tommyofleeds
New Member
Im wanting to cycle through Europe next year starting from Barcelona, going into France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Netherlands. Any advice would be welcome...
This summer a friend and i cycled from paris to barcelona then up following the coast to Nice and Monaco, i flew home from Nice and he carried on through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Belgium and France.
All i can tell you is of the ride from Barcelona to Nice, the Spanish bit isnt brilliant, quite hilly regardless of if you go inland via Girona or the coast road. the coast offers many towns with campsites in most of them. We done our tour before the main campsite season so often got away without paying.
The whole of the south coast of France is practically a cycle lane, you either have a yellow lane painted on the side of the road or for many miles you have your own lane separate from the traffic but going in the same way.
As said before know your kit and route well (although my friend didnt know either and still done 3000 miles)
Through France we raced on, doing 70-90 miles a day and it just wasnt enjoyable, for the last half of my journey and the rest of his we tried to hit around 50 a day.
According to him Italy was very expensive, he had planned to go round the coast but had to skirt over the top because of the price of living. In France food was cheap, we stocked up in supermarkets and lived on baguettes. Water we got from campsites or from knocking on doors.
According to him the rest of Europe was cheap and he could afford to splash out a bit more (we allowed ourselves some small treats even though we were on a budget like a tin of beer to have in the tent at night)
I would say try to learn a bit of the language in each country you are in, I had no french but talked to as many people as i could. We would often ask to camp in peoples gardens, you would be surprised by how friendly they can be, we were given a bed in their house by one family and the use of their caravan by another.
I may have left some things out, if you have anything else you can think of just let me know
This summer a friend and i cycled from paris to barcelona ...
Im wanting to cycle through Europe next year starting from Barcelona, going into France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Netherlands. Any advice would be welcome...