{"id":2087,"date":"2009-11-01T12:36:26","date_gmt":"2009-11-01T19:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evilmoose.shafted.com.au\/?p=2087"},"modified":"2010-02-15T13:05:54","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T20:05:54","slug":"bike-tour-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/?p=2087","title":{"rendered":"Bike tour summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Red is biking, yellow is train\/bus\/ferry, blue is car – the car loop around Ireland wasn’t recorded though. And we did ferry from Sweden to Finland, and Finland to Estonia, it just wasn’t recorded properly.) <\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Distance cycled<\/b>: 10,100km <\/p>\n

Days on the bike<\/b>: 124<\/p>\n

Distance cycled per day<\/b><\/p>\n

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As you can see, we weren’t very good at rest days – we tended to just do shorter days. And there were two large breaks, when we met up with my mother (in Ireland) and Alex’s father (in Lithuania). Average distance cycled per day was around 80km, it was more like 90km to begin with, then started to go down a bit towards the end – first there was the Alps, and then the days were getting shorter and colder and we hit some pretty uninteresting scenery, and we were no longer aiming for exciting new destinations.<\/p>\n

Favourite cycling<\/b>
\nThrough Norway – along the coast, and from Bergen to the Rallarvegen
\nThe Alps!
\nWales… if only it hadn’t been raining<\/p>\n

Our favourite section that didn’t involve enormous hills would probably be following the rivers through Austria and Bavaria.<\/p>\n

Favourite foods<\/b>
\nWe developed a few staples by the end of the trip. In Europe: Cheese, local breads, rice pudding, Nutella, M&Ms, any form of chocolate, and boiled eggs. Dinner was usually pasta with veggies, tuna and usually cheese melted through (very high in protein and tastiness).
\nIn Japan: anything available in the 7-11, but most often melon bread, onigiri, calorie-mate blocks. For dinner, miso soup, noodles, green vegies and tofu.<\/p>\n

Rain<\/b>
\nWe had about 52 days with rain out of 127 days cycling. Not all of these were persistent rain, but it did rain quite a lot – except for one awesome dry spell from the second half of September to early October when there was no rain for about 20 days! (which included our ride through the Alps) So rain didn’t usually stop us from riding – if it had done, we wouldn’t have got very far.<\/p>\n

Accomodation<\/b>
\nWe had a camping budget, and were happy to wild camp when we could. We found the more you paid for a campground, the worse it was – noisier, dirtier facilities, and you would have to pay extra for showers. Camping on farms was a good (often cheap) option in the UK. Wild camping was easy and definitely legal in Scandinavia. At the start of the trip in Japan, and at the end of the trip in Europe, we found a lot of campgrounds were closed, so resorted to wild camping then, and often when we couldn’t find a campground, or needed to save money.<\/p>\n

Paid camping – 66 nights
\nWild\/stealth\/free camping – 52 nights
\nStaying with friends (or friends of friends) – 15 nights
\nB&B\/Cottage – 6 nights of luxury in Ireland
\nHostel – 4 nights Vilnius, 1 night in Berlin
\nWarmshowers.com – 2 nights (Bergen and Metz)
\nWandering the streets – 1 night in Tokyo, 1 night in Vilnius
\nKindness of strangers – 1 night in Norway, 1 night in Sweden
\nOvernight Ferry\/Train – 2 nights
\nRailway station hut – 1 night in Norway<\/p>\n

And we made it into Google Street View in Denmark!<\/b><\/p>\n