Europe (all)

A trip that I took in 2001, starting in Cork, biking north up the west coast, and ending in Galway. There are nine chapters here, one about planning the trip, and one for each day of biking. The descriptions are quite detailed and there are lots of pictures.

That was going to be the first of my cycling tours and I had been thinking on a plain and not really long-distance trip. Simply a little adventure in order to test if the experience of touring thanks to your own energy and on a simple economical and amusing mechanical invention as a bike, was so exciting and attractive as shown by the many trip reports already read on the net and also as my mind used always to imagine.

On the other hand I haven?t seen too much material on the net about cycling in the Canaries, therefore I thought that a trip report would be a reasonable and refreshing contribution.

We can't remember where the idea originated, but we'd been thinking about riding the length of the British mainland for some time. For one reason or another we had never actually got around to doing it until, towards the end of 1999, Linda said that ``if we don't do it this coming year, we probably never will''. So that's how it started!

In the following pages you will read of our epic journey. Looking back on it now it doesn't seem half as big an undertaking as it seemed at the start. When you are stood at Land's End looking at the road leading away to the north you wonder why on earth you are doing this. Are we really going to cycle all that way? Can we really do it? Will the bike be up to it? What if we have a breakdown? What if we get into trouble amongst the traffic?

We now know that it can be done. We know that, although the distance is great, it's not impossible. If each day is taken on its own it's not really such a big task. We aimed for around 60 miles per day, based on the fact that that's roughly what we are capable of doing as a day ride in the Peak District National Park which is situated almost at our doorstep. We figured that if we could do that in the hilly terrain of the Peak District, we could do at least that in the less hilly terrain we were likely to encounter much of the time on the End.

With very detailed route description, maps, and pictures.

Why are we doing it? Hard to say really. There are many answers -
Because it's there,
To mark the Millennium,
To achieve an ambition,
To see if we can do it,
As an incentive to get fit,
To enjoy the scenery,
To get to know a bit more about our country,
To raise money for charity,
For the same reason as the other thousands of people who do it every year,
As a follow on to the C2C etc.

As it says on the CTC Web site. To cycle from the far South West to the far North East of mainland Britain is an ambition which many cyclists fulfil each year.

Eine anspruchsvolle Radtour in 14 Tagesetappen über insgesamt 1281 km durch Deutschland, Österreich, Italien, die Schweiz und Frankreich; Tagesetappen zwischen 73 und 144 Kilometern. Die Radtour München - Provence führt von München über das Timmelsjoch nach Meran, dann weiter über den Gampenpaß und Passo del Tonale nach Edolo. Entlang an den oberitalienischen Seen geht nach Turin. Über den Montgenèvre erreichen wir Frankreich. Krönender Abschluß ist eine Umrundung der Gorge du Verdon. In Fayence in der Provence endet die Tour.

The idea for this trip originated about 10 years ago as the Communist block nations fell in the democratic revolution. I thought it would be enlightening to see a somewhat developed part of the western world as it emerged into a global economy but before McDonalds showed up in every little city, town or village. In the intervening years, my interest in cycling waxed and waned. Lack of a cycling partner with sufficient stamina and interest in venturing into this part of the world also delayed the trip. Just about the time I discovered recumbents, I re-established a friendship with Bob Simonds, one of my best friends during college some 30 years ago. After discovering a similar cycling interest and mutual enthusiasm in recumbents, I suggested this trip. A year of planning, e-mails, and trial rides (Va. Trip Sept. ’99, Easter - 2000 Cave Club Picnic), this trip came together.

This year we neither had enough money nor enough time to do a long journey in Europe. But for us, a summer without a bike trip is no real summer, so we decided to bike in our own surroundings, six days through the county of Östergötland in south-eastern Sweden. The bike computer said that we had ridden 590 kilometres when we after six days arrived in our home town Linköping.

[This is] the web site for our 25-day cycling tour in Europe. We flew from Cleveland, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin, to Munich, Germany, taking our bikes and panniers. Our bike trip was a 600-mile (930 kilometers) loop from Bavaria to Switzerland, south to the Italian border, and returning to Munich by way of Austria. The following photo journal displays some of the highlights of our self-designed tour.

