For individual blogs from this trip go to the home page and look under the Archives tabs
March 2017 , April 2017 , May 2017 , June 2017 , July 2017 , August 2017 and September 2017
Our 2017 Plan was to string together a series of mini activities within the whole 4 month trip. Activities are outlined on the map and explained below.
Europe
UK
1 – Transatlantic Cruise – 29th April to 16th May
A 16 day cruise across the Atlantic from Miami Florida to Copenhagen Denmark. Hopefully we will avoid both icebergs, polar bears and sea sickness.
2 – Baltic Cruise – 17th May to 25th May
A 9 day cruise around the Baltic starting and ending in Copenhagen with stops in Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden. Assuming Vladimir does not annex any of these countries!!!
3 – Tour of Southern Norway – 25th May to 4th June
A 10 day trip circling around Southern Norway via public transport namely trains, west coast ferries and buses. Will include a side trip on the Flam railway and hopefully some “specky” fjords.
4 – Hilversum, The Netherlands – 5th June to 15th June
10 days in the Netherlands doing house, dog and teenager sitting for our good friends Ali and Ads. Our parenting skills are very limited!!! We intend to pick up our pre-ordered bicycles here which we will be using in subsequent stages of the trip.
5- Bike Tour 1 – The Moselle River, Germany – 17th June to 23rd June
A 7 day bike and barge trip from Saarburg to Koblenz with our German friends Horst and Elfi. We are thrilled that they are joining us for this. We will sleep on the barge at night (with 60 other German guests) and cycle each day with the boat chasing us. Hopefully in that order. Total length of travel will be around 200km.
6- Bike Tour 2 – Trans Switzerland (Part B) – 27th June to 4th July
Back in 2014 we cycled from Geneva to Interlaken. This time round we start where we left off in 2014 and head east to Bregenz on Lake Constance. It is 330km but we have a few mountain passes to contend with (and also some innovative ways of getting over them ). If we complete this journey we can say we have cycled across Switzerland from east to west and it only took us 3 years!
7- Brecon Becons Canal Southern Wales – 7th July to 14th July
In South Wales with Marlene and Wolfgang sharing a rented Canal boat for our tour of this very interesting and isolated canal. We do have a slight problem in that we all think we are Captain material.
8-Bike Tour 3 – Austria – 16th July to 2nd August
During this time we intend to cycle from Innsbruck to Salzburg which is around 300km through some river valleys with the alps on each side. After Salzburg we intend to spend the rest of our time “slowly” touring the 10 lakes (Salzkammergut) region. Truly a magnificent area of Europe.
9-Rodez France – 5th to 8th August
Chill out time with Dom and Belinda at their “chateau” in southern France.
10-North Wales – 10th August to 16th August
Staying with and looking around Northern Wales with our long time friends Dewi and Eirian who we met in the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam 26 years ago!!!
11- Lakes District England – 17th August to 23rd August
A week in the lakes district at an AirBNB. Hopefully if the weather is good some good hikes and a steam train ride and not getting lost in the woods.
12- Narowboating in Central England – 27th August to 20th September
The first part of this trip will be with Marlene and Wolfagang. When they head back to Germany we will take on the full responsibility of caring for their Narrowboat ‘Ange D’leau’ . One might hope they receive her back in one piece with no infrastructure modifications.
And for those a little more detailed minded ( I didn’t say Engineers) here is the program in more detail.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 