Days 18-19 – Two Evenings in Great Company: Fulda to Jena

Days 18-19 – Two Evenings in Great Company: Fulda to Jena

Thursday January 22, 2015, 194 km (120 miles) – Total so far: 1,594 km (991 miles)

Day 18: Fulda to Eisenach – 90.7km

Around the same time I received a response from the Warmshowers hosts in Eisenach I also received a call from my cousin, Billy who works in Berlin. He was hoping to drive down from Berlin to meet me in one of the towns I was passing through on my way across Germany. We worked out that Friday (in two night’s time) would suit best. If I reached Eisenach as planned on Thursday then I had three towns which I could meet Billy in. Erfurt which was 60km away if I wanted a very easy day, Weimar 80km away if I wanted a reasonably easy day or Jena 100km away if I wanted to get some good mileage in. We decided to leave the decision til Thursday night when I would have a better idea.

With these two plans set in motion I dragged myself out of bed in the morning and began the hilly route from Fulda to Eisenach. It hadn’t snowed during the night so the roads were in perfect condition and I made quick time on the country roads leaving Fulda. Soon enough the climbing started and I spent the rest of the morning spinning a low gear as I climbed higher and higher into the hills.

Up here there was a freeing fog down so I couldn’t see too much of the countryside around me. Due to being up so high the temperature remained around -1 and 0 degrees for most of the day. Sometimes it even managed to get up to a balmy 1 degree. In addition to this there was an icy headwind which meant if felt a lot colder. Due to this my hands suffered for most of the day. They would go numb after a couple of kilometres of riding and I would have to stop to warm them up again. Through necessity I found out the quickest way to warm them back up. This involved stopping by the side of the road and shaking my hands up and down as quick as I could followed by swinging my arms from back to front. I would do this routine repeatedly until I got the feeling back in them. I looked like an absolute mad man to anyone passing by but I was happy to pay the price of my dignity for warm hands!

Midway through the day as I crested yet another hill I was overtaken by an elderly German farmer on a bicycle. It was a bit unfair though as he had a motor attached to the back of the bike! He was absolutely flying it along the roads. He pulled in in front of me and greeted me so I pulled over for a quick chat. He didn’t have a word of English so I was able to practice my very out of practice German. I had been using this at the hostels during my trip when trying to book in and was starting to get the hang of the language again. The last time I was in Germany whenever I tried to speak the language people would speak back to me in English. This was a bit annoying as it is something I wanted to practice. But luckily this time, maybe because I was a bit off the tourist trail, anyone I started speaking German to reciprocated.

I surprised myself as I was able to have a good 10 minute conversation with him. He gave me some very useful advice about my route also. I don’t have any decent terrain data available to me on Google Maps so I can’t tell which routes and hilly and which aren’t. He was able to tell me a route that would avoid a huge climb and still bring me exactly where I needed to go. I followed his directions and ended up speeding along a perfect road all the way around the big hill I could see through the mist to my left. Being able to speak (a small amount of!) the language was giving great rewards.

After making my way around this hill I stopped to eat my lunch in the next small village. My lunch consisted of “Milch Brotchen mit schokolade”. This was the closest equivalent to Pain au Chocolat I could find over here. The amount of chocolate in it was pitiful though so I’d only give it a 1 out of 5! I hoped the Polish equivalent of Pain au Chocolat would be a bit better.

While eating my lunch I had to pace back and forth and keep shaking my hands as I was starting to get properly cold. Again, I looked like a mad man but I had given up caring about that a while back!

Back on the road I had two last climbs to do before I arrived in Eisenach. The first one was over in no time and I descended into the misty valley which Marksuhl, the last village of the day sits in.

From Marksuhl I had thought a big climb lay ahead so I prepared myself for a long slow grind. Surprisingly though the climb was over in no time and I had a good 7km of descending on perfect tarmac through the woods down into Eisenach.

I got into Eisenach just as it was getting dark. I made my way to my Warmshowers host’s accommodation. Carsten and Anna, two other cycle tourers who had kindly offered to host me for the night. When I arrived at their doorstep I was shown a place to store the bike safely and welcomed into their lovely home. I was instantly offered a warm shower while Carsten and Anna prepared dinner. In no time I was showered, dressed in clean clothes and sitting down for dinner in a lovely warm home. It was hard to believe I was standing by the roadside only an hour earlier with fully numb hands and feet, desperately trying to get feeling back into them.

I sat down for dinner with Carsten, Anna and their daughter Paulina. We had a great meal with plenty of pasta of course and even a bit of wine. I ended up having a great evening in their company. Carsten and Anna had spent over a year cycling around Europe visiting nearly every corner. They had quite a bit of experience behind them so they were able to give me some great advice for my tour ahead.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting about the different aspects of cycle touring and the different challenges it presents. It was fantastic to spend the evening chatting with like minded travelers.

Before going to bed I texted Billy the town I had decided to aim for the next day, Jena. Billy very kindly offered to put me up in a hotel there so that we could meet up and go for a meal and drinks for the night in Jena. I was happy to book into a cheap hostel myself but Billy wasn’t having any of it so I accepted the very kind gesture.