Our group of five friends biked about 40 miles per day and stayed in quaint, small hotels and youth hostels like this nearly 500-year old chalet in Brugg, Switzerland. [The cyclists were] Bonnie Vargo, Pam Galka, Ed James, Bob Parry and Russ Marx.

Includes maps, and plenty of pictures. One cannot make a 1000 mile bicycle trip such as this without a few amusing incidents. At Bettyhill on the final day we met a lady in a cafe where the following conversation took place Lady: ``So you are cycling. Have you come from far?'' Martin: ``No, not really. Only from Land's End''.

This web site is really just a day to day account of my 2000 mile lone cycle ride undertaken in July and August 2000. Most of my friends thought I was mad to try it at the age of 56 especially since I had never cycled much further than the local pub before. Had done no training, and my fifteen year old MBK mountain bike and heavy tent and things were hardly high tech. Yes I probably was mad but as things turned out most of the trip was great fun and I had very few problems, not even any aches and pains after the first couple of days.

After getting experiences on five cycletours in Slovakia and two in Austria and Slovenia in july 2000 I was ready to bike on my most serious tour in my life: to push the pedals from my favourite area, the Dolomites - which is said to be one of the world.s most beaufiful mountain-ranges . reaching the Adriatic sea to Nagykanizsa, a hungarian town next to the border. As in last year this year I also travelled to Cavalese, the place of our holiday with my parents, from where I set out the 1400km long . with a 3 day long detour . homeway after a week long training, warming up and programs together with my parents. In every case I wanted to visit the wonderful Lake Garda . which I only heard about . and Venice that I liked from the videos, but where I also hadn.t been before. During the week I spent in the Dolomites with my parents I made three beautiful cycletours and managed to cycle through some passes.

A 2200km ride starting from Bordeaux on the French side of the Pyrenees, and finishing at the rock of Gibraltar off the South West of Spain. We averaged 100km/day, taking a mountainous route through 4 major mountain ranges - the Pyrenees, El Maestrat/Sierra de Cuenca, Sierra de Alcaraz/Cazorla and the Sierra Nevada.
Includes Map, Diary, Kit List, Pictures, Mechanicals, and Quotes...
``The pain in Spain falls mainly on the moun-tain''
``May the flies of a thousand camels infest the armpits of your children''

The 450 km London-Eindhoven tour will take place at June 24th of the year 2000 when we will start at 02.00 AM Greenwich Mean Time at the Piccadilly Circus. The London-Eindhoven tour is part of our project ``Europe is small'' because the center of major European cities are all within 24 hr cycling distance from Eindhoven. In 1997 we did start at the Arc de Triomphe for Paris-Eindhoven. This year we will do the London-Eindhoven tour and in 2002 Berlin-Eindhoven will be on the program.

From Ellidshoej (DK) to Vysoke Myto (CZ), 4600km in total, by Holger C. Andersen. In June 2000 the trip is going to the Czech Republic. First of all it is a country I have not visited before and secondly I have got the opportunity to vist a good friend there. His name is Jaroslav Pechacek, and I met him in Oslo on my way home from the my first trip to North Cape.

Another report of a Coast to Coast ride. Very nicely laid out, and illustrated with black-and-white pics.

A short tabular tour description.

Of the 65,000 km² surface of Latvia about 39 % is covered by forest. Besides there are over 3,000 lakes and 12,000 waterways. Our journey to Saldus gave us a first impression of the beauty of Latvia's landscape: many forests, numerous waterways and occasional little lakes. Estonia has about 1,5 million inhabitants. 450,000 live in the capital Tallinn. Estonia also has dense forests and many open fields. There are not many hills but in return many moraines and far reaching moors as well as extended sandy beaches in many parts of the country. This vastness which we have felt and experienced for a few days had a calming effect on us and besides made us feel a new form of open-mindedness towards the people there and viceversa.

I was challenged by a 23 km long chalk and gravelled road before I crossed the border at Subate to Lithuania. Once again there were hardly any road signs. To my surprise the topography started to get quite hilly and the wind started to blow too. I made a break at a lake with wonderful yellow blooming water lilies. I offered some nuts to two passing locals. Shortly afterwards they invited me to stay the night. But as it was very early I politely refused and continued. Just a few kilometres further along I noticed some deer in the meadows.

