Touring Europe?

Any general advice on touring in Europe for an American? What things do I need to know that I
haven't thought about?

Do you need an International Camping Card to camp? Can you get one in the US? Or after arrival?

When can you travel through Switzerland and Austria? Norway? Mountainous parts of Italy? How is
spring in France?

What things do I need to do/see?

Thanks, Craig

Bozeman <craighowald@hotmail.com> wrote:
: Any general advice on touring in Europe for an American? What things do I need to know that I
: haven't thought about?

How will you transport your bike, or will you rent one?

You could use trains for some part of your journey.

The culture can be surprisingly different, eg. in views on politics. Also different parts of Europe
are very different.

Not everybody speaks English, but then again there are some parts where they do.

: What things do I need to do/see?

Some countries are very rich in recumbent activities. You can try out models that are quite rare
in the other side of the big water. Consider at least Netherlands. They have the Cycle Vision
event in May/June.

You can hopefully find a number of useful links on my page.

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/ varis at no spam please iki fi

"Bozeman" skrev...
> Do you need an International Camping Card to camp? Can you get one in the US? Or after arrival?

You can usually buy the card on campsites. I'm not sure if its valid for hostels too. Here in
Denmark at least the cost is rather high for staying a night in either place. Luckily there are
inexpensive campsites. Read more about them and bike holidays in Denmark here: http://www.dcf.dk/
("Information in english" / "Bike holidays in DK" Other countries might have something similar.

Regards Mikael

Some links to european national bicycle organisations here. http://www.dcf.dk/links/advocacy.htm

Mikael

"Mikael Seierup" skrev...

> You can usually buy the card on campsites. I'm not sure if its valid for hostels too. Here in
> Denmark at least the cost is rather high for staying a night in either place. Luckily there are
> inexpensive campsites. Read more about them and bike holidays in Denmark here: http://www.dcf.dk/
> ("Information in english" / "Bike holidays in DK" Other countries might have something similar.

If you are really cheap (like me) you can always try to ask farmers etc. if they have a place, you
can spend the night. It has worked for me so far and its probably a lot easier with a recumbent. And
we don't usually gun down turists that come knocking at our doors. ;o)

Mikael

"Mikael Seierup" <briangoebbels@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b3sqm7$1pi2gk$1@ID-169681.news.dfncis.de...
> If you are really cheap (like me) you can always try to ask farmers etc. if they have a place, you
> can spend the night. It has worked for me so far and its probably a lot easier with a recumbent.
> And we don't usually gun down turists that come knocking at our doors. ;o)

I've found that works too. Be sure to leave no trace of your camping though. People in all countries
seem to realize that serial killers don't travel by bike, much less by recumbent bike. That doesn't
mean you can't get accosted in some places.

Skip

Have a look at www.ctc.org,uk

CTC have a number of cycling routes and aslo notes on cycling indifferent countries.

I did a tour of the Westwen Isles of Scotland which you can see onwww.rodking.co.uk

This year I am off to Spain and Portugal in May.

Best regards

Rod (tri) King on a Windcheetah

"Bozeman" <craighowald@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d3b8d010.0303012215.f27596d@posting.google.com...
> Any general advice on touring in Europe for an American? What things do I need to know that I
> haven't thought about?
>
> Do you need an International Camping Card to camp? Can you get one in the US? Or after arrival?
>
> When can you travel through Switzerland and Austria? Norway? Mountainous parts of Italy? How is
> spring in France?
>
> What things do I need to do/see?
>
> Thanks, Craig

Do a Google search on biking cycling Europe. Pick up a copy of the green Michelin Guide for the
areas you are interested in. Or the Rough Guide series of books if you prefer. There are seveal
books on routes in France. I can't recall the titles, but you can find them on the net. Here's a
link for Austria cycling: http://www.radtouren.at/english/ Here's George Farnsworth's page:
http://www.bikeaccess.net/default.cfm Here's something on Switzerland:
http://www.cycling-in-switzerland.ch/ Dan Kluckhuhn

"Bozeman" <craighowald@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d3b8d010.0303012215.f27596d@posting.google.com...
> Any general advice on touring in Europe for an American? What things do I need to know that I
> haven't thought about?
>
> Do you need an International Camping Card to camp? Can you get one in the US? Or after arrival?
>
> When can you travel through Switzerland and Austria? Norway? Mountainous parts of Italy? How is
> spring in France?
>
> What things do I need to do/see?
>
> Thanks, Craig

>Any general advice on touring in Europe for an American? What things do I need to know that I
>haven't thought about?

In Finland you can survive by buying a bicycle map (Fillari-GT), where you can see some cycle routes
and some places to stay and phone numbers for tourist info centers in each city. There are lots of
cheap "farm hotels".

ukram@puosu.dna.fi_nospam (Markku Poysti) wrote in message news:<b3vijg$88t$1@news1.songnet.fi>...

> There are lots of cheap "farm hotels".

How do you find one of these?

In article <d3b8d010.0303031914.572e579f@posting.google.com>, craighowald@hotmail.com says...
> ukram@puosu.dna.fi_nospam (Markku Poysti) wrote in message news:<b3vijg$88t$1@news1.songnet.fi>...
>
> > There are lots of cheap "farm hotels".
>
> How do you find one of these?
>
If Finland is like the rest of Europe, they probably fly flags

In other parts of Europe they may be called Gasthaus, Pension or Zimmerfrei.

In Central Europe where I've toured, they are cheaper than camping out in the US.

--
Cletus D. Lee Bacchetta Giro Lightning Voyager http://www.clee.org
- Bellaire, TX USA -

>> There are lots of cheap "farm hotels".
>
>How do you find one of these?

Each city has a tourist-info office, they know.

In Fillari-GT map you can find the tourist-info phone numbers and locations of the places to sleep.

A mobile phone is handy if cycling in the small roads marked on the map.

Try to visit Slovenia. http://www.slovenia-tourism.si/ http://www.travelslovenia.com/eng/first.html

Best regards Joze Marolt, Maribor Lightning P-38

*****************************************************
"Bozeman" <craighowald@hotmail.com> je napisal v sporocilo
news:d3b8d010.0303012215.f27596d@posting.google.com ...
> Any general advice on touring in Europe for an American? What things do I need to know that I
> haven't thought about?
>
> Do you need an International Camping Card to camp? Can you get one in the US? Or after arrival?
>
> When can you travel through Switzerland and Austria? Norway? Mountainous parts of Italy? How is
> spring in France?
>
> What things do I need to do/see?
>
> Thanks, Craig