I took my Brompton on the train to Hamburg, unfolded the bike, and cycled to Poland

My idea was to see part of Europe I knew nothing about. I used my trusty Brompton folding bike and trusty little tent, and I cycled and camped across the former East Germany to Poland. It was all new to me and I found it really interesting, and moving actually. From Poland I took the ferry across the Baltic to my husband’s place in Sweden.

The Brompton is just so brilliant for combining cycling with public transport. I love how I can just pack my tent and stove, hop on a train, then unfold and pedal away.

Basically, I wanted to go to Sweden anyway… And thought it would be nice to do a part of the journey there by bike, and see somewhere new. Whenever I go somewhere – to the local shops, or across Europe – I find it is just so nice to use a bike. It makes the journey into a vivid and interesting thing.

Hope you enjoy the first episode! I am going to try and put the next episodes out every week or so…. It won’t work, I know I am slow, but I’ll try!

Music – courtesy of Epidemic Sound
Johannes Bornlöf / Mother of Light

Good morning! It’s quarter to 5 and I am arriving 
at St Pancras Station in London. I am going to Poland My husband is Swedish, and I wanted to 
go overland from London to Sweden exploring a new area along the way. I only had a week, so 
I couldn’t ride the whole thing or anything, so I decided to combine the train with cycling 
It’s easy to take a folding bike on the train, and the rail network makes a huge range of places 
accessible I decided to take the train from London to Hamburg, which takes one day, and then spend 
6 days cycling to a port in Poland, and then take the ferry over the Baltic Sea to Sweden from 
there On the return journey I was going to get the sleeper train and then other trains back to London 
I’d be cycling through Mecklenburg and Pomerania, which are completely unknown to me, and I’d not 
really ever been much in the former East Germany at all. It was early April. The weather forecast 
was not great. And I set off from London I’m going on the Eurostar. I need to cover the bike, so I’ve 
got this which is a little cover I’m going to take the luggage off, fold the bike up, and then put 
the little cover on. Right, let’s go and queue up Good morning madame! Good morning, how are you? I’m fine. And yourself? I’m 
good thanks. Okay what’s the seat number, so uh 51 God, massive step Brussels! Right, so now I’m 
catching a train to Cologne I’m looking for track 8… 3 to 22…. hmm It’s up there. How do I do that? how do I do that? I don’t know where I am! Eight! Good! Right… I don’t think mine is until after 10:00 actually, so I’ve got a nice long wait – 
which is good! I don’t want to rush Right, so I’m in Cologne now. And I’ve 
got about an hour before the next train So the train is delayed, by about 30 
minutes. I’m really glad I’ve got this coat,  actually It’s quite chilly. The
cathedral is right here, above the station So we are approaching Hamburg main station. 
So I’m going to get off. I’ve already put the bike together actually, so hopefully can make 
a kind of quick getaway. So the next thing is, I’ve got to cycle about 15km through the city to 
the outskirts, actually, and there’s a campsite up there, where I’ve made a reservation. It will be 
closed by the time I get there, but they seem to say that I can just get in. So I’m sure it will 
work out. It’s raining, err, hmmm. So… Looking for the lift! There it is. That sign, I think, means lift Trying to get out! oh, here! Yes! Right, so I’ve planned it on Bikemaps, 
so let’s see how this goes. It’s really awkward – it’s slightly raining. The main problem 
was working out how to navigate in the rain, because on a long camping tour I 
don’t use my phone for navigation, because I don’t have enough battery 
power. I usually use a paper map, but when I’ve got a rain cape on I can’t 
see it. This is a bit of a nightmare actually I have got to bear right-ish, and then up Alsterterrasse I’m really enjoying it! I am really enjoying 
it. It’s really peaceful. It’s like, blackbirds singing, and it’s just lovely It’s quite a lot later, and I’m still 
going. I think I’m getting near now, so yeah doing really well. 
Just quite hungry, that’s all, because it’s like about 8:00, and I 
normally eat at 7, so I’m quite hungry Look! oh thank god Yes, and now I’ve got to find the spot. They 
said about it was pitch at number 100 or something It’s really boggy Here! I think That was a bit of a scramble. I knew it would 
take ages to ride through Hamburg. So good,  this pasta takes 5 minutes. I 
am having it with sardine sauce, with parmesan and, can’t remember, 
oh breadcrumbs. It’s really nice Actually seems it’ll be be a bit 
of a battle with the rain today, It’s clear at the moment, but 
obviously it rained in the night And it’s going to rain again from 10:00. 
