2023 Europe on Wheels

This is our first biking video of our trip.  We took the commuter train to Benacazon and then biked through the spanish countryside to Ayamonte, where we rode a ferry over to Portugal.

It was great to be in Sevilla again.  We had spent a couple of days sightseeing there in 2018 so we didn't feel any need to rush out and try to see everything again.  This allowed us to focus on getting the bikes totally ready, picking up a few items like cycling socks, a European campground power adapter, and fuel for our camp stoves.  We visited the Archivos de Indias, which has all of the ship manifests and other documents from the age of exploration.  Sevilla was the main port of departure for journeys across the Atlantic in the 15th and 16th centuries, including Columbus's initial voyage in 1492.  You don't really get to see more than a few documents as a tourist but researchers can apply for access to the collection.   Cervantes statue La Giralda Setas at night International Women's Day demonstration Archivos de Indios Once the bikes were fully ready, we took a 25km round-trip ride out to the ruins of the Roman city of Italica where there is an a...

There were no direct flights to Sevilla so we planned an itinerary that had us land in Madrid at 2 pm, take the local train from the airport to the main train station, then catch our fast train at 7 pm and arrive at 10 pm in Sevilla.  So we had about 5 hours between landing in Madrid and when we needed to board the train to Sevilla.  We used every second of that time and just managed not to miss our train. The difficulties lay in the rules for bikes on these different modes of transportation and the amount of luggage we had.  The airline requires our bikes to be disassembled and in boxes.  The local train accepts bikes that are fully assembled.  The fast train requires that they be disassembled and packed into bags.  So at the airport we assembled the bikes and were able to pack all of our bags directly onto the bikes. Onward to the local train! Once that was done, we took the elevator up to the main level to the local train and boarded with our fully loade...

We're all packed up and ready to go! Since my last day of work, I've been busy finalizing our bike setup and route plan and getting everything at home in order for our departure. Annalee is officially on sabbatical now and the kids have attended their final days of school and have the work they need to complete while we're gone. We made a few changes to our plan in the past month. The first is a change of gear. After a 50km solo test ride to Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara and back, I weighed all of my gear that was on the rear rack and while it was still (just) within the specs for the rack, it did not include any food or other items we will pick up along the way. We had been trying to limit ourselves to just rear racks and panniers for simplicity sake but the weight has forced the issue.  Annalee and I and now have front racks and panniers so the load can be distributed more sensibly and we even have some spare capacity now. The second change is to our route. We ended...

 Preparations are in full swing and we just completed a 3-day / 2-night shakeout ride.  Video there:   https://youtu.be/6etcLq7uY7M This was the last test ride we will do and it went really well.  We have a short list of things to change but overall, we feel good about being ready. Visas have also been the topic of a lot of concern for us.  All of the European countries we plan to visit are party to a visa agreement called the Schengen agreement.  The agreement states that an American traveling in the Schengen zone automatically receives a Schengen visa upon arrival.  However, the Schengen visa only allows you to stay in the Schengen zone for 90 days in any 180 period.  Since our trip is planned to be about 160 days, that would mean that we would need to spend 70 days of our trip outside the Schengen zone.  There were two workarounds I was looking into.  The first is to simply plan to be outside the Schengen zone for the 70 days....

 Annalee's sabbatical was approved at long last after pandemic delays forced both a reschedule and modification of the original plan.  We plan to leave in early March 2023 and return mid-August.  We will fly to Spain, get our bikes ready, and start pedaling from Huelva.  A rough outline of the trip is: 1. From Huelva, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal 2. From Lisbon north to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  This will sometimes follow the Camino Portuguese pilgrimage route. 3. From Santiago de Compostela to Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, France.  This will mainly follow the Camino Frances and Camino del Norte pilgrimage routes in reverse and include a crossing of the Pyrenees into France. 4. From  Saint Jean Pied-de-Port to Paris 5. Visit Paris, Rome, and Athens 6. Resume biking from Rome to Florence and make our way up to Venice 7. Cross the Alps into Austria and continue to Germany and the Netherlands Depending on our progress, weather, time, and our energy lev...