Nice report - includes route details and photographs.

Starting at the mountain acropolis of Najac, I biked for 17 days along incredibly scenic rivers--the Aveyron, Lot, Cele, Dourdou, Truyere and Tarn--rivers that meander through deep gorges and loop around ancient villages and majestic chateaux. En route, I rode through some of the most delightful villages in France, which in Languedoc included several fortified cliffhanger villages built by the Cathars in the 12th century and looted by Simon de Montfort. Other highlights on this ride included medieval Conques, St. Cirque La Popie, Entraygues, Estaing, Florac and the Cevennes, the immense Gorge du Tarn and an exciting ride over the mountains of Haut Languedoc to Carcassonne. The day-by-day report not only describes my experiences but also tells how to duplicate my route.

The Marche region lies to the east of the Apennine mountains, and has every kind of terrain you could wish for. From long sandy beaches on the Adriatic coast to rolling hills and valleys leading to the high mountains of the Sibillini in the south of the region, and the highest of them all, Monte Vettore at 2,476m.

According to one book I read, Marche is 69 percent hills, and 31 percent mountains. Certainly, if you're not going up, you seem to be going down, and only on the extreme coastal strip is there flat riding to be had. On top of that, it has more castles and hill top towns than you can shake a stick at. Like Umbria was a few years ago, Marche (apart from the coastal area) seems to be one of Italy's best kept secrets, and that's fine by me!

This one was probably a little tougher than our previous tours of Tuscany and Umbria even though the mileage was a little lower, but it was well worth every extra bead of sweat, just as enjoyable, and I'd go back tomorrow.

The notes of ``[a fortnight spent] touring western Sicily in May/June 2000, staying in hotels.'' Includes fine pictures.

A lively report, with many fine pictures. It touches some of the most beautiful places in Italy I have had the chance to see so far: Ancona - Ascoli - Norcia - Spoleto - Foligno - Assisi - Perugia - Passignano - Cortona - Siena - Firenze.

Ascoli Piceno is an almost perfectly conserved medieval town. The buildings are ancient, and many roads are narrow, winding, cobblestoned paths. [We] walked through [Cortona] all evening and enjoyed the beautiful views in all directions. It is a small town with many narrow and steep roads, and as always all buildings were hundreds of years old.

Siena was packed with tourists, but it still manages to remain a nice and friendly place, and not as overwhelming as Florence. I like Siena a lot [...] We had plenty of time to visit the beautiful cathedral, and the one wall they managed to put up for a much bigger cathedral, until the bubonic plague put a stop to their plans in the 14th century. We visited the museum, which allows climbing up all the way to the top of that wall, providing a tremendous view.

Ascoli Piceno is an almost perfectly conserved medieval town. The buildings are ancient, and many roads are narrow, winding, cobblestoned paths. We stayed at the youth hostel, which is an 11th-century tower. We were the only guests. The picture on the right shows the hostel tower. (Trust me, it's not easy to make good pictures of tall structures from narrow winding streets.)

This sets the theme for most of the towns and villages we visit for the rest of the tour - they are all incredibly charmingly ancient and authentic, unspoiled by tourism and past centuries and, in some cases, millenia. It's like people living in big living monuments of the past, and making it look as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I don't think you can find this anywhere else in the world; even the French are much quicker mingling old with new.

None of this, of course, stops the Italians from hurtling through their charming cobblestoned streets with noisy little automobiles or deafening two-stroke motorcycles.

Santiago de Compostela, next to Rome and Jerusalem, is an important pilgrimage route for christians. According to the legend, the apostle Saint James is buried in the cathedral. Modern science has disputed the fact that the apostle ever reached Spain, however, thousands of people annually make the pilgrimage either by foot, horse, or on bicycle. The historical atmosphere and the spiritual adventure, as well as the physical challenges, cast their spell on the contemporary traveller.

1014 miles in 16 days - a photographic diary.

