Planet Brompton

Mit dem Brompton als digitaler Nomade unterwegs

Reisebericht

A city tour Dresden with a Brompton

Winter is over, the Brompton was in the inspection but Corona is still holding us back from longer tours at the moment.
From Berlin it’s about 2 hours by train and you’re in Dresden.
So we had a plan for a day trip.

Exploring Dresden and its surroundings with the Brompton folding bike.

It is the end of April and we hope the winter season is almost over.
The Brompton has suffered during the winter time. All the snow, slush, salt and gravel have left their mark on the bicycle.
Now, for the Dresden Trip, it was the perfect reason to do some maintenance work on the bicycle.
What you should have recently checked on your bicycle you find more informations within this article: How to take care of your bicycle!

Early in the Morning

Our train arrived at 8am at the train station in Dresden. Still, the city is sleeping. Of course, it is Sunday morning.
Our first stopp: getting a coffee and some fantastic vegetarian bred in the coffeeshop Oswaldz. Most important: they have some real great coffee to start the tour 🙂

We planed the tour with Komoot.
We are always impressed by this software, which lets us find new ways even within well known city, like Berlin.
We planned the tour as pedestrians, not cyclists. So the software also guides us through small alleys and against the one-way streets.
We discover a really exciting city with more than old stones and widely known sights.
Of course we pass the „Frauenkirche“, the „Dresden Zwinger“, the „Semperoper“ , the Cathedral and the „Residenzschloss“. We saw the „Goldene Reiter“, the „Fürstenzug“, but we also easily reached the German Hygiene Museum, the Botanical Garden, the „Große Garten“ and the bridge „Blaue Wunder“, crossing the River Elbe.

We cycled a leisurely 43km that day with a lunch break at a small Chinese takeaway and by 5pm we were back on the train on the way back to Berlin.

For sure, you would not have done such a trip by foot, but there was something more special. We did not only explore the Highlights, we wandered through small streets, discovered the places where the people live who make up this city live. In contrast to the old core with all the highlights, you can feel life in here. Dresden is a living, changing city. A city where people have something to say. You can learn what that is, for example, through the language of the walls on the houses, through streetart.

A city worth to be visited

Dresden has blossomed and continues to grow into a lively, fresh city.
Dresden promotes itself as a location for science and business.
So take your folding bike, go to Dresden and discover the city.
Dresden is green (when spring has finally arrived 🙂 ), Dresden is streetart, Dresden is innovation, Dresden is history.

15. Mai 2021 Reisebericht

Brompton on Sumatra, Indonesia

Sumatra
Sumatra is quite hilly

Travel light.

A Brompton is already a handy relatively light bike.
All the advantages of traveling with small luggage we make to nullify if we again take far too much luggage.
Believe me, the world is more civilized than you think.
And especially where it will take you with your folding bike.

Washing clothes is known in the most places on earth and if it does not make the hotel, then you can use the sink, and does not have to be washing powder maybe it goes also with soap. O.k., running water can be scarce, but then it doesn’t matter if you wear your shirt for the fifth day.

About the achievements of the fast dry materials in the clothing I need to tell you certainly no more.
Don’t take your favorite pants with you. I made that mistake and of course after 1 month they have already disintegrated into their components. They were simply worn too much.
But even then, thank civilization, you can buy clothes pretty much everywhere in the world too.

„Mosquito net“ and a very light „hut sleeping bag“.

There are two things I would not go without: a hut sleeping bag! If you snuggle into that, then you can to spend the night almost anywhere. And as 2nd a mosquito net, we use the Sea to Summit one. We always got it fastened somewhere when necessary and slept so much more quietly.

Sumatra
okay, ours was not so fancy 🙂

We each have a T-bag and for me, I was still without y backpack because of my camera equipment.

After 4 months Cambodia, we ended up going to Sumatra in winter 2018/2019. We were looking for a country with a lot of green and a lot of water.
And, what should i say? We got what we were looking for.

Sumatra

Sumatra, a country with active volcanoes, earthquakes, jungles and extremely heavy rainfall. We didn’t expect much and therefore didn’t plan very big tours.
Unlike most travelers, we were not interested in having „seen“ as many islands as possible, but rather to get a little deeper look at Indonesia and especially Sumatra.
And we got it.

