A relaxing morning in Koblenz during which nothing bicycle- or cycling-related happened (well, apart from me finding the first EuroVelo 15 sign…). So it’s just the sightseeing today I’m afraid. The Rough Guide didn’t big up the city – “not many attractions” – but I found a sufficient […]
This travel blogging malarkey is hard work; up with the larks, filming, chatting with the captain, watching the world go by. It’s not yet 9am. The street cleaners will sympathise…
I can’t ever remember knowing about the existence of a place called Speyer until it was mentioned in the pre-visit briefing last night. Mannheim, yes. Cologne, of course. Dusseldorf, obviously… but Speyer, never. So this morning’s stroll around “one of Germany’s oldest cities” was nice. A bit like […]
Well this is all new to me. But I have to admit, I’m already missing the bike. Let me recap… As you may recall (because I told you in this post only last week), I have been asked to deliver some talks on a river cruise boat along […]
So, summer has arrived. Well, meteorological summer. Pedants who insist on sticking with the astronomical one (which starts on June 21st) will still have to live in spring for a few more weeks but the rest of us are already basking in the sunshine… (That’s how it works, […]
The HandleBards are a unique cycling theatre company, who carry all of their set props and costumes on the back of their bicycles, performing charmingly chaotic Shakespeare’s plays at outdoor venues all across the UK.
This advertising campaign encouraging young Germans to wear helmets when they cycle has been causing a stir in the Fatherland… …with some saying it is sexist. Yet, as the posters above reveal – you can view the full set here – male models feature just as prominently as […]
Welcome to Andermatt… Alas I’m not there at the moment. Although if I were, I dare say it wouldn’t look like it did in August 2010 when the picture above was taken. I suspect it might be somewhat whiter. I was, of course, en route for southern Italy […]
It’s always good to from people that I have met on my travels. This week, two fellow continental drifters from the cycle from Spain to Norway back in 2015 have been in touch. First up is Peter Udell. I met him in northern Spain in the early part […]
The cycling-public transport mini-series of posts continues… It kicked off with my own story of how I managed to transport myself and Reggie the bike back from Nordkapp in August 2015 using an assortment of trains and ferries; that was Part One. Prompted by changes to their bicycle-carrying […]
Warning! There are some pretty pictures and videos in this post… …but I also need your opinions. Scroll to the foot of the post for more information… I don’t write murder mysteries. This is why I have no problem in revealing to anyone who hasn’t read Spain to Norway […]
From the perspective of this seasoned continental cyclist, the best thing about a ferry is the fact that it isn’t an aeroplane. No hassle packing up the bike; just a case of riding over a ramp, finding a seat and relaxing while someone else does the hard work of […]
Regular readers of these posts will know that I quite often receive emails from people asking for information about cycling in Europe as occasionally I post my exchanges with such people on the website. In the case of Simon Ruddenklau, however, I didn’t. Perhaps it was a busy […]
This website is very nearly ten years old. Back in the early days(!) I used to answer many emails that I received on the website. In more recent years I haven’t done it so often but I’m going to do it now as this week I received two […]
A couple of European cycling-themed videos from Brut Nature FR, a French ‘new media’ company that seems to exist on social media but nowhere else. Anyway, I digress. Both are short and both worth watching; the first about the EuroVélo 6, the second about how the bicycle has […]
As we probably all know (even if we’ve never had the chance to visit the country), Denmark is a great place to cycle. So is northern Germany, especially the one-time Danish territory of Schleswig-Holstein. The facilities on offer, the topology, the attitude of road users… it’s all, well, […]
Last week I was contacted by Nicholas Waite, a cyclist who is planning to travel from Tarifa to Nordkapp by bicycle in 2018. As with anyone attempting such a feat, he has done the wise thing and read my book: Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie […]
CyclingEurope.org often veers off topic, but here’s a story that is bang on topic. It starts with an email from Harry: Hi Andrew, I’m planning to cycle EuroVelo 3 in September this year, and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions? My father read about […]
From the EuroVélo website… (and the reason why I was in Brussels last week): “A new application has been launched for smart phones and tablets to help people plan and then cycle the route of EuroVelo 5 – Via Romea (Francigena). Over a thousand years ago, pilgrims used […]
