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04.09.2021 Via Claudia Augusta Part 3: Vacations.

In Italy, our trip turned into a sunny and relaxing (and, we felt, well-deserved) holiday. Instead of following down the Adige river, the original course of VCA, we made another detour to Lago di Garda, very conveniently located just a parallel valley away. We were not far from our final destination anymore, which shortened our daily cycling stages. We were thus able to really take our time moving along the lake – and across, by ferry – which allowed us to get a good idea of the lake’s very diverse shore areas: windsurfers’ and climbers’ paradise in the north, the world’s northernmost lemon plantations in the west, and Mediterranean-like family vacation destinations in the south.
It was only a three-hour bike ride form the lake to Verona, from where a bus will take us back home tonight. We arrived here two days ago and, first thing, met up with a group of scouts from our home district. They are spending their holidays at the lake and went on a day trip to Verona, where we explored the city together.
And, being so close to it, we took a train to Venice yesterday! They say that in Northern Italy, tourist numbers are still 30 or 40 percent lower than usual due to the pandemic. So we had the opportunity to visit this unique place when it was not as crowded as it generally is. What a treat!

28.08.2021 Via Claudia Augusta Part 2: Across the Alps.

The endeavour of crossing the Alps started in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. When cycling up from there to Ehrwald in Austria, Addy realised he would not be able to go on the next day without replacing a vital part of his bike. Luckily, a bike shop team in Ehrwald was up early and ready to help him out with a brand new cog set. Subsequently, we successfully climbed to the pass called Fernpass, which is well known by German skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts as one of the main gateways to the Austrian mountains. However, this was the first time we crossed it off the main road and were able to discover the beauty of the alpine landscape surrounding the place.On our way down to and along the Inn valley we made two new cycling friends, Noemi and Urs from Ulm. They had chosen the same route through Martina in Switzerland, up some gentle serpentines allowing us to climb 400 metres in about 6 kilometres, and across the next pass: Reschenpass on the Austrian-Italian border. We spent the night near the lake of the same name, which is known for the church tower – a relict from a village that was flooded during the creation of the lake.The weather was a lot warmer and sunnier in South Tyrol than it had been further north, which unfortunately meant that finding free pitches at campsites suddenly became a real challenge. Besides, most Italian campsites do not seem to expect travellers to arrive with just a tent instead of a caravan. On the bright side, there were two massive rewards waiting for us: First, a pleasant downhill ride of about 100 kilometres, past Merano and down to Bolzano. Second, a wonderful dinner with Addy’s colleague Ute and her husband, who live in the picturesque town of Kaltern.

23.08.2021 Via Claudia Augusta Part 1: Staying with friends.

Yes, we are cycle touring again! This time, however, the time frame is a narrow one. Technically, Eva’s summer holidays last six weeks, but Addy has only taken three weeks off from work and so we are now off on a cycling adventure that is limited to about 18 days. The route we have chosen is an ancient Roman path across the Alps called Via Claudia Augusta. It will take us from Southern Germany to Austria, Switzerland and Italy. And yes, it will involve some mountain pass crossings on the way – exciting!
The first stage started in our rural hometown and took us down to the Austrian border in four cycling days and one rest day. We passed through Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen and reached the starting point of Via Claudia Augusta in Donauwörth. We followed the route to Augsburg and stayed with Becca and Daniel’s lovely German-American family, who we had contacted through the Warmshowers network. Next we had to deviate from Via C. A. a little bit to visit Eva’s best friend Caro and her family in Munich. This alternative route most
conveniently took us to the places of Addy’s friends Benni and Aziza as well as Lisa and Daniel, so on the entire German stretch we had lots of fun staying with friends, playing with their children, seeing their new homes, sharing drinks and meals and making memories together.

