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Bike the Rhine - A Concert Tour by Bicycle

July 30, 2016: Weeks 9 & 10 - Düsseldorf to the Hook of Holland

Final Leg
Wrapping up the tour in the Netherlands.

I had a couple days off in Düsseldorf to fully recuperate and finally get my appetite back, while Eloise left the tour for a week to meet up with family for a mini side-trip around Germany. I then cycled solo towards Essen, making it through the first 20km, and the weather was hot, hot, HOT!! Temperatures were in the early 30s that day, but I didn't start cycling until around 7pm when it was (somewhat) cooling down.


I reached a campsite a couple of hours later, which was really more like an empty camper-van plot that I was permitted to set up my tent in for the night. I awoke well before 8am the next morning as my tent became an oven fuelled by the sunshine. I was relieved to feel it was not nearly as hot as I feared when I exited my tent, but still, the promise of 35 degree heat in the afternoon forced me to quickly cover the remaining 20km to Essen, and I hid in a cafe for the rest of the day. The show at Faye & Cüneyt's was lovely.


And then, once again, as my tour route resembles a game of 'ping pong', I was back on the bike the next day to cover the entire distance back to Düsseldorf for a last-minute fun show at Thomas's place.


Starting to really feel more like myself, I was up early enough the next morning to make the 65km cycle all the way from Düsseldorf to Wesel; this marked the beginning of the final leg towards Rotterdam, and I noticed the buildings and bike paths appearing more and more Dutch as I got closer to the border.


Sven, the brother of Basel house concert host Kai, hosted for me a small and very enjoyable night, and was a great host and fellow cyclist enthusiast. (Unfortunately no photos of any of these shows exist due to having my tour documenter off enjoying her break.)


El and I met up the next day just outside Wesel and we started our cycle out of Germany towards Millingen aan de Rijn in the Netherlands - a town right on the German/Dutch border. Geert and Trui were our welcoming and very cool hosts for the evening, setting up a nice garden concert and a wonderful welcome to the very chill Netherlands.


The next day for a night off we headed off to a campsite in a town called Groesbeek, which is in what I think is probably the only hilly part of the Netherlands. To get there we had to cycle back through Germany before re-emerging into the Netherlands for the last few kilometres.


Our next show was in the lively student town of Nijmegen, a short 10km away from our campsite, where a fellow "Rob" invited his friends and family out for a nice gig on a Monday night.


We cycled 30km to Wageningen the next day to meet Simon and Elsa at the venue THUIS, a wonderful community centre. We had a great audience out for a Tuesday night, and we got to learn quite a bit about the town's agricultural university, which we are told is one of (if not the) best in the world.


We now had 3 days to cycle the last 100km of the tour to Rotterdam; it felt sad that it was all coming to an end so soon, as I believe sometimes it takes at least a month or so to fully adjust to the cycling lifestyle, how long things take to get going and how much unpredictability can come with it.


We didn't get off easy though. The first day we cycled 40km, getting a nice dose of cold rain for most of the day. We somehow stumbled across a paddock of wallabies during the day, near the town of Rhenen, and we still have no idea why or how they got there.


We had a slightly wet and miserable night camping in the tent in a town not far from Utrecht; truthfully we were lucky that this was the first (and last) time this would happen this tour, considering the weather through Europe this summer.


The following day was sunny and clear again, so we decided it would be best to do the last 65km to Rotterdam in one go in case the weather was not so kind on the third day. What felt like crossing the entire Netherlands in two days was actually not that far from the truth. We watched the small town centres turn quickly into farm lands and back again; we cycled through Gouda, briefly stopping for a coffee.


Around 8pm Thursday night we arrived into the final concert city of the tour - Rotterdam - staying at the hip 'Student Hotel'. We enjoyed some overpriced Heineken beers and the view from our room, almost in a state of shock that aside from the trip to the Hook of Holland on Saturday, we were done!


The next day was a much needed work day, catching up on emails. Our mobile phones had run out of data a few days before, so we were rather behind, but it was a good excuse to go old school and just enjoy being on the bikes.


The final concert of the tour was held on Friday night at three-time concert hosts Daniel & Oliver's, two sweethearts and wonderfully cool hosts. Lots of wine was drunk, stroopwafels eaten and a wonderful final concert had.


