Tag: Luxembourg

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 070 – Crossing Europe On A Bike Called Reggie – Part 1

โ€œThe academic year must have been a difficult one as when the summer holidays arrived, secondary school teacher Andrew Sykes was happy to do as little as possible. But while sitting on his sofa watching the exploits of the cyclists at the Great Wall of China at the Beijing Olympics, he realised the error of his ways and resolved to put a bit more adventure into his life. Two years later, accompanied by his faithful companion Reggie (his bike) but only a rudimentary plan, Andrew set off for a trans-continental cycling adventure that would take him along the route of the Via Francigena and the Eurovelo 5 all the way from his home in southern England to Brindisi in the south of Italy. There were highs and lows, rain and shine, joy and despair and they are all recounted here in a light-hearted, brisk style.โ€

EuroVelo 19: The Meuse Cycle Route

I cycled a bit of this way back in 2010. It was an impressive, if rather damp, section of the route to southern Italy, my version of the EuroVelo 5. The EuroVelo 19, coming in at around 1,000 km is a manageable length and takes in cycling through three countries; Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Hereโ€™s a new video from the European Cyclistsโ€™ Federation to promote the route.

Cycling Five Countries In One Day?

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 provingย his suspicion by heading to Belgium with his bike… Here he explains his motivation: I […]

Cycling Day 41: Borgloon To Maastricht

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. […]

Cycling In Belgium

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. […]

Cycling The Eurovelo 1/3: The Maps

While maps are on my mind (see previous post)… I have a newly discovered love forย 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 […]

Three Kings, From London To Barcelona

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 […]

Cycling Day 13: Tirana To Ulcinj

I can highly recommend this type of holiday if you want to delve into the variety of accommodation on offer within Europe. Last night I was having a shower in a wet room and then donning a white bath robe in a boutique hotel in was of Europe’s […]

Memories Of The Gotthard Pass

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 Playerย just for the views (although if you do, be quick as […]

Good Vibrations: “On Yer Bike!” 5*

Another five-star review of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie; “Looking for something different I stumbled upon Crossing Europe on a Bike called Reggie and found it surprising and inspiring. The book works on a number of different levels. As a travelogue, the author takes […]

“Infectious Stuff”! Oh Dear…(!)

My cousin is a teacher of English language in Portugal. He works for the British Council in the beautiful hilltop city of Coimbra some 40 kilometres from the Atlantic coast. I’d certainly recommend it as a place to visit. Anyway, away from my travel advice, you’d think he’d […]

Thunderthighs To The Rescue

You’re probably wondering how this is going to end. A few days ago I found something on the Internet that intrigued me. It was on a site called Bikely.com. The site is a route bank for cyclists; you can register and upload your route for others to benefit […]

The Henley Standard

The Henley Standard writes: A teacher has had a book of his tales of cycling across Europe published. Mr Sykes, who teaches French at Gillotts School in Henley, rode 2,000 miles from his home town of Reading to Brindisi in the south of Italy last summer. Now he […]

Eurovelo 5, The Book; Update!

I know you are all out there checking the blog avidly every day to see if a publication date has yet been set for my book recounting my little adventure of summer 2010 along the Eurovelo 5 from Berkshire to Brindisi… No? Well, I can’t quite give you […]

The Royal Wedding

I really enjoyed that. Only the most hardened of cynics would fail to do so, even the republican ones. The whole thing was beautifully done, especially the music in Westminster Abbey and the bit at the end with the classic Aston Martin. Nice touch. It was the perfect […]

What’s The Cost Of Eurovelo 5?

Joe Durnall has emailed; I hope you don’t mind me emailing. I intend to ride the Eurovelo 5 to Rome this coming summer, and wondered if you could give me any indication of the costs of such a venture? I have all the kit (Bike, tent, etc..) and […]

Boring Week

I watched with amazement this week the tunneling efforts of the Swiss (as well as the Chileans of course) who have managed to bore their way through 37 kilometres of Alpine rock under the St Gotthard Pass. That puts my efforts to cycle over the top into perspective! […]

Orange(s) & Lemons

Here’s a little story that, in the past hour has had its denouement. Kind of… Before I set off on my trip along the Eurovelo 5, I made sure that I wasn’t going to be stung by any hefty mobile phone charges from Orange. I had recently upgraded […]

Eurovelo 5 in 200 Words?

