vrijdag 26 oktober 2012

At least one guy is in Santiago

Im here, but that doesnt mean the trip went any smoother.
It almost went completely wrong.

So lets start with the beginning.
My day started with a family lunch of Belgian mussels.
After that my father brought me to the train station of Mechelen.
I had to change to a direct TGV to the airport of Paris, Charles de Gaulles.

It is technically almost impossible to carry both the bike box and the bag with the rest of my luggage.
When I left the first train in Brussels I was immediately helped by a black guy who carried the other bag out of the train.
From there I was on my own. For several hundreds of meters I had to slide the other bag with the front of my bike box. Hundreds of white Belgians stared at me but no one helped me out. I was dead by the time I had reached the other end of the station.

But when I arrived there a great surprise was waiting for me. The French railways were striking. My train was cancelled. I should have known that the French are even worse than the Belgians. At the train station they told me to take one 1 hour later. That one was definitely not cancelled. When that train arrived the staff from the train said the train would only run untill Lille, halfway to the airport.

That was enough for me. I called my dad, managed to get my ticket refunded and jumped into the first train to Mechelen, of course after sliding back the same way as I had come.

We arrived at the airport in Paris 3 hours before my flight, but I had only half an hour left when I arrived at the gate. Not a bad day in the end. I was 250 euros richer, because they didnt charge me the extra fee for the bike. At the counter they asked me something like "Do you have to pay for the bike"... I asked her to repeat that 2 times again and of course I said "Oh no, not that I know"". I was prepared to negotiate, but never thought it would be so easy.

And the next morning I landed in Santiago without any difficulties.
It took me 2 hours to repack my stuff and rebuild the bike. It all went succesfully and after one hour of riding through some of the poorest neighbourhoods I arrived in the city center. It took me some time and a few grey hairs in the library, but eventually I found wifi and looked for a good hostel. And thats where I am now.
Tomorrow I ll go sightseeing and pick up Joachim from the airport.


 I found a quiet spot far away from all the annoying taxi drivers who offer me a ride.
 Before

 After


Ready to hit the busy roads of Santiago

donderdag 25 oktober 2012

On the road (clouds)

Gargantuan (i don't know how to write it, but it is the only word that can describe it) Frankfurt airport is gigantic. As in built by and for giants. It does offcourse not help that we landed between two A380's.

The airport has 6 terminals and in order to get to my terminal i had to take some type of futuristic but yet already outdated monorail. I also got lost twice.
Staff uses bicicles to get around, i wish i had mine now. :-)
It took me about 1,5h to get to my gate where i now wait hoping to get a flight to buenos aires.

Thus are the adventures of the modern long distance traveller.

Update, i couldn't go on the flight due to overbooking. 24h waiting fir the next one is what i'm doing now. Joy!!



dinsdag 23 oktober 2012

Autumn Training = cycling in "het Hageland" in the Duchy of Brabant

Cycling in early autumn is the best! (cycling is the best in all seasons but still)

Here are some pictures of early autumn in Brabant (Leuven and surroundings), on one of the training trips to the "Little Mountains of Belgium".


Enjoy..






Probably the prettiest ringroad in Belgium




cycling and taking pictures: not easy but with sometimes pleasant surprises



thursday we're leaving, I'm stressed already.

zondag 14 oktober 2012

The Final Preparations

Finally. I found some time to write! (I am Siemen by the way, the name of the author is usually underneath the post)

After quitting my call center job in Berlin I wandered and cycled around central Europe with my girlfriend (not the cycling part), but now I'm back in Belgium and have some time to give you a further introduction into our trip.

So, what is this all about?

On October 25th the two of us will fly to Santiago de Chile. Further public transport will take us south to Puerto Montt at the Northern frontier of Patagonia, the southern tip of South America.

When people think of South America the first thing that crosses your mind is rain forests  beaches and temple ruins, but the part we are visiting is way different. Patagonia is known for its fjords, fierce winds and penguins . There are better places to spend winter in the south. But people say it's beautiful and we tend to believe them. We will cycle straight south to Ushuaia and return north by ferry around New Years.

After Patagonia we hope to travel North to Bolivia and Peru. It is an open ended trip. We will not book return flights. We go back when we feel like (or we get a job in Joachims case). Although at some point we will also run out of money and patience from our girlfriends, so we did restrict the trip to a maximum of 6 months.

People could think this trip is a last chance to enjoy life before we will be swallowed by society and do the things that are expected from us: maintain our current monogamic relationships until and beyond the holy matrimony, reproduce and work our asses off so we can maximize our consumption, but for me it isn't, although even I may fall on my knees for it very soon after meeting the love of my life a couple of months ago. What I'm trying to say is that I've been taking life as an adventure for the past couple of years. I have lived in Berlin and worked in a call center despite my degree in Political Science. Two times I have undertaken serious bike trips. Once across the United states (2010) (blog here) and last year (2011) from Germany to Morocco. After this trip even Joachim will be convinced this is the way to go. It was a trap!

