaving Lyon, we passed endless corn- and wheatfields and cycled 82 km to our camping spot.

20/07/2015

Day 19:
This morning we actually managed to get up early and took the ViaRôhna, a bike trail from Genève to the Mediterranean Sea, to direction Lyon.
At 4 pm we arrived after 92 km in Lyon where we have an awesome flat in the city center (thanks Daniel Gonzales!!!).

20/07/2015

Day 18: Us with the pros! ;)

20/07/2015

Day 18:
Hey cyclists!
Yesterday we spent the day in Valence: chilling in the park, drinking a coffee, having a kebab and waiting for "Le Tour de France"! At 5pm the guys from Le Tour arrived in Valence which was exciting to watch. They were almost as fast as we were and their bikes were awesome ;)
Afterwards we rode 30 km to a nice place beside Le Rôhne and took a swim.

18/07/2015

Day 17:
Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs!
After getting up early and driving 93km, we are already in Valence. On the last kilometres we used the course of 15. stage of Le Tour de France. Tomorrow we will take a look at the professionals, how they do the same as we, just slightly faster.

18/07/2015

Day 16:
Hey bikers!
Yesterday we made 92km and had a nice break in Avignon next to the famous "Pont d'Avignon".

16/07/2015

Day 15:
Feeling energized from the break in Montpellier we started at mid day, in direction of Avignon. We made 75km to a small town Comps, near "Le Rôhne".
We are camping on a grape field, the next days we will go up north and hopefully we will make it to Valence until the 19.07, since our friends ;) from "Le Tour de France" will be there at the same time!

16/07/2015

Day 14:
Hey chicos!
Yesterday we took a day off in Montpellier. We stayed in a small flat right in the city. Enjoying some beers in cosy bars and chilling on the rooftop with a nice view over one of the main places in Montpellier, we gained power for the next days.
We also used the time to check our bikes again, so we hope that everything will be fine for the next days.

14/07/2015

Day 13:
Having a cold beer!
Cheers to Ivan from DeQueBikes! A su salud!

14/07/2015

Day 13:
We reached Montpellier today.
We are enjoying this lovely town in the south of France just next to the Mediterranean Sea.
It is our second big stop and the last one at the Mediterranean Sea .
On Thursday we will go on direction north, so unfortunately after 1 year living next to the Mediterranean Sea we finally have to say goodbye to el mar mediterráneo.

14/07/2015

Don't worry! We are still alive!!!

Day 10:
Hola guapos!!
Sorry for this delay, but we had some problems: after crossing the French border one of Philipp S. spokes broke in the mountains. Luckily we found a bus, who was able to take Philipp S.'s to Collioure. In this small and really cute town we found a bike store, which luckily had the right spoke. After fixing the wheel we found once again an awesome spot to camp, right below ruins at the Ocean (Cheers Lent).

Day 11:
Waking up at the beach, with an awesome view, fully energised and motivated to travel a big distance, the next problem didn't wait too long for us: at around noon another of Philipp G. spokes broke in the middle of nowhere and unfortunately it was Sunday, meaning that the bike shops were closed. So we had no other chance than pushing the bike to the next town, Leucate (again very nice and romantic!)
Realising that there was nobody able to help us, we tried to readjust the wheel ourselfs.
Fixing the wheel as good as possible, our plan was to go by bike to next bigger city, in order to find a shop who at least could help us the next morning, but this only worked for another 5km, than another spoke broke! Being stuck on the road again: the only option that was left was to take the train to the next bigger city, Narbonne (35km).
Arriving in Narbonne by train was a weird feeling, but at least we made 98 km in total (bike: 60km,train:30km).

Day 12:
The first thing of course was going to a proper bike store to finally eliminate the problem with the spokes!
Luckily the second shop was able to help us, and we were ready to hit the road again at around 6pm. We made 37 km to Béziers where we are now lying on a nice field with view on the French wine fields.

11/07/2015

France!!!

11/07/2015

Day 10:
Good morning from Cadaqués! We just had a nice breakfast on the cliffs, took a swim and snorkeled with many fishes in the crystal clear water and we are heading to FRANCE!!!

10/07/2015

Day 9:
Today we made it to "Cadaqués" (90km), a beautiful cosy town enclosed by the mountains of "Cap de Creus". We found a really nice campsite in a private garden (thanks to Cina's good description).

09/07/2015

Hola chicos!
Here you have an impression of our nice road we took today, I also tried to sing a little bit for you

09/07/2015

Day 8:
We are getting closer and closer to the french border.
After our healthy breakfast we gained enough power to make the 95km to Palamós. We took a beautiful road next to the Ocean, from where we always had a nice view on the cliff coast with its turquoise clear water. In Sant Feliu de Guíxols we took a nice siesta and a coffietje 😉 at the beach. Later we drove another 20km to Palamós, where we found an awesome spot to camp on nice straw field (finally without Mosquitos 😁😁).

09/07/2015

Day 8:
Buenos días guapos!
Today we have to compensate the unproductive last day.
But a good breakfast is always important.

08/07/2015

Niklas' bike and the new back wheel
- I had to change my rear wheel because the hub of the old one was broken...probably as a result of too much weight and bad roads.
So right now I am going on three wheels until I find a way to sent it to Germany!

08/07/2015

Day 7:
After spending a day and two nights at a friends house in Barcelona (thanks again Nicole Walasek), our plan was to leave early this morning. But as we all know: sometimes the beer just won't let you go home in a bar 😁, so we got up kind of late... On top of that, the bearing system of Niklas' rear wheel hub was broken. So we had to buy a new wheel in the bike store.
So finally instead of leaving at 10 in the morning we left at 7 in the evening, but nevertheless we made it until Mataró, found a nice campsite and hopefully we will be ready for tomorrow to catch up on our tour (by now we actually planned on being in Lloret de Mar 😳😳)
Distance: 33 km