Pelotome –
around Russia on a bicycle.
“Having travelled to and from St. Petersburg by several routes, and being well acquainted with the monotony of each, I thought the journey by road would be far more attractive ; and if the roads should prove good (as I was totally unacquainted with them), the time occupied on the way would not be very much longer than travelling by rail by day and sleeping in towns at night.”
~ Eydtkuhnen to Langenweddingen by Bicycle – W.S. Yorke Shuttleworth (1879).
My Life and Times
by Jerome K. Jerome
From £4,75
Oct 1876 – published in Jan 1879.
Eydtkuhnen to Langenweddingen by Bicycle.
A 24 page account of “an attempt to ride from the Russian frontier to Calais” in winter, from Eydtkuhnen – the village on the East Prussian (German) side of the border (today the settlement of Eitkūnai in Chernyshevskoe, Kaliningrad, on the border with Kybartai, Lithuania) – to Calais, France.
After passing through modern day Kaliningrad (a Russian enclave) and Poland (then Prussia in the newly formed German Empire), the author abandoned his journey, due to thick snow, at Langenweddingen, near Magdeburg, Germany, over 600 miles (877 km) into his journey.
The book contained “a miniature map and views photographed by the Woodbury Company, from pen and ink sketches by the traveller,” which he made over his 26 day journey, twelve of which were spent at various towns due to injury or bad weather.
The 32 year old author made a book reading at the Drill Hall, Bromley, Kent, England, on January 25th 1879.
- by W.S. Yorke Shuttleworth.
- Published by John Snow & Co., London.
FROM EYDTKUHNEN TO LANGENWEDDINGEN BY BICYCLE.
“I had not been bicycling for several months, and the first time I used the machine in Russia was to go on the Islands, which are connected by bridges.
The footpaths at the sides of the rivers forming the Islands were very good for bicycling, although you had to be cautious in not running down into the water, especially after descending quickly the footpath at the side of the river after crossing a bridge, which performance would be rather beyond a very timid person.”
~ W.S. Yorke Shuttleworth ~ “Eydtkuhnen to Langenweddingen by Bicycle“, 1879.