Tag: Portugal

EuroVelo Update: Galicia

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It’s a while since I’ve taken a look at the map of the EuroVelo network, but an email from the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) a few days ago prompted me to do so. I first discovered the network way back in 2008 when I first came up with the idea of cycling from southern England to southern Italy. I thought my route-finding prayers had been answered when I stumbled upon the EuroVelo 5. My high hopes were dashed somewhat when I realised that much of the route (all of the route in Italy) was, at the time, very aspirational. When I did cycle to Italy in 2010 I made up much of the route myself. I didn’t see one sign for the EuroVelo 5 although quite a bit of the journey used already exisiting regional routes so I could at least follow them.

Guide To Cycling Tours In The Wine Regions of Europe

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Renowned for an extensive portfolio of diverse historic and wine regions, the European continent is synonymous with winery culture and expertise. For a winery adventure that’s also active, consider combining the beloved European tradition of wine-sipping, with an active cycling retreat. Cascading greenery to roll down on two wheels, whilst learning the significance of wine production and culture. Blend the fun of culinary delights and movement magic, with a cycling tour amidst a wine region in Europe. Here is a guide to everything you need to know about this vacation, pre-departure. 

EuroVelo 8 – Mediterranean Route: (My) Once-In-A-lifetime Experience

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It will soon be 10 years that I set off to cycle along the Mediterranean coast from Cape Sounio in southern Greece to Cape St. Vincent in southern Portugal. My route was inspired by the EuroVelo 8, although it was much less developed back then than it is today. I saw some EuroVelo 8 signs in Catalonia but aside from that, I’m not quite sure I saw any elsewhere. And after Valencia, when I was beginning to run short of time – I needed to be back at work at the beginning of September – I headed inland, away from the coast in order to complete the journey without resorting to jumping on the train.

The 2020 Virtual Cycle Touring Festival: A Review

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Last weekend was the virtual Cycle Touring Festival. I was planning on writing a few words about the event myself but then a chap called Graham Johnson from Derbyshire got in touch. He had never previously attended the (non-virtual) Cycle Touring Festival but had signed up for a few of the online webinars – including the one delivered by yours truly – at this year’s virtual event and was planning on writing something for his local CTC / Cycling UK group newsletter. Could he use some of my photos to illustrate his text? he asked. Yes, of course! Could I publish your article about the festival on CyclingEurope.org? I asked. Yes, of course! Mutual happiness all round. And here is what he wrote, illustrated by the photographs he chose to use. I think it’s all rather entertaining. He is clearly a man with a book inside him.

The Virtual Cycle Touring Festival: This Weekend!

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Earlier this month I talked about the annual Cycle Touring Festival going virtual for 2020 and the time is almost here! The festival kicks off later today (Friday) and continues over this coming weekend of the 25th and 26th April. Laura and Tim Moss, who have organised the festival every year since 2015, have done a magnificent job in putting together, once again, an eclectic, interesting and potentially inspiring programme of events.

Santander To Coimbra 2019: The Movie

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If you follow @CyclingEurope on Twitter, you may have noticed that over the past couple of weeks, short videos have been posted recounting the story of my cycle from Santander in Spain to Coimbra in Portugal last summer. The reason for the appearances of the videos is two-fold. […]

Cycling Europe 2019: Day 13, Porto

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It’s a non-cycling day. Indeed I haven’t set eyes upon Wanda since I locked her to a large pipe in the underground car park of my hotel here in Porto. I hope the authorities never read that last sentence out of context. She’ll be released in the morning… […]

Spain / Portugal 2019

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The world of (brace yourself)… work feels as though it has interrupted things with the new bike this week. Although I used the Koga to commute to work on Monday, I’m feeling frustrated that for the past two days I’ve been working in schools and that has necessitated […]

Along The Med: Three Years Ago Today

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It was August 28th 2013 when I completed my cycle from southern Greece to southern Portugal. The full story here or the even fuller story here… And here are a few photographic memories. Full marks to anyone who can identify where they were taken; Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, […]

Reading And Writing Encouragement

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Now back in the UK after my successful cycle from Tarifa to Nordkapp, at some point over the next few weeks (or more likely months) my mind will turn towards completing the European cycling trilogy of books that started with Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie and […]

Cycling In Spain

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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 […]

The Mountain Equipment Firefox Jacket

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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 […]

Cycling In Norway

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When I cycled from Greece to Portugal in 2013, I spent most of my time pre-trip thinking about Greece, Albania and, to a certain extent, Croatia. I didn’t spend too much time considering the western European countries through which I would be cycling. In France, a country I know […]

