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General Discussion / old farts planning a big trip through Europe seek advice
« on: June 04, 2009, 09:29:29 pm »
Gentle People,
I come seeking wisdom. The admiral and I have elected to get off our broadening butts and do a fairly significant ride this fall. We are over fifty and rather out of shape. We have a recumbent tandem and the only significant touring we have done was a supported tour down the Rhine 4 years ago. The plan (such as it is) is to fly into Amsterdam and wander around until we eventually end up in Italy. We hope the wandering will take us through France possibly Portugal Spain and Italy. We will take at least two months and hope to make it a semi-credit card tour. We want to spend our money on good food and better wines rather than expensive hotels, so there will be some camping and some hostels and some hotels. Optimally we would like to be on very small roads or bike paths. Negotiating a ten foot recumbent in trafic over cobblestones is slightly less fun than a root canal without aneshtetic. soooooo Many questions and just a general appeal for advice.
If anyone has any touring experience on a tandem recumbent we would like to hear your words of wisdom.
Thoughts on GPS versus maps and map books.
Paniers versus a trailer.
Carrying spare parts.
Route suggestions.
Lodgding suggestions.
Any other thoughts.
Thanks in advance
The bent pig.
I come seeking wisdom. The admiral and I have elected to get off our broadening butts and do a fairly significant ride this fall. We are over fifty and rather out of shape. We have a recumbent tandem and the only significant touring we have done was a supported tour down the Rhine 4 years ago. The plan (such as it is) is to fly into Amsterdam and wander around until we eventually end up in Italy. We hope the wandering will take us through France possibly Portugal Spain and Italy. We will take at least two months and hope to make it a semi-credit card tour. We want to spend our money on good food and better wines rather than expensive hotels, so there will be some camping and some hostels and some hotels. Optimally we would like to be on very small roads or bike paths. Negotiating a ten foot recumbent in trafic over cobblestones is slightly less fun than a root canal without aneshtetic. soooooo Many questions and just a general appeal for advice.
If anyone has any touring experience on a tandem recumbent we would like to hear your words of wisdom.
Thoughts on GPS versus maps and map books.
Paniers versus a trailer.
Carrying spare parts.
Route suggestions.
Lodgding suggestions.
Any other thoughts.
Thanks in advance
The bent pig.