``The Bicycle Expedition Denmark 2000...'' it sounds quite serious... actually we just gathered ourselves together, packed our bikes and a few useful (as we thought then) things, and we started for our road. We had an ambitious plan to reach the most northern point of Denmark - Skagen, where the Baltic Sea mixes its waters with the North Sea, by the way going round the entire Denmark and a piece of Germany. The plan succeeded, the whole thing took us a bit more then two weeks, and gave us great memories and absolutely new experiences.

[...] the most amazing, the most unique and for us probably the most important thing in our expedition was the idea of such a trip. The fact that you drop everything, get on your bike and take free time from a common world for two weeks, you disappear. You eat too little, get wet, don't wash yourself, freeze, get stiff, sleep in bushes, but you are happy - you ride. This ride is incredible experience. The most fascinating fact is that everything you need for your life is on your bike's carrier.

Starting from a certain moment we stopped locking our bikes. They were left with all our possessions while we were shopping or sightseeing. An excellent example of the Danish safety is provided by the micro-shops situated in front of many countryside houses. Self-service includes not only choosing the goods one intends to buy but also paying!

These pages are a recollection of our 2000 summer tour. Ending a century, and even more a millenium, should be memorable. As you will read, it was, but not exactly for the best of reasons:-) This year destination was suggested by Martine: not directly and not consciously thought. Not even willingly:-) One day, she mentioned lakes as a good holiday destination. She was refering to Chambon, secretly hoping we could pitch the tent once and for all near a nice beach where she could find inspiration for excuses for letting me going alone on daily rides:-) Lakes? Yes, that's an idea! What about visiting some of the great Alpine lakes: Annecy, le Bourget, le Léman, Neuchatel, ..?

This table is a summary of the route I followed on my 81-day quest to cycle up all 71 surfaced mountain passes above 2,000 metres in the Alps. Coming soon: The ``Official Website'' of all surfaced mountain passes above 2,000 metres in the Alps and a pictorial travelogue of the trip.

Il seguente viaggio cicloturistico ripercorre una delle vie di pellegrinaggio utilizzate fino dal secolo IX per raggiungere le ``estreme terre della cristianità'' e il sepolcro dell'Apostolo Santiago (San Giacomo Maggiore). Durante questi 2000 chilometri si attraversa ogni paesaggio, dalle Alpi ai Pirenei, dal Mediterraneo all'Atlantico passando per zone montane e pedemontane, altopiani, prati, campi coltivati, fiumi, città d'arte, semplici villaggi, ecc., ecc. Il tratto in territorio spagnolo è meglio conosciuto come Camino de Santiago, Chemin de St. Jacques o Cammino Reale Francese ed è stato dichiarato ``Patrimonio dell'Umanità'' dall'UNESCO e ``Itinerario Culturale Europeo'' dal Consiglio d'Europa dal 1987.

The trip was an attemp to beat Fritz Hansens record from 1999. He did the trip in 20 dayes and nights, 3 hours and 12 minutes. I also went for his average of 289 km a day.

Why alone? It gives you some satisfaction, to know you did the trip alone, and without any help. If you bike in a group, you have to adapt yourself to the groups choice of route and daily distance. When you are alone you are completely free to follow your own rhythm.

The statistics are frightening, the Tourmalet is a ``Hors Catagorie'' climb, the most difficult of all, and a rare beast indeed. The Col is at 2115 m, nearly 7000 feet, the second highest in the Pyrenees and by repute, the most difficult. If you look at the Michelin map you'll see the road, previously marked in yellow, becomes made up of red and yellow dots. I've only seen this on a couple of sections of road in France and means that the road is very dangerous. But for the cycletourist it has two saving graces, firstly it is generally a steady though hard climb, the second is that it is so stunningly beautiful that by the top the part of you which will hurt most will be your neck from craning around at some of the most spectacular scenery in cycling.

