Eurovelo 6, Atlantic to the Black Sea - getting home?

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RobinS

Veteran
Location
Norwich
After 3 month tours in 2016 and 2017, due to time constraints we have not been able to have a big tour this year, so to make up for it we are starting to plan our 2019 tour.

General idea is ferry to St Malo, cycle across Brittany to the Atlantic coast near Nantes, then follow the EV6, up the Loire, across France to the Rhine on the German border, then up through Germany to the Danube, which we will follow through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, finishing at Constanta on the Black Sea. We will have full long haul camping kit including stoves and cooking kit, and everything we need (except food!) for about 4 months.

The only real question we have is how to get home - I feel that flying could be impractical with a full 4 pannier plus rackbag load on each bike. Has anyone tried taking the train this far across Europe?
It looks like you could go Constanta - Bucharest - Vienna - Frankfurt - Utrecht - Rotterdam, then cycle to Hook of Holland with only 4 train changes, in less than 2 days. Do these trains take fully assembled bikes? How practical is this idea?
(We have previously done circular tours, or used the Bike Bus so have no experience at all of European trains)
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
https://www.seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm#other destinations has a description from someone returning Constanta but via Calais. There information earlier on the page about Germany and the Netherlands to complete your route.
 

Ivo

Well-Known Member
Location
Maastricht
Some info based on recent experience (last year).
I took the train in Cluj-Napoca to Budapest. Officially you can't transport bikes over the border. But the train has a leisurely halt on both sides of the border and trundles across. Between the last Rumanian and the first Hungarian railway station it was about 10km, I had over an hour to cover this. Worked fine. From Budapest there are a lot of regional trains to Vienna. Austrian Railways offer an excellent night train service from Vienna to Düsseldorf. From Düsseldorf you can take a train to Arnhem, the first major Dutch town. From there on you can take a lot of trains to Hoek.
For this connection you'll probably need to stay for the night in either Hungary or northern Romania. The nighttrain arrives in Düsseldorf at a sensible time, with a bit of luck you might even make it for a afternoon fast ferry. The night ferry you'll catch easily.
So doing it leasurely will take something like 60 hours. All of the trains I mentioned take bikes without any assembly.
 
OP
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RobinS

RobinS

Veteran
Location
Norwich
Thanks both - looks like Budapest to Hook will be no problem, but there seem to be lots of stories of problems with the trains from Bucharest!
 

Ivo

Well-Known Member
Location
Maastricht
Thanks both - looks like Budapest to Hook will be no problem, but there seem to be lots of stories of problems with the trains from Bucharest!

The problems can be overcome with a bit of smartness.
You need the Interregio from Brasov to Budapest. This one takes bikes except for the little bit between Episcopia Bihor and Biharkeresztes. In the current timetable, the 6.40 train from Brasov has 1h15 between both borderstations (there's 1 hour time difference between both countries) so that should be enough to cover the 10km. This is your key connection for the bit from Romania to Budapest.
An interesting connection to check would be the afternoon IR from Constanta to Brasov. Only drawback will be that you'll have to start out early from Brasov and need a place to sleep there.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
2-3 days by train from Constanta back home sounds quite agreeable. TBH I would rather cycle it though or part of the journey as once in Germany cycle routes are good.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Or from Constanza head south and end at Istambul!
I doubt its any easier to get back from, but having cycled that far, why stop ?
 

Ivo

Well-Known Member
Location
Maastricht
Another interesting connection is the 18.45 night train from Bukarest. This one stops at Oradea near the Hungarian border. From there you can cycle to the nearest Hungarian railway station with bike transport, onwards to Budapest and then the nighttrain to Germany.
I haven't checked the details yet on the Hungarian side but this one, depending on your cycling speed, could save you a night on the road
 
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1mr&page_id=365323&v=6w I found this trip on GGOB might be of some help, I see after finishing, he headed down to Varna and flew back to UK from there. I have never had any problems with flying the touring bike anywhere, just need to contact the Airline and find out there rules.
 

mmmmartin

Random geezer
Flying is dead easy. Airlines are happy to take €30 for an extra bag in the hold and the weight limits are large enough to take just about everything you'll have, assuming you are carrying it on the bike.

As for the bike itself, I take handlebars off, cable tie to crossbar, then drop out front fork with wheel inside and cable tie it to the side of the bike. If you can't get a cardboard bike box from a shop just borrow a load of cardboard from supermarket or a rubbish bin and tape it all together to look like a box, use cling film to give it all stability, and masses of parcel tape. This'll get you home within a day, rather than spend days and nights on trains fretting about bags and bikes in the guards van etc .
 

albal

Guru
Location
Dorset
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RobinS

RobinS

Veteran
Location
Norwich
Looking at the maps I did see that Varna was within reach, seems that both Wizzair and Easyjet fly to the UK from there - may be the easiest option. As we have bever flown with bikes will have to read up on some of the threads on the subject. Only issue could be, that we won't know when we will get there to book a flight for! Our style of touring is very much not based on a schedule.
 
Looking at the maps I did see that Varna was within reach, seems that both Wizzair and Easyjet fly to the UK from there - may be the easiest option. As we have bever flown with bikes will have to read up on some of the threads on the subject. Only issue could be, that we won't know when we will get there to book a flight for! Our style of touring is very much not based on a schedule.

At one time Easyjet allowed bikes to travel unboxed, just turn the handlebars, remove the pedals and use a plastic bag to cover it the CTC used to sell suitable ones. When i worked at gatwick airport, I would see bikes often travelling that way the advantage was the luggage handlers could see that it was a bike and not a box to throw out of the hold. but i guess things will have changed. Sorrryyyyyyy I do not want to start a how to fly a bike discussion in this thread.
 
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