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| Me with my faithful touring bike, Florey, about to leave cousin John Chant's place in England to continue my bicycle tour around Europe. |
After I got back, of course one of the most common questions I fielded was the standard "how was your trip?" Not that I'm complaining that people were interested in how my trip was, but it's a difficult question to answer briefly. Actually are people really that interested, or are they just asking to be polite or for a point of conversation, or because they are interested but just don't want too much detail because people will soon get bored of that? So a suitable answer to the question "How was your trip?" could be "Yeah good. So how did your cricket/netball/bike race/etc go on the weekend?" Asking how their bike race went on the weekend is a long shot since not too many of my friends race bikes (there should be more because bicycle racing is great fun!), but you get the idea. A common answer I gave to the question "how was your trip?" was along the lines of "yeah not bad, quite an experience!" Then people might follow on to ask what was my favourite part of the trip, or the favourite place I visited, or my least favourite place. But I wouldn't know how to answer that one, because I didn't really have one place in particular that stood out as my favourite place, or least favourite place. So I'm going to go back though my blog posts and think about that now.
If someone is genuinely interested in how my trip was, I found that the best way for them to find out more about it was to ask me a specific question about it, for which I could give a specific answer or tell recount a specific story or two, and that would inevitably get me side-tracked onto other stories and stimulate the listener to ask other questions about the stories I was telling to fill them in on missing information, or spark some other questions that they are interested in hearing the answer to regarding the trip. For example, a wise friend of mine, Mark, asked me something like "did you get into any trouble with the police?" This would then prompt two stories where I had interactions with police officers. The first being the very morning I arrived in London at the start of my trip. I was just riding along (or JRA for short; police officers, bike shop staff, etc, must hear the old "just riding along" all the time!) and I was quite lost in the city somewhere and just trying to find a hostel, so I pulled up onto the footpath to check the map. It just so happened that a police officer had been patrolling the footpath ahead and had seen me "riding on the footpath", so he walked up to me and said "do you know why I've stopped you today sir?" I was thinking "well, matey, you haven't actually stopped me, I stopped her myself to check my map before I even saw you coming!". But instead I gave a feeble "no?" He replied "I'm afraid you were riding on the footpath and I'm going to have to issue you with a £30 fine!" I was like "oh really? I'm sorry officer, I only just arrived here in London today, and I didn't know it was illegal...I just stopped here to check my map and look for a hostel...and the road is really busy..." I'm sure he was thinking something like "yeah sure mate, I've heard that one before, bollocks you just got here this morning!" Poms like to use the word bollocks don't they? I just remembered a joke too: "I swear sober, I'm completely officer! I mean..." But no, I wasn't drunk, back to my story. The police officer could obviously hear my Australian accent so he asked for more detail about my arrival. I told him I just got off the plane at Heathrow at 7 am this morning, put my bike together and rode into the city, and here I am! He must have believed me because he ended up letting me off with just a warning: "well...okay. Since you've literally just arrived here this morning, I'll issue you with just a warning". I thanked him for that, and he spent a while writing a description of the incident on his little notepad. He said he needed to spend a bit of time doing that because we would be on the street surveillance cameras and it was better if he looked like he was giving a fine and not just letting me off.
Anyway, that story is a tangent to my original point, but you can see how asking a specific question about my trip will get a much longer and more detailed answer than a brief and general "yeah not bad, quite an experience" type answer to the question "how was your trip?" Also I'd probably be unlikely to finish that story because I find I often go into too much detail and get sidetracked, or don't get the story out quick enough before the conversation takes off in another direction. I'd be unlikely to get to the second police run-in story but I've already recounted that in an earlier blog post of course, when I was in Italy, which you can read about here.
So I've been rambling a bit without actually talking about how my trip was. This epilogue is a good place to give a summary of my trip and give a good answer to the old "how was your trip" question. If you've read all of my previous 113 blog posts, you'll already have a very good idea of how my trip was. I'll say here though that it was alright, not amazing. Over three and a half months, of course there are lots of ups and downs, so one word cannot adequately describe it. At the start it was quite exciting, being in another country for the first time in my life, and thinking "wow, I'm actually all the way over the other side of the world!" but eventually that feeling wore off and grew into more of a feeling of homesickness through the course of the trip. I was riding around the UK for the first month and saw some fantastic landscapes and scenery, such as in the Lake District and the coast of Northern Ireland. Other than the predominantly wet weather, it was a good place to spend the first month because everyone spoke English and the UK isn't too different to Australia and it enabled me to find my bearings in foreign land before catching a ferry from Ireland to France. There I knew no French other than "bonjour", I had no phrase book, they drove/rode on the right hand side of the road instead of the left, and I knew not where I was staying that night, so I felt a little out of my depth. Being an optimist I was confident things would work out alright, and of course they did, I was fine.