This is the fifth attempt at writing the content of this post; all previous efforts have disappeared before they arrive on the blog itself. I am wondering if it has anything to do with “upgrading” my browser to IE9…. Let’s try again this time in Firefox. Mmmm… seems […]

Rome: Piazza Navona

If you can remember that far back, when I was in Luxembourg a few weeks ago, I visited an excellent museum all about the history of the city itself. It was well-presented, informative, interesting and told a complete picture that enabled me later, when wandering around the town, […]

Statistics For The Day To Pisa

Cycling time: 7 hrs 3 mins 47 secs Distance: 150.57 kms (Is that a record? How many did I do en route to Luxembourg?) Average: 21.3 kms/hr Maximum speed: 49.4 kms/hr Eurovelo 5 distance: 2,227.8 kms If those figures don’t deserve this cheese, I don’t know what does. […]

Half-Way

I’m not sure whether it is or not but crossing over into Italy at some point tomorrow will feel like it. I’ve notched up just under 1,600 kilometres in two and a half weeks; the estimate was for a total of between 3,000 and 3,500 over five weeks […]

Status Report

More people have been curious as to how the bike is holding up rather than me! I’ll take that as a positive vote of confidence in my abilities to get through this in one piece. So the bike, Reggie Ridgeback Panorama. He appears to be fine. Initial annoyances […]

Stress En Suisse

Let’s start with the stats; Cycling time: 6 hrs 14 mins 34 secs Distance: 103.41 kms Average speed: 16.4 kms/hr Maximum speed: 51.6 kms/hr Eurovelo 5 total: 1,426.6 kms Just a note on the statistics; they are a reflection of where the bike goes between setting off in […]

Thionville – Don’t Rush

Does 3,20โ‚ฌ seem a lot for a bottle of Diet Coke? Just paused for lunch (which they can’t serve me in this bar…) at Thionville. Not a pretty place so I won’t be stopping long. This is very different country from the Meuse of last week. The vineyards […]

Schengen

Having picked my way south east across the corn fields of Luxembourg, a task made a little more difficult by the stiff, cold wind trying to push me back to the capital, it was a relief to arrive at the Moselle valley. Immediately below me, apart from the […]

Back On The Eurovelo 5

Hotels are all very good but they don’t half spoil you! I’ve just had another slap up breakfast after another extremely good night’s sleep. But I’m desperate to get back on the road again!! Cooped up in a little box is no fun once the novelty has worn […]

24 Hour Eating at Pizza Hut

I’m facing 12 on the terrace of Pizza Hut in central Luxembourg city. Behind me at 7 are three Americans in their 20s, full of tall stories and tales of their European adventures. They speak English to the waitress without hesitation. True to type, everyone can hear them […]

A Day in Luxembourg

I have loved the last six days of cycling but it has been equally good to have a very relaxing day off in a laid back place like Luxembourg. After a full English breakfast (!) at the hotel I strolled the 200 metres or so into the city […]

As I Was Saying…

….before my eyes shut while typing the previous post last night. Much of yesterday’s route was dotted with remnants from the Second World War; lots of pillar boxes and a couple of monuments. The number of names of American soldiers who were either killed or lost in action […]

Luxury in Luxembourg

What a domestic scene this is… But it is well-rewarded after the longest day so far. I was woken this morning by Michael Jackson. Fear not, he had not come back to life to visit a campsite in the Ardennes at 5.30am; his music was being played at […]

Mouzon to ?

A bit of indecision this morning as to which direction to head in. Verdun was a possibility but it doesn’t seem to have much to offer other than a battlefield. So Luxembourg it still is; quite a distance but if the weather stays like this and the towns […]

The Magnificent Meuse

When I woke up this morning, I would have been hard pressed to tell you that the Meuse was in France let alone in the area I was travelling in. It has, however, transformed what was becoming a bit of a pedestrian cycle (can I say that?) ride […]

Maubeuge Has A Beautiful Sky!

