Well, the bike is once more boxed up. Debbie and Aaron are now somewhere in the Bay of Biscayne with Royal Caribbean and I’m about to head back to New Zealand, if only for a few weeks. It’s been fun. 10 countries, over 3500 kilometres of cycling, even used boats, buses, trains, planes and car in the travels.
But the overall theme (if there is one) was waterways. Cycled the Rhine and Danube as well as Belgium, Dutch and English Canals. With Debbie and Aaron we toured the Loire Valley by car – can’t really say I cycled it as 10k in Samour doesn’t count.
Met some interesting and great people along the way, too many to mention. Only used my “cold weather” gear 3 times as the temperature was consistently hitting 30C + all the time.
In the spirit of today’s trend of having the “Ten Best of…..” My top 10, in no particular order are:
- The cycle paths of Belgium, Holland, Austria, France. (Worst by a long shot were England and Hungry)
- Madeira – very pleasant surprise
- Best Bridge – the wooden bike/Foot bridge near Kelheim
- Best Campsite. – Vilshofen an der Donau, totally geared for cyclists
- Bad Days – None, well there were some not so good days but then without them the good days would be ordinary
- Accident free days – all except one – when the bike and I parted company on a bridge
- Punctures or mechanical failures – none
- Best piece of gear – My ultra light weight camp chair with the Brooks Saddle coming in a close second
- Best website/app – hands down Komoot.com in combo with the Garmin Edge.
- The people you meet along the way.
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- Maderia
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- sometimes its straight ahead
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- On the Danube
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- Tired from a climb
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- Approaching a rather steep and long climb
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- Best Bridge, near Kelhiem
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- Along the Loire
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- Food, beer and good company
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- Name that Chateau!
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- A clean bike – well for one or two days anyway
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- Classic Belgium bikepath
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- rowing at Breda
