A bicycle trip to Poland.
Do not worry, but yes a part of the idreamto.be crew is goin out of town. On our bicycles we’ll be with 4 challenging the big distance: from Almere to Poland over Berlin and Hannover. Why no worries? We’ll got the articles covered in the meanwhile.
But since this is a lifestyle magazine I found it very appropriate to let you see what a bicycle vacation is all about. Because is it so tiresome? Does it cost a lot? What will you gain from it?
In general you have everything in your own hands except the weather. If you want to be sure you sleep well you’ll go to hotels and book in advance. Also you plan not to do more than 70-80 km a day which is even for a kid do-able. But if you want to go cheaper and with more challenges, you could go for 120 km/ day without planning where to sleep.
For us, we go cheapest and with quite a challenge. Instead of going to hotels or campings we’ve decided to stay at people’s homes using “couchsurfing.org“. Here we’ll find people who can host us for a day. Can’t find anyone? Then we’ll find a nice parkingspot, bridge or ask a farmer if we can put our tents in their field (or sleep in a barn providing it’s a red barn).
This will be a major challenge for us since the distance won’t be the only worry.
Equipment
A lot of people say you need a good bike for a trip such as this one. Once again you can decide for yourself how much you want to pay for your ride.
When I did my first bicycle vacation, I went with quite a simple bike and with bags that I got from friends. Also Joost and Vic will be going on bikes they’ve bought second-hand for a very good price. For me, I’ve went a step further and I’ll be going on a pimped recumbent bike with GPS and all on board. It’s quite cool actually. But with a 200 euro bike, 100 euro of equipment (tent, sleepingbag etc) you’re pretty much there.
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The Route.
The route is kinda tricky, you can decide in many ways what route fits you most. For me it’s simple: NO HILLS. I have a recumbent and even though many recumbentriders love hills: I know I’m not in shape for that stuff yet.
A good way of finding your way is to prepare by using Google Earth. I just set 2 markers : start finish on the map and then drew a line.
From there I pointed out large cities we’d cross. Then I’d do the same for all the large cities in between. This is quite a good and relatively quick way. Also it makes you know your route in advance pretty well so you’re able to find info about the area in advance.
Is it difficult?
Yes very. Nah kidding. I think like I said before you can make it as difficult as you wish. Sleeping in hotels will make life a LOT easier. If you go for the challenge, it might become quite rough. Also the average speed and the time spent on traveling per day can make life a LOT easier or more difficult. Just decide what’s best for you or the group.
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