Sue4Don

Thursday 13th March

What a start!

It was pouring with rain in the morning and my landlady let me stay longer. When it had stopped raining, she helped me manhandle the bike into the lift. It had to go on end to fit in. I had already taken my luggage down. She even went down with me and through the door we saw that it was pouring again, so I locked the bike and went back up to the 6th floor with her. She said I could stay until 12, as she had another guest arriving at 1 and needed an hour to clean (I had even asked to stay another night). When it stopped again, I said goodbye, saddled up and left. It is always difficult to get started as you don’t know which direction and my Garmin kept telling me I wa wrong. I finally found the route but it was a cycle lane next to a busy road and I was scared to get on the fully packed strange bike. I pushed it for miles, then I couldn’t get on! The bike with the bags on was just too high to swing my leg over. I finally managed to get my foot over the crossbar, but it was a struggle as the bike was so high and unstable when tipped due to the luggage!
It rained and stopped and rained again, sometimes very heavily. I came to a place where they were clearing huge rocks away, that had obviously been washed down by the rain, which they don’t usually get here The road was closed to cars, but the driver moved his excavator for me to get though. Not long after that, my Garmin sent me onto an unmade road, which was partially flooded. I got to a part where it kept telling me I was wrong. I tried all variations but it wouldn’t accept any. I finally realised it wanted to send me into a river, which is obviously not normally there. I met an English hiker who confirmed this. Poor guy had to walk all the way back, but I was much quicker on my E-Bike!
I knew there was plenty of climb, but shortly after this it really started, complete with torrential rain. I plodded on and finally found my accommodation. Although I love my Garmin and Komoot, I often have difficulties with it at the end (as well as the beginning). Google Maps weren’t much better either, as the host had said the house was at the end of the street. As I had already dismounted I pushed up the steep hill and then down again as it turned out to be the FIRST house.
I finally found the right door and managed to open the key-safe whilst holding my bike, only to get inside and find it freezing cold. There was no heating, or maybe there was, but I think it was just air-conditioning. I couldn’t get to grips with the panel on the wall and there were no instructions. I finally managed to switch the oven on, although I think it was grill as the symbols were all faded and I couldn’t get hot air to work (again no manual).
No information at all in the apartment, so I found a supermarket on Google maps. I found it hard to shop, as yoghurts were only in packs of 4, eggs in packs of 10, bananas were green… I finally found something and checked Google maps for restaurants to suss out before returning to the apartment to switch the oven on again and leave my shopping, planning to go out to dinner later. I checked the few which were supposedly open, according to Google, but most of them weren’t! There was a strange bar with plastic chairs, where they would have served food from 7:30 (in the meantime it was 7), but I wasn’t keen and managed to find a pizzeria, which opened just as i got there. I decided to stay, complete with shopping and it was OK.
After that it was back to cold apartment where the oven went straight back on. The night was OK in a comfy bed.
39,4 Km. 970 m. climb, 4,37 bike time. Continue reading →

I flew to Málaga on Tuesday, picked up an E-Bike to rent on Wednesday and took part in a guided tour.

Ich bin jetzt in Milford on Sea. Meine Radtour habe ich nach 258 Kilometer und 2050 Höhenmeter in Banbury beendet.I am now in Milford on Sea after cycling 258 kilometres and 2500 metres of altitude.

Der erster Tag von Hatfield bei Doncaster war sehr lang.The first day was very long.
Hatfield – South Normanton 79 Km und 770 Hm. (climb)

Der zweite Tag war eher kurz, weil ich meine langjährige Freunden in Alfreton zum Frühstück traf. Danach für ich weiter nach Mickleover, wo ich meine Kusine, ihren Sohn und ihre Tochter besuchte. Craig kochte ein super English Roast.

The second day was rather short because I met my longtime friends in Alfreton for breakfast. I then continued to Mickleover where I visited my cousin, her son and daughter. Craig cooked a great English Roast. 37 KM. 340 Hm.