Just look at how blue it is and how fluffy the clouds are…. The town itself is less beautiful although my hotel – the building on the photo – has the same interior designer as the boudoirs at the Moulin Rouge. The story of the day? Here goes… […]

Progress!

There has been just as much action in Reading and Caversham today with me making great leaps forward in my preparations for July 18th as there has been in SW19, South Africa and Rotterdam combined (Wimbledon, The World Cup & the Tour de France respectively). So as Germany […]

Sun Day & Sunday

We are currently going through a mini heat-wave here in south-east England (confirmed by the fact that earlier this week the first hose-pipe ban was announced…). Temperatures are predicted to soar to around 30 degrees today (in the shade). I cast my mind back to a similar sun-drenched […]

Orkney to Rome

As I have said before, I love the fact that people all over the World read my blog and contribute either through the comments or by taking time to email me. It is no doubt the nearest I will ever come to receiving fan mail (teenage school kids […]

Removing the Belgian Kink

I posted yesterday that I was thinking of removing part of the route and avoiding Brussels and most of Belgium. It does make sense on all levels apart from the one that wants me to tick the box of having followed the route of the Eurovelo 5. George […]

Eurovelo 5 Catch Up

I’ve discussed much on here recently; Mark Beaumont, butterfly handlebars, commuting, Twitter, Geoff Boycott(!)… but not much of Eurovelo 5 and my plans to cycle from Reading to Brindisi kicking off on Sunday 18th July, a little over two-months away. So here is a summary of progress I’m […]

Searching for Eurovelo 5

I do find the statistics of the Internet fascinating almost to the point of geekdom, hence the previous post. It is, for example, depressingly fascinating (but very predictable)ย that the USA dominates the list of theย 100 most-visited sitesย and that Google tops that list. Interesting that Luxembourg (a link with […]

White Rabbits!

There is a lull in action on the Eurovelo 5 front; I think the election is drawing my attention away from cycling. The Couchsurfing Group has a new (2nd) member, a certain Joe Barnett butย I know little about him…. On the other social networking site that is Warmshowers, […]

Itinerary: Suggestions Needed

Making progress, but not quite there yet! Thanks to Massimo in Benevento I have some detail south of Rome but north of Rome still lacks a day by day breakdown, as does the bit between Luxembourg to Strasbourg. This latter stretch has given George Jemmott some issues on […]

Swiss-Italian Co-ordination

It looks to me as if the Swiss National Route 3 –ย full details areย hereย – segways perfectly with the Italian National Route 3; La Via dei Pellegrini. What joined up thinking! This sign (take your pick of the language) is the one to follow in Switzerland (but will it […]

New Year Exchanges with Essex

From: RichardTo: AndrewSubject: Maps Hi Andrew, Hope youโ€™ve had a good Christmas. I see youโ€™ve been busy on the blog. I’ve started telling people about my plans and am very much committed and excited about the trips. I think I will plan to try meet you in Brussels […]

EuroVรฉlo 5: edited to the essentials

The following are the key details from the ECF EuroVรฉlo map about EV5 with identified cycle routes in red, linked to sources of information on the net:England (180 km)Reading to London – NCN 4London to Canterbury to Dover – NCN 1Northern France (140 km)CalaisCanal de Calais to Saint […]

ECF EuroVรฉlo Map

I do actually know more about the route of the EuroVรฉlo 5 than I thought: I have just dug out the ECF EuroVรฉlo map itself and on the back is the following route description. “This is another pilgrim route, also called Via Romea Francigena leading from Canterbury to […]

Joining the CTC

According to the little vote countdown over there on the right, it is now 365 days until I set off at 9am on Monday 19th July 2010. Actually, it isn’t as it is still Saturday 18th July 2009. But anyway, P-365 is looming and is now within hours…I […]

La nouvelle carte est arrivee!

It is a strange thing, but being on holiday for six weeks every summer means that you forget the passage of time and struggle to say what day it is. With my blog vote (still four votes), however, I can say that it is 714 days until I […]