Europe (local)

After lunch I coasted back down the hillside and took the southern fork along Luskentyre bay. This led me on round the west coast of Harris, a superb landscape of broad sandy bays, interspersed with black rocky points and all backed by the rugged mountains inland. I made my gentle way along here, pausing in particularly attractive spots to study the geology or write a postcard.

Cycling in the Welsh hilly land.

At 300 km, this is an exceptionally long day tour. I try to do this once a year, if the conditions are right: it must be sunny, there must be no headwind, and it must be mid-summer with fifteen hours of daylight. Pure riding time is 11 or 12 hours (at an average speed of 26 or 27 km/h), but with rest stops and lunch it takes more like 14 hours. This means leaving early, before six o'clock in the morning.

In early May of 1997 I bicycled from Brindisi to Pompei, and after three days [among] the ruins, I bicycled to Napoli (25km) and took the train to Roma. [...] I [...] began making my way north along the west side of the Villa Borghese, a large, richly wooded park in north central Rome. I rode on park roads and paths as well as main roads and side streets.

Rome traffic was busy, fast and assertive (I wouldn't call it aggressive). The simplest way to explain how to ride in Rome traffic is - follow and mimic the Vespa riders. It is easy to keep up with traffic. As you approach a red light do whatever it takes to get to the front of the line - with all the motorized Vespas. That includes crossing the double yellow line, or riding right on it, in order to pass everyone and get to the front. When the light turns green, sprint across the intersection and fade over to the right so the cars and other traffic can pass you. I never once felt threatened, got honked at, or even noticed an ounce of hostility. It's just fast and assertive. Rome drivers will NOT hit you.

Gran Canaria is one of the islands of the Canarian archipelago. The island is crowded with small, bending roads. Although the island is not very big there is much to cycle for more than a week. Because of the barranco's (canyons) riding is also very hard. I have been there for twelve days and stayed in an apartment in Playa del Ingles, the tourist centre of the island.

Steve comes from Long Beach, California, to spend a month in Göteborg. Here is his illustrated (cycling) diary. Includes an assessment of Bicycling in Sweden and Göteborg Information and Links.

A group of five, three boys and two girls, went to Sicily in the third week of March 97. We all love cycling but for three of us it was the first week-long trip. We brought our mountain bikes, but did only two off-road stretches. [...] What makes Sicily an excellent place to cycle is the quality of the food. And in fact you'll read about ice-cream, sesame-filled bread, ricotta-filled cakes, spaghetti with sardines and bread-crumbs, pasta with anchovies and melanzane, cassata and cannoli, almond pastries, olives bread... but cyclists do need prime fuel after all!

This short set of pictures can not exhaust all the passes in Switzerland because I've never been to some of them (Grosse Scheidegg, maybe in 1997 ?) or the camera went out of order at the moment of taking the picture (Susten Pass - July 1995) and also because of their number. Most of the passes are not so far each other and looking at a map is not so difficult to project a ``one day'' tour including the crossing of at least two passes. I think my personnel record is this tour including three crossings and a back and forward stretch to reach a fourth pass: that day.

Nachdem wir uns entschlossen hatten, wieder eine Urlaubsreise mit dem Fahrrad durchzuführen, stand auch bald fest, daß wir die Dänischen Inseln Langeland, Ærø und Fünen besuchen wollen.

3400km, 55337m, and 22 days on the road in rain, sun, and snow.

We set out toward Luzern and the central Alps in a cold rain, riding south across the Reuss valley to Merenschwand, in canton Aargau, with its slender church steeple and red tile roofed houses with window boxes of geraniums.

I looked out the window at first light and thought I was wearing red filters. After some more sleep and better daylight I checked again and it was true, it had snowed more than 15cm during the night. We got a good breakfast before heading up the hill on the freshly plowed road.

Only intermittent drops fell as my max speed record also fell, recording a speed that newscasters would have you believe occurs regularly in the TdF and on far gentler slopes. This is a 13% descent, perfectly straight into Ciapela (1450m) and smooth enough to reach terminal velocity. It was a gas.

A family cycle tour in north-western part of France in 1997. We started the tour at Gatwick airport, and southern areas of England are included in our description.

Dieter flies back to Munich from South America, and jumps without waiting on his bike to conquer the Alps. It is not going to be easy...

Europe Tour 1997 started in Nyköping (100 km south of Stockholm) and continued to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, the Normandy coast, Jersey and London, before returning to Sweden via Denmark totalling just over 4000 kilometres.