I struggled a bit not knowing the language, and also with the French not really knowing what fresh milk was, and therefore having to rely on UHT milk for my cereal every morning. I met some very kind people along the way who offered a place for me to stay, and even friends down the track that could put me up, and these sorts of things added to my faith in humanity. After France, I loved riding through the Netherlands - flat and easy on a loaded touring bike, and the most bicycle friendly place I've ever been. Melbourne needs to take a leaf out of Holland's book! On a global scale, Melbourne is quite a good cycling city in the scheme of things, but one fault I can see is that it's too focused on the sports side of cycling, all the marketing is for fast road bikes, or dual suspension fang-dangle mountain bikes, rather than on the commuting side of cycling as it is in the Netherlands, where everyone just cruises around on their upright-sitting step-
So I think the marketing and culture in Melbourne needs to change, so that Joe Public, Tom Citizen and Sally Brown are more likely to hop on a bike, and for it not to feel like they're engaging in a sport and getting sweaty and having to dress in lycra, but rather they can stay in their business attire and take a casual cruise to get from A to B in a socially acceptable way. This type of cycling would appeal much more to the general public than the sports side of cycling which is more esoteric and less accessible, and the more people there are cycling, the better! Unfortunately a whole generation of Melbournian's have missed out on the benefits of utility cycling.
Here's a quote from Jeremy Clarkson, the host of Top Gear, whose view I side with:
"It’s just a pleasant way of getting about. Nobody wears a helmet. Nobody wears high-visibility clothing. You just wear what you need to be wearing at your destination. For girls that appears to be very short skirts. And nobody rides their bike as if they’re in the Tour de France. This would make them sweaty and unattractive, so they travel just fast enough to maintain their balance."
- Jeremy Clarkson on cycling in Copenhagen
Following on from that quote, I'm also against mandatory helmet laws in Australia. Wearing a helmet is not required throughout Europe and I think mandatory helmet laws discourage cycling and do a lot more harm than good, but that's a whole other debate! I'd just like to insert another quote here before moving on:
"You shouldn’t make riding a bike without a helmet illegal if you also want people to ride bicycles more, because the former impedes the latter, and because you know … that riding a bike a few kilometres with your hair flowing freely in the breeze really isn’t dangerous at all."
Expansion of an integrated bicycle network would connect more places people want to get to and from, and would create improved network efficiencies and better use.
As Greg Ip puts it:
“Just as you are more likely to buy an iPad the more applications it has, you are more likely to switch from car to bicycle the more bicycle lanes (and therefore destinations reachable by bicycle) are available. Doubling the number of bike lanes more than doubles the number of cyclists likely to use them.”
Fixed gear/single speed bikes have really taken off in Melbourne, and Dutch style bikes, Mixte's and vintage bikes are also becoming more popular in Melbourne, cycling seems to be growing and diversifying, and infrastructure has been gradually improving, so I think things have heading in the right direction.
Anyway that's a bit of a tangent triggered by the Dutch cycling culture I experienced while I rode through there.
Next I rode through Germany, up the river Rhine, along the Romantic Route and down the river Donau (also called the Danube), which incorporated some fantastic cycling and scenery and I was fortunately treated with sunny autumn weather. As I headed further south and over the Alps into Italy, and autumn approached Winter the weather got progressively colder. It was challenging riding through the cold and snow, and indeed sometimes not much fun and quite a drag with the incessant cold weather. Unlike other modes of travel, the weather really has a direct influence on your experience when traveling by bike.
I had some more sunny weather as I headed south in Italy; it was there where I applied sunscreen for only the second (and final) time in the whole trip. Eventually I got to my sister's house in Siena, Tuscany, where I stayed at for two weeks. It was great because I was pretty burnt out by that stage and needed some time to relax and recuperate, regain strength and re-energise. It was also good to spend some time with someone familiar, my good friend and sister Rosanna, despite her occasional bad-tempered outbursts and grumpy moods. She was keen to do things and visit places while I was happy just to sit around, relax, reflect by writing my blog, and this caused some tension. Siena was a lovely little medieval town and I got to meet a number of Rosanna's Uni friends there and hang out. I did very little cycling in those two weeks, and it was with some reluctance that I hopped back on the bike and rode to Rome, than back up the west coast of Italy, which was often quite hilly and very scenic. Then it was into France to Marseille, and by this stage the weather had deteriorated further and was quite unpleasant! I rode through a headwind up the Rhone Valley, over some mountains and through snow into Paris, through snow again out of Paris and caught a ferry across the channel to get back to England. I was proud of having made it all the way around Europe entirely by bike and catching a ferry across water where necessary. Then in England on my final day of touring, my tyre exploded and I had to catch a train! At least I was ending my trip with a bang ;)
So by the time I got back to England, I was quite ready to go back to Australia, ready to become more settled in one spot again rather than being on the move every day, catch up with friends and family again, do some bike racing and enjoy the sunny weather in the Australian summer. I figured with all the cycling I'd been doing, I would have gained a good deal of strength in the legs so I was hoping I could do well in the club racing in Melbourne.
I'd have to say, bicycling must be the best way to travel, and I don't know why more people don't travel that way.
