International bike trip



Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Richard

Guest
My wife and I did a wonderful bike trip in Holland a few years ago. About 300 miles in 10 days.
Beautiful country, farms, windmills, canals, islands, interesting towns, nice people and flat!

I would like to do another trip and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend another place to go which
might be just as nice and without serious hills.

Thanks Richard
 
Richard wrote:

> My wife and I did a wonderful bike trip in Holland a few years ago. About 300 miles in 10 days.
> Beautiful country, farms, windmills, canals, islands, interesting towns, nice people and flat!
>
> I would like to do another trip and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend another place to go
> which might be just as nice and without serious hills.

The German and Austrian river trails come to mind. There is a vast network of them. You could easily
start off without complete plans as there are so many good choices. It is also very easy to travel
by train with a bike in these countries (roll your bike on and roll it off) if you want to move to
another place too far away (or to get back to whatever airport you need to).

Being along the rivers, there is very little in the way of hills.

The Rhine. Bavaria and the Danube / Altmuhl / Danube Canal.

Here's a good idea: follow the Danube from Budapest (or Vienna) to Bavaria.

The Donau Radweg is a known pleasure ride.

--
**********************************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO http://www.CycleTourist.com Tolerance is recognizing that other people
have different ideals and needs than you. Compromise is acting on that knowledge.
***********************************************************
 
I'd second Germany.

I've done the Rhine from Coblenz to Mannheim. It's good. The Neckar from Mannheim to Stuttgart. This
has a few hills only and is better. The Moselle. Flat as a pancake, very pretty, great wine and
food, beautiful towns etc. In fact I'm going back there in 2 weeks. The River Lahn valley, very good
cycling. A few hills. Germany has terrific cycling facilities. I've also done the Romantic Road
which has some hills but is very good. If you go to Germany you MUST get the relevant cycling route
maps which are available everywhere.
 
. Most people associate Scotland with hills and gradients but here, as throughout the rest of the
UK, we have cycle-paths which utilise discontinued railway routes. These, while not being totally
flat, have gradients generally of (guess!) 1/100 max. At 63 and 260lbs, I'm notta lotta use on hills
but our cycle-paths are just fine for me. They're also QUIET and traffic-free and oft take you where
SUVs don't go. HTH

Iain.

>Richard wrote:
>
>> My wife and I did a wonderful bike trip in Holland a few years ago. About 300 miles in 10 days.
>> Beautiful country, farms, windmills, canals, islands, interesting towns, nice people and flat!
>>
>> I would like to do another trip and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend another place to go
>> which might be just as nice and without serious hills.
>
>The German and Austrian river trails come to mind. There is a vast network of them. You could
>easily start off without complete plans as there are so many good choices. It is also very easy to
>travel by train with a bike in these countries (roll your bike on and roll it off) if you want to
>move to another place too far away (or to get back to whatever airport you need to).
>
>Being along the rivers, there is very little in the way of hills.
>
>The Rhine. Bavaria and the Danube / Altmuhl / Danube Canal.
>
>Here's a good idea: follow the Danube from Budapest (or Vienna) to Bavaria.
>
>The Donau Radweg is a known pleasure ride.
 
Richard <[email protected]> wrote:
: I would like to do another trip and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend another place to go
: which might be just as nice and without serious hills.

Pohjanmaa in Finland is guaranteed 100% hill free. This year the Ecotrip takes place there:
http://hpv-finland.org/ecotrip/english/

Southern Finland is probably more interesting culturally, there is a huge chain of islands, which is
quite special. This area is more densely populated and there are some hills, but I doubt they could
really be called serious.

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi
 
>I would like to do another trip and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend another place to go which
>might be just as nice and without serious hills.

Here is a place that doesn't meet your no hills criteria, but I would recommend for others thinking
of an interesting international trip: Tasmania. I've heard it said that if you "ironed out" the
hills from Tasmania, it would be half the size of the rest of Australia :). In practice, I don't
think it is that bad but there are definitely some hilly bits.

I've ridden there twice, once in 1999 and once in 2001. Both times, I found it to be interesting
cycling, people, history, and landscapes. Not too much traffic and reasonable roads (both better
than North Island of NZ, though North Island of NZ has more total variety in regions). An added
bonus in middle of a Northern Hemisphere winter was finding 14 hours of daylight. My trip reports
for both trips are at http://www.fietstocht.com

An anecdote I'll relate about the flatness of the Netherlands. In 1993, I visited and cycled 18 days
and 1440km. The first 400km were in the north. An Avocet 50 altimeter I had at the time recorded a
total elevation gain of 12 meters for those first 400km. I figured that was approximately 4 bridges,
as everything was very flat. Of course, in the southern province of Limburg, I encountered a set of
hills, but otherwise very flat riding. Also I've found that one can get some strong winds in the
Netherlands.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

p.s. I have no connection or financial interest in Tasmania, just one of my preferred places.
 
There are some tremendous river rides in Germany with very few hills. The Rhine is one. The
Danube another.
 
Mike Vermeulen wrote:

> >I would like to do another trip and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend another place to go
> >which might be just as nice and without serious hills.
>
> An anecdote I'll relate about the flatness of the Netherlands. In 1993, I visited and cycled 18
> days and 1440km. The first 400km were in the north. An Avocet 50 altimeter I had at the time
> recorded a total elevation gain of 12 meters for those first 400km. I figured that was
> approximately 4 bridges, as everything was very flat.

......

That was my experience in the South Platte river valley in central Nebraska - on highway 30
(parallels I80 and the Platte River). Same cyclocomputer, same kind of elevation gain numbers (per
day), and I could remember which highway overpass it had been.

Is it "just as nice?" Well, it is Nebraska ... the good life:
http://www.cycletourist.com/Boulder_to_Minneapolis/main.html?DOCUMENT=parts2-3.html#4

.... framed entry requires javascript - or:

http://www.cycletourist.com/Boulder_to_Minneapolis/main.html select - The Platte River Valley
-- Part III.

> .... Tasmania [is] just one of my preferred places.

You've certainly made your point. Sounds like my kind of place. Months of "Down Under" touring
remains a goal of mine.

--
**********************************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO http://www.CycleTourist.com Tolerance is recognizing that other people
have different ideals and needs than you. Compromise is acting on that knowledge.
***********************************************************
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom Back