jakuma

I posted a response to someone last week who was cycling for three months through Europe and was asking for suggestions. I said he should meander through Holland and Belgium with the idea to eventually get to Trier then down the Mosele to the Rhine etc. I decided to try and check out a route from Calias to Trier myself because I fancy going down the Mosele too but have not found much info on routes from my cursory search of the internet and was hoping for suggestions. Cheers

centexwoody 

Having spent some time in Germany, I spent even more time looking for route info. Here are some I've found:

https://www.bicyclegermany.com/ good site by a couple who have done many trips there...

https://www.radwanderland.de/ is in German but you can see the map...

There are a number of posters to this forum from Holland: Xilios and Arie are two whose posts I've read and Xilios has good website descriptions of their tours.

Also for Holland are these two:

https://holland.cyclingaroundtheworld...gDistance.html

https://www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/holland.shtml

Since I don't speak French, I can't provide much assistance for Calais to Mosel but surely someone on this forum can help...

Woody

jakuma

Thanks -- I am quite familiar with those sites and have biked in both Germany and Holland. I have found a Belgium site that tantalisingly shows a portion of a couple of routes through that part of France but not in any great detail. It does list the names of the routes but I could not find anything on them via the internet. I have not been able to find anything for the area that I am asking suggestions for.

centexwoody 

Sorry, I know my suggestions were off-topic or, more accurately, misplaced geographically. Good luck on it. You might query Ken Brown who is on the Fifty Plus Rogues Gallery - his website is https://webhome.idirect.com/~brown/

Also cyclezealot here on the Touring Forum is based in France but I don't know where, exactly.

Most of the French cycle touring posts I've read seem to be in the northeastern part of France between the Ouse/Mosel/Rhine, farther south in the Loire or the Paris-Brest randonee group. Machka has done the PBP a couple of times and might know where to look.

jakuma

No apologies needed! I appreciate anybody attemting to help. The reason I am specifically looking for routes from Calais to Trier is that I was looking at getting a ferry from Dover over to the continent and want to bike down the Mosele to pick the Rhine up at Koblenz and cycle down the Rhine to get on to the Mainz river. It's where we left off from last year's tour during which we passed the Mosele and I was quite intrigued to go up it to Trier to visit the Roman sites there but had to give it a miss.

Ken Brown

Hey, that's me. I am on this forum, too.
For pics of my tour on the Mosel and Rhine go to https://webhome.idirect.com/~brown/mosel1.html There are pics of the Roman ruins in Trier on page 5. Sorry, but I can't suggest a route from Calais to Trier.

jakuma

Thanks Ken. I think you responded to one of my posts last year on Germany. Plus I think it was you who piqued my curiosity about Trier and the Mosele with your pictures. Cheers!

centexwoody 

Ken's trip on the North Sea Route reminded me of something. There is a Netherlands website of cycling routes with what might be a connector route coming somewhat close to where you want to start:

https://www.fietsvakantiewinkel.nl/2w...bgrootfvw1.jpg

Woody

p.s. I'd love to do the part of the North Sea route: what an astounding idea to get that put together as a 7-nation agreement! Good luck on the trip.

jakuma

The ring 1 to Koblenz would fit the bill. I just don't know were to get a more detailed map of it. I can't read Dutch ( I have always thought doing a crossword in Dutch would be extremely difficult, what with words that appear to be over 30 letters long) so am not sure how to proceed. Any suggestions?

becnal

Calais to Ipres, Ipres to Aachen with the Belgian (Flanders) National Bike Route 6. Aachen to Trier, the Kyll River bike route will take you almost the whole way.

centexwoody 

more sites (maps from CTC):

https://www.ctc-maps.org.uk/routes/route/558

would appear there is a relatively well-established routing from Calais to southern Belgium...

https://ravel.wallonie.be/_private/r0/ukR0menu1.asp
I love the label: Autonomous Network of Slow Ways...

But as you've already noted, most of these routes seem to move northward from NW France into Belgium rather than eastward across northern France to the Mosel...

arie

Jakuma, if I can be helpful...
I can read Dutch and did parts of this tour the past five years, anyway made tthe leg Oudenaarde (Belgium), Brussels, Leuven, Maasticht (Netherlands), Aachen, Trier, Koblenz last year.
But why that focus on Trier? I had that same 'dream' (oldest German town) but towns as Aachen and small jewels in the Eifel give more variety and a splendid scenery!!!
Go from Aachen through the Eifel (Bad Muenstereifel, Altenahr, Bad Neuenahr and Andernach) to Koblenz etc.
Did you know that Charlemagne (Charles the Great?) was analpabetical. All this you'll find out in Aachen (if you can read...German).

From northwest France to northeast France is rather dull, an industrial area and then a large agricultural area with monoculture (grain), so going to Belgium is more interesting.
Any questions? Tell me.

jakuma

I was biking the Rhine and when crossing the Mosele I just got a hankering to go up it to Trier to visit the extensive Roman remains in the area. The reason for the Calais to Trier route is due to the ferry. I might take the ferry to Zeebruge instead and go through Belguim, don't know just yet. Cheers.