Europe By Bike: July 2012

Sunday, 15 July 2012

Camping

Most of our time on tour so far has been spent in the Netherlands where we got very used to the great bike route and camping options available. Out of all the campsite options (including Nature Camping in scenic locations) we found the Minicamping style campsites to be the best. Usually on a spare bit of land next to the owners house/farm/vinyard, these small campsites have usually been the best in terms of facilities and price. The showers have mostly been free and powerful (at other campsites we've had to insert money or even buy special shower tokens to put in the machine) and usually have seating areas - a picnic bench is desirable for cooking and eating comfortably. Some of the bigger caravan-orientated sites don't have any benches for ‘proper‘ campers as everyone brings their own tables and chairs, even those few in tents (usually car-camping though)!

Other things to keep an eye out for
- hot water: sometimes you have to pay for hot water for your dishes, so before you do check out all the other sinks (shower room/bathroom) as chances are the hot water tap there will suit your needs.
- Wi-Fi internet access: even if you don't see a sign for it, have a search for a connection. Sometimes the campsite will ask you to pay (€2 for 15 mins?! No thanks..) but other times its an open/free connection. Recently, one campsite was going to charge us (upon opening the browser it told me to go to the reception and pay for a code) but our phones thought otherwise - somehow the apps were able to bypass the system and connect, giving us access to our e-mails and Twitter etc.
Bring your own... 1) toilet roll - some provide it, some don't (we don't want to chance it so always carry some, and when we're running low keep an eye out for spare rolls at campsites or cafes..)
2) Soap - like toilet paper, hand soap is hit and miss. Bring your own, or keep a bottle of alcohol hand gel nearby
3) Washing up liquid - we've only come across it once (at a hostel).. which reminds me, our mini bottle needs topping up.. (maybe later, after we've visited the zoo!)

Monday, 9 July 2012

End of week three

We're nearly at the end of our third week on tour. Passing through so many places has left me a little overwhelmed at the amount of things we have seen. Tomorrow we will be in Belgium and have been roughly planning our route for the second half of our tour. I've found I haven't been taking many photos, just like I haven't been blogging much - this is because I'm preferring to enjoy the experience rather than stopping to record the moments all the time. I'm going to continue tweeting and uploading some pictures when the opportunity arises, but for the moment the blog will be getting a rest. When I get back and have a chance to review the whole experience I may decided to blog in retrospect and organise and upload photos then. Of course, if anyone has any questions about touring I will always try and reply, and the blog will remain open for this purpose. I believe Gregor is going to keep blogging (view his website here) so keep an eye on that if you want to know what we've been up to.

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Kit review #1 - Hair-washing on tour

...maybe later, I'm washing my hair tonight...
Washing my hair on tour might not sound like anything exciting, but it was something I had to give a bit of thought to before setting off. As my hair is rather thick it can take a while to dry without a hairdryer, so to make things as easy as possible for myself I got it cut as short as I can manage (without looking tooo different from normal..) a week or so before leaving for touring. Thankfully it's usually still quite warm in the evenings and it has been getting dried quite easily. I had to also give some thought to how I would manage with carrying shampoo on tour - I didn't particularly want to take a big bottle that might leak and that I'd still have to carry around half empty, and I didn't want to buy small travel bottles as they're expensive and never last very long. So, I remembered hearing that Lush (the bath stuff shop equivalent of Subway - the one you can smell from miles down the street) did shampoo bars (?! what are these I though..) so went to check them out. The lady in the shop gave me a demonstration of how just using the bar (circular block more like) like a normal bar of soap in water created foam similar to that of any liquid shampoo. I wasn't sure as it was 5 (help, there's no pound sign on this European keyboard!) a bar, but decided to chance it when the lady told me she'd been using the same bar for 2 months (so it would certainly last me on tour!). I tested it out for a few weeks before going touring and think it might be something I'm permanently converted to once I'm back. They sell a variety of smells (supposed to be good for/do different things) and mine has lasted a while already so I'm pleased. They're fairly easy to use - wet the hair and the bar, rub the bar all over your head (whoa, a bubbly head!) and wash as normal! I'd recommend getting a tin or box to keep it in for travelling, but obviously as you've wet it it's best to leave the lid off for a while to let it dry out a bit (or it may turn to mush...ok, I made that up, but I'm not going to find out myself just in case!). So aye, give it a try if you're going on holiday (but pick a smell you like as they're quite strong and follow you around a bit..) or fancy being more environmentally friendly (no plastic bottle!) - it leaves my hair as good as, if not better than, many liquid shampoos I've tried. My bar? I'd give it a 9/10 - a point off for airing requirements.
A final brief note on my other hair-wash-time necessity, the BioEars (Google them..)! I get problems with ear infections/sore ears etc so have to be careful with them, especially about things like making sure I don't get water, particularly dirty, soapy hair water, in them. I came across BioEars when looking for earplugs for going swimming. Pricey again at five pounds a box (3 pairs per box though..), but I haven't seen anything better. Rather than the usual earplug which you shove into your ear, the BioEar covers the opening to your ear so the water doesn't get in. They're also pretty good at blocking out sound. Still don't understand what they're like? Imagine a ball of blue-tac, about the size of.. erm.. a hazelnut? (had to think for a while there). It's pliable, so squash it out flat, and press it around your ear (but not into it) to cover. They're slightly sticky too so don't just fall out. They mold to your ear, but are reusable (about 7 or 8 times per pair for me) so you can just roll them back into a ball and pop them back in the plastic box they come in! I've brought two boxes on tour but am still on box 1 pair 1 (from use every few days) so they are lasting me quite well, and guess what - dry ears! 8/10 I think for these - they're great, but once they start to dry out after several uses they lose their stick and pliability.