So I thought, let’s have a nice breakfast, get everything sort of dry, 
and then make it all wet again So today I’m going from Hamburg eastwards. Here 
you see I’ve like ringed the places, so hopefully I can just glide along easily. Probably 
not! and I’m going to end up in Mölln, here Exciting! Poor little bike. I’m gonna oil 
it, just a bit give it a little bit of help Okay, let’s go! I’m so happy 
to be on the road again There’s just something really pleasing about 
cycling, to me. I mean, I’m on a horrid road here, but I’m kind of free, in a really nice way. And 
then you’re making do – and actually having a really lovely time, luxuries all the time, 
you know, delicious coffee, really nice food, cosy lovely sleeping bag – having a really nice 
time, with the absolute minimum of stuff you need. There’s just something really nice about it, 
even though sometimes you do big roads like this This is the airport. We’re going under I think it’s going to rain pretty much the 
whole of the rest of the day, actually. Right I honestly don’t really mind the rain. It’s 
just it makes navigation a little bit more difficult. Well, a lot more difficult for 
me, because I normally look at a paper map, and right now the paper map is under there, so 
I have to keep taking my phone out. It’s okay It’s lovely to have come out of the town. I’ve 
been kind of trogging through the edge of Hamburg, actually, for quite a while. Now 
I’m about I mean as the crow flies, I’m only 20 miles from Hamburg, but well 
I have kind of come quite a long way I found a lovely place to sit! Good. Lunch time So we are here, and I’m heading for
Trittau. God I’ve hardly done anything, oh god Oof right let’s go Now I was in the old Duchy of Lauenburg. This 
was the easternmost limit of German territory in the 9th century. Not far ahead was an ancient 
borderland, a broad, largely uninhabited strip that was the end of the old Saxon world 
and the beginning of Slav territory Quite wet I’m trying a little old road. On Bikemaps, the route finder wouldn’t let me 
take this road, for some reason, which is slightly worrying, but it’s marked as 
green and beautiful on the map – the paper map, road atlas – so I thought I’ll try it. Part of it 
is really stony, and the rest is sort of hardcore So we’ve got about 5k of this You know I actually don’t mind the rain This is really bad oh god oh and actually 
this… Bikemaps thought I could do I don’t think 
so. Okay, I better go back I’m quite tired. I am quite tired now. It’s a 
good job it was quite a short day. I think I have ridden about 70k. This is the Lütauer See, I think 
it’s called. I’m camping somewhere sort of on it It’s quite wet, but look!
Lovely! oh gosh it’s still raining Right get everything 
in, and then very quick dinner So nice! It’s going to be dehydrated 
salmon and spinach. So I’m just heating some water in the stove, and then I’m going 
to leave that to soak. Whilst that’s soaking, I can then boil up water and make pasta, and then the whole thing gets put together at 
the end. God how nice! Pretty brilliant for a proper camping site anywhere. To get 
something like this is fantastic. The thing is, it’s really early season. They literally opened 
last weekend, and there’s hardly anybody here Oh god how nice So lovely Cosy! That was quite a hard day. 
It’s really hard in the rain, especially the navigation. I don’t mind riding in the rain. 
It’s just the navigation side of it gets really challenging. My map case is waterproof, but not 
really, and then my phone is waterproof, but not really, and I don’t have, I haven’t got enough 
battery power to be using the phone all the time So I don’t like run navigation on it, you 
know what I mean, I don’t run the sort of turn-by-turn navigation type thing, so 
I just have to stop a lot and check, which makes it quite bitty. Anyway! It 
was lovely! So it’s going to be tea and chocolate It’s a lovely day! Actually I made this pancake 
mix myself. It’s quite a lot fluffier than than the other one 
I had. It’s kind of I mean… I made this pancake mix using just flour, 
egg powder, milk powder, and I put in baking powder, which made it fluffier, fluff up, hasn’t it Done! Right. I’ve got to go and pay. I 
can’t believe this is a campsite actually, but you’ll see in a minute, I’ll show you 
what it’s like around there. There’s loads of caravans and everything. Goodbye little spot! It’s a brilliant place Look, it’s like that. I mean, 
it’s okay. Gosh my spot was brilliant Poor bike! I’ve been oiling it with this It’s terrible. Never mind! It will 
survive, and it’s meant to be used. Now I was crossing over the old borderland 
which is called in Latin ‘Limes Saxoniae’, where the old Saxon lands ended and 
the lands of the Slavic peoples began Oh a little bit of sun! god how
nice, really nice, oh great Blue sky! So nice with the sun Really, really wet, of course