London to Switzerland by bike – First bike tour!

I cycled this route in 2019 with barely any planning and no prior experience of bike touring/long distance cycling. We cycled for 12 days and 867k in total, mostly trying to follow the Eurovelo 5 route.
We needed to be in Switzerland to visit family on a certain date so decided to turn it into an adventure and cycle there instead. It was the most epic journey for two total novices! We faced a 39 degree celsius heatwave, a storm and a landslide, but we made it there in one piece, with dodgy tan lines and happy souls. We had to take a train for a couple of sections because we were running late but in total we cycled 867kms and developed quads of steel cycling up the alps.

It was an amazing route and I am happy to share the Strava details if anyone is interested.

One thing we learnt is ANYONE can do this! All we had were basic bikes, bike bags and a tent (and zero experience 😂).Definitely give yourself more than 12 days as this was a RUSH and some of it we had to skip so I would estimate for 14 days minimum instead. Cycle touring should be enjoyed leisurely and with lots of time for photo taking, not rushing!

Eurovelo 5 route- https://en.eurovelo.com/ev5

Music from Epidemic sounds, courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Martin Kelm: To the skies and Railroad trail
Gabriel Lewis: Mountain Spring High
Sunfish Grove: On a clear morning

Hi everyone this is just a quick intro from me because i recently found all of my old cycle tour footage from 2019 when i cycled from london to switzerland and i wanted to be able to share it with you on this channel just for some fun but also for some adventure

Inspiration as well because when i set out on this trip i had no experience of long distance cycling or multi-day kind of cycle touring before and i didn’t really plan it very well i didn’t have a fancy bike i just had a regular bike and some waterproof bags and a tent and

And a loose plan because i had to get to switzerland for a certain date to see family and it was the only trip i was going to have that year so i thought turn it into an adventure and try cycling there and so this is the footage from what happened

We on a boat the first few days in france were so perfect easy wide roads through beautiful french countryside we covered long distances and adjusted well to life on the road france felt like the perfect country for beginner cyclists It’s day 4 and I’m flagging. I’m just tired. Are you tired? He had a bad day yesterday i’m having a bad morning. I’m just fatigued. Yeah. now it’s another hill, so bye oh my god after 66 kilometers of constant up, some down but never flat, we’ve now arrived here!

On day five we realized that due to my terrible planning, we were never going to make it to switzerland on time so we had to skip some sections and take two train trips it’s so hot, even the wind burns i loved cycling through the alsace region so much there was vineyards everywhere and

More of those wonderful wide french roads. i made a note to come back here one day when we had more time it was beautiful we hit a pretty bad storm and we were so glad we didn’t have to pitch our tents and we found

A place to stay thanks to the warm showers app Day 10!! cycling up the alps was by far one of the hardest things i’ve ever done and i was not in the slightest bit prepared for it but somehow through sheer stubbornness we just kept on going

I think this speaks for itself i was so so tired but we did it and the reward was truly special actually crying because it’s so beautiful, and we did so well, and it’s nearly over Tenero!