Stanfords‘ map & book shop in London is a great place to spend an hour or so in central London. I never remember where it is exactly and always end up wandering around the streets near Leicester Square tube station for a while until I bump into it. Which is exactly what I did yesterday afternoon. As you can imagine, lots of maps and lots of cycling maps… but none that are specifically written for the EuroVélo route 5. I knew this already to be honest but went through the motions of asking them to search on their computer for something relevant, especially after having found a map booklet for the EuroVélo route 6, the route that takes a horizontal line from Nantes in the west of France over to central Europe (perhaps in 2011?). There it is up on the right. There must be a demand for such a product for the EV5 surely! I have recently added a widgit to this blog that tells me how people stumbled upon the site: many do so bu searching for EuroVélo + 5 in Google. In fact one guy today searched for “how to plan a route to calais from brindisi choosing my own stops” and I came up 4th on the search! So there is a demand out there. The publisher of the EV6 publication is listed on Stanfords‘ website as Huber Verlag but another search only pulls up references to route number 6….

So while in the shop, I did spend quite a bit of time looking at detailed maps of the areas where the route passes. I think what I will have to do is plan my route along the lines of A to B to C and then buy the maps that cover the route. That’s not a radical idea is it!!!

I mentioned at some point below about the newly published Lonely Planet “Cycling in the UK” publication which I didn’t buy. There are also identical publications available for France and Italy but they tend to do circular routes, just like the UK version so probably not that much use.

I’ll aim to get the general route figured out before the end of 2009 and then start looking at the details early in 2010. Come on Huber Verlag – beat me to it! Or perhaps not: I could make a mint by publishing my own version later in 2010.