Nice layout, good pictures, altitude diagrams, maps, useful information - well, the works. The route follows the rim of the Alps, crosses the Rhone valley close to Montelimar and enters the Massif Central to follow the gorges of the Tarn river. With an excursion to the Lacaune Mountains and Pic Noire we cross the Garonne valley and head the Pyrenees to climb the Mountains to Puerta Envalira and Andorra. After this excursion to big tourism we enjoy the quietness of the Sierra Cadi from where we visit the Monastry of Montserrat and finally ride down to Barcelona.

Mit dem Fahrrad von Bern ans Nordkap und über Finnland bis in die Baltischen Staaten. Mit vollbepacktem Drahtesel vier Monate unterwegs. Dabei ergeben sich interessante Begegnungen und eindrückliche Naturerlebnisse. Regentage, Fahrradpannen und andere Tiefpunkte sind schnell wieder vergessen. Einige Eindrücke (nicht nur) aus dem hohen Norden.

An excellent report, with nice pictures, useful information, and a good story.

Complete with beatiful pictures: thumbnails on-line, with links to bigger off-line. This year, my wife Thea and I had planned a summer Alpine cycle tour, two weeks riding in the Northern French and Western Swiss Alps. Our proposed distances were less ambitious than some of the other tours described on this web site, with an average of around 80km per day, with no more than 2000 metres of climbing. We were planning to travel with one pannier each, and ended up with about 4.5 kilos of luggage per person.

This is a five week odyssey roughly following the Rhine River from its source in Switzerland to its junction with the Moselle River at Koblenz in Germany, with a little bit of the Netherlands tacked on for good measure. The original plan was to follow the Rhine from its source all the way to the North Sea, but, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men... This is more a socio-historico-geographico-meteorological report on European holiday I never thought to experience - coming from Down Under, Europe is a distant ream for the average person.

A beautiful report, full of vivid details and useful information, and very nicely illustrated.

Dieter flies back to Munich from South America, and jumps without waiting on his bike to conquer the Alps. It is not going to be easy...

This year, my wife Thea and I had planned a summer Alpine cycle tour, two weeks riding in the Northern French and Western Swiss Alps. [...] Our proposed distances were less ambitious than some of the other tours described on this web site, with an average of around 80km per day, with no more than 2000 metres of climbing. We were planning to travel with one pannier each, and [...] ended up with about 4.5 kilos of luggage per person [...]

These pages are a recollection of our 1997 summer holidays where we crossed France from East (our home) to West (the family holiday house), following the Loire valley for most of the trip. Actually, this was the second time we took this route. First time was in 92 on our tandem with Nicolas in his seat on the rear rack. This year, the company is the same, but Nicolas rode his bike for the 1000 km of the trip; not too bad for a nine year old:-) [...] Once the choice of going along the Loire had been made, choosing the route was quite easy. The only question was ``Where to reach it?'' Langres, Alésia, Vézelay were places we wanted to discover, or rediscover for some, and that settled it. I have reproduced our route sheets for each day. They were established every evening, while waiting for our dinner. Reading those ``feuilles de route'' with a map at hand may help readers to understand how to plan reasonable routes for traveling in this country.

This is a log of a month long cycle tour in France that I took with my wife Carol and (for the first ten days) two friends in the summer of 1997. [...] This was my 11th cycling tour in France (9th for Carol) and my 13th in Europe. We are what many cycle tourists disparagingly refer to as credit card tourists.

We headed north over the rolling hills of the Beaujolais, vineyards everywhere, stopping at Salles-Arbuissonas-en-Beaujolais. [...] We passed Côte de Brouilly and Brouilly vineyards - we had planned to pass through all ten Beaujolais cru's on that day. (Quick trivia question for you oenophiles out there: Can you name the ten? Bonus question: Which one is the most recently included? Answers at the bottom of this trip log.)

This website is a diary of a first attempt at cycle touring in Italy (spring 2000) which included visits to 5 top Serie A football games on route between Rome and Milan. Very much inspired by reading other peoples bike tours [...] I had soon purchased my bike and panniers and had my maps out planning my first cycle tour which would combine my two main interests of football and cycling.

My trip began watching the Rome derby and then ended in Milan to see Inter Milan play Juventus in the derby of Italy. Cycling nearly 800km inbetween these two cities I managed to take in the hills of Tuscany, Pisa, the Ligure coastline, Lake Garda and Lake Como while also visiting 3 other top football games watching the teams of Juventus, Palma, AC Milan and Fiorentina.

Coraggioso, intoned the bar-keep as he pressed two steins of beer to a couple of very hot American cyclists escaping the gaudy sun over the Lombardy plain. It was a word (courageous) we heard often on our three-week bicycle jaunt from the French- Italian border on the Riviera to Venice on the Adriatic.

After seeing photos of Norway's famous fjørds, I decided it would be a great place for bike touring. As it turns out, I was hardly the first one to think of the idea as the area was teaming with cycle tourists from Germany. If you decide to visit, you will see why it has become so popular.

