11,000 Km, 11 months and 3€ a day by bicycle in Europe
331 days wild camping and pedaling over a bunch of European countries. Three hundred and thirty-one days since we quit our jobs in England and started our cycling adventure. No timetables, no plans, no return tickets.
11 months fighting with the elements: cold, hot, wind, rain, snow and hailing. Not knowing where we will end up sleeping by the end of the day, without any worries further ahead than that.
Now we are making real those dreams we had while renting a room in England and saving with a goal. We are living our dream.
Video of our 11 months cycling in Europe
Here you have a video reviewing these last months traveling around Europe on a bicycle. Enjoy it!
Our numbers through Europe
You have all our bicycle touring stats at your fingertips.
- We have spent an average of 3€ per person and day.
- We cycled 52.45 daily kilometers.
- My bicycle and luggage weights around 70 kilos, Ilze’s bike around 50.
- Our average speed is 15 Km/h.
- Our camping tent became our house half of the nights during this period of time.
- We have ingested something around 40 Kg of pasta.
- We have been invited by strangers to sleep at their house 4 times.
- Police kicked us out from our wild camping spot only once, in Spain.
- Random people have gifted us kilos and kilos of fruits, especially in the Balkans.
- We slept at a strip-club, at a McDonald’s and at a train’s platform.
What to do in winter with a bicycle and a tent?
We are leaving Europe, but the winter is still coming. We decided to head South in Turkey and look for a place where to stop, rest and hide from cold and rain.
Last weeks have been very wet and gray, we don’t want to spend months inside a wet camping tent and riding with wet clothes, especially when the daily light last such a short time.
Cyprus sounds like an interesting place to go in winter, and we don’t need any visas. But since we change our travel ideas more often than our t-shirts, we cannot commit to a winter destination just yet. No plans.
Kristi Grant
December 5, 2014 @ 07:07
Very inspiring! Good luck with further travelling and lots of amazing experiences:)
The Crazy Travel
December 5, 2014 @ 08:28
Thank you Kristi! 😉
Mike Hedge
December 5, 2014 @ 10:06
beautiful!
Paul Krisai
December 5, 2014 @ 10:40
So cool! Safe riding! Have fun!
Tramuntana Cycling Mallorca
December 5, 2014 @ 14:44
What an adventure.
Madara Jurgelane
December 5, 2014 @ 18:57
You have iron butts,guys!
Wish you the best roads and coolest people in your future adventures 😉
Jesús
December 6, 2014 @ 16:53
Os sigo con interés. Dais un poquito de envidia. Un fuerte abrazo
Pablo
December 8, 2014 @ 07:42
Gracias tío, tienes el mismo post en español en http://thecrazytravel.com/europa-cicloturismo/ 😉
Darren Alff
December 8, 2014 @ 11:05
Wow! What great photos you have of your bicycle touring journey around Europe. So glad I was able to meet you in Latvia while you were there. I wish we could do some cycling together. Maybe at some point in the future we will be able to make that happen. Best wishes on your 2015 bicycle touring adventures. Think of all the amazing places you saw and experienced in 2014… and now just imagine what 2015 will bring you!
Ilze
December 8, 2014 @ 22:58
Thanks, Darren. I would not be surprised if we bump into each other somewhere in the world. You never know. Have an adventurous new year, Darren.
And, by the way, all the credit for the nice photos goes to Pablo. He is the one who works on that.
Kelvin
January 24, 2017 @ 03:46
Inspiring!!! So what did you do in 2016?
Pablo
January 24, 2017 @ 06:25
We arrived to China at the end of 2015, and we stayed for a year there. In the meantime, we went to Japan, where I spent 2 months traveling around hiking and wild -and urban- camping. Back in China I set off cycling for the Tibetan mountains of West Sichuan in August. And we cycled out of China to Laos and Thailand, where we are at the moment.