In autumn 2,000, I spent 19 days cycling around this compact Mediterranean island on some of the most spectacular seacoast and mountain roads on earth. Day after day, I pedalled along clifftop roads high above the sea with a balcony view of the wild, rocky coast. In the interior, I cycled on quiet backroads through rugged gorges and to ancient villages perched high in the mountains. Traffic was mostly light and each night I stayed at a comfortable hotel in mountain villages or at beach resorts or fishing harbors or under the massive walls of medieval citadels. My route took me completely around Cap Corse and to the awsome heights of the col de Bavella, and I visited Corte, Bastia, St. Florent, Ile Rousse, Calvi, Porto, Ajaccio, Propriano, Porto Vecchio and Bonifacio. Day by day, this report describes exactly how I did it with loads of advice to help you experience Corsica by exactly the same route.

Avignon - Nîmes - S.tes Maries de la Mer - Arles - Avignon.

Our annual European cycle trip took us (my wife Carol and me) back to France (of course - this was the 13th tour there!) We chose this particular route because it included areas we had not yet seen (for the most part). As usual, we travelled unsupported (no sag-wagon) but we stayed in hotels or B&B's and ate our evening mealsin restaurants. We averaged about 70 km a day, a lot of it in mountainous terrain - not bad for a 60 year old geezer (and his wife who is 2 years younger. I won't tell you her age). Once again, this trip log is far too wordy and full of a lot of personal observations which expose many of my biases. Consider yourselves forewarned!

Bericht über eine Fahrradtour von Dessau nach Bad Schandau im Sommer 2000.

The plan: Holland, children, bicycles. We figured the rest would evolve on its own.
``Flat,'' my husband said. ``The whole country is flat. Bike paths all over the place.''
A landscape materialized at once in my head. You can imagine the particulars: windmill, tulips, cow, canal, pedaling 12- and 16-year-old. Sunshine. Waving farmer. Cheese.
``Legal weed,'' the 16-year-old chipped in.
``Not for you,'' I said.
We bought a Holland guidebook, with many photographs of Rembrandt paintings and elaborately gabled canal-front brick houses, but the Bicycles section was only two pages long and commenced with a photograph of a bike helmet. Ha! (We'll get to that in a moment.) We found what seemed to be a suitable Holland Tourist Board Web site, animated on-screen by a little mustached man who pedaled along as you plotted out various rural cycling routes, but every time I tried to download the maps my computer snarled at me and dumped the site.

So we gave up on the advance details, arranged for an Amsterdam apartment that came equipped with the owners' bicycles and landed on a breezy July morning at Schiphol Airport, which is grand and clean and extremely efficient; by lunch time, our bags piled up at the top of the apartment's staircase landing, we were bicycling. Before sundown the next day, we had grasped the essentials.
The essentials were... startling.
By that second day, I had began composing my own introductory bicycling brochure, to be handed at the border to uninitiated Americans with tulips in their heads.

This cycle tour is designed to show you Amsterdam's many varied and often surprising aspects. Not only does it take in the historic city centre, it also shows you other neighbourhoods, and demonstrates that Amsterdam is a city with 'green' credentials. The text provides information about Amsterdam and the measures that have been taken to make cycling in the city an enjoyable and safe experience.

The cycle tour is approximately 37 km long. Riding at a moderate pace, it should take you about 4 hours to complete. In Rembrandtpark in Amsterdam West, it is possible to take a short cut making it some 10 km shorter.

Includes a diary, maps, photographs, packing list, etc.

A couple of years ago I went to Iceland (with my family) by car, I always wanted to go back but instead of a car with a bike. A bike-trip through Iceland. For a few years, that idea, was only a kind of a dream. But time is running. I started to make a bike-trip from Holland to Norway. Besides the bad weather (wind, pretty cold days) I enjoyed the trip. Actually I didn't get any punctures. Perhaps that's the experience I'm looking for (guess not). So I finally decide to go to Iceland. It's a journey that asks some preparations.

I'm not going on my own. I couldn't get my friends as stupid, so I'm traveling with my sister, Dagmar (28). I'm 23. Both persons are studying at the university of Groningen.

We had to cross about three big rivers (big in the sense that you had to take your shoes off) and a lot of small ones. The first river is fun, when you are biking on Iceland you want to face a river that you have to cross (without a bridge) the second one is ok too, but when you just dried your feet and think that this was the last river and you see another one, you (at least I) wish that I was somewhere in the Jamaica sitting in the sun on a beach with a glass of beer.