Europe, here we come!
We live a good life. We have a nice apartment, and have (or can easily get) everything we need. The roof keeps us dry, and the HVAC ensures that the temperature is always comfortable. We also live pretty close to several excellent biking trails where you can cruise along - traffic free - for many miles. Why on earth would we want to change all that? Especially for a life totally exposed to wind, rain, scorching sun, and hot/cold tempertures?
Well… we’ve always enjoyed bicycle touring. And in 2018, we were fortunate to spend four months biking across the United States. That was a fully, self-supported trip. We carried all of our own gear, planned our own route, navigated our way through all the challenges, and discovered that we really like life on the road. As soon as we returned home, we knew that we wanted to see more of the world by bike.
Another big influence goes back to the early 1990s. A couple of years after we were married, PedalingGuy spent most of a year working in Lisbon, Portugal. Together we also spent three weeks auto-touring through Southern Europe. It was a total blast. But reflecting back on that trip now, we can see how that journey would have been much more immersive if we had traveled by bicycle. We’ve since traveled to many other European countries, including a few short bike trips, and have always enjoyed ourselves. The combination of interesting cultures, history, nature and good cycling is a wonderful experience.
And now’s the time to do it. We’re retired, so we have the time for a slow trip across a continent. Our health is good, so we’re strong enough to cover a satisfying number of miles each day. And we have the equipment - so no excuses.
On February 11, 2019 we’ll board a plane to Lisbon, Portugal, with our bikes and all of the gear we will need for 10 months on the road. Follow along with us on our journey. You can periodically check in on our blog, or you can use the link on the right panel of this page to sign up for email notifications (or the RSS feed) to get updates on our travels. You can also leave comments below any of the blog posts, which we will see during our trip. We’d love to have you along for the ride!