18.12.2020 New Adventure.

We have just said ‘I do’, or as the German line goes, we have given our ‘yes’ words. After a journey of 13 years, we stopped for a moment to confirm that we want to cycle together for the rest of this tour, to express it in biking words.
Even when the current coronavirus restrictions only allowed for five people at the wedding ceremony and although we could not invite more than one other household to the party, we decided to do it anyway, despite these special times. On the bright side, all those limitations make us focus on the most important aspects only, and we are sure there will be other times and, one day, we will have a big church wedding with all our friends and family.
#scoutbound #wedding #schrozberg #adventure #rings

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12.08.2020 Cycling home. For the final almost-350-kilometers leg home we left the Iron Curtain Trail and went into the Fulda valley. We followed the river up to the city of Fulda, where we had already stayed for a night at the beginning of our journey. Unlike back then, Addy's friend from uni times Konrad and his girlfriend Tugce were in town and invited us to stay with them. They showed us their neighbourhood and the city centre, which was really nice because the first time we cycled through Fulda it was raining and we could not enjoy the visit. Next, for the first time and just for half a day, we took the same route as we had taken when leaving home in June, and we stayed in another place we had passed through more than two months before: Rieneck. That is the place where the scout-run castle is we had wanted to stay at back then. Now it was open and so it was possibe for us to spend time there, explore the castle and sleep on top of the highest tower. This was admittedly one of our very few contacts with scouting on this journey. Unfortunately, scouting was banned in the GDR and just a few groups have been founded or reactivated during the past 30 years. So while we coincidentally bumped into a few small groups of scouts in Erfurt, on top of Brocken and in between, we could not really arrange any meetings with local members of the movement. After two weeks of pure sunshine and temperatures of up to 30 degrees, which made sleeping under the open sky easy and pleasant but cycling quite challenging, especially around noon, we reached our hometown of Schrozberg today. #scoutbound #cycling #bikes #worldbycycling #fulda #rieneck #burgrieneck #würzburg #alterkranen #festungmarienberg #marienberg #fuldatal #dpsg #pfadfinder

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29.07.2020 Final sprint on the coast. While our homeland cycling adventure is far from being over, our days near the coast are drawing to an end and we are going to turn inland soon. And maybe the area has some sort of secret plan to leave a very good and long-lasting final impression on us – by all means, these past few days have been full of special experiences. After leaving Rostock, we pedalled through the pretty seaside resorts of Heiligendamm, Kühlungsborn and Rerik, catching glimpses of the narrow-gauge steam train 'Molly' that takes tourists from the station in Bad Doberan to the coast. We spontaneously stopped to visit the old windmill of Stove, which was fully operational until a small accident occurred in 2019. However, the volunteers running the mill and giving highly informative guided tours of it are confident that they will have the funds to have the problem fixed in the near future. We paid a brief visit to the city of Wismar and cycled on to Travemünde, where we took a ferry and then hurried on to Bad Schwartau to meet Meike and Sammy, who had literally just come back from a midsummer regatta to the northernmost point of the Baltic Sea. It took their little sailing yacht Kostbar almost two weeks to take them all the way up there, but they made it just in time, as the last crew to finish, and won a special prize for the smallest boat. What a cool experience to meet them and to spend one night on board the award-winning boat, if only in the marina. From Bad Schwartau, home of a jam brand known all over the country, it is only a few kilometres to Lübeck, where we embraced the opportunity to visit a big museum dedicated to the history of the Hanseatic League. Having been to Stralsund, Rostock and Wismar before, we had seen how their old city centres, impressive red brick storage buildings and splendid merchants' houses testify to former power and prosperity, but we did not have any detailed information on the nature and history of the League. The museum, however, definitely did fill us in! #scoutbound #cycling #worldbycycling #bikes #windmill #windmühle #stove #molli #wismar #lübeck #schwartau #badschwartau #hansemuseum #midsummersail #holstentor

