step by step...

where i am?

2008-01-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

im not in south-east asia now...still in cold switzerland. i will postpone my journey for about 10 months. the major reason is the weather in south-east asia. monsoon is coming there soon and it is gonna be pretty hot, so not the best time for biking.

so what do i do now? be a professional bike racer?...wouldnt be fit enougth for that...i work as a software-developer at adiuvo informatik. but i dont wanna lose my condition, if it is possible i try to do a short trip once a day.

thanks for all the people how joined my presentation in messen. the collection of donations went to beat richner, a swiss doctor in cambodia (http://www.beat-richner.ch). 409 swiss francs came together, i was very surprised! thanks a lot!

Back in Switzerland

2007-12-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

2 weeks i ago i arrived back in switzerland...but it was not that easy to fly back at all. i had big troubles at the check-in in tehran. at first they didnt allow me to take my bike with me. of course i didnt want to leave it in iran. after 2 hours i could finally check-in, with my bike :-)!

my bike at home. front- and backwheel had to be taken off.

visiting friends in zurich. thanks for the delicious indian meal ;-)! was nice to see you again after a long time!

what i am doing now in switzerland? a lot of work has to be done at the company i am employed. for me just right...i can earn money for the next trip.

the next trip will be in south-east asia. i will probably start in vietnam.

i am going to hold a presentation about my trip on wednesday, 9th january, 20:00, at the pfarrschüür in messen. if you have time, i would be glad to see you!

here a map with the location of the pfarrschüür in messen.
http://www.kirchgemeinde-messen.ch/UeberUns/PlanMessen.aspx

Next country, Switzerland !?

2007-11-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

isnt the next country pakistan? actually yes, but it is to dangerous to travel there at the moment.
The swiss embassy in islamabad didnt recommend me to travel in pakistan at all.

not all embassies do their job as good as the swiss embassy in islamabad. Within one hour i got an answer! the indian embassy here in tehran is the opposite. i still dont know if i could get a visa for india. There i met a scottish who have been waiting for the visa for more than 2 weeks and still dont know if they can obtain one.

so i decided to go home, home to switzerland - but not by bike ;-). i will arrive this friday in zurich.

but my journey will go on in about 2 months. i will write later more about it...

it isnt much to see in tehran. hassan, a friend in tehran asked me to make a homepage for his company. Why not? I had time...

eating lunch at the officeHis 2. job is teacher, he teaches english and computer science at a high school. I was invited to have a presentation about web-programing there.

Well, see you soon switzerland!!!

güle güle turkey...

2007-11-21T15:18:00.000-08:00

after 6 weeks and more than 1700 km i left turkey. i very enjoyed cycling in turkey although the many high passes and the snow. thanks to all turkish people who helped me and invited me to drink cay. tesekkür!!!!! I had a fantastic time!! i promise i will come again one day...

the highest mountain in turkey, ararat. higher than the mountains in switzerland (5137m)

salam iran...without any problems i could cross the border to iran. the first days were not that easy...get money, long distances to cycle, police and dangerous drivers...

...get money...it is not possible to withdraw money on atms. and creditcards are not accepted. you have to take cash in dollar or euro with you and change it in iran. but only a few banks in bigger cities change money. it took me a long time until i got iranian money (rial).

...the distances between cities are long. on one day i drove 117 km to reach the next city (marand). i arrived pretty late. fortunately i met magid who helped me finding a hotel.

later on i went with his uncle to a swimming pool and sauna. just the right after the hard day...

...police, your friend and helper? they stoped me on the road and checked if i have any drugs...fortunatelly they didnt see my washing powder ;-)...

...it is pretty dangerous on iranian roads (for foreigner). especially in cities..there it is horrible. an iranian guy wanted to show me the way with its bike in tabriz. he was just driving next to me as suddenly a car hit him...fortunately he didnt get hurt so much.

tabriz has one of the biggest bazar in iran. they sell carpets, fruits, tea, seasonings and so on.

goodbye erzurum

2007-11-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

I couldnt just drive on after taking the wisdom tooth out. No sport for some days.

I stayed 2 more days in erzurum. On the last day was a rock concert. A friend's friend sang in a restaurant. She has a fantastic voice! The concert was marvelous.

Thanks for the great time in erzurum. I will miss all of you!

When i left erzurum the roads where covered with snow. It was not easy to drive...i fell down more than once, but the ground was soft ;-)

It is not possible to overnight in the tent anymore - too cold. Hotels are only in the bigger cities. So i overnight often in ögretmen evi (teacher house).

