Touring - Ideas for a European tour

My wife and I will be touring again next year, and, although we normally start by flying to Amsterdam and cycling from ther, coming back to fly home, thought it would be good to do a tour with a definate aim. i.e start off one place and head for another.

we want to do 10 days or so in Europe , 600 miles ish (to allow some sightseeing) and we must be able to travel easily from Scotland and get back there easily too.

Any ideas? I had thought about following a coast or a river, but with the flooding on the Danube (one of my thoughts) might not be practical.

Oh, and as Sandra likes a nice shower at the end of the day, we need good B&B or hotel availability.

I did brussels to paris v recently. only 400 miles tho, but you could detour further south then loop back up. nice route, hilly in places.

really good tourist info in any place bigger than a hamlet will give you tourist info no's for the next towns etc, so you can call ahead at lunchtime/tea to book a v nice 3 star place for 100 Euros max. obviously there's cheaper stuff, but there were 3 of us so it wasnt bad.

cant remember your other questions but post again for more stuff

flights wise was very cheap - less than 40 quid each way (incl 15 for bikes)

How about looking close to home and going down through Wales, across to Eire and then back along Southern England (we don't all bite down here ;))?

Richard

Have you heard of the
North Sea Cycle Route (http://www.northsea-cycle.com/index1.html) ?

You'll probably not complete it in 10 days, but it will give you a goal for a few holidays :D

Cheers,
TwinTraveller

Check out

http://www.bike-express.co.uk/

It's the best way to get you and your bike from the UK to France and surrouding countries - We used it last year, and if we were going to anywhere withing a hundred mikes of their routes, we would use them again.

Thanks for the info guys.

the idea of a raiding tour south of the border has occurred to me, Richard, but as I commute every day and know how dodgy motorists can be, fancy a trip over to Europe where motorists at least allow cyclists to have some room. (I tend to ride behind my wife to run interference)

North Sea route looks interesting as I've never cycled in the scandinavian parts.

Bike bus. Hmmm! Wife gets a bit motion sick on buses and trains. Will have to factor that in!

well, i can't really recommend any long-distance tours personally as the only one i've really done in Europe is along the Danube which is, as you said, probably not a good idea with all the flooding in Passau and Prague and other cities.

along the Rhine River Valley is a similar trail that i've been wanting to do - if i remember right it runs north/south along/near the border between Germany and France/Switzerland/Lux (Zurich, Bodensee, Basel, Strausberg, Heidelberg or something liek that). it's a very popular bike route, so the trails and accomodations are good. i had thought of including the mountain section in Switzerland and either starting in the mountains and riding down and then into the valley, or more likely, starting flat and riding up the river into the mountains and as high up as i felt.

I had originally planned for this trip for this September with my girlfirend, sister, brother-in-law... but vacation didn't work out for all so i'm doing a TransAlp mountain bike trip instead.

of course, i can also recommend a Transalp - mostly various routes from Germany south to Lake Garda Italy --- but this is a different kind of touring where you need a mountain bike, carry only minimal gear and eat and overnight in mountain huts, and ride lots of vertical (between 1200 and 3000 vertical meters per day depending on the route). so it's not really the "relaxed touring" that most of the river valley tours offer...

Originally posted by chewa
Thanks for the info guys.

the idea of a raiding tour south of the border has occurred to me,

:D

Originally posted by chewa

Richard, but as I commute every day and know how dodgy motorists can be, fancy a trip over to Europe where motorists at least allow cyclists to have some room. (I tend to ride behind my wife to run interference)


I know what you mean, although I was surprised at how much better some parts of Britain are than others - I spent a few days around the New Forest and IoW, and was pleasantly surprised both cycling and as a pedestrian.

I keep threatening to try Holland.


Enjoy where ever you end up :)

Originally posted by Richard D
:D



I keep threatening to try Holland.




Give it a go. We've done several tours there or starting there and friends we recommended tried it and have come back very happy. They found the lack of worry about cars very different and liked the people.

However, the weather was a bit changeable.

Originally posted by chewa



However, the weather was a bit changeable.

Is that changeable compared to Scotland ? ;)

The weather is not changeable in Scotland at the moment, Richard, it p*sses down all the time. :D

very good

holland is beautiful for cycling. you almost can't imagine how cycle friendly it is

For what it's worth in 2000 I did a tour starting from Amsterdam , through Holland, down to Mastricht, caught a train (check into 5 day train passes) to Brussels where I spent 2 days than unto west coast back up to Amsterdam. Now I only cycled just over 900km (because of train ride) and I did that over 20 days. I'm sure I could have gone further and faster but I went there to see things not just do K's. I took camping gear but found that camping was just as expensive ($25-$30 Canadian) if not more than staying at some of the European Hostels ($15-20 Canadian). At a hostel you get a good breakfast, showers, and meet some neat people and they have lock ups for some bikes, free internet. Some hostels are located in old Castles. I was a bit paranoid of leaving stuff at my camp site alone while I went to do laundry, shopping, sight seeing. Probably on my next trip to Europe I would do more hostelling/B&B rather than camp.

I camped there, and it was v nice. BUT, I was travelling witha dutch friend, and as people in the countryside really dont speak any English (1000% unlike amsterdam, where everyone seems to), I would've been quite bored in the campsite without my mate and her translation skills

So a B&B sounds like it might be a good idea for seeking out the company of anglophiles

I have spoken

What up Chewa,

I recently completed a fine tour of Europe - my first by bicycle. One of my favorite parts was the the Amsterdam - Lieden - The Hague - Brugges (belgium) leg. Flat roads, delicious pastries, beautiful vistas of the North Sea, short ferry rides, canals, medieval towns, fantastic beer. Wow. And if you go to Brugges, the youth hostel there is the center of activity, and a great place to meet world's travellers. You could easily turn this into a loop by riding to Ghent, then Brussels, up to Rotterdam (I think) an back to Amsterdam.

Did I mention the dope cheese?

BK

There is a marked cyclepath from amsterdam to brussels, which goes throug interesting cities (bring a lock:D )
It is 340 km (dunno miles:( )
goes past gouda (cheese) windmills etc.
I live around halfway, good cycling here.

From brussels on to paris...
or into the ardennes for the hills?
accomodation should not be a problem

els