Tag 3 ging nach Hinckley, wo ich aufgewachsen bin. Die Tour selbst war nur ca. 53 Km. aber ich bin ohne Gepäck weitere ,10 Km. gefahren um mein Haus und Schulen zu sehen
Day 3 I cycled to Hinckley where I grew up . The trip itself was around 53 Km. but I did another 10 without luggage, travelling down memory lane.
63,6 Km. 520 Hm.

Heute Tag 5 habe ich wegen Schmerzen im Intimbereich die Tour abgebrochen zu Nd eine schöne Pension gefunden.
I ended the tour early due to saddle-soreness and found a lovely B&.
Yelvertoft 33,1 Km. 270 Hm.
Va

Today I’m setting off to England. My bike is already in Doncaster and on Saturday I will be setting off on my one-week trip to Milford-on-Sea. I hope the weather will be kind to me. After temperatures around 20° it has gone back to winter here. We had snow yesterday and early this morning.

Please donate to my Justgiving page

for the Motor-Neuron-Association in honour of my friend, Frances, who passed away last year after suffering from this dreadful disease.

If you prefer you can donate to my original page for Macmillan caring locally in honour of my Dad!

Heute breche ich nach England auf. Mein Rad steht bereits in Doncaster und am Samstag breche ich zu meiner einwöchigen Reise nach Milford-on-Sea auf. Ich hoffe, das Wetter wird mir gnädig sein. Nach Temperaturen um die 20° ist es hier wieder Winter geworden. Wir hatten gestern und heute früh Schnee.

Bitte spenden Sie auf meiner Justgiving-Seite für die Motor-Neuron-Association zu Ehren meiner Freundin Frances, die letztes Jahr an dieser schrecklichen Krankheit gestorben ist.

Wenn Sie es vorziehen, können Sie zu Ehren meines Vaters auf meiner Originalseite für Macmillan Caring Locally spenden.

This was supposed to me an easy day. It was going so well until I took a wrong turn and my Garmin didn’t make a sound. Often these sounds can be so irritating but this was one of those times when it would have been important!
I must have gone quite a way before I saw “off-route” on the display, because it wasn’t asking me to turn around. It did seem strange to be going in that direction, and that i didn’t see any pilgrims, but I didn’t think too much of it. Then I had to cross a road and on the other side it went up and up and up, (this time in the right direction) fortunately on tarmacked roads but I had to push a lot of the time.
When I saw that I had done 22 kilometres and still had 21 to go, although the whole trip should have only been 27, I stopped the computer and reprogrammed it.
Fortunately I hadn’t booked accommodation, so I cut the journey short and stayed in Padrás. I still plan to reach Santiago tomorrow.

Dies sollte für mich ein leichter Tag sein.  Es lief so gut, bis ich falsch abbog und mein Garmin kein Geräusch machte.  Oft können diese Geräusche so irritierend sein, aber das war einer dieser Momente, in denen es wichtig gewesen wäre!
Ich muss ziemlich weit gefahren sein, bevor ich auf dem Display „Streckenabweichung“ sah, denn es forderte mich nicht auf, umzukehren.  Es kam mir seltsam vor, in diese Richtung zu fahren, und dass ich keine Pilger sah, aber ich vertraute mein Garmin. Dann musste ich eine Straße überqueren und auf der anderen Seite ging es bergauf und bergauf, (diesmal in die richtige Richtung) glücklicherweise auf asphaltierten Straßen, aber ich musste die meiste Zeit schieben.
Als ich sah, dass ich 22 Kilometer geschafft hatte und noch 21 vor mir hatte, obwohl die Gesamtstrecke nur 27 werden sollte, stoppte ich den Computer und programmierte ihn neu.
Glücklicherweise hatte ich keine Unterkunft gebucht, also brach ich die Reise ab und blieb in Padrás. I plane dennoch morgen Santiago zu erreichen.

