As I did with Eurovelo 5, I have taken all the places mentioned on the official description of the route and plotted them onto a Google Earth map… France seems to be lacking in detail bit it gives you an idea of the route. I have added the map to my Google Maps page and I’ll add a link here when it is available.
So far so good…. Haven’t yet got to the tracking bit (I need to go somewhere to be tracked!), but it is working and I have activated the device. Hanging out of the window of my flat, I sent my first message to the satellite and “beep beep” received a text message telling me where I am (clearly very useful). It doesn’t actually tell me that I am hanging out of the window of my flat but it does give a link to Google Maps which then shows me on a picture where I am. Here is the full text of the email that I recieved;
Andrew’s SPOT
Latitude:51.45622
Longitude:-0.95935
GPS location Date/Time:07/06/2010 18:04:00 BST
Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=51.45622,-0.95935&ll=51.45622,-0.95935&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Message:I’m OK and having a fun cycle across Europe!
Now clearly the usefullness of sending your own location to yourself is fairly limited and does require access to a computer so I suppose it might only come into its own if you get off your face to the extent that you lose consciousness and have no idea where you are when you wake up as long as you have the Internet within stretching distance. It’s more to act as reassurance to loved ones that you are still alive and kicking. The message is pre-set; mine is obviously lined up for trans-continenal cycling.
Remember I asked George Jemmott (him of GPS fame) about the photo at the top of his new Eurovelo 5 website? Well here is the answer:
It just so happens that the only picture I have of my bicycle and trailer together is there in front of that American tank, which just so happens to be on EuroVelo5. OK, 2 km away from EV5, but really close! It’s at a battlefield monument from WW II, specifically of the ill-fated Maginot Line. Here’s another photo with location:
Or the google-maps street-view location of it (so you’ll know it when you see it).
It was totally worth the trip. Gun encasements with bullet holes and shrapnel still in them, tons of old stuff from the war. Really pretty amazing to imagine the Second World War tearing through that peaceful little village of Marckolsheim or It sounds like you’ll get even more out of it than I did, too, as you actually speak French! 
Cheers,
George
Here is the photo that he refers me to. Nice tank. The picture in picture is from the Google Street View reference that George also provides and it shows the road passing outside of the museum… complete with a separate cycle path! Please take note if you are a road planner, architect, builder etc… in Britain!
Thanks George
Posted in Eurovelo 5, Uncategorized
Tagged Eurovelo 5, George Jemmott, Google Maps
Iain Harper has contacted me via the Bike Radar forum I mentioned yesterday. There is some really useful practical advice in his email and it is worth the read. As the list of “tags” at the end shows, he manages to pack in a whole host of different topics;
I’ve just had a quick look round you blog following your bike radar post.
I’m planning Rome to UK via Aosta and the round the Rhine cycle route into Germany and then crossing over to France for a week or maybe bit less. I have a mate in Rome to get started, another in Aosta (waiting for tips on crossing the Alps there), another in the Rheinfelden and then on my own until Calais. Probably camping most of the way with as minimal kit as possible (no cooking just eat out of eat cold stuff from shops). I’ve got a Vango Tempest 200 but half thinking of getting a lighter expedition tent (not sure depends how much I can get one for). I’m also looking into bikes but don’t know what to do. Need to see them in the flesh. One complication is my Specialized Hybrid Sirrus. I used it in the past for touring and the frame broke recently and I got a new frame (Expert frame with carbon stays and fork), moved running gear over got some new stuff (hand built wheels strong 36 spoke for touring, chain set, stem, bars, cassette…). So now it is like a brand new bike but not sure if I’d rather sell it and get a tourer or try it for touring with a new rack? I stuck a stem which is adjustable on it so can vary the riding position quite a bit. Just don’t know. Don’t want to get a 14Kg tourer to replace a 10kg absolutely fine bike which I can use for touring. Anyway that is my problem so I’ll follow your decision making process.
On your route I see you have a Google route. Don’t know how accurate that is but I have a couple of basic thoughts and I’ll let you see what I plan as I do it (if you want). I live in Deal so I’d recommend from Canterbury to travel straight to Dover, there is a cycle route which is hillier than the route from Canterbury via Sandwich and Deal but only small rolling hills. It goes along the side of the A2 but far enough away you don’t see or hear it. There are a few campsites but think they are all Camping Club ones (there is a cheap one at Sutton which isn’t far away from Dover or Deal and absolutely fine but you may prefer one on your route to Dover to save doubling back on yourself). Calais to Lille is about 65 miles and I’m planning to do that when better weather and longer days come and get the TGV back to Calais to get home on ferry in the one day. I’ll let you know the route if you want. One tip take loads of care cycling around the ports – these sections of roads must be the most dangerous around! No one looking where they are going other than directly to the ferry.
