WHAT ABOUT THE BIKING?

I have been told that I have not written about the biking part of my biking trip. True! Clearly I am seeing the bicycle more as a transport mode than the main focus of my travels. And clearly no catastrophic things have happened to my bicycle (or me). It has actually been quite easy. Sure, at times the roads are bad beyond belief. Also there are 36 degrees days with the asphalt sizzling under my tires, sandy bike paths turned into mud by a down pour, and one time the Man with the Hammer knocked me out: no warning tap, just one full blow. I took a 1-hour nap right next to the road.

I bike 50 to 110 km per day (mostly determined by the next good place to spend the night) and I am an expert at manoeuvring a fully loaded bike by now. This skill was acquired by a variety of practical exams: pothole avoidance endurance test, wet cobblestone 20% grade downhill challenge, sleeping animals in road obstacle course, and the ultimate mental/physical test of keeping steady between safety rail and heavy truck traffic on winding roads during extreme wind gusts.

It is rare to take the Eurovelo 6 (*) from east to west, as I am doing. My direction is generally seen as going the wrong way but I am very happy with the decision: I started in the tougher bike travel countries so things are getting easier (at least for road quality and facilities), I get more mid-road encounters with other bikers, I am starting in warmer parts of Europe so by the time I am in Germany and France it is likely nice weather there too, and, traveling in this direction I never have the sun in my face!

(*) Eurovelo 6: also known as the Danube Route until Passau... although I am starting to think more appropriate names would be the Wurst Way or the Wine Way, or perhaps the Rakija Route or Palinka Path!