Teachers and the schoolmanager playing their favorite game (in eleskirt).

A teacher invited me to go to high school in eleskirt. The students asked me many, many questions...about my journey, me, switzerland, religion and so on. Finally i went to 6 different classes and was in the evening almost more exhausted than after a cycling day ;-). But i had a lot of fun!

Erzurum...

2007-11-10T01:39:00.000-08:00

...the coldest city in turkey. Even though turkey is pretty in the south, it snowed already in erzurum. It is so cold here because erzurum is 2000 meter over sea level.

A hot cay (tea) helps me warm me up. People in this region dont put sugar in the cay. But it dosnt mean that they dont use sugar. They take a cube of sugar in their mouth and drink the cay. The sugar they have is harder than normal one.

I met Murat and Ümit who showed me erzurum. We went to their university and i joined them to go to english class. We learned the continues form ;-)

After horrible 2 minutes the wisdom tooth was out and i was happy that it was over...can you guess how much i had to pay? Only 20 euro!

One problem comes rarely alone

2007-11-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

i had problems with my backwheel in the last weeks. many spokes cracked. i looked in erzurum for a new backwheel - but no chance to find one.

i took a bus back to ürgüp (cappadocia). Sezgin and Murat helped me organising a new wheel. we ordered one from ankara.

Sezgin, thanks for overnighting at your house and everything else!
Murat, thanks for ordering the wheel and the delicious food at your restaurant!

Sezgin showed me his workplace. he works for a carpet company, where he does tours and sells carpets to tourists.

i havent seen so beautiful carpets before. unfortunately my budget is to small to buy one...

eventually i went to ankara to the delta bikeshop (http://www.deltabisiklet.com/). they could see what exactly i needed for my bike. after they fixed everything i took a bus back to erzurum. finally they had to change more parts than i thought at first.

thanks for the good work!
hey Lio! they even had dt swiss spokes!

the bike is now ok, but the driver not...i have tooth pain and went to the hospital yesterday. one wisdom tooth has to be taken out. they will do that next friday after i have taken medicaments for 5 days...please cross your fingers for me...

hey Tinu! i just added two photo albums...have a look...i know you have been waiting a long time.

My second home

2007-10-27T02:58:00.000-07:00

Petrol stations - my second home...i overnight most of the time with my tent at a petrol station. It is safe, has toiletes, water and it is free! Even tea is included ;-)...it is better than a camping place.

Once, i overnighted at a truck controlstation. That was a great stay! The workers even helped me fixing my bike.

They have 3 nice dogs. The jung dog always wanted to play with me. I had a lot of fun with it.

But i dont like all dogs...i was attacked more times by dogs in the last days. Fortunatelly i had good luck and was faster...i have always a piece of bread ready in the hope they prefer bread rather than swiss meat...

Migros in turkey? Yes they have migros here. I felt like at home when i was shopping there...

Gottlieb duttweiler established the turkish migros in 1954. But for many years the turkish migros is independet.

the land of beautiful horses

2007-10-19T14:13:00.001-07:00

overnighting at a 5 star hotel for free? yes i could do that, but only outside in my tent ;-)

the next day it was not so funny - it was raining and pretty cold. but that was not all, i had a hole in the back wheel and was attacked by an aggressive dog - fortunately i was a bit faster...

my hotel room after the rain day ;-)

i stayed a few days in the region of cappadocia, in ürgüp and goreme.
it is a very famous region, many tourists come here to see the houses and churches, which are built in stone. christian people built underground cities to protect themselves from fighters.

with a guided tour i could see how these people lived many many years ago. it is to say, that they didn’t normally live in the underground cities. only when they were attacked.

i spent one night in a room made in stone. it was 10 degrees warmer than outside, without heater ;-)

and now i know what the name cappadocia means - 'the land of beautiful horses'

if you want to know more about cappadocia, the best is to come here. mti (http://www.mtitour.com) can help you organising your trip.

alacabel, bayram and cay

2007-10-13T04:09:00.001-07:00

the way from side to konya is fantastic to drive! after cycling 2 days up hill i reached finally the alacabel-pass on 1825 meters.

i didn’t pass many villages on the way, but many markets. they sell honey, apples and other fruits. the mark-keepers are very friendly...i often got water and was invited to eat fish and bread, of course with cay (tea).

turkish people drink a lot of tea. for breakfast, lunch and dinner. they drink it always in special glasses.

this weekend is special for muslim people. they celebrate bayram (like christmas). it is always after the 4 weeks ramadan. In this part of turkey it is no problem to eat and drink during the day while ramadan is, fortunatelly ;-)

Big visit from balm

2007-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

My parents arrived last friday in side (its 75 km east from antalya). We spent 3 great days together with sightseeing, swimming, eating and of course we had a lot to tell each other. Wow...it happend a lot in switzerland...

