After a break of almost 4 months we finally continue! We want to take the opportunity to bring you into the world of numbers of a bike tour. At the same time, we also want to share with you our - as always - daring planning of the second half of the tour.
When we look back on the last four months, except for the annoyances with the bike and the insurance, we are very grateful. Although the whole story would have been more pleasant under different circumstances, we were able to spend a lot of valuable time with family and friends (and one of us also a lot on the computer). During the time we realized that there is not always only "black and white" or "tours and everyday life", but that as always in life it depends on the balance. It gives us a lot of pleasure to be on the road casually with the bike, to get to know new countries and people. However, you appreciate these moments even more when you know that it is not "forever", but that great people and experiences also await us at home!
But now enough with the "mimimi" - feel free to deal with the key data of our tour and also write to us if you want to know more about certain topics!
A review in numbers of our tour through Western Europe
How many kilometers do you drive per day?
We spent most of the days on Fermi, scrubbing a kilometer or two. In the following chart you can see our daily kilometers - including our break days. The colors indicate the different countries. Of course, our longest driving day so far stands out: a little over 180km! This day was very extraordinary in its entirety, as you can read in the entry Bon Courage. Worth mentioning are of course our longer breaks. Starting with the long week in Bonn (just before the transition Germany - Netherlands), continuing with our week in Brittany with Barbara and Domenique (break in France), the forced break in Gijón in northern Spain and our last big break with Domenico in Portugal (so far the longest of all breaks!).
Overall, we really enjoyed the longer breaks, but hope to be forced to do a little less in 2023 :P
The next question we often get asked is: How much money do you need for such a tour?
This question can be answered quite simply: It depends on you!
Factors such as: Sleeping in a tent (wild camping/garden vs. camping), platforms we use warmshowers, sleeping in hotels and guesthouses to: Having breakfast at the Lidl parking lot or looking for a nice café/restaurant play a big role.
Since we are relatively frugal on the road, lots of "free" sleep somewhere and often only go shopping at the supermarket, you could take our expenses as a lower guideline. But more economical is always possible! From time to time it is good for the morale to eat in a restaurant or to treat ourselves to other amenities - we want to have fun while traveling! Overall, we have divided our money so that we can be on the road as long as possible. We have calculated with 10€/day/person - and you will also see that we have remained quite true to our goal!
In the following picture you can see how much money we spent on average per day in one country. We have excluded the repair costs. You can still see a clear difference between the more southern countries and the countries of western Central Europe.
In the following graphic you can see our total expenses distributed among the countries. Of course, France, Spain and Portugal stand out in particular, since we spent a long time in these three countries.
If we distribute our expenses among the different items, the following diagram comes out. Of course, the largest part falls on the food related items. So far, our repair costs ('bike') also fall heavily, as they were larger repairs than one might usually expect on a tour. Under 'etc' hides among other things postcards, museums, medicines and transportation costs.
Where do you sleep?
Spontaneously we would have said that we spent many nights in the tent, but had to realize when making the statistics that we are blessed with many cool friends and acquaintances who know people, who know people, etc.. So of course we have experienced a lot of "vitamin C" or "Bekannte" (people we know) and are very grateful for it! So here again a big thank you to all who have taken us in and / or mediated!
However, our first feeling that we have spent many nights in the tent does not come from anywhere. Therefore, we have everything again broken down into our "individual hosts". Here, for example, our times with Domenico or Barbara only simply flow in and not per day we have spent there.
And here you can see that we had then but a little more often opportunity to camp ("garden", "wildcamping", "Camplingplatz" as well as "wtmg -> welcometomygarden"). During these nights we really learned to appreciate and love our tent! So this investment was worth it all!
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us by mail!
Where do we continue from here?
As is well known, things always turn out differently than you think. That's why planning is only worthwhile for us to a limited extent. Therefore, let us rather call it our "wishes".
To roughly map out our wishes: Germany - Greece - northernmost lighthouse of continental Europe in Norway - Germany - Seville (via Marseille, Toulouse and the Col du Tourmalet) - Home
Here and there we will probably take shortcuts and detours, but you will read about that in the blog entries!
Our first goal is to Vienna, followed by the second leg to Trieste. There we want to meet with Madita, who will accompany us in Croatia about 2 weeks! After that, the two of us will continue towards Thessaloniki in Greece. Once we have arrived there, we will see how we want to continue. Weather-wise we have only the restriction that it can be quite cold and uncomfortable beginning in August in the north.
Our route to Thessaloniki will look something like this:
Our start date is April 11, so we can still celebrate Easter with the family :-) We are looking forward to start the next adventure and take you on this journey :)
Small additional comment:
In the world of planetariums we celebrate the 100 - year planetarium anniversary. On this occasion, I also want to have my contribution and opened for the time being an Instagram account, in which I would like to present the most diverse planetariums! Feel free to take a look!