Hannover

Since i left this blog, i have cycled thru bavaria, met some singlespeed mountainbikers in amberg. they made me ride with them to the top of a big hill overlooking the town to have a beer with them. then i made my way to Cheb in the Czech republic to cut through to get north faster. in near cheb i was faced with an intense hailstorm while i was riding and stopped at a really cheap bed and breakfast for refuge. the next morning i said "its too cold!!" and i got on trains to go to berlin where i met up with my old roomate hillary. i hung out in berlin went and saw the fall, and to the sound art museum (evan if you are reading), and hung out with some squat/house project punx. i met up with jesse from the state and we rode west, and also rode a train or two because its flat land out here and there#s been a strond headwind. anyhow i am gonna run, check out the pics on the right.

GERMANY

hey, i though i posted a post when i was in switzerland.... anyhow, i went through geneva, where i saw a bunch of really rich people driving bentleys and wearing fashion clothes, then i rode thru swiss and now crossed the bodensee from constance th the other side and am riding up and down and up and down rolling hills in the rain! lucky me. i guess i keep on toward berlin! wish me luck, and check my flickr for newer pics

hey everyone, i've ridden 550km so far from narbonne to grenoble, where i am now... last week i came across a small village that was having a running of the bulls with macho guys trying to stop these bulls charging through the streets.. i consider it animal cruelty, but still and interesting discovery anyhow. i took a video but cant upload it because my batteries are dead. anyhow i then rode through the gorges of the audreche and started to hit mountains, ive climbed and crossed two 1000m plus mountain passes and the second one the climate changed from medeterrean/drydesert to a lush cool rainy mountain temperate climate! yesterday i rode along a road cut in the side of a deep gorge that had little tunnels in the side of the gorge wall every so often. now i am in grenoble, where the 1968 winter olympics were... i am going to head norther! i think the mountains only get bigger from here though! i got a couple pictures uploaded...

France!

hey all, i know i havent updated in awhile, but i have been busy bicycling through rural france! Shawn and i decided to part ways, because she really wanted to play music in ireland and i wanted to go ride my bike! she flies into ireland today and i am in gringas a mideval city in france! i will give more info soon, love you all!

digital treasure map

....in case you are ever near Trieste....

gorizia!

after 2 weeks in italy, we succeded to finish our show during a street theater festival, bring our cart around italy on their trains, spend 4 days in venice, both get sick, ride a train to trieste, push the cart up a mountain to the border with slovenia, get refused at the border because we arent EU people, and now abandoning the cart and our show and travelling much lighter! the terrain was getting a little too mountainous for the cart anyhow. we will produce a treasure map for anyone brave enough to try and find it!!

birthday!

yesterday i turned 23, and today shawn and i are leaving this wonderful city of barcelona so we can take the 16 hour sea ferry to italy! then we walk across italy and take another ferry to croatia! anyhow, the past two days we´ve been trying to finish some props we want to use for our show. so shawn made a paper mache mask of my face only to find in the morning that rats chewed it all up! it was supposed to be a clown head.... so now we want to find a baby doll with a big head we can paint. we also had extensive birthday celebration for me by going to the beach with our housemates and shawn giving me a haircut on the beach to the dismay of some tough dudes that didnt like the hair on their beach! we also had a wonderful friend dinner and then going out on a crazy dressed bikeride! i gotta run peace!

more pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerz/

BARCELONA

We made it to Barcelona a week ago and have a nice room to stay in for the month. after that we might take a med ferry across the sea to italy, and hopefully croatia! we have time to work on our show and help fix up a community cafe in our house!! look at the pix!

the roof at nighjt and the door we painted

NO RAIN IN SPAIN!

We are in spain!! yeah, no more mean french people!! yesterday we pushed the cart over the mountain pass from cerebere france to portbou spain. it was hot and hot and probably dangerous! spain seems more laid back than france, and we feel its a good place to actually start doing the puppet show, and really interact with our audience. we played at a nice restaurant in banylus that may have pictures of us up called La Paillote. we also met some good people like Pauline, who pushed out cart up a hill and let us stay with her! also, some nice folks from montreal we might see again in barcelona! enjoy the pics.

LIFE'S A BEACH!

after a week of travelling on foot, shawn and i are settled down in argels beach on the medeterrenean. we've clocked in at 97 kilometers travelled, and i'd say 75 of em were us walking on foot with the cart. we are working on getting our puppet show up and running and chilling out on the beach here. it's a real tourist town, so it means it will be a good place to perfect our shows before we hit barcelona... after the weekend we will keep on going, but from here to barcelona we have to cross the pyrinees, so how that goes we can only guess..... enclosed are pics of the cart!! i would like to say we did the painting with a roll of masking tape and NO precise measuring devices! peace!

TO BARCELONA!

Hey!
sorry for not updating in so long. Shawn and i are heading to narbonne with our cart today, and are journeying to barcelona! this will be about 150 miles for us to go, and it will be slow because we are walking, but it will be fun! we have 3 puppet shows prepared and costumes to wear! a picture of the cart will come soon, but for now just imagine a three wheeled cart rolling through small villages in france and spain. and us entertaining people and swimming in the medeterrenean sea! talk to yall later. i got packing to do!

southern france

We took the train to narbonne and are staying in shawns friend june's garden. which is maybe 30 km from narbonne. amazing village ancient with riuns up the hill built into caves... pretty much the most incredible place i've seen. my crappy camera cant capture it well. ed and june have a catamaran they sail and you can view their details and other great things at www.floatingneutrinos.com it was overcast today but is hot when sunny!

