This is our third European cycling tour and it is interesting to see how each was planned, executed, recorded, and shared with our friends.
2005 Netherlands, Belgium, and France
For this trip we did not camp, so we only needed one of the Bike Friday suitcases for our trailer. But we managed to squeeze in the smallest laptop that Dell made in those days. We did not pre-plan our route, so we bought maps along the way and each night we would plan the next day’s route and download it from the Laptop onto our Garmin Etrex GPS. One or two days was about all the information it could hold.
Jon pre-made a website with a blank page for each day. We were able to use the laptop to fill in the pages as we went.
But the only Internet connection we had was via the laptop modem. Some hotels had wifi, but it was always way more expensive than the modem/telephone, so we never used them. We had brought a list of toll free phone numbers for our provider, for each country – and we literally had a set of country-specific phone plugs with open wires we would experiment with at each hotel, until we got a dial tone.
Our total cost of Internet connections for the trip was about $36. With that we were able to check email, update the website, and do any other browsing, weather reports, etc. that we needed.
2009 Vienna to Amsterdam
Four years later, and we were bringing the camping gear with us. This required both Bike Friday suitcases in the trailer so we needed to cut down on weight. No more 8lbs of laptop, charger, power converter, mouse, etc.
But it also meant that we would have no way to update the GPS each day, so we had to get a larger one, a Garmin 60CSx. And this meant that we had to pre-plan the entire route. We did that by using Bikeline maps purchased and hand delivered to us at Christmas by friends living in London. Otherwise, shipping would have been twice the cost of the maps themselves.
We completely maxed out the memory of the GPS, even having to enlist help from Garmin support to get the last bits loaded. But it worked very well, and even though Jon still had the Bikeline maps on his handlebars, MCs instructions on when to turn, kept us moving along quite nicely.
For the laptop replacement we went with an iPhone 3G. It didn’t even need a power converter, just adapters for each country. But ATT’s roaming policies totally suck, and we ended up spending over $400 to maintain only the barest minimum of Internet connection! We could only use 50Mb per month, which allowed us only the ability to check email, weather reports, and Facebook postings. We had to make sure the phone was shut down at all other times.
To keep our friends updated, we used Facebook postings. The bad part was that this forced anyone who wanted to follow us, to sign up for Facebook. After returning home we created a trip website that included the Facebook posting, additional text, and the photos.
2013 Eaux de France
So here we are today. Another 4 years have passed, and we have updated some, and refused to update other things. Jon wanted to do at least one more trip without having to buy all new electronics. We still have just the iPhone 3G, and the Garmin 60CSx, but how we use them has changed.
ATT finally let us unlock the iPhone, so we now have a French SIM card with all the telephone and Internet we need, all the time. No more searching for wifi, and it looks like our total bill will be back down around $85. This makes it so much easier to check on accommodations down the road.
In fact, knowing that we would have Internet, we were able to pre-post all the details of our route, including things we want to see, on our website, and we can view them as we travel down the road.
As for the Garmin GPS, this trip is longer than 2009, so we had to change what we could store. We first created the full routes, which are posted online and used to determine the distances. Then we created abbreviated routes that would fit on the GPS. These routes only include corners where we need to turn, and a few other key points.
Now, when we reach a turn, MC has to zoom in, because the actual point has to be placed a few dozen meters down the road we need to take – since there is no guarantee that the line to the next turn will be heading in the right direction. It does make it a little more difficult, but it would’ve cost $400+ to upgrade to a GPS capable of handling the full routes.
The other big change for this trip, is that knowing we would have a lot of gravel and single track, we have spent the past year getting rid of the trailer and outfitting the bike with panniers. This was especially hard because the pannier system needed to not interfere with the bicycle’s ability to fold.
In the front we had to order a special rack from the factory in Oregon, and pay the international shipping and Swiss import tax. The other 3 racks we found locally in Switzerland and all have quick release.
Of course this means several things: our load must be even smaller, we can no longer lock everything up, and we need extra rain proofing. But it is so much easier to maneuver, and sidewalk cafes of Europe make locking up much less necessary.
And finally, as you the reader are aware, We now have WordPress on our website, so we are sharing this trip through a blog. Only caveat is that without a laptop we can only post pictures taken with the iPhone. When we get home, and back to a computer, we plan to replace them with the higher quality photos from our camera.