We were up the next morning at 8am for a quick breakfast with our hosts before one last journey on our bikes, cycling the last 30km in Europe to the Hook of Holland. This last journey was a very smooth one even though we had no data and left 45 mins late; we arrived in plenty of time to board our ferry for Harwich in the UK, where we are now finishing this journal.


What started as a curious thought about where the beautiful Rhine River began and ended has become a wonderful story we can now tell.


Thanks for following along, we hope you dug the updates! Stay in touch in the usual places for my future tours both on and off the bike!


Rob Moir (& Eloise).



Bike the Rhine Video #2


Friends & followers! The second Bike the Rhine video is up. Please check it out! If you like it, don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel.
Stay tuned for the next update!



July 16, 2016: Week 8 - Wuppertal to Düsseldorf

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Leg 3 ends in Düsseldorf
Wrapping up Leg 3 in Düsseldorf!

The day after the Herne show I woke up with that same familiar feeling I've had a few times now on these bike tours. Heat stroke! Not to complain too much but this spell would have effects on me for the entire week, when past episodes only lasted a day or so. Aside from needing to sleep or at least rest during most of the days we were not cycling, I also had excessive sweating during the nights. Not a pleasant experience I hope to repeat ever again to say the least!


Luckily I had two days to try to recover before having to cycle 20km to the next concert.


I managed to get through a very cool bar show in Wuppertal, but had to go straight to sleep after. The next day I slept through most of the day, but that helped me to gather enough energy to play Kai & Pina's house later that night.


All the people who've hosted me during my heat stroke were so wonderfully sympathetic and understanding as I basically slept right up until I played, and again right after selling a couple records and saying hello to the guests. Not my usual style!


Starting the slow recovery process, I was feeling slightly better and we managed to cycle 37km to Düsseldorf with no issues. The first part of this trip was along a great cycle path over an old railway; there was a moment where the path went through what I can only describe as a cave-like hill where lights illuminated the path for cyclists and pedestrians. What was so unforgettable was the temperature noticeably dropped to a point were I felt incredibly cold, until coming out the other side back into the 25 degree heat.

We made it to Düsseldorf for a public concert at a place called Prinz Albert, a fun new bar where they just started doing concerts. My pal Alex came down from Hamburg to open and the awesome Dirk and his friends organized a great night.


The next day was our second of three Düsseldorf concerts, a house show hosted by Anna and it was a great fun night, especially since I was recovering more and more.


The last of the Düsseldorf concerts took place in one of the most unique concert venues, Das Büdchen. It was essentially a kiosk where people came to buy beer, or at least, that's what it was on paper. In reality it was an art gallery and launching pad for the ideas of owner and incredible individual Ökkes Yildirim, a man who not only makes his own coffee, beer and merchandise but displays his artwork and inventions in this space. This place was special and I felt so lucky to experience it. Even when I was playing, customers had an entirely respectful approach to purchase so quietly or just wait for a break altogether, so as not to disturb the concert.


Stay tuned as the tour as the tour leaves Düsseldorf, starts a new and final leg towards the Netherlands!



July 09, 2016: Week 7 - Bonn to Herne

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Kleinenbroich
At the show in Kleinenbroich.

I played two last concerts in Bonn, one at friend Andrea's, in the communal garden at her place on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and another at a student common room hosted by some very cool girls who were studying there.


Over the next two days we cycled 53km through the industrial areas of the Rhine past Cologne to the city of Leverkusen for a nice Wednesday night concert at Elisabeth's. She also made us an incredible celery curry that we've been talking about since!


Next we cycled 50km to a very small town west of Düsseldorf, called Kleinenbroich, to a show hosted by the sons of past Aschaffenburg hosts Bernhard & Anja. What a night it was! The boys even made some 'Rob Moir' t-shirts with an image of my bearded face. It was hilarious and heart warming all at the same time.


We capped off the week by making our way to Herne to play a fun Saturday night show at friend Janine's before having a couple of much needed nights off.


Stay tuned as the tour does a southward loop on the way back to the Rhine!



July 02, 2016: Week 6 - Bad Kreuznach to Bonn

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Rob in Bingen
The view of the Rhine from Bingen.

We pushed off from Odernheim am Glan after having breakfast with Michael, easily making it to Bad Kreuznach, which wasn't so far, and going straight to Christian's house. A fellow musician himself, he was glad to host a concert and his friends were the perfect audience. He even started off the fun night by playing some acoustic songs with his band.


The following day we were off again, excited to be cycling the "Romantic Rhine". About an hour after leaving Christian's house, I noticed that I had carelessly left behind my hat and cycling jacket, something I very rarely do, having become very accustomed to keeping track of all my belongings as I travel.


I telephoned Christian who was waiting to hear from me, as he had just spotted the items moments before. He kindly offered to cycle up and meet us, promising he was looking forward to some exercise and that the trip wouldn't put him out of his way.


In the meantime, we had bigger worries. We cycled 20km to Bingen, but on arriving, we discovered that the only bike paths on the west side of the Rhine were flooded all the way to Koblenz, and the highways on the east side were closed to cyclists for the day.


So, unable to go anywhere, we waited in Bingen for Christian, meeting up with him about 5pm. Very luckily for us, he was able to find out that the water had receded enough for the bicycle paths to reopen at 6pm; this was great news as we were anxious to start our 140km trip to Cologne in time for the next gig!


When we finally got going, the path was all it promised to be; we passed castle after castle and the views across the river at the picturesque towns on the east side were amazingly beautiful. Since it was now late in the day, it was almost silent with only a few bikes passing us. There were a few puddles along the way, forcing us to lift our feet and cycle through slowly so as not to get too soaked, but it was almost too fun and nearly - nearly - worth all the rain we've endured.


We found camping for the night about 15km up the Rhine, near a town called Bacharach, just in time to watch what was to be Germany's last game in Eurocup, against France.


The next day we continued onwards, stopping in towns Oberwesel and Boppard for lunch, coffee and snacks, all the way to Koblenz where we camped for the night, cycling 52km in total. This was some of most pleasant cycling and most enjoyable scenery - the highlight of the Rhine for sure. We spent the following day cycling 42km from Koblenz to a campsite that we happened upon in a town called Remagen, which actually turned out to be an old allied prisoner of war camp from WW2.


The next day was an easy 10km north along the river; despite the next night's show being in Cologne, we had decided to set up camp much further south, just outside of Bonn, as we had 4 shows lined up there in the next week, and it didn't really make sense to cycle all the way north and back again. So I caught a train to Cologne and back for the show, taking my bike on the train. It seems it's only in Europe that you can take a train, spend an evening in a major city, and return to sleep in a campsite later that same night.


The next day we had another short 10km cycle up to Bonn, our home base for the next few days. We spent the first night in a wonderful space called Basecamp Bonn . It's essentially an old warehouse full of varied campers dating back to the 1960s that you can stay in. It's incredibly designed and easily one of the highlights of the trip so far!


We had a nice house concert at new pal Carmen's, and then another house concert at friend Katrin's (the second she's hosted). I then took another train back to Koblenz to play a special concert at friends Stelios & Nina's house for Nina's birthday.


Stay tuned for the tour heading further north towards Düsseldorf!



June 24, 2016: Week 5 - Guntersblum to Odernheim am Glan

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Rob in Oppenheim
Taking a break on the way to Odernheim am Glan.

We had an easy cycle from Darmstadt, only needing to cycle 30km, crossing to the west side of the Rhine to a small winery village of Guntersblum. Once we got out of the city (which requires the skill of cycling the tight area between the tram line and curb while avoiding passing cars), we were into the countryside, coming upon our first "water taxi" of the trip at Nierstein. This was a new experience; we weren't sure if we needed to ditch our bikes for a ticket office first. It turns out tickets are bought on board while the ferry is in motion, at about 5 Euros for both of us and our bikes to cross.


On the other side of the river we cycled through some small towns (Oppenheim, Dienheim, Ludwigshohe) and the wineries in between, and while the weather was calling for rain later in the evening, we had this absolutely incredible view of the beautiful day it had been with this vicious storm just starting to dog-ear the page of the sky. You could see it growing slowly like a parasite and with only single digit kilometres to go, we could take the time to appreciate what was soon to happen rather than worrying about how to stay dry.


We arrived at Osch's home in Guntersblum, which has been built on top of an old winery. The cellar would be the stage for my concert, and what a sight it was: candles in old wine bottles trailed the stairwell down to rows of seats, old wooden wine crates everywhere. I left my guitar case in one of the huge wine barrels that had been converted into a private dining area for 4. The show was great, and was topped off by playing a duet with Marieke (Osch's partner) on the cello. She had got in touch with me to arrange this as a surprise for Osch! We played a couple of cover songs and he loved it.


After we said our goodbyes in the morning we had quite the trip up to Offenbach, where I had a matinee gig at Hafen 2. This is a venue I've played a few times, it's a wonderful large space situated on the Main River (a competitor river!). The owners and hosts are so welcoming to everyone; they organise concerts, show movies, have an amazing cafe, a sand pit and outdoor areas for kids, and they even have some farm animals.


Not only are there indoor concerts all year round, they have this beautiful area for a stage next to the river. Being summer and not a rain cloud in our way, we were able to do the concert outside, which was perfect. A lot of people had come on the Sunday afternoon and it was such a great time. I played a full set and afterwards some people politely insisted that I play more songs, so after clearing this with the rest of the audience (with overwhelming approval) I played all the songs I had left - cleaned out the archives if you will - and spent the rest of the day selling albums and drinking beer with the audience. It was truly a perfect summer gig.


The owners of Hafen 2 were kind enough to allow us to stay a couple more days pro-bono in their artist sleeping quarters since they had no concerts planned in the next few days, and this served us well. We rested up, cycled into Frankfurt so Eloise (who is Australian) could vote (which is mandatory) in the federal election, and I too needed to vote... on some new handlebars. Mine had all of a sudden, with no notice, broken nearly in half in my hands the day before! I had been able to salvage them for the afternoon by basically pinning the broken part in the stem, but this was an issue in need of serious attention.


After our couple of rest days, we were to head to Wiesbaden. I woke up on that morning feeling off, like I was a step back from where I wanted to be, and I realized I knew this feeling: it was heat exhaustion. This is mostly from not wearing enough sunscreen when outside (which is a large portion of my time), something I tend to do, and have suffered these consequences twice before on bike trips. Without sounding too much like a complaint here, let's just say it would make the next few days more challenging as the forecast was promising very warm weather. However, I somehow made the 50km to Wiesbaden in one piece, and the show took place in a very cool art gallery, a venue I had played once before. The guys Stucki and Andreas are fantastic artists and they have this playground of a gallery where they can do whatever they want. It's a great hangout spot with benches and a bar stocked of all sorts of drinks, and it was another great time had by all.


Next we were onto Bingen, bringing the tour closer to the "Romantic Rhine", a section we'll get to later. We played a house show hosted by the lovely Jacob and his roommates; this was one of the hottest shows I've played as it was 33 celsius and we were on the top floor. I saw the sweat drop off me during the first song but powered through. Feeling the weight of my heat exhaustion at the end, I put myself to bed almost immediately, managing to sleep a full twelve hours.


The next day I definitely felt my strength come back. We cycled 40km along the Nahe River through some beautiful rural land and more wineries, surrounded by huge rocky cliffs: it was scenery that we weren't expecting at all. We arrived in Odernheim am Glan - a tiny, sweet village - making it by just a couple minutes before a brief but heavy thunderstorm hit. Michael was the host of the show; he had been a sweetheart the whole time leading up to the show knowing how bad the weather had been in Germany. This guy has a heart that pours kindness and thoughtlessness; for my brief time with him I watched him set up a gig just perfectly, talk about social work he had done all around the world and observed him with the members of the community who came out, how he interacted with people of all generations. He had this hearty laugh and everyone gravitated towards him. He was their mayor. He even had to leave his breakfast early the next day when he got a phone call from a friend whose house was starting to flood from the heavy rain.


As for the concert, it was lovely, and wouldn't you know, it was in an old wine cellar as well! I managed to book-end the week by playing in two different wine cellars.


Stay tuned as the tour heads continues heading north to Bonn and Cologne via the Romantic Rhine: castles and more castles.



June 16, 2016: Week 4 - Aschaffenburg to Darmstadt

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Weinheim
The beautiful town of Weinheim.

After what felt like an actual pause for once in the last 3 weeks of constant cycling and concerts, the 3 days spent at the Mainz city campsite was a nice break. From here, we made our way east past Frankfurt to Aschaffenburg. We picked the most conveniently located town on the map to stop for lunch, Seligenstadt, and to our surprise, we stumbled across the most amazing German wine festival! Unfortunately we couldn't stop long enough to partake, but it's things like this that we would never get to see if we were travelling by train or car as we usually do on these tours. The day's cycle ended in a very steep hill up to where friends Bernhard and Anja were waiting for us. This is the second concert they have hosted for me and although the last one was really really good, I think this one was even better! We had such a great time with them and their friends and family who are all such wonderful and fun people!


This was followed by a slightly easy cycle, 30km criss-crossing through the countryside to the small village of Otzberg. We had almost dodged the rain completely that day since the forecast was calling for heavy rain all around us, but as we were on our last kilometre (uphill, and on gravel), the rain started falling. Luckily it was more what I call 'polite rain' and when we arrived to meet Jutta, we received towels and world class hospitality right away. Her house was this incredible old-style country house (from memory it was 180 years old) and we felt so lucky to be welcomed there! We played a very nice chill concert, attended by local villagers and her children.


For any geography fans reading, you'll notice we have once again made a small detour from the Rhine. In fact, what we are doing is kind of a funny circle as we will eventually meet back up with the Rhine when the tour heads west in a couple weeks (but more on that later!). This circle was worth it to meet new friends and play some great shows and aside from the weather still being quite something to endure, the skies were just fantastic.


With a couple days off the bike for Eloise's birthday, we spent some relaxing time around the town of Weinheim which was excellent. Weinheim itself was a beautiful little town that we very unexpectedly stumbled upon (a little hilly though, luckily we had left the bikes at our accommodations outside town!). That whole area is very well connected and easy to travel by bicycle, tram or car both south to Heidelberg and north to Darmstadt.


After our couple of days off, we cycled a short 23km west to Ludwigshafen, a town right across the river from Mannheim, all the while watching the clouds (for a change!) to play a show at Dennis', whose house was pretty amazing! It belonged to a 90-year-old lady who had recently passed away, and he and his roommates are now renting it nearly as-is from her children - this includes her furniture, decorations and even personal items - there were even her photos still on the wall! The place had this hilarious feel of a bunch of students squatting at grandma's, but we loved it and the concert and people we met were ace.


We finished the week with a 55km trip back up north to Darmstadt where the very nice and energized Korinna organized a concert for me with her fellow students in a flat run by an Egyptian association from the university. At one point, the owner, an older Egyptian woman, walked right up to me smiling ear to ear to thank me for bringing music and this experience into a room where she never imagined such a thing could take place. She bought a CD and I left with a smile on my face, thinking that this little thing that I do can be a nice surprise to people of all ages from all parts of the world. What an honour.


The adventure continues north - stay tuned!



June 10, 2016: Week 3 - Heidelberg to Mainz

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Storms brewing
The theme of the last few weeks.

After Ettlingen I played a show in Karlsruhe hosted by a really nice guy named Fabian and his room mates. This was an easy voyage as Ettlingen is part of greater Karlsruhe anyways. Now this is where the weather has really been taking a dip, and as news spread around Europe about flooding and people injured from lightning, being on a bike in the open and therefore an easy target for lightning was playing on our nerves.


We pressed on to Heidelberg, a long trip for us from Karlsruhe and it would turn out to be one of the most challenging trips on the tour so far. The day consisted of some fun aspects such as getting lost on the bike paths and ending up on a highway that might not have been the Autobahn, but it was still no friendly road for bikes. Many cars zipped past until we decided to throw the bikes over the guard rail and slide down the grassy hill where the real bike paths lay, an exercise that took a day's worth of energy in one motion, and kinda resembled breaking out of prison.


We also got hit with a few bouts of heavy rain forcing us to seek shelter, and our route had to be completely changed when in the middle of a forest bike path an entire section was flooded. After watching one brave cyclist get near waist deep wading through, we knew the guitar and our merch would not forgive us for trying to stay on this route, so we had to turn around and find another road that would to take us to Heidelberg.


Just before 19hr we arrived at host Sean's awesome apartment in the old town; a quick couple showers and we set up for the show attended by some great people before heading out for the fireworks.


We took a well deserved rest day before continuing north to Schwalbach am Taunus, a good 100km trip which we had to break up with a night's stopover in Darmstadt. We chose the most direct path north as we were constantly followed by those familiar looming clouds, and although this was just along the highway, it was nice and easy and took us through all the small towns along the way, which is always very interesting. The next day we continued on from Darmstadt to Schwalbach where we were greeted by Dietmar and Karin of Cowhide House Concerts, and we spent a really nice evening at the gig with their guests. They're running such a great house concert project!


The next day we set out for Mainz, a short 30km ride, mostly along bike paths next to the small highways, but also some unsealed paths through paddocks which, after all the recent rain, had become quite soggy. We were again forced to change our route and headed back for those smaller highways leading us through all the towns along the way.


When we arrived in Mainz, we finally got our wish: the forecast was clear for the next 72 hours, so we got to pitch our tent in a camping site just 5 minutes cycle from central Mainz. (Some threatening clouds appeared immediately after we set up camp, but they quickly moved on without dropping any rain on us, luckily.) We enjoyed the sunshine and caught up with admin during the days, and in the evenings I strapped the guitar on my back, loaded a merch bag onto the bike and cycled to each show. The shows were all great and I even stopped by a bike store to get a bit of a tune-up before we were to head east for a detour towards Aschaffenburg.


Stay tuned!



June 2, 2016: Week 2 - Basel to Ettlingen

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Selestat-Strasbourg cycling path
Beautiful cycling paths in France.

The concert tour by bicycle hits a new direction as we head north for the second leg, looking towards Düsseldorf. This leg consists of roughly 7 weeks heading north and south along the Rhine playing concerts all over.


First stop this week was Riedesheim, where friends Christoph & Joel hosted a really great concert. The ride from Basel was very pleasant (flat!), partially along the Rhine, and partially through some French forest. We got off to a late start due to running errands in Basel, but we finally got out of Switzerland first by way of Germany before crossing over the bridge to France. How interesting this feeling of cycling between 3 countries within the amount of time it takes me to cycle half of Toronto.


The weather was back to this strange pattern of hot clear moments with rain and the threat of thunderstorms always looming, as we were expecting a full day of rain, but in reality it ended up being clear until the evening.


We crossed back into Germany the next day on our 60km journey to Freiburg, this time along bike paths that follow the smaller roads, weaving through some very small but sweet German towns. The show that night was hosted by Yann, and afterwards the guests headed to the river for a BBQ while Eloise and I opted for a quiet night in to rest our muscles.


The next day it was back in to France, again never knowing when the next thunderstorm was coming. With reports of flooding and casualties from lightning strikes around Europe, being on a bicycle outdoors all day was starting to sound like risky business. However, after our decent 55km ride, again through many small towns in both France and Germany (and mostly downhill), we made it to Selestat, somehow completely unscathed! The concert was held at Bar Le Tigre and it was great! We had about 40 people out on a Monday night and my tour even made the local news.


The next day was possibly the easiest cycle yet. It was very pleasant, along the Canal du Rhone au Rhin pretty much the whole way from Selestat to Strasbourg. It was mostly flat and was a beautiful sunny day, but there sure were many swarms of bugs we had to cycle through with glasses on and mouths shut. Again, there was an excellent turn out for a Tuesday night concert as around 50 people crammed into the back of Bar Le Local. I broke a string after the first song and decided to play the rest of the show with 5 strings to keep momentum and I think I fared quite well for a 5 string show!


After Strasbourg, the next destination was Ettlingen, and we had a couple of days to make this trip. We cycled as far as Hugelsheim (48km) before the rain set in and ended our day's cycle. Eloise and I have been hoping to camp properly this whole tour, we've got the gear and some of my favorite bicycle tour memories have been rolling into a campsite at dusk, setting up my tent and having a nice cold beer at the end of a day's cycle. I want Eloise to experience this as well. Alas with the heavy rains constantly intimidating us, we opted for spoiling ourselves at Badischer Landgasthof Hirsch with some fine dining and a dry night in. (It was worth it!)


The next day was pretty easy as we just had to cycle the last 28km to Ettlingen, where my friend Melanie welcomed us to a nice concert she hosted and a rare two nights in one place! (We usually travel and play a show every single day!) The cycle was super straight forward, along the bike paths that follow the smaller roads taking us through small towns again. This is such a great way to see the real parts of a country that you might not get to see if you're travelling by train, or by car or bus on the Autobahn.


Stay tuned as the tour heads to Heidelberg and Mainz area next!



Bike the Rhine Video #1


Friends & followers! I've finally gotten around to uploading my first vlog for the Bike the Rhine tour. Please check it out! If you like it, don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel.
Stay tuned for the next update!




May 26, 2016: Week 1 - Lake Constance to Basel

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Basel, Switzerland
Made it to Basel, Switzerland! Leg 1 of the tour completed.

Cycling Europe's second largest river and playing concerts along the way has been my dream for a while. When researching the tour it only made sense to pinpoint the 'source' of the river as Lake Constance (Bodensee). While visions of pushing my heavy bicycle and guitar up the Alps to find the true source sounded exciting for a fleeting moment, alas, deciding Constance as the source won in the logistics department.


A previous concert host Jan gladly organized the kick-off concert and even managed to pick up beer and drinks for the night on a bicycle transport. The concert was great, lots of people out with smiling faces and well wishes for the tour.


The next day Eloise and I packed up our bicycles. The two years passing since my last bike tour allowed me to forget just how much time was needed to get all the bags on, tires pumped, and everything checked. Before we had even set out, we had to change an inner tube because the valve broke off! It felt like hours passed before we finally pushed off towards Diessenhofen (CH). We followed the Rhine River pretty much the whole way there, crossing the border several times between Germany and Switzerland! The bike paths are very well marked and maintained. It was a pleasure to cycle along them, and amazing scenery too of course.


Arriving for the concert sweaty and out of breath, having completed the first 40km of the tour, it was a nice calmer concert at Flurin & Yvonne's. They are about to start a world trip in September having fully quit their jobs, and were beaming with excitement for a new experience.


The next few days were a mix of hot and hilly, and cold and rainy. The trip from Diessenhofen to Winterthur (not quite along the Rhine, but a last minute addition to the tour!) was very hilly and quite challenging for only our second day out, and even though it was only 27km, it took us nearly all day!


After Winterthur we headed to Schaffhausen. The rainy weather forced the organizer of the Schaffhausen gig to change the original plan of a riverside gig at a Luna's Crepes food truck to a spontaneous indoor venue at Tap Tab where Luna and her staff set up in the corner and no one seemed to mind enjoying the concert and crepes inside. What people can accomplish with a moment's notice its almost unfathomable at times.


On our way from Schaffhausen to Basel, which is about 100km along the Rhine, we had a day off and an ideal vision of staying in a cute riverside hotel with a nice German dinner, but it seemed every option from Schaffhausen to Bad Sackingen (which was as far as we could go in one day - 74km) was fully booked out on a random Tuesday night in late May! Our first wild camping of the night was pulled off within the city, setting up camp next to a motor home park.


Getting up extra early so as not to be yelled out, we got coffee and headed for the last Swiss city of Basel where I played two home concerts at old friend Kai's, and new friend Thierry's. Both were excellent and new friends were made.


This ended the first week of cycling and gigs with approximately 170km under our belts for the first leg, as we now prepare to head to France!



Tour Announcement!

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My bicycle set up
Photo credit: Andrew Grant of Travelling Two

Ahoy! Friends and supporters of my music project, it's with great excitement that I introduce to you 'Bike the Rhine - A Concert Tour by Bicycle'.


I invite you to follow my latest adventure as I hop on my bicycle saddle, once again taking my guitar along with me.


This tour is themed around Europe's second biggest river, the Rhine. I'll be cycling from the overall source in Lake Constance and finishing where the river streams into the North Sea.


The tour starts May 20th, running until late July. I'll be playing around 50 concerts and documenting each step of the trip on my YouTube channel.


Stay tuned!