I cut my trip from New Orleans to Canada short last year. Many reasons, but they can be summed up as, “Cycling in the US is not cycling in Europe”.
I know a definite solution to that problem – cycling in Europe. It’s that time of year, and I’m starting to plan. I’ve had a number of thoughts for where to go; the southern coast of Spain and Taiwan have both been on my list of possibles, but this year I think I’m just heading back to Europe.
The current thought is landing in Munich in May and cycling to Budapest (mostly via Eurovelo EV 6 – on a route I’ve followed before along the Danube, if in the opposite direction), before cutting back across Hungary (mostly on EV 14) to Austria, and then down (literally, up figuratively) to Munich on part of EV 7. That route is ~1800 km, both longer and shorter than my usual trips, filling in a hole in my overall map, and getting me back to Hungary, where I’d wished to spend more time in the last time I cycled there in 2015. And the best part about returning to Hungary? No planned dental work!
2015! Good grief, that was 8 years ago! Covid has done a number both on the amount of touring I’ve done, and my sense of time. A lot of things have changed in my life since then. That was just the beginning of my retirement, with the intent to spend time every year touring in Europe.
Time to get back to it.