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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1915 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 12, 2024

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I have an upcoming multi-week sabbatical as part of one of my job benefits.

I am obsessed with bikepacking / touring, and am fairly experienced in the former. I'm also obsessed with accomplishing multiple things at a time. In particular, I love visiting Europe. I'm less interested in pushing boundaries the way most Bikepackers do by surviving through South America (friendly people but crappy food) or Africa (the same, but with less water and bike parts) or Magnolia (even less people and less bike parts).

After visiting the UK, I'm tempted to confine my trip to that island. No language barrier, Scotland is fucking amazing, and I'll have ample opportunity to stop at a hotel instead of a tent or swing by a distillery to relax. The only downside here is... I've been. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape my white-collar drudgery and family obligations for more than 4 days. It seems like a cop-out.

It will more likely be a collection of 1-2 other central/eastern European countries, using the train as a band-aid. I'd like to mix in 70% off-roading and 30% relaxation and tooling around urban centers. Good cycling infrastructure to support that is ++. I'm interested in Germany, Italy, and maybe dipping into the Czech Republic since I have people in each place.

The final and biggest challenge would be that I'm very comfortable being on my own for long periods of time and enjoy it. But having another person along for at least part of the journey would be an upgrade. Not many people can physically hang for the type of riding I want to do, and then fewer would be able to invest ~2 weeks of time to do it. At a minimum, I'd like to organize checkpoints where I'm meeting with someone I kinda know at a few locations.

Any opinions from the peanut gallery? Are any Euro mottziens open to grabbing a beer or training up to come along?

Definitely go for a trans-alp tour. One of the classics is Munich to Venice, but I'm more fond of the more western routes through Switzerland.

There are a number of Danube bike tours. I've heard positive 1st hand accounts.

Biking from Germany into Italy is an awesome trip if you're strong enough to pedal across the Alps. Even if you're not you can ride a train to the top of Europe and just coast downmountain. https://en.eurovelo.com/ev5

Or you can take route 7 and swing into Czechia: https://en.eurovelo.com/ev7

Mind you, there's little language barrier in Germany, as 40% of people speak some english, and these days if you buy a sim card you can get online translation too.

How doable is it to get a sim card in a foreign country? Can you get it over the counter?

I mean, yeah. It took 20 mins for my dad to buy an Italian SIM card when we went there on a vacation last time. You're gonna need photo ID like a passport, EU is strict that way.

Not sure how it is for Americans though, probably written about online.

Theoretically data roaming might not be a rip off. At least intra-EU roaming is now pretty affordable, it's no longer a scam. One of the few things EU is okay-ish at.

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