Sumatra

Sumatra has been always on time: 4pm in the afternoon, the rain starts.
Everyday, we were not sure it would stop.

We did, what we always do, we explored the areas for a couple of days with the bicycles, went of to reach the next stop and explored the area again.
Sumatra has the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen so far.
Sumatra’s landscape is enormously varied and I’m sure, we will come back.
Next time without a backpack. That was the only trouble keeping it dry.
Hard rain did not bother the Bromptons at all. I was surprised. Even the T-Bag with the cover kept dry.

Here are a few impressions for you from us and the Bromptons on this trip and in case you are interested, we offer Brompton Cycling tours on Sumatra, just send us a message.

Sumatra

And then, sometimes it looked like in a travel brochure.

more about our Equipment…..

22. Januar 2021 Ausrüstung, Brompton, Reisebericht

Cycling in Cairo with a Brompton

Cairo Cycling Brompton

So actually cycling in Cairo is not possible at all. Riding a bicycle is, if at all, only something for very poor people.
We wanted to try it anyway and worked our way through the city for 4 weeks. Of course you can try it with any other bike, it doesn’t get better or worse if you have a folding bike, but it’s just more maneuverable. You can hop up and down faster, squeeze it through the crowds in front of you, and weave through the avalanches of metal better. You’re just faster.
After a few days, we realized that we don’t exist for the others. Cyclists have absolutely no rights. Once you figure that out, it gets easier.

It was so much fun, you can believe me, even if I know that the normal Cairo visitor will not believe us now.
And then the big surprise: we did meet other cyclists. Groups of young people who see cycling as freedom, as something that helps health, as something that serves emancipation.
Crazy.

Cairo Cycling Geckos

Special was the group of young women, the Cycling Geckkos.
Their bikes were a disaster, they had little idea of why to shift gears and were completely untrained. And yet, they dared to do a 100km tour. We were fascinated.
A Brompton in many countries came up to be a status symbol, but in Cairo it was rather the symbol of poverty.
Crazy.
You can read more about this and other cycling groups in our Brompton Fernweh Magazine (Attention only in German).

The lifeline – the Nile

Cairo is a gigantic city and we had planned to see as many districts as possible.
I can not always recommend that either. Nothing happened to us, but I think in some districts the overriding factor was our helper. Districts where people are really bitterly poor.
One day we went by a taxi, with a Nile Taxi. What a gain in time. And actually with normal bicycles not possible.
Unfortunately, this type of transport has not yet become established. Whereby, with the mass of people in this city, it probably wouldn’t fix the traffic chaos either. In any case, we had real fun.

My Summary for cycling in Kairo

I don’t want to miss this experience, but I guess we lost at least 1 year of our life, because of pollution 🙂

Brompton, Reisebericht

VELO Berlin 2020 online Beitrag

VELO Berlin 2020

Auch die VELO Berlin hat es in 2020 erwischt. Nicht mit Corona, aber durch Corona: keine Messe. Also gab es viele verschiedene online Beiträge und einer davon von und mit uns. Wir haben uns versucht und nehmen euch mit auf einer kleinen Fahrradtour in Berlin und dabei erzählen wir, warum es genial ist mit einem Faltrad auf Reisen zu sein.
Natürlich mit einem Brompton Faltrad 🙂

In unserem Bericht „reisen“ wir durch Kambodscha, über Sumatra, durch Kairo und über den Sinai nach Israel, Tel Aviv.

Während unseres Vortrags fahren wir mit einer Fähre über die Spree, am Wasser entlang durch den Treptower Park. Wir treffen uns wieder am Prenzlauer Berg und dann geht es ab durch die Mitte zum Regierungsviertel und weiter zum Alexanderplatz.

Unseren Youtube Beitrag für die VELO 2020 gibt es hier:
Freiheit * Flexibilität * Unabhängigkeit
Eine Auswahl der Fotos aus dem Film findet ihr hier. Kann man sicherlich auch ohne „Gesabbel“ gut anschauen :-).

Auf der VELO Week 2020 gab es jede Menge weitere Beiträge/Events, die ihr auf der Seite noch anschauen könnt. Ihr könnt filtern und wählen zwischen „Abenteuer“, „Arbeit“, „Fahrradtrends“ und vielem mehr.
Und des Beste zum Schluß: 2021, am 8. und 9. Mai soll die nächste VELOBerlin Open Air statt finden. Lasst uns mal die Daumen drücken.