As I see it, bicycle touring has several substantial benefits over other modes of transport:
And my least favourite place? Again, there wasn't one place that stood out. Parts of the UK were quite boring where I was cycling past lots of paddocks which all looked much the same. I wasn't much a fan of Marseille or Genoa - it was just the vibe. Also parts of Italy were pretty poor for cycling, indeed scary at times, especially the parts heading into Venice and heading into Rome.
The trip was often quite difficult, cycling vast distances in wet clothes, having to worry about getting enough food and where to set up the tent, it was often challenging. But that's part of the fun; it's quite satisfying when you successfully get through challenging situations. While on tour, I often thought of a lyric by a band called Dappled Cities Fly, which goes: Is it the night that makes the day seem bright? I'm a subscriber to that sentiment; going through difficult times such as cycling in the rain and cold on my own for long periods of time through monotonous landscapes really makes one appreciate the good times, whether it be cycling through scenic countryside with sunny weather, or hanging out in a warm and cosy hostel chatting to random fellow travelers, looking at impressive relics or architecture or exploring a new city.
Taking a broader perspective too, traveling through Europe really made me appreciate living in Australia and in Melbourne. I love Melbourne, and I think it deserves its title as one of the most liveable cities in the world. There were plenty of cities I went through that I wouldn't mind living in for a period of time, but none that I would rather live in for an extended period than Melbourne. Maybe it's also because I have so many friends and family members in or nearby Melbourne. Also I like the Australian culture and laid-back friendly sort of attitude which Australians are known for. And the other factor would have to be the weather - we have much better weather in Australia than they have in Europe! Although admittedly I was there during the end of autumn and the start of Winter. I think the amount of sunlight one receives can affect ones mood, and living somewhere where there isn't any real sunlight for a long period of time must get one down. There are plenty of Aussies living in London, but it seems many of them live there for two or three years, and then decide to return to Australia because they get sick of the ever-present cloudy grey skies of the UK, and miss the sunny skies of Australia. Well, I think that's at least a factor anyway.
Time for some statistics? One of the first things I did when I got back to Dad's place on Christmas Eve was hop on the scales to see if I'd gained or lost any weight. The scales read 74 kg; I was about 73 kg when I left in September, so I'd actually gained a kilogram, despite cycling for over 9000 kilometres in 3.5 months! Must have been all the pizza I ate...and also a bit of extra muscle mass I suppose. I also weighed my luggage: total bike box weight 32 kg, when the maximum allowance was only 23 kg but luckily I got away with it. My carry-on luggage was 9kg, when the limit was only 7 kg. So that meant I'd been carrying around about 37 kg of gear (excluding the weight of the bike box which weighed 4.5 kg). Add on all the food and water I was carrying around for most of the time, that would come to ~45 kg. Add on my weight and that's a total moving mass of ~120 kg - quite a large mass to be pedalling around, and quite a lot of momentum!
I was also interested to see how my fitness had changed from before the trip, so I did the climb that everyone in Melbourne uses as a benchmark, the most popular climb in Melbourne: the 1 in 20, from the Basin to Sassafras. I did the climb a few weeks after I got back and only managed 16:47, which is more than a minute slower than my best time of 15:44 from earlier in the year! So I actually lost fitness during the trip, despite cycling 9000 kilometres in 3.5 months. I guess this was because I wasn't getting the heart rate up too often, I was mostly just cruising along; I saw my style of cycling as the cycling equivalent of hiking, which I think would be generally good for over-all fitness, but not for high-end racing fitness/intensity, although it would be good for base strength, a strong foundation to build on for racing fitness. I hadn't done any cycling on a road bike for the previous four months, so the overall result was that my fitness was lower after the trip than before it. It was quite a strange sensation hopping back on a road bike when I got back too, and riding without the load. The increase in my ability to accelerate quickly was the most noticeable thing, and then it almost felt like the bike was riding itself!
After the trip, I've encouraged a lot of people to try traveling by bicycle; their response is often something like "oh, no I couldn't do that, I'm not fit enough!". But actually I don't think you need to be very fit, I think most people could to the same sort of bicycle trip that I did. Being physically fit isn't a requirement, because like I say, bicycle touring is like the cycling equivalent of hiking (walking) - everyone can walk. It's more important to be mentally strong. If you have the will to do a bicycle tour, then you'll be able to do it. And if you're unfit when you start, you'll soon get pretty fit by bicycle touring.
I was surprised I didn't see more bicycle tourists during my trip; I saw just a handful, some that passed by in the opposite direction, some that I rode past or traveled with for brief stints. None that passed me in the same direction though ;) I thought Europe was meant to have the best cycling culture in the world, but I couldn't see much evidence of that in some of the places I visited. I guess it also had something to do with the season, it being Autumn/Winter when I was there.
I thought I did quite well to avoid an serious crashes or injuries considering I was cycling on unfamiliar roads for 9000 km. I only had one real crash, while in Italy, and the only injury resulting was a sore thumb, from being bent backwards from gripping the handlebars when I came off.
