A great time, in great places

The last fortnight has absolutely flown by, and we've had a blast in Bavaria. It's gone quickly but not so fast that we didn't enjoy every minute of it. There's been new experiences, lots of sights and scenery, quite a bit of food, more beer than wine and I'm now a big fan of dunkel (dark) beer, four hotels, six bike rides covering 260km, a couple of well, let's call them "detours" (rather than getting lost) and many, many photos. And either side of our time in Bavaria we've spent some time on the allotment, so it really has been jam packed!

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this holiday though. When I saw the pictures of the Bavarian castles in the brochure back in January I knew how pretty it looked, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so breathtakingly beautiful.  Nor was I expecting to fall a little bit in love with Bavaria and its "living simply, but living well" ethos, as well as their bread. Oh the bread... And the pretzels...

The amount of cycling was an unknown; beforehand 224km sounded like a long way, and it is. Even though I was pretty certain I could cover the daily distances I wasn't looking forward to the 49km day. Although in the end that turned out to be shorter somehow at just 43km, we don't know how but I was pleased even though MOH was disappointed. But on the last ride we notched up a 52km ride through choice and ended with the last few kilometres up hill, again through choice and I was more than ok with this. So with all our "detours" we cycled much further than the brochured amount.

Our hire bikes were good and for the first time in a long while I had 27 gears at my disposal (my own bike has just seven) and I made good use of 18 of those with the rare foray into the highest gears. I didn't need the precautionary gel saddle cover I'd taken with me and my new cycling-ish sports tops worked a treat too. I've come home with a shopping list of bike-related items including a waxed Ortlieb pannier for both my bike and (two) for MOH's, a new waterproof jacket and another cycling holiday in the Loire Valley!

NOT MY HIRE BIKE BUT A YARN-BOMBED BIKE IN MUNICH

Knowing some German was handy too although I wasn't quite prepared for the speed and volume of the spoken language, but we adapted. While our efforts weren't perfect we were understood and found ourselves doing that strange thing you do on holiday when you speak in the language of the country you're visiting and they reply in English!

Germany was a friendly country and its people pretty relaxed and easy-going and I was impressed with the amount of beer they could drink and still stay upright. The rail network was easy to use both in and around Munich and going further out on the regional services to Füssen. We quickly mastered our way around the busy Munich Hauptbahnhof (the central station) after missing our train by a matter of minutes following a lengthy delay leaving Gatwick.

The weather was mixed, there was some rain most notably on the day we visited the castles in Schwangau but the mist that came with it added to their allure. We had some sun and warm days and thankfully the large thunderstorm happened overnight rather than during any of our bike rides. The following day though the instructions to "cross two dry river beds" on our ride weren't quite so accurate!

Over the next few weeks I'll share more from our trip to Bavaria including our bike rides around the beautiful countryside, our days in Munich as well as some of the smaller towns we visited too. There'll be some photos of the architecture and of Bavaria's well known attractions including the Neuschwanstien and Hohenschwangau castles, the Weisskirche - all of which were stunning, and from our trip to BMW World and Museum, which was a totally captivating day out.

I'M STILL TRYING TO CONVINCE MOH THIS IS THE WAY FORWARD... A BIKE-POWERED MINI!

So what’s happened while I've been away?

Day 1 at the allotment

After a few short visits to the allotment to check the key worked, measure the plot and have a feeble attempt at cutting some of the grass last Saturday was pencilled in as the first day of real action. The plan was to clear some of the plot and get some plants in. As the allotment is close to home we decided to walk over there, armed with trugs of plants, all the tools we thought we'd need, some water and some much needed sun cream.

Although we might have looked like the local loons as we walked up the road in our wellies and shorts, I'd prefer to think we were looking more Tom and Barbara from The Good Life.

THE FIRST BATCH OF PLANTS TO TRANSPORT

This was the section we planned to tackle. The previous owners (we presume) had already covered it in black plastic  so we were keen to see what was underneath. As it turned out there was a lot of dry grass, some bindweed and some other random plants that we removed relatively easily. But it was hard going.

We found some old carpet and lino too and now need to find a way to dispose of this. We made good progress and MOH was clearly relishing his new promotion to Head of Digging and Chief Weeder. Our problem quickly became where to put everything we'd pulled up as both compost bins were already full - I'm not sure we have the answer to this right now, but we're working on it.

One of the compost bins looked more mature than the other, but that's the one the foxes had taken a shine to. Unsure if they were still in residence we took precautions...

Thankfully though we didn't see any foxes, there could have been some scurrying at which point we stopped digging and decided to go and do something else instead, over on the other side of the plot just to be safe! 

We were regularly visited by bees - well this unknown plant was anyway, and I saw a toad hop out of the raspberry canes too. I'm hoping we won't have to share any fruit with him...

Oh yes, and we have a bench...

Yes I don't think it's long for this world either. 

After lunch in an attempt to hurry me along MOH suggested I lay out the plants; well actually he wanted to know how much more digging was needed but it helped to see how much we'd done. There was quite a difference in levels from the back to the front of the plot, so those bricks were put in place to help keep the water on the higher level. It's a temporary solution which I hope works.

By now planting was underway and I've just realised the majority of the plants have been donated. Tomatoes from my dad and from my FIL, a pumpkin from my aunt and uncle, sweet peas from dad (well the seeds anyway) along with some runner bean and broad bean seeds from him too. Some angel wings schizanthus seeds from the seed swap - they all grew - I've planted six pots at home in the garden, and another six pots here in the allotment. Then there was some dill from my greenhouse sowing and some lavender cuttings which survived the winter.