We have had some misfortune with out physical health lately though. Joachim's knee was hurting a lot and he will have to do special exercises until the start of the trip. I was diagnosed with Pfeiffer (also known as Mono(nucleosis) or kissing disease) in late August. Some people don't notice it, some end up in hospital for 2 month. Luckily I wasn't sick for more than a couple of days and I am fully recovered from it for a while now.

So soon it's all starting. More's up next. Joachim has already introduced you to some of his fancy gear and I will offer you a sneak peak into my preparation as well.


I've always been a freak when it comes to travelling light weight, but with abundant electronic gadgets. I have now found the ultimate travel combination that will hopefully satisfy me during our trip. Here's a picture of all the stuff I'm bringing with a total weight of not more than 1300 grams.




Here's also a picture of my bike during one of my post-pfeifer training rides. It's a German Fahrradmanufaktur TX400. Schloss Hohenzollern in the background. 




Here's me with my friend Christian and my loaded bike (left). As a preparation for this trip we cycled 3 days together, from Tubingen to Munich.



This will be the cockpit. Handlebar bag still missing.

I managed to fit the above battery into my cycling shirts to charge my smartphone while riding. During the last test it managed to charge my phone 5-6 times. Enough for a week of cycling. The solar panel backpack on the left is useful to attract locals for conversation, but I'm not sure if it's still working after not being used for 2 years.



harold & beer

Those that know me already know harold,    those that don't, don't :)

He is awesome! He likes to conquer and that is what he does.

He is my travel companion since a few years and together we have seen and conquered large parts of europe and a small part of mexico.


Here is a picture of harold.




Further I am being sponsored by the famous Mechelen housed brewery Het Anker who makes the fabulous Gouden Carolusbeer:
http://www.worldbeerawards.com/beer/het_anker_gouden_carolus_classic-4029.html

http://www.hetanker.be/Evenementen/GoudenCarolusFietsroute/tabid/163/language/nl-BE/Default.aspx


they kindly provided me with a water bottle, o the irony..




O yes, I almost forgot, here is a picture of the bike, it doesn't look very special:


maandag 8 oktober 2012

the second

Haai,


preparations are speeding up

flights have been booked and gear bought

exciting times are coming, although I'm not realizing it as such!


I have been training in the wider area around Leuven (Belgium)

a very nice cycling area which I did not know very well although I studied in the city for 6 years..



Cycling in Belgium is both beautiful and depressing at the same time, the nature and historical sites are amazing,

the urban planning is not.




Temperatures are dropping, which is not a problem for cyclers as cycling at high speed/ with a lot of weight heats you up.

Here are some pictures of the route Mechelen - Leuven - St. Agatha-Rode (92 km, 4,30h, avg speed 23 km/h)

Canal Mechelen - Leuven


Rémy: industrial heritage

Astronaut

Leuven cityhall and some annoying tourists spoiling the view..

the first

Hi,

For those don't know me (or don't know me yet)  - I'm Joachim, a proud historian and newly graduated  Master of Conservation of Monuments and Sites. A thesis on the Art Nouveau was the cherry on the pie (as we say in Dutch) of my education.

The following links are to the master and to two friendses blogs, describing their Belgian and Greek adventures during this master.




In the following blog I will provide information and updates on our progress on the preparations of my cycling trip in south america (patagonia), and starting from november on the trip itself.

For those interested in the route: we (me & siemen) will be posting maps as well, for the moment I can tell it will be roughly between Puerto Montt and Ushuaia

https://maps.google.be/maps?saddr=Puerto+Montt,+Puerto+Montt,+Chili&daddr=Ushuaia,+Argentini%C3%AB&hl=nl&ie=UTF8&ll=-39.571822,-57.216797&spn=52.907745,104.765625&sll=-50.406767,-72.018814&sspn=0.346597,0.818481&oq=ush&t=h&dirflg=b&mra=ls&z=4&lci=bike


the following link is of a blog I used a lot for information on cycling in Chile

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=9693&v=2Ls


I finished working on my master thesis in august, after which I started working (to earn the money to spend in Chile)
Training sessions are building up (although not too excessive due to minor knee-problems (treated at Kine therapy)  using my new bike.

I am very happy with the bike, giving me the basic confidence I need to start this Journey.
In contrary to my crazy friend Siemen, I have no cycling experience whatsoever, making many friends to declary ME crazy as well.

As I am not a die-hard cycler, my main aim is to enjoy the pure wildness and beauty of the Chilean nature and wildlife. I also hope to enjoy the local architecture.

The following pictures shows my first investment for this trip: awesome 30 year anniversary Ortlieb panniers backrollers, I also bought some frontrollers in Blue.

http://www.ortlieb.de/


Europe - South America


The other main investment so far is the bicycle, a santos Travelmaster 2.6 alu, (http://www.santosbikes.com/) of which pictures are yet to come..
more info coming soon!

stay tuned!