Topics on this subreddit are like:
- "here's my YouTube channel of my 23 year tour of Bolivia on $0.50 a day"
- "any routing advice for going from South Sudan to Algeria?"
- "what's wild camping like in Gaza?"
My trip was nothing like that.
I did an easy, 9 day tour in the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France. It was 1000km with a surprising 6000m of climb.
What's great about this area is how much the local culture changes over a short trip. Here are the distinct sections of the trip.
1. The Vennbahn
My trip started with the Vennbahn, an easy 125km rails-to-trail between Aachen (Germany) to just inside Luxembourg. If you're thinking of trying bike touring, this is a great start. Excellent scenery and just enough facilities. Climbs are never more than 2%.
2. Luxembourg
I did this in one 170km hilly day with 1700m of climb. Fantastic scenery, but honestly that was hard to see through the driving rain. There's no defined bike routes where I was, but I never ended up on any terrible roads. If you're doing this, you'll need a map. .
Luxembourg is super expensive for accommodations. I stayed at a place I found on booking.com. It was a bedroom in the apartment of a professional hypnotherapist.
3. France's Grand Est
I headed south west, mostly through Meuse and Haute Marne in France. There are essentially no marked bike routes. The excitement of Komoot is you'll never know if you're getting a highway or a dirt path until you get there. At one point I had a 14% gravel climb.
How great this part of France is! Every night, there was a mediocre camping but decidedly fantastic dinner. One campground had no toilet paper, toilet seats and some sort of mold in the "sanitary" block. But the coq au vin was outstanding!
The only reason I didn't give France the highest score for food is the lack of predictability of opening hours. Grocery shopping on Sunday after 1pm? Haha… no. Heavenly baked croissants on a Thursday morning? Maybe, maybe not.
4. Paris
It's such a cliché, but I have always thought Paris is great. I took the train past les banlieus to preserve the illusion.
Parisien road users are lawless, and in that regard it is good to see that cyclists are equal class citizens.
I went by all the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs d'lyses, la Defence, etc.. Ringing around L'Arc de Triomphe with panniers made me feel like both Tadej Pogačar's and Clark Griswold.
In the evening I used La Coulée Verte to get to my overpriced campground and had a gourmet dinner at the Michelin starred snack bar.
5. Heading north… parts of France
Eurovelo 3 hangs a bit more to the west from where I wanted to be, but Komoot dragged me there anyway. Some of Eurovelo 3 is not awesome.
For instance, north of Tergnier it follows a canal. And on and on and on.
6. Belgium – Wallonia
Anyone who visits Belgium should know there are two distinct cultural groups, the Walloons and the Flemish.
Eurovelo 3 drags you along the Brussels-Charleroi canal. It's next to abandoned industrial buildings. The water smells and there's glass everywhere. Avoid. If there's a way around Charleroi, take it.
I asked ChatGPT "why does nobody pick up garbage in Charleroi" expecting some sort of local strike. But it gave me a solid answer about the collapse of the coal and steel manufacturing industry, creation of the Walloon region (1980) and where to report illegal dumping.
7. Belgium – Flanders
Of all the borders I crossed (about 12), none is as clear as the Wallonian-Flemish border. You really get these experiences only by bike.
Suddenly there's cafés and the people are happy. People have money to buy a Smurfs book, or eat chocolate or waffles or lace doilies. The beer is better.
It could have been because of the nice weather, but suddenly there were families out for bike rides, Omas and Opas going on a picnic, that kind of thing.
There's also bike lanes everywhere. Maybe 10% of my Flemish part was not on a quiet road or bike path.
So it wasn't the Pamir Highway or Atlas Mountains or whatnot, but it was an excellent trip. And I learned a lot about Belgium.
by narkohammer