An all weathers day

Sunday, 21th of August. Yesterday I cycled 100 kilometres from Oxford up to Mitcheldean, that is close to Wales. It was an exhausting day, so today I stay for an extra day at my couchsurfing host's place, where a garden party will happen today. Deborah is preparing all the food while I am writing my blog on her computer (but I will also help her after writing…). It's just great here – great nature, great outlook, great garden and very great house with lots of personal design to discover.

I had an all weathers yesterday. It started with sunshine, so I was able to navigate by position of the sun (what I did also when I left London – and I did it pretty well!), then it went to be very cloudy and windy. I cycled A roads most of the day, which were really nice most of the time (mostly A40 road, then A436 when it splits up, and from Gloucester once again the A40 road. Then the very hilly part of that day's stage began when cycling the A4136 road).

Since I had left Oxford (and surely inside Oxford, too) in his area the people had (and of course still have) real stones at one's disposal to build houses. Therefore the main colour of the houses is a mixture of beige, ochre, grey and white. Very convenient. Once I cycled past a church with a sign in the front garden. While reading "an open meeting to discuss the future" I stopped, because it's a great idea and highly fascinating, to discuss the future (especially in a church). When reading the rest of the sign, it was only – but still – interesting, because it offers an insight into the actual proceedings.

I was in a bad mood during forenoon. Once again having no idea why am I doing this. Now it's kind of boring, just routine and somehow futile. Maybe this is normal change while doing long-run cycling. I didn't cycle more than two weeks without interruption before. But I also have a feeling of futile in general, about don't want to have any responsibilities at all and just doing nothing (especially no work). Then I think about quitting the tour. Otherwise I'm close to Ireland now, which is the main reason for this tour, and doing the French part of the tour will mean just going home. But I feel more and more depressed and desperate (close to cry while writing this). I am afraid about this, because I'm not able to classify.

It rained two times yesterday. But when I cycled the A4136 road the sun came out and also with the hilly landscape the route went to be much more challenging. This all together gave me a good feeling (good to know the surrounding can have such influence). When I claimed the main up-hill, the street stayed at this altitude while still doing some up and downs – and the outlook was just fantastic. And I had two great downhills with more than 60km/h (so now I have a new record with 62.4km/h). Then once again the rain came and at this time I was pretty exhausted. After five more kilometres I arrived at the lovely house of Deborah's.

It was a nice, relaxed evening. I tasted self made chocolate chilli ice-cream (the mild version), which was very interesting and the best chocolate ice I ever had. I went early to bed and slept quite long. Today it's a sunny day and I'm looking forward to see more of the surrounding area, to spend time with Deborah and meet new people at the garden party – once again I think it is good to have the guitar with me.

Deborah is very spirited, always laughing, she's – like me – so attached to little details to prettify the environment and to make the world a place where you can discover surprising, beautiful, interesting and special things all the time. It's good to be here.

PS:
I feel homesick and homeless and I really would need a long time hug and the possibility to cry while laying in ones arms.

PPS:
The garden party was very nice. Had some good talks and met much lovely people…

A bright sunshinin' day up to Oxford

Friday, 19th of August. Woke up quite early from the warm sunray, so cycling was pleasant. Once again: People can't believe, other people do long distance cycling. I asked one man in Camden (or Barnet) about the direction up to Oxford and he asked back if I meant Oxford Street and when I negated he wanted to explain the route to the next railway station.

I cycled lots of bike paths and A roads – they are so different! In the village areas the A roads are just great. Cycled the first 50 kilometres very snugly, then I told myself to do some real cycling. A good, relaxed day, where I was constantly surprised how easy all these kilometres were done, suddenly I reached kilometre 60, also suddenly kilometre 70… although I didn't do anything. I just felt somewhat weary, but there have to be some side effects from the last view days… At kilometre 80 some problems with my left calf started. I got off my bike and suddenly for no reasons my muscle was pretty hard and aching. One will see how this feels tomorrow. Apart from that I'm somehow uninterested in gathering new impressions during the cycling. It's good to be involved with something during the day, but on the other hand it's kind of always the same respectively I'm not able to inspire myself.

