My wife and I have been riding a tandem bicycle for a couple years now, and for our (belated) honeymoon we wanted to do a long distance trip in Europe. We budgeted a month to ride from Amsterdam to Barcelona, following the EV19 and EV17 through France, and then the EV8 into Spain. I relied on Komoot routing to get us from Amsterdam to Namur in Belgium where we would hop onto the EV19. Just over a year prior we had Rodriguez bikes in Seattle build us a touring tandem with couplers. It was pricey, but we were hooked from riding our Gary Fisher mtb tandem and wanted something a bit more modern that we could travel with. It performed flawlessly for this trip.
We flew into Amsterdam with our bike and camping gear packed away into two separate boxes. Couplers on a tandem are a necessity for travel, but packing and building the bike is still very time intensive. We were fortunate to have booked a hotel that allowed me to use a back room to assemble our bike, as our room was up a narrow staircase that would not have fit our tandem. The hotel employees were in awe of our bike and our aspirations- one Dutch employee told me that “the idea of long distance bicycle travel had never occurred to him,” which was a humorous peek into Dutch cycling culture.
Riding through Holland and Belgium was a dream- hardly any interaction with cars, beautiful cycling paths, and really kind people. The only difficulty that we faced here was in regards to storing our tandem. We had booked hotels for our first few cities to ease into camping throughout France. I learned that the Dutch don’t like bringing bicycles inside, and also our tandem generally would not have fit inside any buildings (it is very long- around 2.5m). We learned to proactively reach out to hotels regarding storage for our tandem, and only ended up having to leave it locked outside once.
Touring France was an absolute dream. The EV19 was mostly a mix of beautiful riverside riding and hilly countryside. The weather was not on our side during this stretch, with many days around 29 degrees celsius (too hot!). Fortunately, French campsites were extremely accommodating. We were able to find camping in most towns at the intervals that we were looking for, and we loved that they often had bars and restaurants. I had no idea that the French were so into camping. Finishing the EV19 into Langres was a bit of a slog, but we enjoyed our first rest day here. Langres is a beautiful city that I would highly recommend (just not the climb into it- this was the first time we had to walk our bike up a hill on this trip).
It took us 3 days on French cycling routes to get to the EV17 from Langres, which ended up being some of the most pleasant riding of the whole trip. If you hadn’t guessed by now, our timeline was a little ambitious. We did some calculations in Langres and realized that we needed to increase our mileage to get to Southern France on schedule. From Langres to Sete we were averaging 70-80 miles a day, which was not easy. It helped that the route alongside the Rhone was generally flat and bicycle friendly. We stayed at some of our favorite campsites during this stretch, and this is also where we learned to appreciate cafe stops in the morning and bakery stops for lunch. Additionally, this is where we met the most bicycle tourists- it really felt like France was made for bicycle touring.
Once we hit the coast of Southern France and started on the EV8 the scenery changed dramatically. The beautiful rivers and canals turned into lakes and beaches. So many flamingos! The terrain also became a bit more challenging. Up until this point, our route had mostly been paved cycle paths. We were hitting a lot more dirt, gravel, and even singletrack. Our tandem has 26×2” Schwalbe Marathon tires, which were sufficient, but less consistent terrain is more challenging on a tandem. I struggle more to keep the bike upright, and my wife (the stoker) feels less secure bouncing around in the back. We never had any crashes, but the stress levels increased during these stretches.
The riding became more challenging as we made our way into Spain. Tough hills (the Pyrenees!) and significantly more off road riding. We did enjoy being able to use our basic Spanish (as opposed to our non-existent French), and the Spanish people were very kind. We only camped once in Spain, but it was definitely a lesser experience from the French campsites that we had grown accustomed to. We were able to ride 50-60 miles a day through this stretch which was a welcome change of pace. We made it to Barcelona with a few days to spare, and in hindsight could have budgeted another rest day or two through our trip (we regretted not taking a day in Sete).
This was the trip of a lifetime. My second extended tour, my wife’s first, and my first extended tour on a tandem bicycle. It was also our first time in Europe, and I could not imagine a better introduction. We saw countless beautiful cities, met so many kind people, and most importantly, ate SO MUCH delicious food. Touring on a tandem presented its own unique challenges (storage, terrain), but it was a great way to travel with my significant other. Our trip ended up being around 2000km over 22 days (two of those days being rest days). A little ambitious, but no regrets!
[All packed up in Seattle](https://imgur.com/vZzuoiZ)
[Assembling the tandem in our Amsterdam hotel](https://imgur.com/nirmPXV)
[Ready to roll!](https://imgur.com/rCzSfdm)
[Camping somewhere off the EV19](https://imgur.com/8Ok0Ymw)
[Average French riverside town :)](https://imgur.com/W3PoUyY)
[Average canal cycling](https://imgur.com/TEKLvsT)
[Beautiful cycling prior to Narbonne](https://imgur.com/kU7Hz3m)
[Beautiful cycling after Narbonne](https://imgur.com/2Xa6o9s)
[Common sentiment in France and Spain](https://imgur.com/FqWI6e1)
[Finished!](https://imgur.com/JMIjbBu)
[Our route](https://imgur.com/NdCb1Qe)
by am5k