PARIS

so, when i was in lille i got tired and just took the one hour train to paris, ive been here 3 days and think its wonderful. i met up with shawn and we are planning out next step. it might include getting rid of the bike and building a cart to travel around with! will keep you posted...

Pictures: riot cops in paris, and well, duh.

roubaix

so i am in france now, but its all rainy and unpleasant. i slept under a bridge last night so i wouldnt get wet, but i dont think i got that much sleep because i feel beat right now. oh well, i think ill go look for a nice not wet overhang to nap under and then continue on to paris which is still 2days away, anyhow, i saw two dead cats and a swastika inlayed in brick on a building in belgium. weird. anyhow, i am gonna peace out. PICTURES: Buildings in gent, belgium

ANTWERPEN

ok, so i left Delft yesterday, rode to almost the belgium border, and camped out in a wooded area, now i was awoken at 5am by rain, (first rain i have encountered on this trip) and decided to break camp and head further south, in the nice SOAKING rain... i rolled into antwerp at 9am and ducked under a cafe overhang for a couple hours and read. i also got to realize a couple of my ziploc bags didnt hold up so a book or two got pretty wet. i got a 25€ room for the night, and right now my stuff is scattered about it trying to dry. tomorrow i plan to bike to robaix france, but i think itll also rain tomorrow. wish me good times!

DELFT

so,i havent update my blog in too many days. in the past 10 days, i lost my camera cable, so it is possible i cant upload pitcures for a tiime. oh well, queensday turned out well, ian and i made 110euros but stull had tons of stuff left. i tried to sell the shoulder pat shirt i am pictured wearing here but nobody bought it. after the sale i put it on a fence, and it was taken in a matter of MINUTES!! cheapskates! anyhow, i am in delft, near rotterdam and den haag, and now am going to head to belgium, if i make it that far.... PICTURES: leaning tower of oude kerk in delft. built in 1242 or something! windmill. canals in utrecht. ukin it up in delft.

Amsterdam!

So, i have alot to update since last time, lets see, so after i got to montreal and ate the MOST poutine EVER! i got a full nights rest.. then i set out for the airport in montreal. the airport is still on the island of montreal, but it is way out west in a surburb area called dorval. the airport wasnt made for cycling to, like many airports in america, so i had to devise a route. sarahs roomate showed me a nice route taking the lachine canal bikepath all the way west. We also noted there was a bigtime filmshoot happening across the street from their apartment in the park. apparently it was for a Presidents Chioce (canadian brand?) ice cream television ad. there had to be 12 box trucks full of gear there... weird. anyhow, i rode along the canal out to lachine and dorval two surburb is places west of montreal that i had never been to. Lachine looked like it must have had a really nice prep school, because i saw all these well dressed preppy rich teens hanging out by the river. also, in some places the stop signs said "STOP" instead of "ARRET". huh. so anyhow, the airport, i got there 4 hours early and took my bike apart and put it in a box and checked my two panniers. i also had to pay a suprise $150 to bring the bike! yikes! the planeride was uneventful. i was surrounded by older quebeckers headed to a bus tour of tulip fields... i landed in amsterdam and had to unpack and put my bike together and repack it. this took two hours or so. i then rode the nice path right from the airport into amsterdam! both to day and yesterday were beautiful, so yesterday i rode around all day, and found Ian at her theatre she works at. she then guided me to her house where i set up my tent, read for a bit and went to sleep in the backyard. i woke up at 2 this afternoon! i went to the thrift store called "dodo" that ernesto works at and talked to him for a bit. he told me of a show later i am goingto go to. also i am going to a hardcore show in arnhem sunday, and working queensday monday. i've been writing too long and want to go hang out so later!!

Montreal~!!

Yesterday i left my parents house in milton at 9am to goto Montreal. i hadn't ridden a bike this heavy or in this windy of a day to montreal so i didnt arrive till after 10pm!! thanks to my friend sarah for putting me up in her lovely apartment! i will put up pictures soon, as today i gotta find a way to get to the airport by bicycle. hopefully next time i update i will be in amsterdam!

LEAVING!

...so, these pictures are from earlier this week when Shawn and I went camping via bicycle in shelburne by the lake. i got to test out my gear and everything worked wonderfully... also, today, i left home to make my way to my flight that leaves wednesday from montreal... with any luck i'll be in montreal tomorrow evening... hopefully i miss out on some rain. tonight i dropped by my parents in Milton, and boy, i can feel the weight of this thing... maybe i didnt train well enough... oh well, looks like i'll be getting in shape weather i like it or not! PEACE OUT VERMONT!!!

Tour Style

So, for any of you who aren't firmiliar with good style, europe requires good style, i did my homework and came up with an ideal europe cycle touring outfit. Let me thank the Garment District fashion house of Cambridge, Ma for setting me up with these mean threads!

today i went muddin through the intervale almost fully loaded... the back rack may need to be changed, but otherwise it's a sweet ride. psychededed!

warm up ride

So, yesterday, ezra, derek and i went to shelburne pond and saw this majestic eagle in a tree... looks nice, eh? symbol of our freedom part 2. anyhow, we got pelted with sleet and rain on the ride home, and then promptly went to Leah's sweet dinner party!!

first post.

     ok, so i am trying out this blog and also have created this nice image that brings together some important aspects of my upcoming trip to europe... bright colours, peace signs, pot leafs, good style, and big castles to stay in. oh, and in this picture i'm just stopping for the ducks that are crossing the road. anyhow, it is the second to last day of work for me, i will be sad to leave but also happy because i can do (or not do) things at my own pace for awhile.