The beach here is beautiful and the water is still 25 degrees (they say that...). Impressive is the anciente part of side, especially the amphitheater.

The food is just delicious in the hotel...i ate a lot, too much...of course i didnt eat the entire salmon ;-)

My parents brought me a lot of stuff i need for my further travel and an heap of swiss chocolate :-)

Merci vüu mou für aus u no ä schöni zyt ir türkei!

Hey Chrischu! Thanks for the mp3-player. Is it a present? I know christmas and my birthday arent yet...but im sure you will make an exception ;-), wont you?

Because i was some days earlier in the south-turkey than my parents, i spent the meantime in manavgat at a restaurant, where i could put up my tent.
Aziz works at this restaurant, he always played with my mobile phone ;-)

Merhaba turkey

2007-10-02T00:22:00.000-07:00

Last week i left athens by ferry. But i didnt go directly to turkey. There is no direct connection, so i went first to the greek island kos and took a boat from there to bodrum.

(bodrum)

As i wanted to take my bike out of the ferry i couldnt find it anymore. Did somebody take it? Fortunatelly it was still there...but around were many packets, even on top of my bike! When i left the ferry my luggage was 10kg heavier...i will open the packet on christmas ;-)

From milas to antalya in one day, is that possible? Well, by bike of course not...a man with a van drove me the way there. I could overnight in his holiday-house.

In the evening we were invited by a friend of him...turkish food is really delicious! Tesekkür ederim Yavuz!

Here it is almost the opposite to italya. It goes a lot up hill, almost too much for me...but after some weeks i should be used to drive like that...i will see a lot more symbols like that here in turkey...

I am still in athens...

2007-09-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

Here some pictures...

(the parthenon)

(view from acropolis)

(syntagma square)

Already last week i obtained the iranian visa. But with the indian visa i didnt have luck. They didnt want to give me a 6 months visa, only a 3 months That were of course too short (it counts from the day of issue). I will try it in teheran again or else in islamabad.

I'm lovin' it...yes i really love McDonald's! I often went to my favorite restaurant in the last days...but i better dont tell you how many Big Macs i have eaten;-)...

Last saturday was a big bike demonstration in athens. They protested again the car drivers. Because it is almost impossible to drive in athens by bike, it is just too dangerous.

Soon i am leaving athens...i will take a ferry to the south of turkey. From there i am driving to the iranian border.

Big break in athens

2007-09-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

Hey! After 2000 km i arrived in athens. My bike and i really need a break for some days. Just 2 days after the first breakdown, the second happend - a spoke on the backwheel broke...poor, poor bike...

The last days i cycled on the big island, penepolese. A long bridge from antirio to rio (not rio de janeiro!) connects the island with the mainland. The prices to drive over the bridge were written on a sign. For trucks, cars, motorbikes. And bikes? It was free :-)

Very impressive was the corinth canal. It is more than 6 km long and about 25 m width.

I am not only here for sightseeing, no, no...i need 2 visas - for the iran and for india. So it depends on the embassies how long i will stay here.

mythical mitikas

2007-09-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

The way from paleros (south of preveza) to mitikas is so beautiful to cycle. the view from the street to mitikas is very special. It looks like this small town is in the water. actually the entire town is on a long, but narrow half-island.

a bit further from mitikas i found a good place to overnight. it was in a not-finished-built house. if i had enough money i would just buy it!

so far i had to take care of cars and trucks. here were goats, cows and even pigs on the road!

yesterday i had the first break-down on the front wheel. unfortunately the pump was defective :-(. somebody took me to the next petrol station where i could pump the wheel. so, today i went to a bike shop in messolongi to get a new wheel, pump and other things. they had everything i needed, even a bike-mirror! the service was great and it didn’t cost a lot.

