Europe – Page 6 – RuslanY Bike Travel

EuroTour day 2 – Ride to Eiffel Tower

Today I stayed in Paris in order to buy the remaining items for the tour. I needed the white gas for the camp stove and some food. The white gas in France is called “Essence C”. It is usually sold in hardware stores. There was one nearby and it had a 1 liter bottle available.

I had some time available in the afternoon so I decided to visit the Eiffel Tower (since I am in Paris). The Google directions said that it would take 1.5 hours via public transportation to get there. It is only 13 miles so I decided to ride a bike there instead.

This was a fun ride. At first I was concerned that the streets were full of cars and the bike lanes were narrow and sometimes were not there at all. But I soon discovered that the drivers are very forgiving here. They expect bicycles (and scooters) on the road and they give them enough space.

Interesting thing I noticed is that cyclists do not obey the traffic lights and cross the road on red. I don’t know if this is allowed here but the drivers do not beep or yell at them.

EuroTour day 1 – Flying to Paris with a bike

My cross-Europe bike tour has begun. My friend dropped me off at the airport in the morning with all my huge luggage. Here is how it looks.

Hoping this would arrive to Paris undamaged

I had to obtain a permission from the airline in advance and also pay an extra fee of $150 so that I could take the bike with me on the plane .

Fortunately the luggage arrived in Paris with no damage to the bike or the equipment. I took a taxi from the airport to the AirBnB place. The AirBnB place turned out to be a really nice house in the Paris suburbs.

Europe bike tour equipment list

Here is the list of the equipment that I’ve selected for my Europe bike tour. I’ve used multiple online resources to learn what’s important to take and what’s not really needed. The most useful information for me was in the Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook and on the Veni Vidi Bici Blog.

Clothing

Helmet
Cycling glasses with 2 lenses
Cycling mirror
2 T-shirts
Patagonia Nano Puff jacket
Castelli bib shorts
Mountain biking shorts
2 pairs cycling socks
2 pair boxers
Mountain biking shoes
Biking gloves
Rain jacket
Mesh bag
Reflective vest
Sun sleeves
Cycling cap
Hiking pants with zip off legs
Money belt
Base layer 32 degrees
2 cycling jerseys
Cycling rain jacket

Riding a bike across Europe

This summer I will take two months off work and use some of that time to bike tour across Europe. I am planning to fly to Paris, France with my bike and the gear in a cardboard box, assemble the bike upon arrival and ride to the EuroVelo 6 route. From there I’ll follow the route going East. I’ll ride through France, a little bit of Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia and then turn North to finish in Prague, Czech Republic.

The total route is 1,300 miles. This means I’ll need to ride approximately 60 miles per day for about 20 days. I intend to ride 5-6 days a week and use remaining days to rest. I plan to overnight mostly in municipal campgrounds which seem to be plenty along the route.

I’ve been planning this trip for about half a year. There are lots of resources online related to bike touring. Here are the few that I found the most helpful in preparation: