London to Berlin / Poznan (Poland) - Short ride along video - Into Eastern Europe [1080p]

[RobCyclist]

Hi everyone, I've just finished a video that took me a long time to make, a ride along (gopro) tour video of my London to Poznan (Poland) trip, going through Netherlands (Den Hagg, Utretch, Arnhem), Germany (Munster, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin), Poland (Poznan). It's a 15 minute video that gets to Hamburg in 4 minutes so it's quite quick...difficult to make.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilBeQ4p_dWQ
[watch in 1080p]

I was away for over 3 weeks. 4 full days in Berlin, 2 full days in Hamburg and 2 days in Poznan
Poland was my favourite country very different. Lots of trees, not so nice flats and the R1 / R2 cycle routes that go to Poznan have an unusual amount of sand tracks which I thought were interesting.
I had the sun most of the way, heat wave in Hamburg. And every day in Polska was 30 +
Really enjoyed the trip.
I got a really bad cough (from pollution) in the end so had to end the trip sadly (wanted to head for Warsaw). I got the train / Hook of Holland ferry home from Poznan (28 hours).
I didn't get one puncture or mechanical problem on my 1488 miles. :P
I followed the popular Europa radweg R1 cycle route going to Berlin for about half the journey, I diverted from this route so I could check out Hamburg. A very cool port.
My longest ride yet. And my favourite.
The cycle routes from the Polish border to Poznan were much better than most UK national cycle network routes I've been on, and I wasn't sure what to think of the polish drivers at first but they always pass with room. My experience of poles were very friendly, I got invited into someone house (13:12 on the video), and some polish "rapper" I met in the border town Koztryn let me use his computer to download some maps for my gps. I only had maps for London to Berlin :/

I hope you enjoy if you watch. :P For me the route from Dutch Border - Hamburg was below average, Hamburg to Berlin was very nice. And Berlin onwards was amazing. Would recommend.

Poznan;

Polish Border

If anyone had any questions I'd happily answer.

Thanks!
Rob.

 

[Glow worm]

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed every minute of that. Looks like a great trip. The sandy tracks looked like hard work.
I'm planning a mini tour in July, only as far as Breda (NL) - wish I was going further now!

 

[Haitch]

Very nice, Rob. Agree Berlin to Poland is brilliant. Thanks for that.

 

[RobCyclist]

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed every minute of that. Looks like a great trip. The sandy tracks looked like hard work.
I'm planning a mini tour in July, only as far as Breda (NL) - wish I was going further now!

Hey thanks mate, nice words I really enjoyed the trip and making the video. And yup the sandy tracks were difficult as the weight of the bike and small tyres meant I kept getting stuck in the sand.

And nice I hope you enjoy your trip to Netherlands, when I said " For me the route from Dutch Border - Hamburg was below average" I meant the German- Dutch border. I really enjoyed Netherlands

 

[RobCyclist]

Very nice, Rob. Agree Berlin to Poland is brilliant. Thanks for that.

No worries, thank you for watching

 

[ActiveCampers]

How did you get back?

 

[Floating Bombus]

Excellent video, really enjoyed it. You seem to have spent a lot of time exploring, which is good. It also looks like you have an affinity with hunters' hides!

I lived in Poznan briefly and elsewhere in Poland; those flats are not exciting architecture but can be pretty comfy to live in. The sand tracks take some getting used to; took me over a year. They're easier when the sand is wet as it forms a harder surface rather that acting as powder. I always found the drivers gave a lot of room, which is kind of odd considering they're right bastards to each other and also to pedestrians.

I presume the bear was in some sort of zoo?

 

[RobCyclist]

How did you get back?

I got an overnight train from Poznan to Colonge Germany. Arrived at Colonge station at 7 in the morning, then got another train to Rotterdam. And another to Hook of Holland, got a ferry to Harwich and met my dad there and got a lift back to London. Took me 26 hours to get home. I probably should of got a plane

 

[RobCyclist]

Excellent video, really enjoyed it. You seem to have spent a lot of time exploring, which is good. It also looks like you have an affinity with hunters' hides!

I lived in Poznan briefly and elsewhere in Poland; those flats are not exciting architecture but can be pretty comfy to live in. The sand tracks take some getting used to; took me over a year. They're easier when the sand is wet as it forms a harder surface rather that acting as powder. I always found the drivers gave a lot of room, which is kind of odd considering they're right bastards to each other and also to pedestrians.

I presume the bear was in some sort of zoo?

Thanks man ) Yeah I really like exploring and done it as much as possible.

My tyres on my hybrid are very thin, and I was carrying all my weight on the back wheel probably about 7kg... On some sections it was like every few seconds the back wheel was getting stuck. But yeah was good fun and a challenge. Amazing nation, I'm tempted to go back sometime and carry on east. Fly back to Poznan and carry on to Ukraine or something.

I tried to make the bear look like a wild one aha, but yeah it was in Poznan Zoo. haha

Cheers
Rob