14. Januar 2021 Brompton, Reisebericht

Planet Brompton Fernweh Magazin

Wozu dieses Fernweh-Magazin?
Auf unseren Fahrradreisen erleben wir viele Abenteuer und es ist nicht immer alles nur wunderbar. Wir treffen spannende Menschen, aber haben auch mit dem ein oder anderen Widerstand zu kämpfen. Das Wetter ist launisch und wir wissen manchmal nicht wie es weiter gehen soll.
Über all das und noch viel mehr berichten wir. Und wer das Brompton mal malerisch in Szene gesetzt sehen möchte, wie in einem Vincent van Gogh Bild, dann werdet ihr auch fündig. Viel Vergnügen beim Blättern.

Planet Brompton Fernweh Magazin: Ein Kultrad erobert uns und die Welt!

In meinen Fernweh Magazinen berichte ich auch über das Fotografieren und wie ihr eure Erlebnisse vielleicht besser in Szene setzen könnt.

In diesem Brompton-Spezial geht um Sumatra, Kambodscha, Kairo, dem Sinai und Israel, aber wir „reisen“ auch in Berlin und berichten über unsere Erfahrungen mit dem Electric.
Fernweh kann man auch zu Hause haben, wenn einfach nicht genug Zeit bleibt, die eigene Stadt zu erkunden.
P.S.: Bitte nicht am Handy lesen!

Klaus malt den Tiergarten in Berlin 🙂

19. Juni 2020 Brompton, Reisebericht

Israel – cycling with a Brompton folding bike

Cycling in Tel Aviv: no special pleasure!
Cycling in the rest of Israel: terrific!

We came to Israel from Sinai via Eilat. We already knew a little bit what would expect us.
On our bicycle (world) trip 2009-2011 we already took this way. But at that time not with the folding bikes.
We could actually enjoy it this time so much more. We planned the stages so they were not too long. In the Negev desert we did not want to miss a moment, we wanted to enjoy.

We shimmied from kibbutz to kibbutz until we finally arrived in Mitzpe Ramon at the crater Ramon. In front of us the crater rim, rising steeply. Our last stage in 2019. It’s an evening before New Year’s Eve. On the way up the serpentines we are stopped by a car driver who can not believe it. With a Brompton (he has one himself) can not actually go. But it goes.
And of course we are rewarded with a breathtaking view.

Cycling up crater Ramon!

The way up to here!

The roads are super developed. Of course, there is no bike lane, but there is also only little car traffic. This desert landscape is breathtaking and actually you should not believe that anything grows here. But it does. The Israelis are conquering the desert. I don’t want to write about sense or nonsense here.

So we visit different Kibbuze among other things Ne’ot Semadar and Lotan.
So we spend the night in a mud house, learn something about viticulture and even about handicrafts. Oh, much more.
We came by bike, which once again makes everything a little easier. For Israelis, the thought of riding from Cairo to Tel Aviv is as far from feasible as a flight to Mars is for me.

A not really nice experience is when rockets fly over your heads and the firing is practiced.
Large parts of the desert are military territory.
The „friendly desert“ is what they call the Negev, which at 12,000 square kilometers covers about 60 percent of the state of Israel.

So we’ve made it through the desert and our next longer stop will be in Be’er Sheva.
Not a place for tourists, but for photographers :-).
A bit hilly, but that’s no problem.
Otherwise, I can only recommend the place to you if you are interested in architecture.

About the distances!

From Eilat to Mieze Ramon it is only 150km. I don’t remember how many days we were on the road in the end, but the Landschaf impressed me so much that it seemed like weeks.
The next stage to Be’er Sheva was a little more than 100km. Scenically completely unattractive we did that in one day.
From there you can take the route to the Gaza Strip, down to the coast and make a stopover in Ashdod and the next day comfortably cycle in to Tel Aviv. Always along the sea.

Israel
Brompton as a photo model 🙂

The best encounter ever:
A selfie with R2D2!

Selfie with R2D2. What an honor.

Finally, we had to go back home to Berlin. We went to the Brompton Store in Tel Aviv, asked for 2 boxes for the flight back and of course they were very helpful and gave them to us.

31. März 2020 Brompton, Reisebericht