Touring - Tour "Themes"

Been thinking about this one the last few days while I'm cycling down in Australia.

What have been your tours/adventures themes?

My current trip's theme has been eating at bakeries. A lot of bakeries, often a few times a day . It's all I think about LOL. My tour in 2010 theme was swimming in rice paddies in SEA during the rainy season. It was gross but fun in the 30C + heat :)

Well, you're in the right country for bakeries ... just about every little town around here has one.

Where are you now, and what route did you decide on?

NL, Belgium, Britain, Bohemia, Bavaria. .... theme : :beer:

My wife and I did the 'Langs oude wegen' (Along Ancient Roads) tour through France. It tries to use many roads made by Romans and passes some traditional pilgrim's sites like Vezelay and Moissac. Rocamadour was quite amazing.

The Romans didn't bother with hairpins, their roads were straight. You can still see the effect of this on a map of France. It also has obvious implications for cycling. In spite of that, the tour wasn't too difficult. I can recommend it for riding from Maastricht or Aachen to Spain.

One summer I did a ride along the Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway (often US 30) and the Coast to Coast Highway (often US 6) were some of the first auto roads across the USA. The initial route was sometimes pieced together from existing roads. In the early years there was a Lincoln Highway association that put several demonstration concrete miles to demonstrate the wonders of having sealed roads. After some of the early years the Lincoln Highway group fell into dis-use as Federal and State governments took over highway funding. However, in recent years the association has resurfaced as more of a historic/nostalgic association including signage and other aspects of the historic route.

Prior to departure, I read up further on the historic route. During the trip, I followed some but not all of the historic routes and was somewhat fun looking at the connections.

Can you do Route 66 on a bike?

Stopping at micro-breweries.

My themes during last three years and in the nearest future are Black Sea Coast. My dream is to ride gradually around all the sea, write all reports, and gather them in my blog. The theme of last yar was Crimea (http://shadrunov.livejournal.com/2109.html). Recently I travelled by Caucasus Mountains Coast of Russian territory. And this automn I am going to pass the westen coast of Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Danube Delta and Constanta are the most interesting places to visit.

My 2004 Australian tour kind of followed a World Heritage theme ... http://whc.unesco.org/en/list

Daintree Rainforest
Great Barrier Reef
Fraser Island
Sydney Opera House
Blue Mountains
Royal Exhibition Building and its surrounding Carlton Gardens
Several Convict Sites

Stopping at micro-breweries.

Yes. Before my riding partner and I headed off on a tour through the Adirondacks and Erie Canal a friend gave us a guide to micro breweries in NY, a useful guide indeed.

My tours:

Two Grads and a Dad - This was a Trans America with my daughter and a college friend after their graduation.
Santa Fe Trail Tour - I guess that is a theme. The ride was supposed to be with a friend, but wound up being solo when he broke his hip/pelvis. I rode from KC to Santa Fe.
Mountain Man Wannabe - A tour in the Sierras with my daughter. We went from San Diego to Reno Mucho climbing. A tough tough ride for me, but Yosemite and Sequoia were worth the effort.
Eating my way down the Pacific Coast - A food theme searching out seafood and mexican food.
Scraping Bottom - A southern tier. I think if there was a theme it was barbecue and other regional foods.
Getting High in the Rockies - High pointing and peak bagging are expected to be the theme for this upcoming tour.

Never really had any themes to my tours, I always search out local breweries and eateries, as well as farmer's markets. Sometimes I have a destination in mind, other times not, just out for the ride and to see what I can see.

Aaron :)

Scotch with Scots in Scotland.

We did moustaches one year, for no real reason. And in Bavaria, we had a kind of Lord of the Ring theme. Mostly though our theme is two Englishmen, which is what we are, and doing our best and muddling through, which is what we're practised in.

On the first day of my first tour (group x-country and then home solo) I got a snack of fried chicken, which was something I ate every 100th blue moon. I got some grief from some in the group for that. (Interestingly, those same people would regularly scarf down ice cream with things like Oreos in it without a second thought.) So I decided to sample fried chicken along the way, in part just to mess with them. I was surprised at how common it was on the northern tier, at least out west and in the midwest.

On the first day of my first tour (group x-country and then home solo) I got a snack of fried chicken, which was something I ate every 100th blue moon. I got some grief from some in the group for that. (Interestingly, those same people would regularly scarf down ice cream with things like Oreos in it without a second thought.) So I decided to sample fried chicken along the way, in part just to mess with them. I was surprised at how common it was on the northern tier, at least out west and in the midwest.

Do they sell Extra Crispy chicken at KFC at some locations? I'm missing the extra crispy. There are some KFC around here that just don't have it. :(

Can you do Route 66 on a bike?

Maybe? I have found bits and parts of it as access road along I-40 in Oklahoma. I would play with Google Maps and see what you can find.

Aaron :)

Avoid highways (where possible) is the theme for my upcoming Dreaming Tour (http://www.aushiker.com/centre-for-cerebral-palsy/) :)

Never thought of a themed tour before ... might be an idea for the future.

Andrew