From London (Camden) up to Oxford I cycled 110 kilometres this day. Had a warm welcome at my couchsurfing host's place. Alison had made some tasty food and we had some nice chat about politics and education and social system in England, Scotland, Germany and Australia, talked about Australia at all, 'cause she is a big Australia fan and wants to go to this country after finishing her PHD. We also talked about long time bicycle tours as she is very experienced in that, too. It's not always easy to understand her Scottish accent, but she is able to speak common English, too… When it went dark she showed my around. Oxford (that means the University area) is so lovely, so many nice old buildings, so much young people, so much life. And the Oxford urban planner know how to work with light.

London Calling

Thursday, 17th of August. Being in London. I arrived at Sunday (Monday), 15th August, 2 A.M. and will leave tomorrow morning, Friday, 18th August. Worth it all the time.

After staying at Dagnis' and Dagmara's place on the first day to have a long sleep, to do some computer stuff and just to relax, I went to Inner London, but after the first four kilometres the old tyre hole break up again. So I switched to public traffic. (I like the tube of London. It's placed so deep under the town…) Later I brought my bike back home and as I had to carry the bike's front it was pretty exhausting – one of the moments where I'm not totally glad about having a steel frame… Dagnis was so glad about being allowed to fix my bike, as he loves to do mechanical things but normally don't has the opportunity to do it. He was sad when he wasn't able to find something to repair.

To be a pedestrian in Inner London is great. Now there are lots of signs, and you are moving like one flow. Nobody waits longer then necessary at a traffic light, the green and red signs are much more an offer and there's no singled person who suddenly crosses the road, it's a great working mass communication. And nobody is disturbed or mad about this traffic light usage. And all these people, even if they move fast without any waiting, are still very friendly. Whenever I asked one of them for an information, same thing happened: If they didn't knew the answer they themselves asked another person, to be able to tell me instead of sending me to the other guy…

I like this town, I wouldn't have thought this could happen, as I had give a damn about London while planning my route. I just thought, it's on my way, so it would be weird not to see and to stay for a while. But it's just great. Nice atmosphere, much structure. London just has style. So great colours, the red buses (that sadly are no longer this originally old ones), all these colourful alternative markets, somehow flower power is still alive. And another funny thing: I start to think, I become able to understand English movies much better – right now I'm in such a movie. It's easy for me to discover unusual sights and details – so I hope the photo I took from Picadilly Circus isn't that much touristy.

Camden, where Dagnis and Dagmara are living, was definitely the right choice, especially for this Stable's Market (and also Camden High Street)! I get an idea what aspects of old Passerelle in Hannover I miss so much, where now there is no longer a Passerelle but a Niki-de-Saint-Phalle-Promenade. I feel pretty good in this town, this country. (But sometimes this feeling pops up about having no – reachable – home. Then I start to loose balance – that’s kind of scary.)

Everywhere in London you can see the the promotion for Conan the barbarian remake. I have no idea, why there has to be a remake as the old one still works very well and is also that much connected to young Arnold Schwarzenegger. They even don’t mention the name of new Conan. But it's in 3D.

The other day I really cycled through London, a totally different experience, pretty hard to have some orientation plus extreme much traffic, so much vehicles, and all this standing still while waiting for green traffic light. There are not so much cyclists in London traffic, but those who are there most of them have a racing bike. And we all cycle fairly risky, but nobody cares about that. In Germany they would constantly tot and shout at you how dare you to do such things (and I think it's mainly this reaction what makes the situation much more dangerous).

This day I visited Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and Notting Hill with its
lovely Portobello Road. And I also saw this Traveller's Bookshop which was archetype for the cute Hugh Grant's shop in the movie Notting Hill. Another place I visit because of a movie. (Did I mention that in Brugge there’s a guy who offers In Bruges guiding tours?) Meanwhile I have a pretty good idea of some area's map (and I am also totally used to cycling left hand for quite a while. Now I can’t understand why I had such weird feelings the first time). In Regent’s Park I got the first free hug in my life! A boy and a girl were running around calling out crossing people if anybody would like to have a free hug. Older people normally ignored that or went away, but I was so glad about – both of them were affected I get off the bike.

