The HIVE Tour - Episode 51 - 3 countries in 1 day for the 3rd time in this trip!

I'm about to leave Le Mans behind after 3 weeks that flew by like the wind. This city marks a turning point in my trip. When I arrive here early July I was exactly 2 months on the road after 5500ish km, on a trip that is bound to last 4 months. Anything after it belongs to the second part of this journey. I totally luck out on the weather as the rain that was bound to fall today occurred last night so now it all looks much better than it could be. I "au revoir" my smiley hosts and their cat, and I hit the road on much better conditions than I expected:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 50 - Visiting the Acropolis (?) of racing @ Le Mans

Much less people around the globe would know Le Mans if it wasn't for its worldwide famous 24h circuit and I couldn't leave the city without visiting the place where the heart of racing beats:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 49 - Enjoying the sweetness of rural France

I've cycled you around Le Mans, I walked you around its center, how about riding with me some km North of the city? Let's go:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 48 - Cycling up to Arche de la Nature park SE of Le Mans

I have a nice day waiting for me, I am at South end of Le Mans and I am given the choice between 4 bicycles to ride around the city. I consider myself a lucky guy and I pick the following one:

The Hive Tour - Episode 47 - Walking the center of Le Mans (long but worth it!)

In my previous episode I walked you around the South end of Le Mans. Since it's one more nice day in a row I won't miss the chance to walk the center too. Wanna follow?

Haven't seen such a blue sky since I don't know when:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 46 - First steps around Le Mans

Thinking that I am at Le Mans puts a smile on my face. This French Acropolis of racing was known to me since I was a little kid and now I get the chance to see how it looks like in real. So I wake up and can't wait to walk this famous city. However, here's what I see as soon as I look down from my bunk bed:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 45 - 3 countries in 1 day for the 2nd time on this trip!

One of the first world problems of such a long trip is finding places to stay. While I'm not gonna imply it's not a 1st world one, trust me it's a time and nerve consuming pain in the ass if you don't want to see your budget going out of control. So as long as I remain a self financed HIVE powered traveller (hence this trip is aptly baptised) I have to check myriads of listings trying to find the most value for money ones, the most conveniently located, cancel unresponsive hosts etc.

I've made the mistake to spend less time in Croatia where things are beautiful but not necessarily overpriced if you stay away from the hot places so I arrived in the expensive North earlier than I had to. And while Germany while not being an exception still offers attractive slots of accommodation, France, Belgium and Holland do not.

After browsing places to rent for ages instead of working on my pictures and videos to deliver the best content possible I finally find a place near Dortmund from a lovely lady which is affordable as it is her new listing. Not the most convenient as I should drive all the way to Eindhoven after that but I can't waste more time on this instead of what I have to do which is publishing my content here.

The gods of travelling do their magic on the same night and as I wake up next morning I get an offer to sit a house in Le Mans (yep, the French Acropolis of racing) for the EXACT same dates. The pros of being a handy and trusty guy. First I'm like "YES!" and then I'm like "if only I had slept without booking first". However, even more luckily, the host has a very elastic cancellation policy so this won't cost me anything except the extra fuel to make it all the way to Le Mans (650ish km). I write a super polite letter to the lovely lady host, I get those 830 euros pending to come back to my account and get ready for a huge change of plans. From 200km NE going 650km SW instead.

It's a lovely morning here in Bad Münstereifel and... tell you what? Among the things I will miss is this amazing "sodastream". For those who might not know, it's a device allowing you to make your own soda at home. The quality depends on the quality of your water of course and this place in Germany has one of the best I have ever tried. (If only I knew what I'd face on that matter in Le Mans but more on it later). Busy loading the bike I forgot to picture it but you can look it up.

My view as I start rolling my bike out of the garage to make it all the way from Germany to France:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 44 - Effelsberg, largest radio telescope in EU!

My dear host here at the South part of Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany is care taking enough to have the dinning table half flooded by brochures about the attractions of the area. Among them I see one about the local telescope. I instantly decide to put it as a top priority since it is one of the two largest Radio Telescopes of the world with a diameter of 100 meters! I've never seen anything like this! Have you?

The only issue is the weather which remains questionable. On a cold misty morning that looks like the heart of winter in Athens rather than the heart of summer (early July) I take the short ride up to Effelsberg radio telescope and I leave my bike at its parking lot to have a first walk around:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 43 - Hilltop church SE of Bonn Germany

Weather up here SE of Bonn is still challenging and though it doesn't rain it feels like it can do so anytime so I feel pushed once again to grab any chance given for exploration. And this one doesn't look bad at all:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 42 - Goodbye Rheinland Pfatz, Hello Nordrhein Westfalen

My last day here at Medard has come, world's least known village/town maybe but I find bits of interest wherever I go. Besides, I am not a "Mykonos" or "Ibiza" guy. So now I walk parts of the area that I haven't yet and I must say that Germans have a taste when it comes to road warning signs: