Milano

With a early farewell to the guys, I head out into the rainy streets bound for Milan. It is the first day of rain so far and it really has a marked effect on my 'cycling mood'. The rain, combined with the precarious roads, means that it is with overwhelming relief that I reach Milan. Two things I learn from this day: bike trekking in Italy and in the rain is not pleasant.
Thankfully, Carlo has prepared a delicious pumpkin soup for my arrival. The perfect meal to put my misery behind me.
the next few days I spend looking about Milan and hanging out with Carlo. A particular delight is Snupi's pizzeria, a local haunt of Carlo's since he has been a kid.
I take an overnight FlixBus back to Berlin, rather than risk the October weather in the Alps.

Lugano

The plan was to take two days to reach Lugano, due to the fact that it is ~130km away and I need to pass two passes. San Bernadino Pass, at 2100m elevation, is the reason I have taken it easy up to this point. As it turns out, when the sun shines and the panorama is this beautiful, there is no reason to fret over elevation.
Most of the traffic is diverted into tunnel to avoid topping this pass. This means that, aside from some motorbikes, I am relatively alone climbing the switch-backed roads. At one point the road is closed and a road worker helps me bypass 100m elevation, by bunging my steed and I into the back of his van.
And what a magical view from the top.














Once over the pass, I realise differences immediately: all the signage is in Italian, the architecture is more reminiscent of Italian design and there is more of a casualness to everything - roads are not so well maintained, buildings are more likely to be undergoing renovation, the respect for cyclists decreases.
It is great fun to drop 1800m over 60km and it is definitely steeper from the Italian side of Switzerland; a fact that deters me from cycling back the same way.















Wild camping would prove difficult and my legs are still fresh, so I press on to Lugano.

I arrive in Lugano in the evening and get shown around the AirBnB. Alan and Donal have to yet to arrive, so I can chill out a few hours. The reason they have come here for the weekend is that they plan to attend a BitCoin conference being held here.

We spend the following days trekking about Lugano and attending BitCoin lectures and after parties. I am simply happy to have kitchen facilities and a wonderful balcony overlooking the city. Once you step outside the door, everything costs a small fortune. After all, this is still Switzerland and one of the main banking centres to boot. Guchi, Rolex and YSL stores compete for attention on the main shopping streets.






When the guys are busy one of the days, I bike over the border to Como in Italy to see what all the fuss about Lake Como is about. Definitely a cheaper, thereby more accessible, tourist resort than Lugano, and more scenic in my humble opinion.

Lake Lugano

View from Mont Bre over Lake Lugano

Lake Como

Lake Como

Da boyz sophisticatin'

Donat

And now the climbing starts for real. So far, I have been cycling in a very generous valley surrounded by mountains up to 2500m. Spectacular riding to be sure, but now three valley floor creeps up and soon I will face the San Bernardino Pass, but not today. My strategy is to establish a base camp at 1100m and attack the pass from there. I have climbed more than 2000m in a day before, but these are the Swiss Alps, and I am going to take it easy. This means that today's ride is a mere 50km, but every km is spectacular. The mountain walls on both sides start to converge and the road follows the river. This river is the young stage of the Rhine and the road swerves this side and that, never able to make up it's mind from which perspective the scenery looks its best.

Judith, Christian and two year old son, Jakob, live in the picturesque town (pop. 160) of Donat. It's just like a scene from a Heidi postcard, but with solar panels on most of the buildings' roofs. I contacted Judith using WarmShowers, which is a hospitality platform used exclusively by bicycle tourers. This means usually that you don't get the same level of amazement when you explain that you cross countries by bicycle. Sometimes it turns into a friendly pissing contest of who has bagged the most countries/ has the best gear/ has done the most extreme rides. Not this time though, as Judith and family are down-to-earth, warm and extremely hospitable people.
Despite plans to stay here only one night, I can't help myself asking if a second would be pushing my luck. Graciously, and without any fuss, they confirm this would be no problem. Great. Now I can go explore the surrounding mountains, by foot this time. Buckaroo will take the day off.