Staying with Dagnis and Dagmara was just great. All the days we had interesting talk about relationship and love attachment and also other stuff or we just relaxed together while sharing some thoughts sometimes. I gave some juggling lesson and we made some great music, really good playing on my guitar so both were really hooked, they danced, they made some rhythm and other escorting sounds, they even sang although both of them claimed they are not able to sing before – and it sounded fantastic. Just great atmosphere, cosy and intensely. Dagnis and Dagmara are such a lovely, warm, cute and attractive couple.

Last words:

• …Who said London would be expensive? Things I normally buy have same price or are cheaper as in Germany.
• …Since Tuesday my guitar is once again a six string guitar. It's an interesting sound when played. Different but good. Just after this all time playing the last few days my fingertips start to hurt.
• When I visited London (Hyde Park, Notting Hill, Regent's Park) I cycled 42 kilometres, and I also reached the 1.000 kilometres survey point
• …All over this country there are so many old two-coloured VW-busses (V1 and V2) still driving, that’s so nice! Some of them are so old, they actually have a splited front shield.
• …Just for the statistics. Yesterday evening some rain felt down – the first time I saw rain in whole England. Today is just a rainy day. Main reason, why I'm still here.

An addition related to Martin's commentary

Having a time out in Margate

Wednesday, 13th of August. Long sleeping. Allan was gone and would come home not so early. As he had some appointments this day I had the day for my own. A break and some strange feelings inside. I was pretty nervous during forenoon, out of centre, confused, tense. Close to cry and come apart at the seams. Did not really new what this implied or why it was happening. I decided to stay in the flat for once – I was not really interested in outside experiences or new impressions at all. But I wasn't really sure what would be the (so called) right thing to do. It was so hard to relax, to calm down, just to be. And I wasn't sure if this was a good sign (because I was realizing something I normally don't notice) or if it would have been better to go outside and be able to come over this feelings. I cried somewhat, just to let go. Then I felt better.

Some thoughts about the reason why I'm doing this. I had some good talks with some of my hosts (or friends of hosts) who were able to see behind the adventure part of my journey and therefore could see some parallels to their own life and desires. I met also a middle aged woman in North Rhine-Westphalia who asked with a mixture of incomprehension or lack of understanding and curiosity:"Und wozu dat janze?!" And asking for a goal is totally the wrong approach. I wanted to stay on my own. I wanted lo leave my usual life context. I even don't want to have an "usual life context" (will be continued).

I went to the library and got a internet computer guest account for one hour, then an extra hour and then an extra half hour – and all for free. My Ireland plans start to take shape – I think I will cycle the coast clockwise and end up in Dublin and then probably crossing the country up to ferry harbour close to Cork, all in all around 1.500 kilometres. No strict plan but a mental image. I have gotten some nice replies to my saying hello to the Irish world – hi there, I will come to Ireland and stay for about a month. If you would like to get to know me, I will come to your place. Please answer so that I can plan my route.

Then I took a walk along the coast. Here in Margate they have one of these small amusement parks which are popular at the English coast. To me this looks somehow strange – but no so weird as all these casinos with lots of slot machines and other vending machines and robots, I only knew from Terminator 2 or Tron. German amusement halls have a totally different character, and you have to be at least 18 years old to enter.

I had a great sundown sitting on a wall in front of Allans house and also doing some Tai chi. A special moment. I was really thrilled

When Allan came back, we visited a pub were live music is played and we came for this special band Allan is friend with. The Zen Bicycle Band, playing a "free form flowing stream of connectivity between three players". To me it sounded jazzy – and very, very good. Eventually the right moment to do some also jazzy sketches. Allan and I had an intensive talk about our understanding of friendship, and I also did some drawings, which were signed by the musicians – the liked my work.

  

From France up to England

Friday, 12th of August. Slept quite long, spent some time in the internet and had a nice chat with Elise, so it was 12:30 when I left Elise's and Julien's place. 20 kilometres left up to the ferry harbour, cycled the road Julien had shown me yesterday on Google streetview. Great cycling among the dyke – proper dike, but also arduous (called Dig du Breack). No tourists, only some fishermen. Arrived harbour at 2 P.M. after 775 kilometres since I started in Bamberg, that's the time the ferry goes – damn, but then I learned that checking in needs lots of time anyway. While waiting to enter the ferry I saw some people playing boules.

