We‘ve reached the conclusion of our European bicycle journey, with our arrival on the shores of the Black Sea. The cobalt-blue waters were a welcome sight, as we celebrated over 9,300 km (5,800 mi) in the saddle. During the final days, we cycled over hills blanketed with mature vineyards, and valleys dotted with monasteries that marked the borderlands between Christian and Ottoman empires.

Lisbon’s medieval quarter is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Europe. The Alfama’s winding alleyways date back to the 8th century, when the Arabic Moors ruled the Mediterranean. We spent most of a day wandering through the Alfama’s narrow passageways, climbing hidden staircases to the top of São Jorge Hill.

Packing up everything we would need for our European bicycle tour turned out to be a bit more complicated than we expected. But in the end, everything fit inside a couple of suitcases, carry-ons and bike boxes. Luck was on our side. We, and all our luggage, arrived in Lisbon intact - and ready to roll.

What equipment will we take with us? A lot will be the same as what we used to bike across the USA. But there are a few things we thought we could improve, and some we wanted to get more experience with for future trips that might be more remote. Check out our gear list.

Predicting the weather is probably a fool’s errand. But there’s comfort in having at least some idea about what the weather might be like for an extended bicycle tour. We graphed the average temperatures and rainfall probabilities for our planned route across Europe in 2019.

Once we decided that we would like to “bike across Europe,” we still had a lot of decisions to make about which countries to visit, when to go, and which route we would take. With more than a dozen major routes to choose from, we had our work cut out for us.