Is it possible? I cycled eight countries in nearly four months back in 2015 but five in one day? According to Karsten Koehler, yes it was and in April 2016 he set about proving his suspicion by heading to Belgium with his bike… Here he explains his motivation: I […]
Today, I read, is International Day of Happiness. (Isn’t every day? Mmm… Perhaps not…) Anyway, upon discovering that March 20th is a day of all-round joy (apologies if you’re just not feeling it), I was reminded of cycling through Lower Saxony en route from Tarifa to Nordkapp for […]
Traveller and cyclist Pete Martin has written a new book and if you follow this link you can read an extended extract here on CyclingEurope.org. The publisher has provided the following below. For anyone travelling along Eurovelo 15, the Rhine Cycle Route, it’s probably worth a read. “This is an […]
Between the nights of April 8th (Tarifa) and July 28th (Nordkapp), I was on the road for 111 days; 96 cycling days and 15 rest days. I stayed in at least 66 campsites for one or occasionally two nights. If you remember, I tried to post a picture via […]
Finally, here it is; the complete list of posts from this summer’s cycle from Tarifa to Nordkapp. In the reorganised framework of CyclingEurope.org you can find it under the ‘European Routes’ menu (Eurovelo 1) above and the listings for the individual countries can also be found in the […]
A more organised second day of train travel (compared to the last-minute complexity of the trip from Hirtshals to Hamburg). Hamburg to Rotterdam by train – 3 of them – and then the ferry tonight at 9pm. That said, Deutsch Bahn decided to replace the first cycle-friendly IC […]
Back to the UK tomorrow evening…
I thought this would be a complicated part of the journey home from Nordkapp, and so it is proving to be. It is only 11am but I am already on Danish train number 3… This is how it has so far panned out: Arrived in Hirtshal on the […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I was a little ‘off-grid’ last night so couldn’t publish anything to the website. Photos – spectacular ones – will come later but I’ll take the opportunity of introducing you to Hans and his daughter Veronika from Germany. […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Again, another late update… I knew it would be a relatively short cycle on day 75; ‘just’ 40 km to Trondheim where I had agreed to stay for a couple of nights with a guy called Steven who […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Various things put me in a grumpy mood this morning. The internet still wasn’t working (campsite or 3G), I was looking at at a half hour wait for the campsite reception to open so that could pay, and […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I have found an idyllic place to camp tonight on the eastern side of the island of Falster on the shore of the Baltic Sea. This is the beach, just metres from my tent: How I managed to […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I chatted late into the evening with Franziska and Klaus whilst sitting on their garden terrace sipping wine and eating Scandinavian chocolate. They had left me alone at the house for a couple of hours earlier in the […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. The campsite at Missunde really was a gem. Every box on the Cycling-Europe-travelling-cyclist-ideal-campsite list was ticked. Twice. The previous number one site of the trip had been in Orléans; but it didn’t have this: By the time […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. When I went to the reception of the campsite in Borgdorf-Seedorf this morning to pay my bill, I owed 4 cents on top of the deposit of €10 that I had paid for the card that recorded how […]
A sneak preview of tonight’s round up of cycling day 52. This is what I’ll be looking at when I write it. Unless it starts to rain…
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I was up and about ridiculously early this morning. We ate and drank well the previous evening so I can’t really explain why I did get up so early. Perhaps it was the bright sunshine outside which gave […]
I’m going to be following (hopefully) an ox herding route (now an official cycle path) called the Ochsenweg up through the northern German region of Schleswig-Holstein towards Flensburg, the final town in Germany. The vague route is highlighted in green on the map below but I’m hoping that […]
A day of sightseeing and shopping…
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I’m half way to Nordkapp! Come back later for the full story of cycling day 50… Have you come back? Good. Then let me finish off this post… It’s now Sunday evening and a full three days after […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. I followed the HH-HB / route 7 for the first two-thirds of the day… It’s now Friday morning and I’m doing a bit of a catch up on blog side of things. Cycling day 49 was Wednesday and […]
The day was spent 50:50 between discovering the Hansiatic city and shopping (in preparation for cold, wet Scandinavia…). The pictures are just of the first 50.
