Plans
We’re headed to Europe!
On the 17th we are flying from Bangkok to Frankfurt, Germany and from there we will head east and south to tour Eastern Europe on our bicycles. We plan to cycle through the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have goulash, polka music, and supermodels in our future!
It was a hard decision to skip China and India. We kept debating back and forth on whether we should take the approach of attempting to see it all in one giant trip or to stick to our original plan of one year and pick and choose our spots. It feels like this may be our one and only shot to travel abroad on bicycles like this. Especially since we want to have children. The overwhelming constant among the older bicycle-tourist couples that we have met is that they don’t have any kids. We also haven’t given up on our careers or other dreams like starting a business, so neither of us was ready to commit to traveling for three to five years at this point. We tell ourselves that we can always do shorter trips in the future, but deep down I’m not really sure if that’s true. Who knows what the future will hold? In the end, we decided to go to Eastern Europe now because it is high on our list of places to travel and it will put us in a good position to go to South America this winter if we are up for it. We think we’ll be in Europe for about four months.
Right after we posted the worst things about bicycle touring, we realized we had forgotten the absolute worst thing of all: flying with our bicycles. The flights from Bangkok to Germany were around $600 on all the airlines and they all had the same baggage allowances. 20 kilograms of checked luggage and a whopping $37 for every kilogram over the limit. To get our bicycles and gear on the flight it would be a ridiculous $1850 in excess baggage charges! Once again it was going to be cheaper to just purchase actual tickets for our bicycles. Luckily, we did some research and found out that there was a UPS promotion that allowed us to send 25 kilograms of our gear to Frankfurt for $188.73 and we found out that Etihad Airlines had recently upped their baggage allowance to 30 kilograms, so we purchased a ticket with them and we think we’ll be under the limit.
We only plan to stay in Frankfurt a day or two before hitting the road, so we should have some new journal entries shortly. If you just can’t wait until then, check out this set of our favorite pictures we created on Flickr.
July 15th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Welcome to Europe!
Few words of warning, when traveling through Bosnia and Herzegovina be very careful where you are camping. There are still around one million landmines left from the war, and they are scattered all over the place. The warning signs are often missing and the best thing is to ask locals where is safe to camp. DO NOT enter the forests!!! Same thing applies to Kosovo province in Serbia; there are a lot of unexploded bombs left from the NATO bombings.
The Albanian roads are quite dangerous; the truck drivers are often ambushed by organized groups and because of that they are traveling in convoys escorted by security guards.
Other than that the locals are friendly and would help you if you run in the trouble. Enjoy the ride.
July 15th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Welcome to Europe!
Few words of warning, when traveling through Bosnia and Herzegovina be very careful where you are camping. There are around one million landmines left from the war, and they are scattered all over the place. The warning signs are often missing and the best thing is to ask locals where is safe to camp. And DO NOT enter the forests!!! Same thing applies to Kosovo province in Serbia; there are a lot of unexploded bombs left from the NATO bombings.
The Albanian roads are quite dangerous; the truck drivers are often ambushed by organized groups and lately they are traveling in convoys escorted by security guards.
Other than that the locals are friendly and would help you if you run in the trouble. Enjoy the ride.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
We’re strangers, but I wanted to tell you to do it now while you’re out on the road, having adventures. We always think that we’ll go back later, but we don’t. Now is your chance. Don’t shorten your adventure because of an arbitrary limit that’s all in your mind. There are no limits; only opportunities. And your opportunity is now. Good luck, happy trails.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:20 am
yay europe! how exciting! you guys are gonna love it there. sarah – i hope your wrist is all healed up and ready for some serious polka action. any plans on hitting up switzerland? my parents love having guests and you will always be welcome there
– t
p.s. we’re having a boy! brenda’s bump is getting bigger and bigger…. i’ll try and post pics sometime.
July 18th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Sarah,
Read the first post again!
Warning!
Landmines!
Unexploded bombs!
Ambushed!
Other than that the locals are friendly and would help you if you run in the trouble???? How are they going to “Help” if you set off a landmine?
Come out and “Help” fill in the hole?
What’s more, Minnesota just sent ANOTHER batallion to Bosnia and Herzegovina. A battalion is a military unit usually consisting of between two and six companies (around 500-1000 men) and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel.
Please reconsider Eastern Europe.
Bosnia and Herzegovina makes SE Asia look like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
When leaving Germany go any direction but East.
Head North, South or West.
Please?
Peace & Love,
Dad
February 14th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Sounds like a wonderful plan. My wife and I would love to do the same one day.