Chur (Switzerland)

I have been looking forward to today's ride as it takes me from Germany, across Austria, Lichtenstein and into Switzerland. Don't think I'll ever stop getting a thrill from crossing an international border by bike. There is a feeling of accomplishment and adventure, especially if that country you venture into had not yet been cycled.
I cross briefly into Austria, along the edge of the elegant Bodinsee lake, and swiftly on through Bregenz. Not a new country to my cycling experience, so the border crossing is not so momentous.
Boldly going where I have not been before, I pass into Lichtenstein, barely realising that I have crossed the border. I had thought that this wealthy principality (not country), would show a striking difference the moment I rolled in. It is the second wealthiest "country" in the world, but actually I see nothing on my 20km trek through it to make me pause. Maybe the ordinariness is how they stop riff-raff from staying too long. The capital, Vaduz, reminds me of Luxembourg city. Since most of the wealth here comes from banking and as a tax haven, the two cities share some of their financial origins. Big cars and flashy shops do not a welcoming atmosphere make.
Maybe it's my bias, but Switzerland is much more beautiful. What might contribute to my bias is that it has an excellent bicycle infrastructure. It really is the prettiest place I have bikes through, at least on the German side. More about that later.
Chur is a very modern-looking city. So modern in fact, that there are apartment complexes in every building stage. Heinz is my host for the evening and what a spectacular view from his penthouse. Not only that but dinner is a delicious homemade pizza.
I get a chance to explore the old part of the city the next day, after we have a leisurely breakfast. The surrounding mountains cast shadows on the apartment, adding an extra breathtaking aspect to an unforgettable stay. Coffee was good too.

Lindau (Austrian border)

On checking the wind forecast the next day, I double check that the units I am reading are correct. It forecasts head winds on average of 32km/hr with gusts up to 65km/hr. What looked like an easy first day ride may be a little more strenuous. I procrastinate all morning to start the ride and start in the early afternoon. After all, why not put myself under time pressure as well.
Thankfully the roads are pretty flat and well surfaced, but I do find myself at times nearly being blown to a complete standstill. It's the gusts that frighten me the most, as they can blow you into the middle of the road at a whim. I see very few cyclists out today, despite it being Sunday. I guess they decided that conditions were not favourable enough. 

Lindau slowly creeps up on me and I meet my next couchsurfing host, David. David is originally from France, a city planner and shares a lot of my worldviews. After I am suitably feed and watered, we talk until the early hours and, after a brief pause to recharge, the next day until lunchtime.

Memmingen to Milan

Alan invites me to join him for a weekend in Lugano (Switzerland). I free up my otherwise free schedule to make the trip. Then I wonder how to make getting there more of an adventure than just taking an 18 hour bus journey.  Naturally my mind wanders to my two-wheeled friend, aching to burn some rubber on those alpine slopes. Two questions spring immediately forth following this initial wave of bike fervor: just how intense are those Alps and will the weather be prohibitive at the end of September?
My faithful sidekicks (Windguru and Maps.me) are consulted and inform me that the weather should be ok for the week and that the highest pass is 2100m. If I am suitably equipped and don't exceed 80km average a day, then it looks like I'm golden.
Checking for accommodation to make sure that I have something to look forward to reach evening, I find that I'll only have to spend one night under the stars.
To cut out the less interesting part of the journey (but who ever really knows?), I buy a bus ticket to the south of Germany and decide to start from there.
After an 11 hour bus journey, I arrive in Memmingen and introduce myself to Ramona, my couchsurfing host. She is a serial hostess and expected four couchsurfers at her place this Saturday evening. All this in spite of having a young child for which to care... the CS spirit is very alive in Ramona. After dropping her daughter off to her parents, she begins intensely interested in what makes a "Jager-bomb" and also showing us all a great night out. We drag ourselves out of the nightclub about 2am - the perfect preparation for the next day's cycle to Bodensee. 

Berlin BBQ

Germans - just so damn tall!

Shortly after arriving back in Berlin, the parents of the guys held a barbecue in my honour. It is great to see the guys again and have a chance to talk to the parents about the trip.

