Touring - Two months ahead in Europe and desire to tour.

Hi, I would like to hear some recommendations of places in Europe to visit by bike.

Germany is close, I was think about heading there first. (Will be starting in Utrecht, Holland)

Where should I go...? :rolleyes:

I'm embarking on a Europe tour soon as well! I've never been to Europe, but I'm flying into Paris and will bike to Amsterdam on the first leg. Still working out the routes, but I'd like to head to Italy, then across the southern part of Europe to Spain.

Wherever I am, I'll take a train to Germany in September for Oktoberfest.

:) yeah, I was to see it all too, but I heard Alphs can be pretty difficult

Tough call, there are a ton of options. You could stick with a region or two, and cycle all over, or do some type of multi-region circuit or a combination. For example, spend a month cycling in just france-then the next month as a multi-country loop.

From my 2 month long tours, there's allready allmost too much I'd want to explore further-let alone what's new. I could easily spend a month tooling about just the Czech Republic, or Austria or longer for Germany...I'd probably only do 2 weeks each for Romania/Bulgaria though. If you haven't been, or don't know much about the Czech Republic-I highly recommend it.

Two months, before you start seems like a long time but once you get to Europe and start riding it will go FAST.
Spend a few days in Paris, ride out to Versailles, ride around the city, I found it very pleasant.
I took the train to Brussels then rode to Brugge a fine old medieval city scarcely changed in 500 years, then rode to A'Dam. Get a hotel there and DON"T ride your bike in A'Dam, lock it in your room. Bike theft as you will hear on this forum is rampant in A'Dam. Riding in the Netherlands is flat fast and very scenic.

I took the train to Potsdam spent 2 days there going thru the old perfectly preserved palaces,then rode in to Berlin, spent 4 days there then rode south to Dresden, Prague which you should try hard to make I'm told it like Paris was 45 years ago, Then Budapest and then I hooked onto the Danube Bike trail which runs along the Danube River west into its source in SW germany. I rode to Vienna on it, then went to Milan and into the NW corner of Italy, the Val D'Osta great riding, some hills, some higher hills and some hills even higher but the scenery was awesome.
Everywhere you ride in Europe is a pleasure. I made no reservations in the height of summer last year and never had a prob locating a place to stay, and some places offer a great breakfast also. Many times I was encouraged to pack a lunch and take it with me from the breakfast buffet
Bike riders are welcomed everywhere in Europe

Poland and Estonia are really flat. Lots of decent roads with low traffic, too. Well, at least that is how it was a few years ago when I was riding through there.

I'm embarking on a Europe tour soon as well! I've never been to Europe, but I'm flying into Paris and will bike to Amsterdam on the first leg. Still working out the routes, but I'd like to head to Italy, then across the southern part of Europe to Spain.

Wherever I am, I'll take a train to Germany in September for Oktoberfest.

What routes will you ride? Paris-Amsterdam-heading south... that's a long way. And Alps twice, first on your way to Italy, then to France on your way to Spain (and Pyrennees?).
For the Alps you can have a look at my homepage (http://people.freenet.de/westalpen/) . If you need some information about a route Heidelberg-Strassbourg-Le Puy-Andorra-Spain: that's my holiday-plan this year and I've already worked out that route. It's about 1500 km (940 miles) for 10 days.

greetings from germany
marmotte

Poland and Estonia are really flat. Lots of decent roads with low traffic, too. Well, at least that is how it was a few years ago when I was riding through there.
Estonia and decent roads in the same sentence? :eek: Perhaps you were in Estonia, Iowa. :D

The roads in the Baltics are bad. The drivers are worse. That shouldn't stop you from coming here, though. Just be very careful if you do. Lots and lots and then some more reflective tape is a good idea here.

If you are thinking of traveling in the Baltics let me know, I can tell you about some beautiful places in Latvia.

Estonia and decent roads in the same sentence? :eek: Perhaps you were in Estonia, Iowa. :D


Well, when I was there I did a 500 mile loop around the country and honestly, the roads could have been a lot worse. I have to admit, though, that when I rode on a 5km stretch of fresh black asphalt on the island of Hiiumaa, it felt like heaven. The worst stretch of road by far was in a remote area north and west of Parnu. The road was nothing but sand and large, stones of gravel, like you see used as ballast on railroad tracks. It was awful and everything from bikes to teeth rattled the entire stretch. After a few kilometers I passed through a narrow gap in a tree line and the road turned to concrete and was wiiiiiiiiiiiide. I noticed a few unusual markings on the road and then realized I was on an airstrip! It appeared that an old airfield runway had been incorporated into the roadway, but the road returned to normal width and hard surface once I reached the end of the airfield. This is just conjecture, but I wonder if this may have been a secret or emergency airfield from the Soviet times.
Estonian roads in general seemed to be constructed with a low viscosity tar. My tour was in late June and during an unusually hot heatspell. The tar was melting and bubbling to the surface. Riding through it sent a stream of tar spray off the wheels like a rooster tail. That was six years ago and I still have tar on my bike, panniers and jersey. But, overall, the roads were in pretty decent shape and I seldom had any cause for complaint. My Estonian tour is one of my favorites ever. I really need to do Latvia one of these days.

Good point about the alps. I was going to take trains through certain parts because I want to go to so many places in a limited amount of time.

don't forget Greece!
it is (or was) quite a bit cheaper then other parts of europe. the weather was wonderful, the people were great.
i flew into athens (was a little scary to see machine guns and tanks and LOTS of german shepards-and this was 1991!) took the ferry to Crete and followed the Whitehall's routearound the island and then up through the Peloponese (sp) back to Athens. the drawback is that you Do eventually tire of ruins, ie. rocks piled upon rocks. otherwise it was beautiful and the roads for the most part were very calm and the people very accomodating.

Everything you can possibly want is in germany. Rivers, forests, hills, flats, history, beer, wine and awesome food. Not to mention the biggest airport on the continent.

If you're thinking about Italy and Greece, I recommend the Appian Way from Rome to Brindisi (where you catch the ferry to Greece). It will take 10-14 days, depending on how often and for how long you stop. I just did this route a month ago, so if you email me I'll send you more info.

Anywhere you go in Europe, you're going to find fun and adventure. Keep your plans flexible. I like to have a starting point and an ending point, choose a few essential places to see along the way, and then be spontaneous about how I connect the dots.

Germany is close, I was think about heading there first. (Will be starting in Utrecht, Holland)

Yes The Netherlands is a great start. We have simply the best bicycle infrastructure in the world. This is not patriotism, but simply a fact. The most free bicycle lanes, bicycle traffic lights, bikes/capita and money spend on bikes per capita, some bigger bicycle manufactures and the most international bike companies have their European HQ here.

You can ride this country on a fixed gear (if there is not much wind), only in the south (near Belgium) some very little 'mountains' pop up (mountain is a very big word). Everyone can speak English here (maybe it's not 100% but you can communicate).

Every Tourist Office (Dutch: VVV) sells Long Distance Bicycle Route Maps (LF) for (EUR 15 for North Netherlands, EUR 15 for South). You can choose your own route by mixing multiple long distance routes (they cross each other). Most of the long distance routes are marked on the road.

Expect a Bike Repair shop for every 5-10000 citizen, so every little village should have at least one (if not 5). Be cautious for bike theft especially in larger cities (in Dutch terms) as Utrecht, Amsterdam. Always lock your bike with 2 locks of which 1 a quality hardened chain lock. If you don't have a quality lock: never leave your bike alone.

Germany has also a nice bicycle route infrastructure.

Regards,

Jos