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Not a great deal to report on for cycling day 48. After having spotted the town of Syke just to the south east of Bremen on my map the previous evening, I sat down on the steps of […]
The town of the Sykes! Never before have I regretted so much not having a black marker pen to hand… The town of Syke is, alas, not one of Germany’s most attractive destinations. A little run down and in need of investment (insert your own joke at this […]
I did promise to write one of the reviews after each country (here’s the one about Spain) but I am only now sitting down to write the review about cycling in France. As before, it may make more sense if you go back and read the post I […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. So, where were we? Ah yes; in a very wintery Munster getting hailed upon… On the terrace of the bar where I wrote up the report for cycling day 46 yesterday afternoon I was at least protected from […]
Remember these iconic images / poster from an advertising campaign here in Münster to get people out of their cars and into buses or onto bikes? Well, I wasn’t able to climb the tower of the cathedral to take my picture but I did find the […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Let’s start with the positive: I’ve arrived in Münster, the sun is shining sporadically and, on the whole, the physical cycling conditions today were good. For most of the time I was able to travel along dedicated […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. First of all, if you have looked at the statistics in the above link, did you notice this? You probably didn’t. I stopped for a coffee and to write up about cycling day 44 in a supermarket. […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Over the last ten years I’ve visited Germany on quite a few occasions; twice to Stuttgart, twice to Hamburg, once to each of Munich Berlin and Bonn. I have a very positive view of the country based upon […]
Seriously underwhelmed with what I’ve found. The first hour cycling north out of Cologne has been only sporadically sign-posted with Eurovelo 15 signs leaving me guessing as to whether I am on the right track on not. I’m following the little red signs assuming that they are sending […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Yesterday I made clear my (self-inflicted) frustration at not being back on a campsite but couped up in a small hotel room in Aachen. As I sit here by the banks of the Rhine at tonight’s campsite just […]
Press release: 5 COUNTRIES – 10 DAYS – 1315 KILOMETRES – £3600 RAISED FOR CHARITY Earlier this year we told you about a group of young men from Wirral who were planning to undertake an epic and unsupported bike ride from London to Berlin to raise funds […]
Today was a little bit of a wake-up call; arriving in Germany I expected the place to be full of campsites. Aachen certainly wasn’t. Although it does have a ‘camping platz’ just out of town, it’s not for tents, just motor homes. The woman in the tourist office […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. The collegiate atmosphere of the five cycling tourists on the one small patch of ground at the campsite south of Maastricht continued this morning as we all packed away our things are readied ourselves to head off in […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Tonight has been chuffing cold! I have now crawled into the tent at the campsite a few kilometres south of Maastricht wearing four upper layers of clothing, a beanie on my head and a Buff around my neck. […]
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s ride. A shortish cycle today – just 66 km – but the average has only slightly been dented, down to 74.5 km. I’ll try to keep it with 5 km of the magic 75 km over the coming weeks […]
Tomorrow morning, Tuesday 7th April, it’s a relatively short ride to Gibraltar and a final night of luxury in a hotel. On Wednesday it’s an even shorter ride to Tarifa and a campsite just to the west of Europe’s most southerly mainland point. Then on Thursday 9th I […]
If you ever need to reignite your faith in the wider cycling community then I can suggest few better people to meet than Roman and his colleagues at Yep Bike in San Pedro, just south of Marbella on the Costa del Sol. I first contacted Roman a couple […]