So below I've compiled a brief list of near crashes:
Time for some more statistics:
Best nights' sleep: in a double bed at my cousin John Chant's place in Somerset, England, after a gruelling 190 km ride in a day, early on in the trip.
Worst nights' sleep: staying on a couch (with a short time in the bath too!) in a crazy rambling alcoholics flat in a town called Villach, in the Austrian Alps.
Favourite hostel: tough call, I stayed in lots of good ones. I'll name the Caledonian Backpackers in Edinburgh: cheap, fun, good vibe, good location, and it was managed by an Australian and therefore they provided Vegemite at breakfast!
Least favourite hostel: Paddy's Palace in Belfast. The manager/staff weren't very helpful or friendly, the place was dirty and run-down and the Wi-Fi didn't work, despite them advertising free Wi-Fi! So I only stayed there one night, and unfortunately moved onto my next least favourite hostel of my trip, also in Belfast: The Linen House; it was probably the cheapest hostel I stayed in, at only £6.50 for the night! However it didn't have any atmosphere, the Wi-Fi cost an extra £2 and someone snored very loudly in the large 24 bed dorm (although I can't blame the hostel for the snorer...)
Total number of pizza's eaten: 22 (less than I thought, but that's how many I counted looking back at my past blog posts).
Total distance cycled: 9228 km
Total number of days in Europe: 108
Average distance cycled per day: 85.44 km
Total cycling time: 502 hours, 52 minutes, 14 seconds (or equivalently: 20 days, 22 hours, 52 minutes, 14 seconds)
Overall average speed: 18.35 km/h
Average daily maximum speed: 46.25 km/h
Overall maximum speed: 71.3 km/h
Total number of punctures: >30
Number of hours spent fixing punctures: far too many!
Number of nights spent in the tent: 52
Number of nights spent in a hostel: 29
Number of nights spent in someone's house: 24
Number of nights spent in an aeroplane: 2
Number of nights spent in a ferry: 2
Next I rode through Germany, up the river Rhine, along the Romantic Route and down the river Donau (also called the Danube), which incorporated some fantastic cycling and scenery and I was fortunately treated with sunny autumn weather. As I headed further south and over the Alps into Italy, and autumn approached Winter the weather got progressively colder. It was challenging riding through the cold and snow, and indeed sometimes not much fun and quite a drag with the incessant cold weather. Unlike other modes of travel, the weather really has a direct influence on your experience when traveling by bike.
I had some more sunny weather as I headed south in Italy; it was there where I applied sunscreen for only the second (and final) time in the whole trip. Eventually I got to my sister's house in Siena, Tuscany, where I stayed at for two weeks. It was great because I was pretty burnt out by that stage and needed some time to relax and recuperate, regain strength and re-energise. It was also good to spend some time with someone familiar, my good friend and sister Rosanna, despite her occasional bad-tempered outbursts and grumpy moods. She was keen to do things and visit places while I was happy just to sit around, relax, reflect by writing my blog, and this caused some tension. Siena was a lovely little medieval town and I got to meet a number of Rosanna's Uni friends there and hang out. I did very little cycling in those two weeks, and it was with some reluctance that I hopped back on the bike and rode to Rome, than back up the west coast of Italy, which was often quite hilly and very scenic. Then it was into France to Marseille, and by this stage the weather had deteriorated further and was quite unpleasant! I rode through a headwind up the Rhone Valley, over some mountains and through snow into Paris, through snow again out of Paris and caught a ferry across the channel to get back to England. I was proud of having made it all the way around Europe entirely by bike and catching a ferry across water where necessary. Then in England on my final day of touring, my tyre exploded and I had to catch a train! At least I was ending my trip with a bang ;)
So by the time I got back to England, I was quite ready to go back to Australia, ready to become more settled in one spot again rather than being on the move every day, catch up with friends and family again, do some bike racing and enjoy the sunny weather in the Australian summer. I figured with all the cycling I'd been doing, I would have gained a good deal of strength in the legs so I was hoping I could do well in the club racing in Melbourne.
I'd have to say, bicycling must be the best way to travel, and I don't know why more people don't travel that way.
As I see it, bicycle touring has several substantial benefits over other modes of transport:
- You have complete freedom and independence; you can go in any direction you please, at whatever pace and for whatever distance you choose, and whenever you want. I love this aspect of the bicycle, which is also known as the freedom machine. I love its flexibility and the independence; while other people were stuck because the public transport system had stopped running due to inclement weather, I could continue on as I pleased. Also I wasn't locked into any schedules from having plane or train tickets booked in advance; all I had was my return flight from London, and the rest of the time I was free!
- Traveling by bike enables one to see the countryside and not just the cities as would be the case for many people touring through Europe, who fly or catch a train from city to city. For me, I spent as much time in the countryside as I did in the cities, and because I'd cycled the whole way, everything was connected, I'd seen everything in between the cities and it gave me a good sense of the geography and distances between places and indeed what lay between the cities. Also on a bike, you're much more connected and a part of the place you're traveling through, you see more detail because you're traveling much more slowly than you would be in a car, for example, and you can simply stop and say g'day to someone on the street whenever you like, stop by a shop that you want to check out, or stop on the side of a narrow winding road when you see a good view to admire.