With those planted and watered we laid down some plastic sheeting on the section we plan to tackle next. Hopefully it will at least stop the grass growing and make it (slightly) easier to clear. I've plans for some brassicas here and hopefully my climbing and borlotti beans will also germinate and be ready to move in at some point soon. And I've got a small farm of tomato plants that'll be looking for a new home...

Before heading home for a long soak in the bath with a G&T in my hand we noticed some of the strawberries were ripe - so we left our first big allotment day with a handful of produce too. How fab is that? 

Cycle Routes: May

May was a big cycling month with plenty of long rides, and in total I clocked up just over 250 km which I'm surprised by too as it seems quite a long way. It's been a month of firsts - our first Tuesday Totter and another first which I'm less proud of but I guess it was bound to happen eventually (there's more on that further on). It's also been a month where preparation has been the theme, with some practice rides on consecutive days in Norfolk to work out what might ache when we finally get to Bavaria in June.

There's also been some mechanical problems, not for me but for MOH - his bike has been in for repairs as his bottom bracket needed replacing. All done relatively smoothly, but not so good on a bike that's barely four months old. That's had a bit of an impact on his training for the Ride 100 in August and on the amount of rides we've done in the latter part of the month.

1. A change of plan, with lunch

We started may with an easy 20k on the Bank Holiday through Greenwich and over to Docklands. Encountering Bank Holiday paced pedestrians in Greenwich prompted us to change our plans for our route back to avoid the crowds.

We retraced the route to Trinity Wharf, this time stopping in Fatboy's Diner for a late lunch/early tea.  If you're in this part of town and want to eat somewhere a bit different then this is a great place to go.

And then it was back south of the river using the much quieter Woolwich foot tunnel.

2. Our first Tuesday Totter

We joined the Lewisham cyclists for their fortnightly Tuesday Totter for the first time. They meet in Ladywell, which for us is just the other side of Lewisham so we set out in the early evening to make the 6.30pm meet time. We took a bit of a wrong turning along the way and by the time I caught up with MOH to let him know we'd gone more out of our way than we needed to, clocking up 7km before we'd even started the ride.

The Totter is billed as a relaxed ride, usually ending in the pub - sounds good to me! The plan for this trip was to head towards Tower Bridge and then back along the river to Greenwich. We'd got as far as Bermondsey last month when we ventured west along the Thames Path so were keen to go a bit further.

Because of the high winds, there was some debate as to whether or not a ride along the river was the best choice - remember those very windy days at the start of May? Yes this ride took place on one of those windy evenings - but in the end the consensus was yes to the ride, so off we set.

We cycled west along the south side of the Thames Path and then across Tower Bridge, which was pretty scary. But also in a large group of cyclists quite comforting. Ducking down into St Katherine's dock we headed back east along the north side of the river. There's a lot of docks and canals that way and one day when we cycle that way I'll stop to take some pictures, but this time I was concentrating on going forward against the wind. At times it felt like we were getting nowhere but it was great to join this friendly group of cyclists.

We crossed the river using the Greenwich foot tunnel and there we said our goodbyes as the pub was further out of our way than made sense. We did however make our own pub stop cycling along to the Trafalgar Tavern - and we discovered they served some fabulous sausage rolls! 

And we clocked up a steady 34km, not bad for a Tuesday evening ride!

3. My first falling off

So as we set out for the Tuesday Totter ride above - and before I'd been in any pubs - I managed to fall off my bike. Right outside the pub just along the road from us! I'm not quite sure how it happened but somehow both me and the bike ended up on the floor!

Both the bike and I were fine, if not a little bemused - as was MOH!

4. A practice 140km in Norfolk

I was keen to clock up some bike miles on consecutive days to see if I could physically do it. And it seems I can. I was relieved to discover that I didn't ache, or have any sore points. Phew! I did learn that our cycling clothes (even though I don't wear cycling gear) takes up quite some room. That was good practice too, as we've now booked two bags into the hold.  

We did three consecutive days of cycling each with a purpose:

1. To the pub for a pint and lunch - it's just the pub we choose was about 22km away!

2. To Sandringham for tea and cake - and a round trip of 46km.

3. To the fish shed at Brancaster Staithe to buy some fish for tea. I'd packed my cool bag in my basket, but we ended up buying a fish larger than the cool bag, so the nice lady in the shop packed the fish in a bag of ice for me. That worked well, apart from the weight. Clearly when I chose a bike with a basket I hadn't thought it through as I ended up carrying all the shopping and was even slower than usual up those hills.

5. To Maltby Street market

This meant another trip back along our favourite Thames Path. We set off heading west and then headed inland to search out the Maltby Street market.

We found it and although I knew it would be busy, I hadn't realised it was a full blown market in a small passageway. And it was busy...

We managed to wheel our bikes through the market, as all the places we could have locked our bikes were taken. Lunch was a pulled pork roll and my special feat is to balance one roll in my basket and the other in my left hand and continue to wheel the bike through the market without spilling any!

Well I was impressed. Full on pulled pork roll and the macaron I'd bought before hand we headed towards Tower Bridge and St Katharine's dock again. It was much busier this time and scarier than before, but safely across again we looked for the route we'd followed before. We missed a turning somewhere and ended up alongside the river sooner than we wanted to be. 

MOH was convinced he knew the way, I was less sure. But he was right - don't you just hate it when that happens? And then we were back on the route from the Tuesday Totter. Arriving home we put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea to go alongside that Portuguese custard tarts we'd bought at the market. Well after an almost 30km ride, I think we deserved another cake!

So that was May. June will bring cycling in Bavaria and (at least) 224 km in just six days. I expect we'll see some amazing sights, have a great time and I hope the German I've been learning sees me well. I've learnt the German for bike - fahrrad - and more importantly basket - korb - although I think the panniers our hire bike comes with are likely to be a more realistic option. I'll let you know how we get on!