It's unbelievable how many cars and trucks fit into this ferry! And I was the only cyclist (so I was prominent – many people called out to me, if they identified me, the amazing cyclist). As I had a look at the interiour I felt immediately like being inside Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. People of all ages and sizes (that means height and width), myriad restaurants, casinos and gambling machines for all ages… all offering dissipation and entertainment by spending ones money. Furthermore public address announcement every few minutes, either friendly and impersonal like a hitchhiker's door or so extremely enthusiastic and British. Normal and strange at the same time. Kind of surrealistic. As you can see, I'm not really used to such settings. In my conception you are able to go outside onto deck of the ship.

I had a nice chat with an English lady – thank you for spending some time with me! She told me useful details about England (time zone – the ferry company fooled me as it wrote departure: 4 P.M., arrival: 5 P.M. pretending that the passage would only last one hour…, Great Britain road types and some more). England exerts itself for appearing likeable. When we came within eyeshot, we had a bright side to White Cliffs of Dover.

When I arrived in Dover first I had problems by following the bicycle guiding line at the harbour, then suddenly I realized that it's left-hand traffic in this land which made me totally confused. It went even worse, when I tried to find my route within all this traffic in town, my stomach felt very weird, just knowing I was doing wrong with being on the left. It took me some time to discover how this left hand cycling works, at first I didn't had a behaviour pattern about how to turn to one's right without ending at the right side. It really frightened me and I was close to cry, as I had to act in a way, I knew it is wrong – not even wrong but also extremely dangerous. In my normal life context. It also felt very strange, like being in a mirrored world (and in this way only two-dimensional), which wasn't the – so called – real one, so anything else could appear as maybe being not quite real, too. A weird feeling about when everything is losing its matter and structure and coherence.

Leaving Dover I had a very exhausting cycling upon the hill leading to Dover Castle. Please follow the (not so exhausting) route up to Dover Castle on Google streetmap, by following A254 (maybe you first have to revolve and look in the converse direction) respectively Castle Hill Road and Constable's Road… – What do these cycle path signs mean? Why do they always start and end?

View Larger Map
When you reach the point where Connaught Road goes to the left, have a look to the left and enjoy this great outlook all over Dover! Believe me, it was really high angle. When I tried to cross road and cycle upper road to the right, it once – and only this time! – happened to me, that I ended up at the right side, and while realizing, some fast cars were coming towards me (notice the windy road), it was quite shocking, but not that bad as this constantly feeling of doing or being wrong, to act against the best of my knowledge. I am pretty sure this wasn't about missing faculty of abstraction but about can't trust myself, my knowing, my feelings, my body signs. Shortly after I was able to cool down and inure to this usage.

I like England and the English East coast. I like this old fashioned house building style. It was somehow hilly but easy to cycle, and – big surprise – there was no wind at all. Sometimes I cycled the coast. I cycled through Deal (which is located at the coast), Sandwich (Sandwich ist absolutely great, absolutely worth to come back!) and Ramesgade up to Margate. Great landscape and a beautiful sundown… – They must have another sun as we have at the continent, so bright, it just moved me away.

One of my bike's back end wheel spokes did break, I'm not really sure what to do about. Repairing would probably cost so much, it would be easier to buy a new rim, but in that case I could also wait till the defect enlarges oneself and shows some impact, what it isn't doing right now.

I arrived at today's couchsurfing host Allan's place after sundown (I had cycled around 45 kilometres from Dover), and he offered me a bubble bath – what a great pleasure! I felt extremely good at Allan's place and actually also before. I desired to stay any longer. When talking about, Allan and I agreed, that we would like to spend some more time together.

We spend the evening, or let's better say, the night with tasting much alcohol from all over the world countries, each bottle with its own history. Meaningful experiences about Allan's life. Each sample was accompanied by a song I played on my (right now five string) guitar, which was anyhow connected to the country, some ingredients or any other connection I was able to make (sometimes just a one word connection). I sang and translated Griechischer Wein from popular Austrian singer Udo Jürgens as we tasted Greek wine, I sang Hörst du die Regenwürmer husten? as we tasted original Tequila with worm… It was a remarkable night, magical atmosphere. It was close to 2 A.M when we went to bed, to me that meant I went to my Greek styled room with fine outlook at the coast.