Biking and Barging Along!
 

Wife and I are in our early 70s and we did 50 km today on day 4 of our bike and barge trip on the Moselle in France and Germany with Eurosailtravelp.com.

Great on-board accommodations, crew, food, and group and the cycling mostly along paths through wine country is cinema-scenic with a few challenging climbs and some challenging riding in high traffic areas.

Bottom line: a dream trip for experienced cyclists and newbies alike!

*Mod Edit: That site you referenced? I think it has one too many letters in it (seeing as how my browser couldn't find an exact match). I did, however, find this- http://eurosailtravel.com/ (sounds like it is the right one looking over the responses in the thread).

Sounds like a blast. Pics?

That sounds wonderful. Enjoy!

Pics all in cam. Will try to upload when we retrurn to reality.

I see the Fluer and Iris are among their barges. My wife and I traveled on the both barges on VBT bike trips over the years. They were a lot of fun. It is nice to settle in for a week on the barge and not need to pack and move.

Can you describe the cycling? From the images on the web site it looks like most casual riding on hybrid type bikes?

My wife and I did the bike/barge trip from Paris to Montargis in October of 2010. We were on the Fleur which is a converted freight barge that can accommodate 10 couples.
I'll look back through the archives for the thread I started at the time.

Found it.
http://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plus...o-days-go.html
Unfortunately, most of the photos have been deleted, but there is a link in my final post to my Skydrive photo stream.

Heading home now from Paris. Near Ch DeGaulle in CizizenM hotel, a new high tech concept with ultramodern rooms, huge king bed, rain forest showers, AC, wifi, movies, etc., all for 110E - a welcome relief after several days in cramped, fetid quarters near Notre Dame.

The bike and barge trip was terrific! beautiful scenery, food, comfort, and compaionshiip. We were a group of ten from Chicago's Western suburbs. Others from New York, Minnesota, Australia, and New Zealand. Age range from 40s to 80s with most in 60s.

Total biking mileage about 180 miles over six days. Several of us stayed on the boat one or more days. I recommend staying aboard at least one day to enjoy the thrill of floating through vineyards to the sound of Vivaldi or Mahler.

Watch out for the argy-bargy.

What boat were you on?
My wife opted to stay on board a couple of days and enjoy the cruise down the river. She absolutely fell in love with river cruising.
As mentioned before, we sailed down the Seine and the Loing rivers from Paris to Montargis. The stated ride distances were on average 40 km per day, although I think that was a daily low as opposed to average as our guide had never done that trip before and she got lost a lot.
It's not like there is a riverside trail to follow like there is along the Danube.
It was a great trip regardless. Looking forward to a complete report and pictures.

What a coincidence! At my last club bike ride, a woman was telling us of the bike-and-barge possibilities in Europe. I hope you can provide some pics. :love:

That trip sounds great. Last year, my wife and I did cycling tour with Santana Tandems that featured a river cruise ship along the Saone and Rhone Rivers in France. Wonderful trip.

Nav canals like that are just nostalgic in the US .. over grown unused ..

I've wanted to do an Erie canal boat plus bike cruise --where the bikes connect into the barge's drive system to power it through the water. Since that doesn't exist, I'd have to build one. I've actually considered options and researched a little bit about how one might use bikes to power boats through the water. Anybody?

You mean make one yourself, or buy one like this?

Pedal Boats, Electric Boats, and Sail Boats by Nauticraft

The retail market also sports a few pontoon-based pedal craft, as well as the Hobie Mirage, which is a kayak. None of them would hold much gear, though. If you were making your own, you'd have to fabricate a waterproof driveshaft seal, and maybe adapt the drive train from a shaft drive bike. Not impossible, but beyond my skillset.

Those Old boats were towed from the shore with Mules and Horses .. So, flanked by tow paths.

We're still organizing our pix and waiting for more from friends who loaned me their camera after my batteries went down (I forgot my charger!). I hope to post a few of the best shots soon.

The cycling was fairly easy and might not be challenging enough for some experienced riders. It was plenty for me, however. Most of the riding was on asphalt paths But there were enough short stretches through villages and across bridges to rev my meter.

A huge advantage of the bike and barge concept is being able to have good accommodations as you go without having to pack and unpack every day. We were on the Iris, a beautifully refurbished freight barge operated by Eurosailtravel.com out of Amsterdam. We had a French chef and a hostess/housekeeper plus a fully stocked bar, huge screen TV (it was fun watching the World Cup with our Dutch crew) and wifi.

Here's a link to a short slide show featuring highlights from our fabulous bike and barge trip aboard the Iris along the Mosel in France and Germany in July, 2014. I'm the guy waving goodbye in the last shot. Enjoy!

http://jimhatfieldpix.smugmug.com/ph...lbumKey=4KrPfM