Anyway keep blogging as your planning and progress moves on, I’ll keep an eye out. If you want any opinions or ideas about Kent or the first part around Calais let me know.
Iain
P.S. check this website out: www.tra-velo-gue.co.uk . His Italy routes may be of interest. He was hit by a car there and told me in a e-mail the drivers in Italy are the worst he has ever come accross and you’ll see he has cycles quite a bit of it. I have his routes in a MS map format if you want them.
The interactive map on this website is immense. Great details about campsites etc.
And in planning my route I like to get a large map and break it down into days roughly by distance and expected terrain then work out sections in more detail. Helps me visualise it better and is good for a first cut and planning other possible detours.
Posted in Eurovelo 5, Uncategorized
Tagged Camping, D, Equipment, Eurovelo 5, Google Maps, Maps, Tents
If you have read the previous post, I was wondering who Michael was (he had left a brief message in the chat box). Now I know; he has sent an email. He writes in blue, I answer in red: My plan is to stay in campsites – most towns will have one, quite often a council-run communal site is the best; cheap, cheerful and often very close to the centre.Posted in Eurovelo 5
Tagged Camping, Ciclopista del Sole, Eurovelo 5, Google Maps, La Via dei Pellegrini, Maps, Michael Musto, Via Francigena
Bonjour Andrew,
Voici l’itinéraire qui à été fait pour une de mes connaissance pour le trajet Bruxelles – Aoste (Italie). Peut-être intéressant pour toi.
Jean-Marie
Posted in Eurovelo 5
Tagged Ciclopista del Sole, Eurovelo 5, Google Maps, Jean-Marie Vion
Just been using this map and the information in the previous post to update the Google Map a bit. It’s a long term project to finalise the route…. Note the possibility of either following the route 1 (Ciclopista del Sole) or route 3 (Via dei Pellegrini – the Via Francigena) between Pisa and Puglia. Both pass through Rome. Number 1 is more coastal.
Despite the technical problems with my chain and the resulting train journey to work on Monday, the rest of the week went to plan, to the extent that I have a “plan” in the first place for my cycle from Reading to Henley-on-Thames and back! It’s about 16 miles there and back so in a week when I do the journey five times, I clock up around 80 miles. That is the kind of distance I would be looking to cover in a day from Reading to Puglia which would equate to five hours of cycling a day. The route to Brindisi is 1,480 miles (avoiding main roads), but the route doesn’t exactly follow the Via Francigena route. That said, it is not that far off and 1,480 miles would equate to exactly 18 1/2 days at 80 miles per day…. so lets say three weeks with a couple of days off. More realistically a month with quite a few days off and days when I don’t do 80 miles or get lost etc…
Now this is interesting: getting the above information from my Google map – it is here: Puglia2010Route – I asked for the calculation to be made by “walking”. It gave me the following map and route:
Now, if you are a keen follower of this blog, you will remember way back in August 2008, I did suggest that a possible way to return from Puglia would be by ferry. And here is the route. I never looked into the ferry route in any detail last year but it looks as though it is entirely possible. Cross country to Salerno on the west coat of Italy, ferry to Olbia in Sardinia, ferry to Genova on the Italian Riviera, ferry to Barcelona in Spain, cross country to Bilbao in northern Spain, ferry to Portsmouth in southern England and then a relatively short cycle to Reading and home. Wow. I think my Puglia 2010 odyssey has just become a round trip. How feasible is this I wonder? The total ferry time is 2 days and 10 hours. I could even cycle from Brindisi to Salerno, across Spain and then from Portsmouth to Reading. The cycling there may add another 8-10 days, so in total, a return ferry journey would add about 10 – 14 days to the journey. The whole trip, from Reading to Puglia and back would be feasible in 6 weeks. I would simply have to set off more or less immediately after having finsihed work in summer 2010; the weekend of the 24th/25th July 2010. Let’s say Sunday 25th July 2010, a week earlier than I planned.
I went to great lengths on Google Maps earlier this evening to plot the route from town to town – about 15 of them – and then get Google to fill in the bits in the middle. It did that and told me that it is only 2,700 kilometres if I go the most direct route from place to place (and keeping off “highways” and toll roads). Then the computer crashed when I started thinking about printing things and getting detailed directions…
My time was lost but I have now plotted the route again and kind of started to figure out how Google Maps actually work. The link is http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=106496744826979790692.000455613cdb9716dfefb …a long one. I’ll put it over there on the right as well. It’s something to play with.
Tagged Google Maps
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