- Surely there is no cheaper way to travel than by bike? Other than the initial capital investment for the bike, there aren't many other costs, other than for a bit of maintenance. For 9000 km of traveling, my only costs for the bike were three new tyres costing about €30 each, 40 odd patches (!) and two new rims costing €38 and £80. However if I'd put good quality touring tyres on the bike to start with, I wouldn't have needed new tyres at all, nor many patches, and if I had disc brakes instead of rim brakes, I wouldn't have needed any new rims, so the maintenance cost could be reduced to next-to-nothing. Having said that, my drive-train did require replacement once I got back to Melbourne. I said the initial cost of the bike was an investment because you still have that bike after the trip, and its value won't have dropped much. And you still have that bike to do any other bicycle tours you wish to do. My bike, a Surly Long Haul Trucker which I named Florey after the suburb in Canberra where I bought her, cost me $1600 brand new. Then there were several hundred dollars' worth of other costs for setting it up properly as a touring bike, including the front and rear racks, two rear panniers and two front panniers, the handlebar bag, the Brooks leather saddle, the dynahub, front and rear lights and the E-werk and cache battery, so the total cost would be over $2000, probably closer to $2500 for the total set-up. I'm a man who values quality so I was keen to get the best components and accessories I could, and happy to pay more for something of superior quality which would offer superior functionality, durability and reliability. It's just a real hassle if your equipment fails on you when you're relying on it. And I was very impressed with the performance of all of the equipment I had except for the tyres which I've already mentioned. I really should have replaced the tyres before I embarked on the trip! That must be my biggest regret. But the bike performed faultlessly; the Surly Long Haul Trucker is renowned for being a great touring bike, one of the best touring bikes one can buy. The Brooks leather saddle was particularly comfortable, and never caused discomfort despite the fact I was sitting on it for an average of 80 kilometres every day for 3.5 months! (Not counting the odd saddle-sore here and there). The setup with the dynahub was fantastic, it powered my good quality German-made lights which worked faultlessly throughout the trip, and I was very appreciative of the brightness of my headlight, especially with all the night-time riding I did! And being able to charge the iPhone concurrently as I rode enabled me to be self-sufficient.
If on the other hand if I'd done the same sort or Europe trip traveling by train instead of by bike, it would have cost me a few thousand dollars just for the Eurail pass, and add in another several hundred dollars for any flights and ferries. Then when you finish the trip, you don't have something tangible to take home with you, as you do with a bicycle - hence why I say the bicycle is a sound investment.
- The fourth major benefit of traveling by bicycle I can think of is health and fitness. See if you're not careful, touring through Europe the way most people do it (that is, not on a touring bike) can be quite an unhealthy lifestyle, with lots of drinking, indulging in rich, sugary or greasy foods such as pizza and chocolate and fast-food and not playing any sport or getting much exercise other than walking. Cycling of course solves this problem, and means you're always getting plenty of exercise and improving your strength and fitness as you go and staying in good shape. Then you don't have to worry about eating two pizzas per day as I was! I'll also add that not only is traveling by bike good for fitness, it's also enjoyable! Riding down a fast decent, riding alongside a picturesque river surrounded by autumn trees, or along a winding forest road or cruising along a pleasant bike path away from the traffic, it's enjoyable. Plus your body produces endorphins as you cycle which make you feel good!
And my least favourite place? Again, there wasn't one place that stood out. Parts of the UK were quite boring where I was cycling past lots of paddocks which all looked much the same. I wasn't much a fan of Marseille or Genoa - it was just the vibe. Also parts of Italy were pretty poor for cycling, indeed scary at times, especially the parts heading into Venice and heading into Rome.
The trip was often quite difficult, cycling vast distances in wet clothes, having to worry about getting enough food and where to set up the tent, it was often challenging. But that's part of the fun; it's quite satisfying when you successfully get through challenging situations. While on tour, I often thought of a lyric by a band called Dappled Cities Fly, which goes: Is it the night that makes the day seem bright? I'm a subscriber to that sentiment; going through difficult times such as cycling in the rain and cold on my own for long periods of time through monotonous landscapes really makes one appreciate the good times, whether it be cycling through scenic countryside with sunny weather, or hanging out in a warm and cosy hostel chatting to random fellow travelers, looking at impressive relics or architecture or exploring a new city.
Taking a broader perspective too, traveling through Europe really made me appreciate living in Australia and in Melbourne. I love Melbourne, and I think it deserves its title as one of the most liveable cities in the world. There were plenty of cities I went through that I wouldn't mind living in for a period of time, but none that I would rather live in for an extended period than Melbourne. Maybe it's also because I have so many friends and family members in or nearby Melbourne. Also I like the Australian culture and laid-back friendly sort of attitude which Australians are known for. And the other factor would have to be the weather - we have much better weather in Australia than they have in Europe! Although admittedly I was there during the end of autumn and the start of Winter. I think the amount of sunlight one receives can affect ones mood, and living somewhere where there isn't any real sunlight for a long period of time must get one down. There are plenty of Aussies living in London, but it seems many of them live there for two or three years, and then decide to return to Australia because they get sick of the ever-present cloudy grey skies of the UK, and miss the sunny skies of Australia. Well, I think that's at least a factor anyway.