You may remember – I’ve certainly mentioned it on here before, and probably elsewhere – that one of the principal reasons for choosing to study Spanish at the K2 language school here in Cádiz was not just its general location in the heart of the old part of […]
If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve posted these country-specific commentaries about the upcoming Eurovelo 1/3 trip from southern Spain to northern Norway: Cycling in Spain Cycling in France Cycling in Belgium Cycling in Germany Cycling in Denmark Cycling in Sweden Cycling in Norway
Under two weeks now until departure and I’m finally beginning to piece things together in a serious way. The flight is purchased and the Spanish course booked but you already know that as you have read this, no? Yesterday I spent the day in Leeds in search of […]
So finally, after Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and France… I arrive at the beginning (if that makes sense), in Spain. If you remember, my posts about cycling through each of the countries of the Eurovelo 1/3 route that I will be following later in the year were […]
So, after Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Belgium I arrive in France on my pre-Eurovelo 1/3 quest to have put at the very least a bit of thought into the planning of the route. Only one country to go – Spain – which will be the first of […]
After pondering over whether to buy some new Ortlieb panniers (see previous post), my mind remained focussed on the general theme of ‘equipment’. I really need to set some kind of budget for getting hold of what I need to buy. After having cycled across Europe twice already, I […]
My journey across the continent continues… I have already posted planning notes on cycling through Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Here are my planning notes for Belgium after which only France and Spain need to be considered before I set off from Tarifa in Spain shortly after Easter. […]
While maps are on my mind (see previous post)… I have a newly discovered love for Marco Polo maps. But before I get on to them, let’s back track a little. I can’t imagine there will ever be a day when I ditch paper maps altogether; when I cycled […]
So impressed was I yesterday with my ability to trace a nice blue track upon the German section of the Eurovelo map of Europe in my post Cycling in Germany, I decided to do it for the rest of the route. Much more info about the trip is in […]
I was managing to write one of these country commentaries at the rate of one per weekend earlier in December but I’ve had a break for a few weeks over Christmas. Remember that they are not a complete overview of cycling in the particular country through which I […]
I have arrived at country number three – in a reverse sense – after previously writing about Cycling In Norway and Cycling In Sweden. Denmark will, of course, be country number five after Spain, France, Belgium and Germany but in my quest not to neglect the latter part […]
Should you ever wish to contact me with tales of your own cycling adventures – and some people do – your chances of them appearing here on CyclingEurope.org in some way, shape or form are significantly increased if you include some good pictures. That’s what Paul Ram from […]
This has simplicity, beauty and European cycling written all over it. Or rather, printed all over it. It’s nice. I received an email from a chap called Laurence this week. This is what he said; “We’re a small not-for-profit letterpress print company located in Bristol and two members […]
Here are three guys who cycled along a similar route to me but from London Barcelona taking in large chunks of my 2010 journey from England to Italy and then my 2013 across southern France and into Spain. I wrote books about my adventures; these chaps have made […]
Some interesting cycling-related videos on the new British Pathé archive just made available on YouTube. See the article below for more details but here is my choice of the cycling films; ‘Cycling Tips’ (1936) ‘Herne Hill Cycling aka Holiday Sport’ (1952) ‘Queer Cycling’ (1942) From Sky News; Film […]
From the BBC’s ‘week in pictures‘: “Pet Horstmann, who runs the Fahrradhof bike shop in Altlandsberg, eastern Germany, looks out of his house decorated with more than 200 old bikes.” Here’s another shot of the same house from Panoramio:
My Instagram account is, predictably, CyclingEurope. There is a link over there on the right of this page. Down a bit. Yes, you found it.
