On October 15th I left Stockholm again, heading south. My plan was to ride to Le Havre, France and from there take a cargo ship to Rio.
It was a nice day for riding and my first stop was in Järna.
I enjoyed the feeling of freedom and the beautiful colours of fall.
Sometimes I chose small roads.
On those roads there could be obstacles...
...but bicycles could pass almost everywhere!
Soon I came to Denmark!
The bicycle paths there were much better than in Sweden!
I rode over several bridges.
From the bridges the views were great!
In Germany people were preparing for Halloween!
I also saw some strange houses!
And almost everyhere in Germany the bicycle paths were devided from the cars.
I passed a lot of small villages with typical German houses
But also nice rural areas.
The days were short so my habit was to ride one hour after dinner.
During nine of my first eleven days it was raining at least a part of the day.
Then I arrived in my sisters house near Cologne (Köln).
There I had four warm resting days while I was waiting for a new passport.
Finally I crossed the river Rhine.
And once again I had a good view!
This is my first picture of Belgium.
where the atmosphere was almost as in France.
In Liege I came to th river Maas / Meuse
which I followed more than 100 km on a nice bicycle route.
There I visited Fred, a friend of mine.
In Belgium and even in France it was allowed for bicyclists to ride on the roads amongst cars
which made it much easier to navigate because the signs are easier to find.
The colours of autumn followed me all the way south, but also the cold mornings.
Sometimes I was tired of the traffic on the big roads an tested other options.
But the cobblestones were not so comfortable...
One evening at sunset I arrived in Amiens,
the biggest french city I passed
It was nice to see a modern city by night!
When I only had one day left to Le Havre I learned to know that my cargo ship was delayed, which made me take aa detour to Dieppe at the coast north of Le Havre.
There I did some sightseeing
at the coast where on August 19th 1942 about 3200 Canadian soldiers lost their lives.
I spent several hours relaxing in the public bath.
...and continued my sightseeing afterwards
Then I pedalled to Le Havre,
where I am waiting for MS Genesis right now.
I stay with a nice warmshower host called Piérre
who is a bicyclist and musician as well!
Tomorrow I will leave Le Havre with the vessel MSC Genesis. Click on the link and you can see where it is right now!