Time for some statistics? One of the first things I did when I got back to Dad's place on Christmas Eve was hop on the scales to see if I'd gained or lost any weight. The scales read 74 kg; I was about 73 kg when I left in September, so I'd actually gained a kilogram, despite cycling for over 9000 kilometres in 3.5 months! Must have been all the pizza I ate...and also a bit of extra muscle mass I suppose. I also weighed my luggage: total bike box weight 32 kg, when the maximum allowance was only 23 kg but luckily I got away with it. My carry-on luggage was 9kg, when the limit was only 7 kg. So that meant I'd been carrying around about 37 kg of gear (excluding the weight of the bike box which weighed 4.5 kg). Add on all the food and water I was carrying around for most of the time, that would come to ~45 kg. Add on my weight and that's a total moving mass of ~120 kg - quite a large mass to be pedalling around, and quite a lot of momentum!
I was also interested to see how my fitness had changed from before the trip, so I did the climb that everyone in Melbourne uses as a benchmark, the most popular climb in Melbourne: the 1 in 20, from the Basin to Sassafras. I did the climb a few weeks after I got back and only managed 16:47, which is more than a minute slower than my best time of 15:44 from earlier in the year! So I actually lost fitness during the trip, despite cycling 9000 kilometres in 3.5 months. I guess this was because I wasn't getting the heart rate up too often, I was mostly just cruising along; I saw my style of cycling as the cycling equivalent of hiking, which I think would be generally good for over-all fitness, but not for high-end racing fitness/intensity, although it would be good for base strength, a strong foundation to build on for racing fitness. I hadn't done any cycling on a road bike for the previous four months, so the overall result was that my fitness was lower after the trip than before it. It was quite a strange sensation hopping back on a road bike when I got back too, and riding without the load. The increase in my ability to accelerate quickly was the most noticeable thing, and then it almost felt like the bike was riding itself!
After the trip, I've encouraged a lot of people to try traveling by bicycle; their response is often something like "oh, no I couldn't do that, I'm not fit enough!". But actually I don't think you need to be very fit, I think most people could to the same sort of bicycle trip that I did. Being physically fit isn't a requirement, because like I say, bicycle touring is like the cycling equivalent of hiking (walking) - everyone can walk. It's more important to be mentally strong. If you have the will to do a bicycle tour, then you'll be able to do it. And if you're unfit when you start, you'll soon get pretty fit by bicycle touring.
I was surprised I didn't see more bicycle tourists during my trip; I saw just a handful, some that passed by in the opposite direction, some that I rode past or traveled with for brief stints. None that passed me in the same direction though ;) I thought Europe was meant to have the best cycling culture in the world, but I couldn't see much evidence of that in some of the places I visited. I guess it also had something to do with the season, it being Autumn/Winter when I was there.
I thought I did quite well to avoid an serious crashes or injuries considering I was cycling on unfamiliar roads for 9000 km. I only had one real crash, while in Italy, and the only injury resulting was a sore thumb, from being bent backwards from gripping the handlebars when I came off.
So below I've compiled a brief list of near crashes:
- At one point while cycling somewhere in the UK, riding straight along a road with the right of way, a car pulled out from me left and just about cleaned me up. What's more, they had the nerve to beep their horn at me, despite the fact they were in the wrong, and should have seen me in the broad daylight!
- While taking a shortcut along a bit of a goat track in the Lake District of Scotland, I was heading towards a large puddle covering the whole track. I picked a line right on the edge that I judged I could follow to avoid riding through the muddy water, but unfortunatly a rock put me off my line, the left pannier caught on a rocky mound on the edge of the track, ripping the pannier off and causing me to lose balance and fall sideways into the puddle :(
- Riding south from the Alps into a town in Italy called Udine, I was riding along in the bike lane. The problem was that the houses were so close to the road that their entrances were directly beside the road/bike path, and I almost cleaned a man up as he was stepping outside through his house door.
- In the Netherlands, I'd just eaten a banana on my bike while riding along, and when I finished, I threw the peel over my shoulder almost lost my balance! Now that would have been embarrassing!
- Riding out of Venice, my front wheel slipped out on wet leaves when I tried to swerve around a pedestrian. I dropped the bike, but managed to stay upright myself.
- Riding through the Austrian Alps heading towards a town called Villach at night after many hours in the saddle, I was riding over a wooden bridge and had a sensation where the back tyre moved sideways as though the tyre was going flat. I thought it was odd and then a second later the whole bike was sliding. I realised the whole bridge was covered in black ice, I put my foot down to save the fall, and continued to slide for the next 10 metres to the other side of the bridge, somehow managing to keep the bike and myself upright.