Day 19: Eisenach to Jena – 102.9km

After a good night’s sleep I was recharged for the day ahead. I had a lovely breakfast with Carsten before retrieving my bike and venturing out into the cold again. My first Warmshowers experience had been extremely positive. Between the meal, the wine, the laundry, the shower and the bed they had gone to a huge length to help me. Something I really appreciated after a long day of cycling in the cold German winter! Before setting off I thanked Carsten for hosting me and for helping me out with everything. Thinking about it I should have taken a photo with them as the blog seems a bit empty without it. It was definitely something to keep in mind in future if I want to document this trip properly.

The previous evening Carsten had described to me the best route out of Eisenach towards Jena. I followed this route out of town which took me along quiet frozen cycle paths all of the way out of the town.

Some of these paths hadn’t been salted which made for some challenging cycling but I somehow kept the bike upright through it all. Before long I was back onto country roads. These were salted so I was able to make some good progress here. Carsten had been explaining the night before about why the roads here are so clear. He explained that the instant it starts snowing the Germans are out salting the snow. The second a snow flake hits the ground they are out and crush it instantly with the salt! I was glad of this as it made the cycling a lot easier for me.

Around midway though the day I reached the town of Erfurt. Here I took a quick break to try out some Bratwurst in the main square beside Erfurt’s cathedrals. It was starting to get quite late in the day now so I couldn’t afford to hang around too long. I got back on the road and made my way along frozen roads to another cycle path through the countryside.

Around here I had a quick chat with a road cyclist who was flying along on his studded tyres. These were perfect for the ice and he had no worries at all with grip. Again I was able to practice my German as he had no English, I was amazed I was remembering so much from Mrs.Corbett’s German classes all those years ago!

Soon enough I was arriving into Weimar. I sped across the city as time was tight. I even found myself in a few impromptu commuter races with the cyclists commuting home from work. Once out of Weimar I was onto more cycle paths before emerging out onto country roads once again.

There was a heavy fog down now so I couldn’t see too much around me. With it getting dark visibility was not great so I just kept the gears spinning hoping to get over the hill and down into Jena before it got fully dark.

Unfortunately for me it got dark just as I reached the top of the hill. With the heavy fog, the lack of visibility and the amount of traffic on the road I had now joined it would be too dangerous for me to follow this into Jena in the dark. Instead I decided to follow the separate cycle path which descended through the woods.

Along with the fog it had also been snowing quite heavily so there was a lot of fresh powder on the cycle track. The next half an hour of “cycling” was very interesting. There was deep powder on the track which was hiding frozen sections of ice underneath it. Luckily for me it was all downhill so there was very little pedaling done. Instead I just pointed the bike in the right direction and ploughed through the powder, keeping one leg out to keep me balanced every time the bike started slipping. It required full concentration and there were a load of near falls but I was getting through it fine.

Then it got too dark to see so out came my headlamp. The beam on it isn’t fantastic outdoors so it was pretty difficult to keep on the track let alone see any sections of ice that were coming up. I continued on for a good 15-20 minutes in the dark slipping and sliding all over the place but somehow not crashing once. It was a ridiculous situation to find myself in but in a strange way it was actually a lot of fun!

I finally emerged out onto the last section of main road and was able to follow a cycle path here in the dark into Jena. The hotel Billy had ended up booking for me was fairly fancy. I definitely didn’t look like the usual clientele arriving into reception dripping wet and caked in snow!

In the end it took me nearly six and a half hours of cycling to make it Jena so I was delighted to relax and get a quick shower in such a nice setting. Billy and his girlfriend Juliana arrived down from Berlin later in the evening and we went straight out for a meal.

We found a great little restaurant and I sat down for my second warm meal in two days, I wasn’t used to this luxury at all! We had a terrific chat here over dinner and drinks. Billy and Juliana were great company, it made all the hard work today worth it to be here enjoying a great evening in Jena.

We went through a full three courses although they left me to demolish the dessert all by myself. All the weight which I had put on before leaving (to keep me warm during the Winter!) I was starting to lose rapidly before I had even reached the colder countries. My plan was failing miserably! So the dessert and a huge meal were going towards combating this!

After a great meal, a lot of wine and loads of good conversation we ventured back to the hotel bar where myself and Billy sat down for a few more. We ended up chatting til the early hours of the morning. There’s something nice about sitting in a nice quiet bar with the drinks and the conversation flowing, it was something I missed from back home already. With everyone else long gone from the bar we decided to finally hit the hay.

It was great to see a familiar face from back home on the road, it wouldn’t be a common occurrence from here on out. I owe a huge thanks to both Billy and Juliana for driving all the way down from Berlin to meet me, for putting me up here for the night and bringing me out for a meal. It was a lovely way to spend the evening and along with the great evening I had spent at Carsten and Anna’s the night before I was recharged for the last few days it would take me to cross Germany.