Weinheim to Budapest

Route: Weinheim to Budapest
Days on the bike: 36
Total distance travelled:  2686 km / 1669 miles

Arggggh… My good work in the beginning at keeping my cycle trip updated has been undone by laziness. It was always going to happen, just a matter of when. I can only apologise to my adoring fans and promise that it will happen again.

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Germany is a delight for cyclists. It’s a big country but every town and most villages have bike routes connecting them. The routes are often small country lanes but sometimes dedicated paths just for cyclists and walkers.

Sometimes finding the signs can pose a problem, I would keep my eyes peeled at all times so not miss a turn off. When seeing a sign at the last minute I would indicate to any drivers my intention to turn in the road (I didn’t do cycling proficiency in primary school for nothing), after a few times of doing this last minute manoeuvre I realised my arm gesture could only be described as a Nazi salute. Probably not the best move in Germany, but thankfully I never had to indicate to the third right (get it? Third Reich). Terrible.

Can you spot the sign?

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This next picture is the highest autobahn in Germany. I started at the bottom and snaked my way up to the top, passing underneath the bridge 3 times. It’s an absolute beast.

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Somewhere near Crailsheim in Germany I passed 1000 miles. Pretty good feeling.

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I straw a wedding, but baled out when no one else turned up.

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Delicious road, really delicious.

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I got me some friends, ordered them from the Internet. My awesome hosts came 60km with me along the Danube on their seriously cool semi recumbent bike (I didn’t know what a recumbent bike was until I started this trip). They’ll be setting off later this year to cycle ALL the way round Australia on that contraption. We also met a guy from France doing Paris to Budapest in 20 days on a normal recumbent.

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This is Passau, it’s got a river called the Danube or Donau if you’re German.

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Then Germany was over. A wonderful time in a special country, but this bike must go onwards and Eastwards. I had lots of Danube river to make sure I didn’t miss Germany too much.

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I met the first cyclists doing a long tour. I spent most of the day with them, which was really nice. They’ll be cycling from Germany to Istanbul, then fly to Central Asia to take on the Pamir Highway during the summer months.

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Unfortunately I lost them when the rain started (still unsure how exactly). The weather had been getting progressively worse over the last few days and it culminated in a pretty big storm. Here I am, cold, wet and hiding.



After my first 100 mile day with detours to stay with people on warm showers, I made it to Vienna. A beautiful city and a place worthy of a rest day.

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In the next 2 days I cycled 190 miles, visited 3 capital cities and camped wild for the first time. I didn’t intend to cycle so far but I was feeling so good and the weather was awesome, I just didn’t want to stop.

My bed for the night in Slovakia, had a good night’s sleep.

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In Bravaria I stayed with an amazing family, after a few strong German beers we got onto the topic of cooking stoves (as you do). It turned out Bernhard has an interest in lightweight homemade stoves like me. Like a rapper on MTV cribs showing the world his cars, Bernhard presented me his huge assortment of stoves, then generously donated the pièce de resistance… a stove made from a Lynx deodorant can! It was far superior to my coke can stove and really is a piece of art, to say I was grateful is an understatement. Below is a video of me cooking pasta for breakfast in a nice little spot. Unfortunately, in the excitement I forgot that cooking makes things hot, burning my mouth in the process. Oops.

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And then I was in Budapest. I had no host lined up but was very generously taken in at the last minute and tonight will be my 4th night here.This city has really surprised me. So many beautiful buildings with a run down “lived in” feel to the place, something I like a lot.

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So many great hosts and I could write a post about each of them, but a huge thanks to Phillip, Debbie and Steffan, Matthias and Angelika, the Regler family, Alex and Steph, Hannes, Greti and Peter, Richard and Charlie, Konrad and Lili and Janos. Hope I haven’t left anyone off there.

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