With photos, and useful and well-organized information.

Sion is start and finish for this mountain bike tour through the cantons Valais og Graubünden. Most of the riding is on tarmac, but occasionally I leave the pack behind and go off-road. This turn into a tour across some of the highest passes in Switzerland with detours to Stelvio in Italy and the Silvretta ski arena in Austria. Primarily I camp, but because it is raining a lot I sometimes stay in hotels to dry my clothes.

Lucia comes from Brazil to have a taste of cycling, both on-road and off-road, in Italy. She first visits Lake Garda, one of the great areas for mountain biking in Trentino, very popular with German bikers, and rides among others one of the Tremalzo trails. She then moves to Tuscany, and visits places like San Gimignano, Siena, and Volterra. After an intense cycling day, she treats herself quite rightly to the delights of Tuscan cuisine... In August 1997 Lucia added sections on the Amalfitan Coast and Sardinia.

Qu'est-ce que le cyclotourisme ? C'est de l'amour ambulant dont la nature est l'objet. Nous devons cette d´finition à Henri de la Tombelle , dans son manuel du cyclotourisme ´dit´ en 1943, et je n'en connais pas de plus satisfaisante.

Pour ma part, même si le cyclotourisme demeure une activit´ ayant ses exigences d'effort et d'endurance, il n'est pas question de devenir esclave de la moyenne kilom´trique. Dans la pratique du v´lo, je vois essentiellement une façon agr´able de se d´placer dans la nature, de d´couvrir des paysages, des r´gions, de r´viser sa g´ographie en allant sur place ressentir la profondeur d'une belle vall´e ou l'altitude d'une montagne. Le Pyr´n´es, lorsqu'on habite Toulouse, sont l'objet de nombreuses conversations entre amoureux de la nature. Très nombreux sont les adeptes des randonn´es durant l'´t´, et du ski durant l'hiver. Pour notre part, peu attir´s par le ski et occup´s à bien d'autres activit´s en ´t´ (du v´lo par exemple), ces montagnes, pourtant si proches, demeuraient ´trangères à nos p´r´grinations et du coup globalement m´connues.

Ein Blick auf die Uhr verriet uns, daß wir bereits im Oslofjord sein könnten. Als wir das Deck erreichten, zogen bereits die ersten Berge an den Seiten des Schiffes vorbei. Das war also das Land, das uns für die nächsten Wochen beherbergen sollte! Berge, Berge, Berge. Und Inseln. Ich war begeistert - aber auch ein wenig besorgt, wie in dieser Topographie die Straßen aussehen mögen.

One day: 26 July 1996 from 09:00 to 15:30 - Km 90.

26 July 1996 from 09:00 to 15:30 - Km 90.

Most years, Reading Cycling Club organises a week-long trip to see the Tour de France. We hire a minibus, drive down to an approriate part of France, where we camp for a week, go cycling, and see the Tour when it comes past. [...] The Vercors is a great area to cycle in. The terrain is varied, and the scenery is lovely. The climbs are not as steep or as difficult as those in the high Alps, but provide enough of a challenge. I'd definitely recommend it as a place for a holiday.

The Tour du Mont-Blanc is a circuit of 322km based in the northern French Alps, but visiting Italy and Switzerland as well. Run as a permanent route by the Cycle Touring Club of Chambery, it carries a maximum time limit of 4 days, as it crosses five fairly high passes. Sheila and I considered our options carefully. We decided to join the circuit at Beaufort, at the foot of the Cormet de Roselend, deposit some of our touring luggage at a hotel and ride round in two days.

Includes photos, route descriptions and tips for bike touring in Iceland.

Why Iceland? I heard that question more times than I could count before my first trip to Iceland in July of 1996. Well, plain enough, I didn't know anyone that had been here, I had at least a passing interest in viking stuff, and I was always interested in the far north (even if Iceland isn't really in the arctic). It also was a good time for an adventure. I'd been a good little worker boy for too long. And I'd been thinking about all those lengthy climbing trips I'd made back when I was fumbling my way through college. Anyways, I did it by bicycle and I had a great time. Have a look...

Includes a photo album.

Our tour started at the Venezia airport. Naturally the first destination was Venice downtown. It is somewhat hard to find the two-kilometer bridge that connects old Venice with Mestre, we had to use some very congested freeway-like bridges and roads. In Venice, no bicycles or cars are allowed (or practical), the road ends at Piazzale Roma. To park the bicycles, make a U-turn when reaching the piazza and ride down a steep driveway just before the first of the two small bridges, right across from the parking garage building. Then walk back to the piazza and take the vaporetto (shuttle boat) #82 north (south is much more scenic but requires switching boats at San Marco) until the Zitelle station, which is one block south of a very pleasant youth hostel.