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Hawaii 2011
View into the volcanic crater of Kilauea Iki, Big Island, Hawaii, USA. In the background you can see plumes of steam rising from the Kilauea crater. After my observation nights at the Subaru telescope in Hawaii, I had the chance to spend a few more days on the Big Island, Hawaii. Besides renting a bicycle (who would have thought it), I also rented a car for one day. And so, almost by accident on my birthday, I went to the active volcanoes and the Kilauea Visitor Center. It was a great day, I hiked a lot, stood on a lot of young rock, had great views and learned some geology. Due to the fact that some craters were active during this period (Nāpau crater), it was not possible to hike that far, but I was still active in the National Park all day.
Something I would do differently from today’s perspective is to be more open. Although I had stayed in a hostel, I withdrew very much and therefore spent my free days in Hawaii alone. Occasional activity together has become important to me, especially in the last few years, and it’s nice to challenge social anxiety too. Sharing about the views an exciting excursion is a nice thing to do, and by writing here I do that partly.
This was the trip where I rode my bicycle to the airport.
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La Palma 2014 (6)
Pine forest and volcanic sand forest path close to Los Canarios (Fuencaliente), south of La Palma, Spain My second weekend bike tour on La Palma (the first is described in La Palma (5)) led south and steadily uphill again. Since I didn’t want to go back to the west side of the island, I used one of the forest paths back. From then on it was very quiet and I didn’t see anyone for a long time. The change in vegetation was also very interesting, from very dry landscape to pine forests and later evergreen laurel forests. In the end I came out again at the Refugio de El Pilar at 1500m. The return trip was great again, the pleasure of converting the work of the last few hours into speed and the wind in your face just felt good.
Evergreen laurel forest and the clouds that keep it green on La Palma, Spain 
Elevation profile (red) and speed profile (green) from my bike tour. I was definitely faster downhill than uphill. And on the road I was faster than on gravel. You can also count the numbers of hairpin bends going downhill, because I slowed down a bit for them. 
Geographic map using the STRM data with my route, created with https://github.com/ronnyerrmann/cycle_logging -
England 2020
Bluebell woods in the spring in England The view from the bike on a spring bike tour is always great. I found it impressive how many flowers grow on the forest floor.
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Scotland 2017 (3)
View of the Scottish countryside from Stac Pollaidh. We had actually attempted to climb Stac Pollaidh twice. The first time from the back, without a path. It was nice, but also quite exhausting, as the greenery is not just grass. So we returned back before it got steep. The second time we went up the hiking trail on the south side. Because of the altitude, it was still good sport.
A time lapse of the sunset from the accommodation can be found on Ronny’s youtube channel: https://youtu.be/UqokoCJz76M
3 hour time lapse of the sunset in Scotland, with sheep, great colours, and interesting clouds -
Norway 2014 (9)
Forested slopes on the Divielva river. View is downstream. (Norway) After crossing the Divielva we hiked up for some time through idyllic forests. But it was also nice to have a wide view again at some point.
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La Palma 2014 (5)
View of the plains of Los Llanos de Aridane and El Paso, Pico Bejenado behind, and La Cumbrecita (the gap in the mountains) from a viewpoint near Montaña Quemada, La Palma, Spain My first weekend bike tour on La Palma led up the Cumbre along the LP-3, just to see how far I could get. Thanks to the early start, the road was relatively quiet. As a slow cyclist you are otherwise quite an obstacle, as it is not easy for the cars to overtake on the winding road. The altitude meters were challenging, but I was happy when I reached the tunnel portal at an altitude of about 1000m. After the tunnel I continued along the LP-301. I knew that the island gets flatter to the south and therefore expected only little more altitude. I should have looked at the map. The road went uphill for another 500m, only at the Refugio de El Pilar did I reach the highest point. I was very happy to finally be up there. The return trip, on the other hand, was just great.
East portal of the Tunel de la Cumbre with Ronny’s bicycle in front. 
Elevation profile (red) and speed profile (green) from my bike tour. I was definitely faster downhill than uphill. You can also count the numbers of hairpin bends going downhill, because I slowed down a bit for them. 
Geographic map with route (there was no GPS reception in the tunnel), created with https://github.com/ronnyerrmann/cycle_logging -
Germany/Switzerland 2014
Rhine bridge and border between Germany and Switzerland. The Rhine flooded in July 2014 We visited friends in Switzerland and went there by bike. Crossing the border is also part of it, here we are between the countries and between Waldshut and Koblenz. It’s not the most photogenic place.
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Brittany 2013 (3)
Sunset behind Le Mont-Saint-Michel, France, with lone cyclist on the mud flats. During our bike tour in Brittany we spent a night in Normandy, east of Le Mont-Saint-Michel. The tour there was quite flat and so we had time to spend almost 3 hours on Le Mont-Saint-Michel on the way there. We stayed only 6 km away and wanted to go back in the evening. However, not the boring way on the road, but over the solid mud flats. The sky was impressive. While we got going quickly, the Watt stretched out. Long stretches weren’t easy to ride, there were also a few creeks, it got darker, so that we finally longed for the road again and were really happy when we reached it. Luckily there was neither high tide nor fog.
Illuminated Le Mont-Saint-Michel seen from the mud flats. -
Norway 2014 (8)
Wade through the river (Divielva, Norway) According to the map we expected a bridge, but only found a ford. It wasn’t the first we had to cross, the nice thing was that the sun was shining this time. The only problem was that we only had one pair of sandals. This was always allowed to be worn by those who wanted to bring their backpack to the other side. And so there were a few extra crossings, but after everyone had splashed around extensively, we could continue. From here we only walked upwards:
Elevation profile (red) of the day
Ronny's traveller blog 