Three days, two flats, one epic bike tour

I finally did, what I planned to do for a long time: Biking from my first to my second flat. I did it in three days. 214 kilometers with 1750 meters uphill.

The tour

As the total was planned to be about 200 to 210 kilometers, I decided to split it in three parts, each about 70 kilometers long. That’s a distance I was confident to manage in a day, multiple days in a row.

The first part was from Kassel to Göttingen, a tour I already did once. The first part of it is along the river Fulda on the “Fulda-Radweg R1” and then the second part through some small mountains along the “Weser-Harz-Heide-Radweg”. But as I booked a hotel on a hill a bit outside the city center of Göttingen, I had some steep hills at the end of the first day. But I managed to do it fine. I just think I drank and ate a bit too less on the first day, as I was quite exhausted at the end and had some headaches (much better on the second and third day). But after some relaxing, I was still able to take the bus to the center and discover it a bit.

The second part of the total tour was mostly along the “Leine-Heide-Radweg” and then followed by a part of the “EuroVelo 2”. I took care of eating, drinking and resting enough, so I managed to finish the longest of the three parts (76.8 km) without problems. This part included more cycle paths along fast streets and the wind also increased, but it came mostly from behind and the cycle paths were in acceptable conditions (some were awesome, some not so much). I reached my accommodation in Seesen quite early, so I still had time to walk through the small city and get something to eat.

While I started the first and the second day around 10 am, I started for the third part already a bit earlier, as I saw that it should get warmer (instead of 20 to 22 degrees, up to 27 degrees). Only the first few kilometers continued to follow the EuroVelo, but then I had to ride on roads for most parts. I like roads because you can drive quite fast on them and the conditions are usually much better for bikes than many cycle paths (that’s sad, but Germany as a car-focused country doesn’t care about bikes that much, at least not in rural areas), but I also dislike roads due to the cars. It’s a bit stressful when cars are overtaking you at speeds of 100 kilometers per hour. But Komoot did quite well and chose mainly not-so-busy roads and also all the cars had enough distance when overtaking. I managed to reach an average speed of 23 km/h on the third day and reached my second home still at noon.

The accommodations

The first night was in a 4-star-hotel. I managed to get a room for quite a good rate. The room was small, but enough for just myself and my two bike bags. The breakfast was also nice with a great selection. The breakfast room also had a terrace with a panorama view.

The second night was in a hotel with a bit lower standard, maybe two stars. It was ok, but the room made the impression it was last renovated many years ago. And the room smelled like it was probably a smoker room before. Also, the breakfast was quite limited. But at least the people were friendly, it was cheap, and I did not have to sleep in a tent.

The gear

My bike did well. I’m so glad I did not buy a road bike, as my bike has the perfect tires to ride on all the roads and paths I came along the way.

My bike bags had enough space for all the things I needed on the tour. Even fully packed, the low rider position of the bags was no problem. I don’t have any arguments why I chose the low rider rack, except that they were easier to mount, but I also can’t find any arguments against it. It didn’t limit me in any way on the tour.

Just a few days before the tour, I quickly ordered a new bike short from Decathlon and an “anti-friction stick”. I still had two other bike shorts from many years ago, but decided to wear the new Decathlon short at first. And I liked it so much better than my older ones! It has a perfect fit and saved my butt from pain. 😅

Komoot on my Galaxy XCover7 worked great as well. I noticed how helpful it is to also enable voice output for the navigation instructions in addition to the map on the display.

Conclusion

I’m so happy after this tour and that I used some left-over vacation days for it. Doing the tour on weekdays had the advantage that it wasn’t too busy on the touristic bike routes and all stores were open. Also, the weather at the end of August was just perfect. And this mini vacation offered a good break from work.

I can totally recommend doing multi-day bike tours! 😄

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