After a couple of days stop to visit Marta in Szczecin, an industrial city with a fascinating and turbulent history of changing hands and occupation, fabled to be criss crossed with underground tunnels, headed north again past the dockyards and wind turbine factory and into some nice nature reserves alongside the Oder river with a first sighting of families of wild boar, (but sadly no bison) and on up to the miles upon miles of sandy beach holiday resort coastline.

Back into Germany, and a cultural stop at Peenemunde "vengeance" weapons factory at, where the first rockets were developed (the doodlebug flying bomb and V2 rocket), and the museum attempts to celebrate the technological advancement whilst regretting the motivation and methods of achieving it.
Camped in the woods a couple of times to stay away from the busy coast, where rented e-bikes roam the forest paths between the beaches.
Passed by a recreation of a Viking outpost at Wolin, political hustings in Wolgast, and through the more charming Hanseatic town of Greifswald, though I was soon cursing as the bicycle path followed an ancient cobbled road for the next 10km.
Another little ferry to cross an inlet, another camp in the woods, passing the Nazi beach resort at Prora, and up to Sassnitz, to catch the catamaran ferry to Ystad, the shortest available crossing to Sweden

The weekend in Berlin was spent drinking copious amounts of beer and playing a football match, as Wandsworth Borough had flown out to play a summer friendly against a local team (THC Franziskaner) to the amusement of all.
I stayed for a couple of days extra sightseeing and bike repairing, but with sore feet from stomping round the city looking at things, it was nice to get back on the bike, especially as now has a full range of gears to choose from.
However, set off already late in the afternoon, so just a short stint to get out of the city and find somewhere to sleep - a nice little beach next to a lake, which when i subsequently read some signs turns out to be a nudist beach (FKK). No one else around though.
Next day, after an early pause to visit a decaying cold war era airfield complete with mouldering cold war era aircraft, MIGs and suchlike, cruised along enjoying the gears, until the rear gear cable snapped, leaving me with a choice of three, the hardest in conjunction with each front ring. Fortunately the terrain is largely flat, save for requiring a 36m high boat lift, so just a case of trying to outrun a thundery deluge along a riverside levee. This area is actually polders, as in the late 19th century the Germans hired some Dutch engineers to make the vast marshy area usable.
Having reached the town of Schwedt, next morning had a choice of bike shops and was soon fixed up to continue into Poland.

Bidding a fond farewell to Prague, headed north, through some industrial towns of soviet era concrete apartment blocks, and then just as I was hit a nice woodland track, something went badly wrong - the "other" bolt which holds on the front pannier rack sheared off. A clean break, flush on one side, but encouragingly slightly protruding on the other, if only I had some pliers to try and twist it out, but I dont, and its past closing time for most shops.

Fate had not deserted me though, as while I stood in the wood pondering, Veronica and Michael walked past, and having worked abroad and being fluent English speakers, immediately saved my bacon by revealing that the landlord of the nearby pub they were heading to had a garage full of tools and would be happy to help.
And so it transpired, after some fiddling and a spare bolt, and a beer of much relief, some fresh peas, and rare boob clouds, an hour later I was on the road again, only now with a thunderstorm hot on my tails.

Wild camped in a tranquil spot with the lightning remaining at a distance providing some entertainment, but more interestingly and a first for me, at dusk a load of bees showed up and seemed either interested in or unable to avoid my tent. Somewhat relieved that as it got dark they buzzed off.

Another little Switzerland
The north part of Czechia, North Bohemia, is characterised by interesting sandstone rock formations, gorges, forests etc, but my first point of interest stop was at an old lava flow of hexagonal basalt, a miniature giants causeway.
Village architecture is pretty, with houses built with horizontal wooden framing, which I've managed to get zero photos of, as the occupants always seem to be bustling around in their gardens.
Reached the German border by the Elbe river, with the Czech side being crammed with Chinese run souvenir and discount booze shops.


The Race for Berlin
Things happen in threes they say? Well, soon after departure this morning, two of the bolts on a rear pannier failed, leaving it hanging precariously and flapping all over the place, not ideal as I was flying down a hill at the time. Fortunately? This has happened before, and i carry spares for such occasions, although bits of string have also proved a successful fix.
An overcast, drizzly day, the hills recede until the landscape is completely flat, pastoral, the architecture dull, and nowhere obvious to refill water.

The rest of the distance to Berlin is a series of lakes and forests, with a lot of the lakes being mad made, the result of strip mining activities. One of the giant excavators is left to rust in a field. Part of a village lies abandoned due to underground mining causing "geological instabilities"
Anyway, the scenery is not unpleasant, there are dedicated cycle paths of smooth tarmac, and a couple of nice camps by lakes, one wild, one at a youth hostel.

Getting into the centre of the city seems to take an age, miles of absorbed satellite towns and suburbs, and then here we are, the Brandenburg Gate.

Stage one was getting to Prague in time for a five a side football tournament this coming weekend.

Rewinding a little, Regensburg has a nice historic city centre, which apparently we deigned to not destroy int wars, although now it is under a smouldering pile of tour groups, fresh off their river cruise ships just like the ones you see on those TV ads.
Also, while the campsite was indeed for canoeists and cyclists only, they were having a birthday party for one of the members that went on until about 4am....
So I eschewed the worlds oldest hot dog takeaway and escaped as fast as possible on a disused and fortunately shady railway line, wiggling vaguely towards the Czech border.
Much relief to camp at a small site in the woods and get a quiet night - though the morning was anything bu [...read the rest]

Turns out that today I'm on or following the route of the via Claudia Augusta, a Roman road stretching from northern Germany to Verona.

Setting off with thunder approaching, first rain drops falling, a single cuckoo calls out from nearby, mocking.
Donner and blitzen, very exciting, but soon passes and all dried out within no time, back to the baking sun.

Next village has a trail of grass clippings from church to Christ on a cross, brass band ready to go. Is it a wedding tradition or is there a Jun 16th something else? Oh. Its a south Germany public holiday, Corpus Christi. All shops are closed, and the entire population seems to be riding towards me on their electric mountain bikes... Annnd a dodgeball tournament?

Saw a bloke walking down the street with a surfboard the other da [...read the rest]

Today is marked as a big climb, but the last big climb, and a much gentler gradient than the previous. From 650m up to 1770m up into Arlberg and then turning off for the Flexenpass over to Lech. Was a bit concerned looking at the map that the cycle path would run next to the motorway all day, but in fact it was often a treat through tranquil woods - albeit with a couple of steep gravely bits which I had to push up. The main entertainment though came from an a accident blocking the autobahn and forcing all the traffic to sit stationery in the tiny side roads to watch me grind past at a stately 8 kmph.
The final part of the climb was steepest, but still comfortable thanks initially to a series of well planned hairpin bends. The final 2km though was largely up through a tunnel/gallery, where [...read the rest]