Issues with the flight & weather resulted in a couple of hours delay but we arrived (I’m travelling with a friend and her three sons – their surname is Mumford so I suppose I’ll be referring to them as Mumford and sons quite a bit; if the joke […]
Why playing poker on two-wheels is becoming a trend in the country Germany prides itself on many things: its grand castles, towering ice-capped mountains, and its top-of-the-line automobiles. But one aspect that’s often overlooked in this country is its people’s love for poker. And thanks to their passion […]
Not sure if you have ever explored the further reaches of this website. If you haven’t you may not have visited the section called ‘Eurovelos 1-15‘. It’s over there on the right sandwiched between ‘Eurovelo 8‘ and ‘Pennine Cycle‘. Found it? Good. I have to say that I […]
I used to regularly post extracts from emails that I received on here but recently I seem to have stopped doing so. For no particular reason. It’s a delight to be asked about the routes that I have cycled and, quite often, those that I haven’t. I try […]
When I normally say ‘rest day’ it is no such thing. It’s a ‘day off the bike day’ but today really is a ‘rest day’. I won’t go into detail but I wasn’t particularly well yesterday evening. The symptoms were more associated with a bug of some sort […]
If proof were needed (and can I say that it isn’t) that this was just one long mad dash from A (the Temple of Poseidon in Greece) to B (Cape St. Vincent in Portugal) then today was that evidence. Which isn’t needed. [Get on with it, please…] I […]
It was indeed a shorter day in the end and nothing untoward happened. Following coffee in Mitikas it was a relatively short cycle to the much nicer Paleros where I had planned to meet Ed Cox. Ed is cycling from Bristol to Brisbane and he had contacted me […]
If you are a reader of Cycling Active magazine and have an ability to spot detail amongst all the bike-related info., you may have noticed a mention of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie in the July edition of the magazine that came out last […]
I have spent today wearing a pair of trousers that must rank as the most comfortable pair of trousers that I have ever worn in my life. I thought I’d share that with you. They are made by a company called Marmot and are made of a baggy […]
I received a message this week on the Facebook page from Neola Kay Wilby; “I’ve just been looking at your route for the summer. My boyfriend and I will be cycling from northern Spain to Croatia then to Romania, cross through Germany, Amsterdam and back home! We’re doing it over […]
Here’s an urgent message from the European Cyclists’ Federation (the ECF) which I support whole-heartedly! “There are 35 million daily cyclists in Europe. There are more than 100 million Europeans who cycle regularly. Yet the European Institutions are failing to take cycling seriously as a mode of Transport. […]
I’ve just caught up with last Monday’s Cycle Show on ITV4 which contained an interesting piece on cycling up to the Stelvio Pass in the Italian Alps. Some stunning images and it’s worth watching on the ITV Player just for the views (although if you do, be quick as […]
Wednesday 22nd August Bratislava to Gyor: 4 hours, 82km “In the morning I went for a walk with Ivana and benji (their dog) through the nearby vineyards. It was a great walk through the country side and we picked grapes from the vines to munch along the way. […]
Wednesday 15th August Passau to Linz: 5 hours 49 minutes, 118km “The next morning, I had a closer look at my bike. It turns out the bolt attaching the rack to the right hand side of the bicycle frame had snapped. I had a spare bolt fortunately, but […]
Tuesday 4th August Straubing to Passau: 5 hours 10 minutes, 90km “Waking up late, I strolled into town, to find every second person in leather pants and drindl dresses. It could only mean one thing. I followed the swarms of people as they headed down the street. One […]
Wednesday 8th August Rest in Munich “In the morning Andi wrote down some things I should check out in the city. I decided to head to Englisher Gardens, the largest city park. The river that runs through it, flows with such force that under one bridge people are […]
Monday 6th August Donauworth to Augsburg: 2 hours 24 minutes, 40km “It was a short cycling day, today. I followed my own route from Donauworth to Augsburg, picking smaller, quieter looking roads on Google maps. While there is no signposted route to follow and often its less scenic, […]
Friday 3rd August Sigmaringen to Munderkingen: 4 hours 2 minutes, 72km “It was my first day along the Danube. I had given myself two days to get to Ulm, so my target was any campsite past Riedlingen that I happened to come across. During the day nothing exciting […]
Wednesday 1st August Rest in Konstanz/Meersburg “The sun beat down on my tent. I continued to lie under the bright blue tarp for as long as I could bear the heat. Unzipping and crawling out onto a patch of dewy damp grass, I took a moment to adjust […]
Tuesday 31st July Stein am Rhein to Konstanz: 1 hour 35 minutes, 30km “Today was a lazy day. It was my last day in Switzerland and I decide to take it easy. In the morning, I waited outside the reception area for the campsite manager. While waiting I […]
Sunday 29th July Basel to Zurich: 6 hours 24 minutes, 118km “The rain continued throughout the night and yet again I had to pack up a wet tent. I said goodbye to the English trio and was the first person to checkout of the campsite. People seem to […]
Saturday 28th July Rest in Basel “I was hesitant to leave France. Firstly I would miss it. France had been an amazing experience and as much as I wanted to enter a new country, I felt there was also more of France that needed to be explored. The […]
