Photography is all about light, which makes this weeks PhotoFriday challenge rather challenging, “Black” being the absence of light. The best I’ve been able to do is this silhouette picture, taken in Oslo, Norway.

There’s a story about this image. I went to Norway shortly after buying my first SLR and, since I knew that I was going to be there for a while, decided to experiment with a few different kinds of film (this being Ilford XP2). I thought the contrast here worked well and was pretty pleased with the result.

It was all part of the November Plan. Head out of the country for a weekend for no apparent reason, with little research beforehand and no expectations. It’s a great way to travel, even if to say that I planned it that way is an exaggeration.

This year I went to Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon. After the grim summer and recent return to Greenwich Mean Time, I craved some sun and a little warmth. Sure, I wasn’t going to be wilting in the heat on the Atlantic coast but it was a good few degrees warmer than London, with sun forecast and much longer daylight hours. That I’d never made it to Portugal before was a bonus.

Autumn, this weeks PhotoFriday theme, reminds me a fading light and fallen leaves, hence this picture take in Oslo, Norway.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Sharp.” I’m entry number 163.

After fretting about my level of fitness and my ability to do the cycling less than a week ago it’s odd that I am now feeling sad that today is the last on a bike. And there’s not even much in the way of difficult terrain. It’s 46km mainly on good cycle paths and a little on roads.

The plan is to cycle from Pirna, stop for lunch in Dresden and spend the night, the last in Germany before heading back to Prague, in Meißen, a town famed for, well, we’ll get to that soon enough.

Maybe it’s being born on and spending most of my living on an island, but there’s always something a little special about crossing a land border. Today I would be crossing from the Czech Republic into Germany.

But first I stock up on supplies and check out the main attraction in Děčín, a castle. It dates back to 1305 and, unfortunately, looks like it. It’s had many and varied uses, but the last occupants, the Soviet army, did not leave it in pristine condition. They are busily working on restoring it — from a distance it looks great — but there is an awful lot of work still to do.

I start the day with a quick look around Litoměřice. I return to the main square where I had dinner the previous night. Here the main feature is the town hall which has a chalice shaped watch tower on the roof, apparently used for meetings by local leaders. From the top — which just had to be climbed — there was a three hundred and sixty degree view of the whole area.

In some respects this was a difficult day. Not so much the cycling I’m happy to report, but I did start the day with the worst hotel breakfast that I’ve seen in a long time. I couldn’t get out of the hotel and onto my bike quickly enough. Later in the day I would visit an old concentration camp, which was not entirely fun either.

As the first day of cycling there’s an argument that today should have been easy, just to get everyone into the habit. But no, on a week where the average length of ride is 46km, today would be 50km. And that’s 50km with two steep up-hill bits, not 50km all flat or down hill.

Or at least it would be once the bikes arrived. Although scheduled to appear around 8.30, the mini-bus transporting them failed to come until well after ten meaning that I didn’t get under way until after eleven.

I actually had plans to visit Prague on my previous visit to Continental Europe but the various transportation options didn’t quite work out, meaning that this was the first time that I’d made it to the Czech capital.

My visit here was the bread to my cycling sandwich. I started and ended my trip here, so the pictures that follow were taking on two consecutive weekends, over three days.

I’ve noticed a trend. Every time that I come back from travelling and write a blog about it I start with the words “only a fool would…” Spend a whole winter in Norway? Check. Three countries in one weekend? Count me in! Christmas in Iceland? Absolutely.

This time it was cycling from Prague to Meißen, nearly 230km or around 45km a day. If you get on your bike regularly that might not sound like much, but I’m what you’d call a fair weather cyclist. And the weather in the UK this summer has been neither fair nor summery. So as I sat on the plane at Heathrow I was both nervous and excited. I would get to see a lot of great towns and scenery en route, but I’d have to work for it.