greetings from greece

2007-09-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

after 12h and not much sleep i arrived in igoumenitsa. fortunately the sea was pretty calm...
the landscape is beautiful and it has a lot of cute white beaches. it is not flat like it was in

italy

. the streets go always up and down and up and down...but once on the top it is a lot of fun to drive down...so far i haven’t got a speed ticket ;-)
on the first day i camped just on the beach. luckily, here is no tide...else i might have waked up in a wet sleeping bag ;-)
i really don’t like driving through tunnels. it is always narrow and the light is very bad. from preveza to aktio is a long tunnel under the sea. i was driving towards this tunnel with a bad feeling. suddenly a worker stopped me and took me with his pick-up car to the other end...in the tunnel is written that bikes are not allowed ;-)

arrivederci italia

2007-09-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

after driving about 1500 km i arrived in bari. from here i gonna take a ferry to igoumenitsa, greece.
on the last day in italy i stayed at a friend's house in rutigliano. thanks dominga that i could overnight at your family's house. i very enjoyed the great hospitality...mille grazie!

dominga is not on the picture, she is still working in cervia.
well, i have to go...i don’t wanna miss my ferry...

ciao, ciao...italia

figs and pasta

2007-09-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

my former math-teacher traveled also by bike in italy. he told me that he always looked out for fig-trees. i found some figs. they are very delicious and don’t cost anything ;-). thanks for this hint, peter!

yesterday i was surprised by a strong storm. i couldn’t drive on and went to the next hotel. it was almost empty because holiday in italy are over. i met there a swiss family. thanks for translating. without your help i probably didn’t get a second portion of pasta ;-).

going to loreto

2007-09-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

why to loreto? that is a long story. it started in rimini. there i met young people who were on the way to loreto (is about 20 km south of ancona) by bike.

i joined them and we cycled together to loreto, where a big catholic event took place.

after 3 great days we arrived finally in loreto.
about 400'000 people, mainly from italy, participated in this event. the pope was one of the highlights.

mille grazie for everything...especially for the t-shirt with the signatures! i very enjoyed cycling with you...hope to see you once again...

meeting ueli, priska, alain, janine, vreni and peter

2007-09-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

i enjoyed having a break in cervia. this resort is just great for having beach holiday. it has beautiful sand beaches and a cute old town. i stayed in the hotel fiorella, which is only 50 meters from the beach away. i can really recommend it to you!

at the same time my uncle and his family were having holiday in lido di classe. it is just 10 km away from cervia. i visited them there...thank you for inviting me for lunch. i felt like at home...

going swimming in the adriatic sea

2007-08-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

after driving five days on the po-plain (first img) i arrived today in cervia, it is a little resort on the adriatic sea. it was very fantastic to drive; nature here is beautiful and the cities are very nice. the entire way was flat like a pizza! (second img) my next destination will be bari, from where i will take the ferry to greece.

leaving milano

2007-08-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

ciao a tutti

i stayed 3 days in milano. unfortunately it was raining most of the time, although i enjoyed it there. jungmin, terry’s cousin, and my brother chris stayed also for 2 days in terry’s small flat. mille grazie for your great hospitality, terry!

when i was leaving milano, i thought that it won’t be easy to get out of this big city. i just knew my next destination, but not the way. i was withdrawing money when a man asked me, where i am from. he told me that he has travelled half of europe by bike. if he knew the way to pavia, i asked him. yes, but it is a bit difficult to explain, just follow me on my motorbike, was his answer. within 15 min i was out of milano. thank you dunkan!

for the following night i found a nice place between two cornfields. i cooked the corresponding dinner - polenta. my favorite meal to cook, just boil water, put polenta inside and it is ready in 2 min. buon appetito!

the first experiences

2007-08-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

The first big surprise came already after half a hour. Some people were standing on a small junction and were waving with swiss flags. How are those people, i was asking me - it was my working team from adiuvo informatik. Thanks very much for that!! By the way, if you are looking for a modern cashbox system, have a look at http://www.adiuvo.ch.

My first destination was luzern. After about 90 km i arrived happily on a camping place in luzern. I spent the four following days in switzerland, after 340 km i crossed the italien border in chiasso. The first milestone is reached! Judihui!!! To find the way in italia was not as easy as in switzerland. It took my a long time to find a way to milano. Even once i was driving and suddenly i was on a kind of motorway. After driving a few km it was to dangerous and i had to look for a local streed. Finally i arrived in milano and after one hour i found my friends house.
She cooked one of my fovorite korean meals - kimbab. It is similar to sushi, but not with raw fish. Thank you terry for this delicious dinner, i havent eaten kimbab for a long time.