- Riding through a small town in Germany, I was intently looking down at the map on the iPhone, and when I looked up I was about to hit the curb! I managed to swerve and avoid it, then almost lost control of the bike. That was a bit of a scare, got the heart racing.
- While descending a mountain near the north east coast of Italy at night and in the wet, I came to a T-intersection where I was turning right. Pressured by traffic behind me, I maintained my speed of about 30 km/h, and started cornering when the front tyre slipped on a wet steel grate and I went down like a sack of potatoes and hit the road, while my two front panniers disconnected and slid a further 5 or 10 metres down the road. This was the only real crash I had, the only incident where I hit the deck, and it resulted injuring my thumb, which I mentioned earlier.
- While descending a hill at about 50 km/h into the French city of Nicé, I almost got taken out by a little yellow car that turned directly in front of me; I only narrowly avoided it by braking and swerving, and the truck driver right behind me was impressed by my manoeuvring.
- Riding into and out of Paris on snowy and icy roads, I lost traction many times but got good at putting my foot down to prevent falling, so I never actually came off.
Time for some more statistics:
Best nights' sleep: in a double bed at my cousin John Chant's place in Somerset, England, after a gruelling 190 km ride in a day, early on in the trip.
Worst nights' sleep: staying on a couch (with a short time in the bath too!) in a crazy rambling alcoholics flat in a town called Villach, in the Austrian Alps.
Favourite hostel: tough call, I stayed in lots of good ones. I'll name the Caledonian Backpackers in Edinburgh: cheap, fun, good vibe, good location, and it was managed by an Australian and therefore they provided Vegemite at breakfast!
Least favourite hostel: Paddy's Palace in Belfast. The manager/staff weren't very helpful or friendly, the place was dirty and run-down and the Wi-Fi didn't work, despite them advertising free Wi-Fi! So I only stayed there one night, and unfortunately moved onto my next least favourite hostel of my trip, also in Belfast: The Linen House; it was probably the cheapest hostel I stayed in, at only £6.50 for the night! However it didn't have any atmosphere, the Wi-Fi cost an extra £2 and someone snored very loudly in the large 24 bed dorm (although I can't blame the hostel for the snorer...)
Total number of pizza's eaten: 22 (less than I thought, but that's how many I counted looking back at my past blog posts).
Total distance cycled: 9228 km
Total number of days in Europe: 108
Average distance cycled per day: 85.44 km
Total cycling time: 502 hours, 52 minutes, 14 seconds (or equivalently: 20 days, 22 hours, 52 minutes, 14 seconds)
Overall average speed: 18.35 km/h
Average daily maximum speed: 46.25 km/h
Overall maximum speed: 71.3 km/h
Total number of punctures: >30
Number of hours spent fixing punctures: far too many!
Number of nights spent in the tent: 52
Number of nights spent in a hostel: 29
Number of nights spent in someone's house: 24
Number of nights spent in an aeroplane: 2
Number of nights spent in a ferry: 2
Number of words in my Europe trip blog posts: 147,940
My flights cost $2000 AU, Melbourne to London return. I left Australia with the equivalent of $7000 AU converted into British pounds and euros on my Commonwealth Bank travel money card. I arrived back in Australia 3.5 months later with 504.77 GPB and 1892.40 EUR remaining on the card. Unfortunately I got ripped off by the exchange rate since the Australian Dollar had increased in strength significantly during my trip, so I only got $3052 AU back. That means I spent approximately $3700 AU while overseas for 3.5 months, assuming I lost about $250 AU with the exchange rate. I was pretty frugal with money the whole time I was traveling, and having so much money left at the end made me think I should have spent more. After-all, it helps support the European economy, and it's clear they need it, or at least parts of it do. There were plenty of times when I didn't do a tourist activity because it cost money (such as walking up the 300 steps to the top of St. Peter's Basilica). And I could have splashed a bit more money on nice food and drinks. I've always been tight with money though, because of the way I've been brought up, coming from a poor family I learnt to save money and only spend it on important things and where necessary. So I'm used to a lifestyle of not spending much money, and happy that way as well, because I'm not down with consumerism.
I didn't need to bring any money back with me though, because a month after returning to Australia, I was commenced a full time graduate position as a civil engineer at Melbourne Water, where of course I'd be earning too much money with not enough time to spend it!
I've enjoyed writing my blog and reminiscing about my traveling. It has sparked a momentary desire to go on another adventure a few times. I've gone back to the earliest posts from the start of my trip in order to correct the grammar and extract some statistics to include in this blog, and I've realised some of the posts aren't as well written as I thought. On the up-side though, I think that means my writing has improved while writing this blog.
So where to next for Nedly on his Treadly? I've done one overseas trip, and was amongst the last of my friends to finally venture overseas. I've got several friends who have recently headed overseas to Europe (Asher Lederman, Julia de Bruyn, Jess Tandberg, Al Hunt and Rob Fuller, the latter four all for their maiden overseas trips too). Julia asked me where I wanted to travel to next, and I didn't know! I don't have any plans as yet for further travel, although I'm sure it will happen at some point. I missed a few places in Europe that I wanted to come back to, including Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Spain. Then there are other continents that I'd like to visit, notably South East Asia, New Zealand and America. We shall see what opportunities arise.
