Update 8: Trans-Europe 2015 – 4 Weeks Away

Salsa Vaya w/S&S Coupler

Update 8: Trans-Europe 2015 – 4 Weeks Away

Salsa Vaya w/S&S Coupler

We are back to 4 weeks to go for our trans Europe trip. This week I wrap up the rest of our trip and complete the itinerary planning through Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Our flight out of Spain is June 29th so we will have approximately 1 week of buffer time. That’s not a lot of buffer in case we want more freedom to stay or wander around if we wanted to. I’m hoping that we’ll have days where we will breeze through the mileage and do a two-for-one day ride.

Kovin, Serbia to Constanta, Romania

  • June 7, 2015 – Kovin, Serbia to Brnjica, Serbia
  • June 8, 2015 – Brnjica, Serbia to Golubinje, Serbia
  • June 9, 2015 – Golubinje, Serbia to Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania
  • June 10, 2015 – Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania to Calafat, Romania
  • June 11, 2015 – Calafat, Romania to Ostroveni, Romania
  • June 12, 2015 – REST DAY
  • June 13, 2015 – Ostroveni, Romania to Corabia, Romania
  • June 14, 2015 – Corabia, Romania to Zimnicea, Romania
  • June 15, 2015 – Zimnicea, Romania to Giurgiu, Romania
  • June 16, 2015 – Giurgiu, Romania to Tutrakan, Bulgaria
  • June 17, 2015 – Tutrakan, Bulgaria to Silistra, Romania
  • June 18, 2015 – Silistra to Constanta
  • June 19, 2015 – Constanta, Romania to Bucharest, Romania
  • June 20, 2015 – REST DAY
  • June 21, 2015 – Bucharest, Romania to Madrid, Spain (FLIGHT)
  • June 22, 2015 – REST DAY

Most of my route planning was done with Google Maps using walking directions. Hopefully this isn’t going to be an issue when we are out there riding. I know I had to reroute the last two days of riding with car directions since they didn’t let you walk along a known route along the Danube through 21 tunnels!

New handlebar tape

Gear Preparations

I got to ride my new S&S coupled bike this week. It rode very similar without the couplers and I’m really satisfied with both the new addition and my handy cable work. I’ve installed all the racks and water bottle cages and will be using this on a few tours before I leave. I will also practice breaking apart and putting back the bike together with a stopwatch. This should help me get familiar with the process and should be fun thing to track my progress. I also rewrapped my bar using a cloth tape and then the Brooks leather tape. Hoping this will last longer than what I had on there before.

I am working on my gear list. I will publish that next week once I get everything laid out and start purging what I don’t think I need. I’m using the same packing list from the Pacific Coast tour. It’s probably going to be minor tweaks from that.

I am planning to pick up some boxes for both the bike and my gear this coming week.

Accommodations

I logged into Warm Showers, Couchsurfing, and AirBNB. I updated my profile and verified everything I needed to verify. I created my AirBNB account and filled out the profile. I downloaded all the apps so we have that when we get to Europe to use. We’ll think about accommodations for the first week in Madrid, Rioja, and San Sebastian. It’s good to have options.

No Comments
  • Anne Poe
    Posted at 16:07h, 10 March

    Sounds like a great adventure. We bicycled the Danube Gorge in Serbia last June. We have detailed maps on our free website that might be of use to you. Hope it helps…and have fun!

    • Johnny Lam
      Posted at 11:25h, 12 March

      @Anne – Thank you! I plan to check out your detailed maps.