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26.07.2020 Ports and boats. Instead of taking another ferry, we left the island of Rügen via the bridge that connects the island to the city of Stralsund. We strolled through the pretty harbour area and spontaneously decided to visit Gorch Fock, a three-mast ship no longer fit to sail the seas, but anchored right there as a museum vessel. While 'Gorch Fock' is a household name in Germany, some people might ignore that it is actually shared by two large sailing training ships, and that the older one has a really intriguing history and is said to have been 'reborn' twice in its course. Built in 1933, she was deliberately sunk by the German Navy in 1945, but retrieved from the bottom of the sea two years later to be given to the Soviet Union in the context of war reparations. What a special experience to walk the decks and interior of this old lady! Our next destination was Rostock, another hanseatic port city, where we stayed in a shared flat located in a spacious urban villa. We were hosted by Willy, who is an expert in nautical science but now commits himself to political activism and creative projects. He is an extremely sociable and helpful person, so thanks to him we did not only get to know his lovely partner and various cohabitants, but also four more cyclists passing through the city. Willy says that within a single year, he is easily contacted by about 100 travelling strangers in need of a place to sleep, and that he is dedicated to finding a solution for everyone, even when he is not home or his place is already fully 'booked'. The best place for boat spotters is Warnemünde, Rostock's seaside district, a picturesque little place that we visited yesterday afternoon. We were there when we learned that Meike, the friend we made during our New Zealand sailing adventure, would soon arrive in Lübeck, yet another port city, by boat. And coincidentally, this is where we are going next! #scoutbound #stralsund #gorchfock #ozeaneum #warnemünde #lighthouse #leuchtturm #igapark #warmshowers #traditionsschiffdresden #rostocker #rostock #pornobrunnen #bier #mecklenburgvorpommern #mv #germany

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11.06.2020 Four days, four states. Germany is made up of 16 federal states, six of which are often called the 'new' ones because they only became part of the Federal Republic when the two German states were united in 1990. As it is technically possible to drive through the entire country in a single day, travellers can visit different federal states within a very short time. By bike, we have managed to go from Baden-Wuerttemberg to Bavaria, Hesse and Thuringia in just the past four days, with Thuringia being the first one of the 'new' or formerly communist states which we want to visit in the upcoming weeks. Where Hesse adjoins Thuringia, we came across Point Alpha memorial site, where preserved watchtowers and other historical structures bear witness to the time when there was an inner German border. These days, state borders are merely marked by roadsigns, but you will notice that dialects and gastronomic specialities change when you enter a different state, and ALDI South becomes ALDI North at some point. Due to federalism, we have 16 different school systems, so sometimes people living in the same small country do not know what exactly a student from further north or south is talking about when they say what kind of school they attend. Public holidays also vary. This morning, we started the fourth day of our journey in Fulda in Hesse, and had anticipated that they would be celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi today. Knowing that all shops and supermarkets would be closed, we went for some groceries the night before – only to learn that in Berka/Werra in Thuringia, where we arrived this evening, it is not a holiday at all, and that we can well go to the shops here. Coronavirus regulations are also different in each state, so while we have been fine in most places, we had some trouble finding accommodation in Bavaria, where some campsites and, much to our regret, an interesting scout-run castle which is also a hostel were still closed when we passed through. #scoutbound #cycling #worldbycycling #dpsg #vcp #rieneck #montekali #kalimanjaro #fronleichnam #pointalpha #hausaufdergrenze #fulda #berkawerra

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19.04.2020 From lockdown to quarantine. We are back home, and it has been almost a week since we arrived. What felt rather surreal in the beginning is now the new normal: We can follow the development of the global pandemic from the shelter of our own home – and, by the way, from there only. Due to a policy introduced only recently in our federal state, we have to stay home 24/7 for two weeks after our arrival. It is very similar to what we did in New Zealand before leaving, minus the occasional trips to the supermarket or around the block that we could go on once in a while, because now we are supposed to isolate ourselves at home at all times. Thank God there are friends and family members nearby to leave groceries and puzzles on the stairs outside our flat. Or the occasional bunch of flowers and cake, for it was Addy's birthday only two days after our  return. We would have loved to celebrate it in New Zealand, somewhere on the road – but we made it an okay day anyway. We really miss Paul's garden, as the weather is upsettingly perfect right now but we can only enjoy the warm spring sun from our tiny balcony. There are many not-terribly-exciting things to do in the study, like paperwork and general decluttering, and we also fill our days with phone and video calls, some indoor yoga and, of course, cooking. We turned our bathroom into a hairdresser's for an afternoon, and there is of course our bike workshop in the basement. Elfi and Alter Falter have been reassembled, and are now dreaming of better times, or an exciting future trip to the supermarket maybe. #scoutbound #schrozberg #quarantine #cycling #covid_19 #corona #stayhome

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