Rostock and Gustrow revisited

Rostock

 

This time we receive no guided tour on the ferry to Rostock.

On the way to Gustrow, we take Google Maps advice which leads through a field of hundreds of sheep. No matter how often Google leads us down uncrossable paths, the guys blindly follow Google's shortest route suggestion. The sheep turn out to be the highlight of the road to Gustrow.

That field of sheep

Again Gustrow provides us with some culture. This time in the form of two school plays. The guys have become minor celebrities and a breath of fresh air among the teenagers in Gustrow.

As we are running out of time and, I feel, motivation to cycle further, we stay in Gustrow for an extra day. The guys decide to take a train the rest of the way to Berlin. As they are in charge, we spend the last day of the trip onboard a train.

Introduction to cathedral organ playing

The guys are proud to announce that they have spent a total of ~360€ for the 19 days for all five of us (per person we spent on average 3.80€/day). This means that they get to split the remaining ~240€ among the four of them. I just hope that they realise that this was only possible due to the very generous people who let us stay with them and provided us with food during our journey.

The theatre crowd

Heading south

To make our life easier, the guys decide to retrace our route back to Rostock, staying in the same places as on our way here.

The route south proves hard-going with a reasonably strong head wind every day, especially on the stretch to Idestrup. Everyone is going to bed early in Koge and Praesto, due to lack of mobile phone battery life. All rejoice therefore when we find electric sockets and a kitchen in Idestrup. The guys stay up late until after midnight, barely talking to each other, each engrossed in their mobile games. Next time I will insist on a mobile phone ban: no GPS, no phone, no games, no social networking... I think this would be even more of a challenge for teenagers, as simply cycling and camping for three weeks.

Danish hospitality

Beach, just outside Copenhagen

Seems like having no further destination has left us all a little aimless, as we tour about the city. We avoid the major tourist attractions and spend most of the afternoon cycling about and grocery shopping. Shopping with the guys proves extra taxing in Denmark. Everything must be cheap, regardless of how low quality the food is.

On arriving back to base, we find that there is a large school class staying in our shelter. Luckily for us, they have extra food and give us enough food for the next day too. We enjoy food that is beyond out budget; namely cheese, pastries and juices.

Copenhagen, we reach our destination.

The guys dig into some lentils.

Lasse has a very hard day today due to developing a cold in the night, but battles through it. What helps us is having a tailwind blowing us to our destination, Copenhagen.
There are free shelters located on the outskirts of the city and we are most impressed by the cityscape before us and the facilities to hand, especially the opportunity to build a fire and use the massive inbuilt grill.





On the first night we cook lentil soup. Again the guys have accepted that they would be open to new culinary ideas from me, even if it costs a little more. We also use the fire to cook popcorn (the guys are immediate fans) and tea (quite sophisticated). We have such fun, we opt   to spend a second day at this location.

Recharging a phone in the wild.

Køge, on holy ground (nearly)

Where did we leave Linus?

We arrive in Køge and ask at a church to sleep somewhere in their wonderfully landscaped gardens/ cemetery. Not sure if the minister knew we were coming, but he finds a spot for us on the perimeter of the church grounds. I get the feeling that he feels that God is really testing him by sending this motley crew to his doorstep and this the very evening when whe is expecting guests.
Again, I get to choose what I would like to eat and we have white rice with roasted vegetables in a coconut sauce. The guys are skeptical at first, but enjoy the meal.

Præstøv by the sea

 The cloudy sky and lower temperatures mean that the gang is not struggling with dehydration on the daily rides and sleeping better at night.
Denmark has proven more difficult to find free accommodation, but there they guys tell me that it is allowed to camp for one night on public land in an emergency. Our emergency is to save the cash we need to feed ourselves for the next week and a half. There are even designated areas with tables, fireplace and regular rubbish collection and it is to such a place near Præstøv we steer our trusty steeds. The small site neighbours the sea and provides our first opportunity to build a fire, something that really gets the guys excited.
I get to prepare a salad and feel reinvigorated, after so long eating somewhat foreign, to my body, beige foods, such as pasta, white rice and cheap white bread.

Toasted trousers and shoes a la Flynn