Yesterday I fell asleep while writing my blog and when I woke up it hadn’t been saved

It took me a while to get started because my Garmin was still playing up. I finally realised I had to delete some saved routes to make room for more. Leaving Redondela was also not easy as the roads are very steep and cobbled.

The first part of the journey varied from cycle tracks to again steep and cobbled roads through tiny villages. Then the adventure started. It was like going up to the alm. Parts of the track was made of large rounded boulders and it was extremely difficult to push my bike over them. Thank goodness I didn’t have my E-Bike. I could have neither ridden nor pushed that! I would have rather been a hiker as they were quicker than me! One German also helped me push on one occasion.

It got easier after that, but it was a lon hard day with lots of pushing.

Gestern bin ich beim Schreiben meines Blogs eingeschlafen und als ich aufgewacht bin, war es nicht mehr da.

Ich brauchte eine Weile, um loszukommen, weil mein Garmin immer noch Probleme machte.  Endlich wurde mir klar, dass ich einige gespeicherte Routen löschen musste, um Platz für neue zu schaffen.  Redondela zu verlassen war nicht einfach, da die Straßen sehr steil und Kopfstein-gepflastert sind.

Der erste Teil der Fahrt wechselte von Radwegen zu wieder steilen und Kopfstein-gepflasterten Straßen durch winzige Dörfer.  Dann begann das Abenteuer.  Es war wie auf die Alm zu gehen.  Teile der Strecke bestanden aus großen runden Felsbrocken und es war extrem schwierig, mein Fahrrad darüber zu schieben.  Gott sei Dank hatte ich mein E-Bike nicht dabei.  Das hätte ich weder fahren noch schieben können!  Ich wäre lieber ein Wanderer gewesen, da sie schneller waren als ich!  Ein Deutscher hat mir sogar einmal beim Schieben geholfen.

Danach wurde es einfacher, aber es war ein langer, harter Tag mit viel Schieberei

The day started beautifully although it was VERY cold. The route ran alongside s not too busy road on the (not so bright) yellow tarmacked cycle track.Baiona is beautiful, Vigo not. The latter is a huge city and it took me hours to get through it on busy roads mostly without cycle lane. After that it was mostly on quieter roads with a long but not too steep climb. I didn’t see the sea again after Baiona When I arrived in Redondela I must have come very close to my accomodation, but my Garmin stated sending me up and down and round and round. When I finally stopped to look in more detail, I saw that it wanted to send me another 45 kilometres and over 500 metres of elevation! After that I ignored it and found my way to my accomodation using Google maps. It turned out to be 54 kilometres and 750 metres climb instead of the planned 45/570. I will never know what went wrong with Garmin. It’s as though it wanted to do the whole route all over again!

Der Tag fing wunderbar an, obwohl es SEHR kalt war. Die Route verlief neben einer nicht zu stark befahrenen Straße auf dem (nicht mehr so hellen) gelben, asphaltierten Radweg. Baiona ist winderschön, Vigo nicht. Letzteres ist eine riesige Stadt und ich habe Stunden gebraucht, um sie auf stark befahrenen Straßen, meist ohne Radweg, zu durchqueren. Danach ging es meist auf ruhigeren Straßen mit einem langen, aber nicht zu steilen Anstieg. Als ich in Redondela ankam, muss ich sehr nah an meiner Unterkunft vorbeigefahren sein, aber mein Garmin schickte mich hoch und runter und hin und her zu schicken. Als ich endlich anhielt, um genauer hinzusehen, sah ich, dass es mich weitere 45 Kilometer und über 500 Höhenmeter schicken wollte! Danach ignorierte ich es und fand den Weg zu meiner Unterkunft über Google Maps. Statt der geplanten 45 Kilometer und 570 Höhenmeter bin ich 54 und 750 gefahren! Ich werde nie erfahren, was bei Garmin schief gelaufen ist. Es ist, als wollte er die ganze Strecke noch einmal machen!