Jacqueline’s Europe Bike Tour 2016

Bike tour time again!  All I have to do is to chase down some repairs for a few kinks my bicycle developed during the journey from Portland to Vienna. After that, I’m off on a self-supported, self-guided European bicycle tour through Austria, Italy, France, and Spain.

I’m packed very light for this ride and hope I’m making a good decision here.  In the past, I have had a standard touring set-up with front/rear panniers and a handle bar bag. When touring in the US, as I usually do, it’s necessary to take a tent, and sleeping bag because sometimes distances between hotels are too great, maybe they don’t lay out correctly, or possibly all the rooms in a town are booked.  But this time I’m gambling the compact nature of Europe will make it feasible to find small hotels or B&B’s every night and traveling in the off-season makes that a more sure bet. I have tried touring with just rear panniers and a handlebar bag but found my bike was way too light in the front and handled poorly. For this tour, I have only a small waterproof backpack on a front rack and an ortlieb suitcase designed for bike touring on my back rack.  It’s pictured here:    https://www.ortlieb.com/en/Travel-Biker/.  The trusty Salsa Vaya touring bike is outfitted with heavy Marathon Schwalbe 700×35 tires because in Europe there are many sections of gravel on bike paths so sleek, fast road tires are sadly not an option.

Though my preference is to tour with my best cycling buddy, Lori Watt, or my husband Marcus, both are unable to make a big trip for these dates. Marcus is going to try to meet me for a couple of weeks sometime on this tour and I hope to meet up with friends from home a little later. For now though, it is a time for me to be my own girl, and find my own way.  First up is the 180 mile ride from Vienna, Austria to Passau Germany on the Danube Bicycle Path.  It looks like a flat, easy, dedicated bike path along the Danube river. I think it’s perfect terrain to get started.

A few notes*

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