As for my blog, I used a general name: "Nedly on his Treadly" rather than something specific (and boring) like "Ned's Europe Bicycle Trip 2010," so that I'm not locked into writing only about my Europe trip and I can continue blogging about other things. Indeed the name does allude to cycling, but I figured that cycling is one of my main interests and one of the best things in life, and therefore what I would want to continue to write about anyway. The world would be a better place if everyone rode bicycles! So hopefully I can encourage more people to ride bicycles.
So at the moment I'm living in Melbourne in the suburb of Northcote and still working at Melbourne Water, and I'm also getting into the road racing, racing with the Unibicycles Cycling Team so I think I'll blog about how that's going every now and again, as well as anything else cycling related or even non-cycling related. I was also thinking of blogging here about the only other major bicycle tour I've done, which was a three week tour around Tasmania with two mates: Oliver Holmgren and Shane Emanuelle. It would likely be more photos and less writing because we all had digital cameras with us and took hundreds of photos each, and I won't be able to remember too much detail to write about since the trip was back in 2006.
My flights cost $2000 AU, Melbourne to London return. I left Australia with the equivalent of $7000 AU converted into British pounds and euros on my Commonwealth Bank travel money card. I arrived back in Australia 3.5 months later with 504.77 GPB and 1892.40 EUR remaining on the card. Unfortunately I got ripped off by the exchange rate since the Australian Dollar had increased in strength significantly during my trip, so I only got $3052 AU back. That means I spent approximately $3700 AU while overseas for 3.5 months, assuming I lost about $250 AU with the exchange rate. I was pretty frugal with money the whole time I was traveling, and having so much money left at the end made me think I should have spent more. After-all, it helps support the European economy, and it's clear they need it, or at least parts of it do. There were plenty of times when I didn't do a tourist activity because it cost money (such as walking up the 300 steps to the top of St. Peter's Basilica). And I could have splashed a bit more money on nice food and drinks. I've always been tight with money though, because of the way I've been brought up, coming from a poor family I learnt to save money and only spend it on important things and where necessary. So I'm used to a lifestyle of not spending much money, and happy that way as well, because I'm not down with consumerism.
I didn't need to bring any money back with me though, because a month after returning to Australia, I was commenced a full time graduate position as a civil engineer at Melbourne Water, where of course I'd be earning too much money with not enough time to spend it!
I've enjoyed writing my blog and reminiscing about my traveling. It has sparked a momentary desire to go on another adventure a few times. I've gone back to the earliest posts from the start of my trip in order to correct the grammar and extract some statistics to include in this blog, and I've realised some of the posts aren't as well written as I thought. On the up-side though, I think that means my writing has improved while writing this blog.
So where to next for Nedly on his Treadly? I've done one overseas trip, and was amongst the last of my friends to finally venture overseas. I've got several friends who have recently headed overseas to Europe (Asher Lederman, Julia de Bruyn, Jess Tandberg, Al Hunt and Rob Fuller, the latter four all for their maiden overseas trips too). Julia asked me where I wanted to travel to next, and I didn't know! I don't have any plans as yet for further travel, although I'm sure it will happen at some point. I missed a few places in Europe that I wanted to come back to, including Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Spain. Then there are other continents that I'd like to visit, notably South East Asia, New Zealand and America. We shall see what opportunities arise.
As for my blog, I used a general name: "Nedly on his Treadly" rather than something specific (and boring) like "Ned's Europe Bicycle Trip 2010," so that I'm not locked into writing only about my Europe trip and I can continue blogging about other things. Indeed the name does allude to cycling, but I figured that cycling is one of my main interests and one of the best things in life, and therefore what I would want to continue to write about anyway. The world would be a better place if everyone rode bicycles! So hopefully I can encourage more people to ride bicycles.
So at the moment I'm living in Melbourne in the suburb of Northcote and still working at Melbourne Water, and I'm also getting into the road racing, racing with the Unibicycles Cycling Team so I think I'll blog about how that's going every now and again, as well as anything else cycling related or even non-cycling related. I was also thinking of blogging here about the only other major bicycle tour I've done, which was a three week tour around Tasmania with two mates: Oliver Holmgren and Shane Emanuelle. It would likely be more photos and less writing because we all had digital cameras with us and took hundreds of photos each, and I won't be able to remember too much detail to write about since the trip was back in 2006.
So that's it for my Europe trip blogging; I'm happy to have finally finished documenting it here, and I'll be able to go back and look at any part of the trip whenever I like, and show it to my kids when I'm older, or other travelers or interested folk. Hopefully it can also inspire others to get out on a treadly and do some bicycle touring!
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| The route of my tour through mainland Europe (I didn't record my track through the first month in the UK): Clockwise from Cherbourg in north-western France across to Belgium, through the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, down into Italy, then back up through France and back to London. |