Cycling Insurance Matters

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Like all insurance, I suppose it only matters if you make a claim but as you never know when that will be… OK, you know how insurance works. Only a few years ago insuring your bike was out of the ordinary to say the least and if you did, […]

Share Your Adventures With The World

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That’s what I did, via the publishers Completely Novel and this week they used the image above to publicise a new section of their website encouraging others to do the same. The photograph was taken on the shore of the lake at Ioannina in northern Greece in summer […]

10 Minutes To Go… #cycling

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In just 10 minutes – at midday – you’ll be able to read an exclusive extract from my forthcoming book ‘Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie‘ here on CyclingEurope.org. The book will recount the tale of my cycle in summer 2013 from the Temple of Poseidon […]

Word, The Words & The Wordle

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Just as with the first book, the first thing that I needed to do requires nothing more than a bit of patience and a lot of copying and I have spent several hours today doing just that. I am conscious of not just publishing a blog. If you […]

Heading Home…

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It didn’t take long for the practicalities of life on the road to kick in after my arrival at Cape St. Vincent. As I was recording the video clip in the previous post my mind was on the clock as I knew that the campsite supermarket closed at […]

Cycling Day 34: Nîmes To Béziers

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I’ve just heard on the radio that the Prime Minister back in Britain wants a ‘cycling revolution’. Well, good luck with that but its a shame he wasn’t cycling with me yesterday as I made my way along the coast from La Grande-Motte towards Béziers. Some excellent examples […]

Cycling Day 23: Caorle To Venice

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I started writing this last night but eventually gave in to the weight of my eyelids shutting… How could I not take a day off in Venice? That’s the plan for today but before that, I need to catch up on yesterday’s events, cycling day 23. I have […]

Rest Day 5: Novi Vinodolski

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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 […]

Cycling Day 16: Dubrovnik To Podaca

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The plan over the next week or so is to cycle a minimum of 100km and find a campsite to stay in overnight. Today was day one of the plan, and it worked a treat! Leaving Dubrovnik and all the other tourists who had flocked there wasn’t difficult. […]

Cycling Day 15: Tivat To Dubrovnik

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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 […]

One Month To The Off…

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The picture here would have been far better with a wild vista in the background but when you live in a third floor flat it’s tiresome taking everything out of the building for the sake of one photo to mark the fact that in exactly one month we […]

A Visit To Tent Heaven…

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Tent heaven  or the nearest I have ever come to tent heaven  can be found on the third floor of an old mill in the Calder Valley of West Yorkshire. It’s home to Springfield Camping and is the kind of shop that you really could live your entire life exploring. […]

Dispatch From The Eurovelo 8 Frontline

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Those of you who are paying attention (no? not you?) will remember that Monica Piercy is also cycling from Greece to Portugal but that she is about two months ahead of me. On a purely selfish basis, this is extremely useful indeed as she can feed me with tantalising snippets […]

The Eurovelo 8 In Maps

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When I cycled the Eurovelo 5 to Italy, all my maps were Michelin 1:200,000 scale maps and there were ten of them in total – see the overview map of Europe here (I didn’t take the Belgian ones by the way as I cut off Belgium from my […]

Albania: Gav McDonald’s Story

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Albania remains the mysterious part of my trip along the Eurovelo 8 from Greece to Portugal and I am fascinated by the stories of those who have cycled through the country. I met a chap called Gav McDonald recently at the London Bike Show. On his company website […]

Welcome To 2013 & The Eurovelo 8

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In exactly 6 months’ time I will be in Athens, or somewhere near Athens. My bike will have been reassembled after its flight from London, my panniers packed with equipment, clothes & supplies & my mind no doubt full of excitement and anxiety as to what the subsequent […]

“Infectious Stuff”! Oh Dear…(!)

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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 […]

Good Vibrations: The Story So Far

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Listen to my BBC interview about the cycle and the book via Audio Boo. Read the article that appeared in the Reading Chronicle. Watch a 25 minute film that combines the BBC interview with pictures and videos from the cycle. Read about my forray into the media world. […]

John Adrian Short: In Cinemas Soon?

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Here’s a man with a film waiting to be made about him; John Adrian Short. He has just posted a comment on The Book section of the site about his cycling journeys (presumably prompted by the discussion  between my cousin Richard ‘Bill Bryson’ Birkby & me about Portugal). John […]

Cycle – The Magazine…

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I have spent many pounds on many glossy cycling magazines in the last couple of years but I have to say that one of the best is the one that I receive for free by being a member of the CTC (OK, it’s not really free I know […]

Puglia 2010 Worldwide!

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Canada, The USA, The UK, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Thailand, Australia, Japan… plus all the others who have been and now gone from the map. Amazing who is interested in this drivel!