Introduction page of our cycling trip from the Netherlands to Barcelona. The route we cycled. travelogue + photographs, part 1. travelogue + photographs, part 2. travelogue + photographs, part 3. travelogue + photographs, part 4. What did we think of the trip? Our gear: what kind of bikes etc do we have? The fun and not-so-fun parts of cycling trips. A tour through Belgium, 11 days, 810 km. From the Netherlands to the Italian Riviera (near Nice, France). Animated movies, 3D Studio Max stuff, VRML About me, email address Travel Home, travels sorted by activity Annapurna Base Camp trek, Chitwan, rafting, Kathmandu & around Road trip through Sweden in march Canadian Rockies + Vancouver Island A weekend with friends on the Dutch Wadden Island of Ameland Sydney, Fraser Island, diving Great Barrier Reef, Outback, Kakadu, Litchfield Granada, Barcelona, and Portuguese Algarve Total solar eclipse in Turkey, 2006 Cycling trip around Belgium - in Dutch only Cycling from the Netherlands to Italy - in Dutch only
Nederlands

Trip to Barcelona:

General:

Other cycling trips (in Dutch only):





What did we bring?

Our baggage amounted to about 34 kilograms, in total. With the food and water we usually had with us, this means that we probably carried along close to 40 kilograms. As to this day, we disagree on how the weight was distributed on our two bicycles - each of us is convinced that his/her bike carried most of the load, by far!
  • Bikes: Sparta Marathon Odyssee (Dutch bike), both of them men's models (because of the stronger construction). These are typical touring bikes, and they have springs below the saddle as well as below the steering wheel. The bikes did not originally have low-riders (baggage racks for the front wheels) but we had those put on. The bikes were perfect, by the way, we didn't have any problems with them, not even a flat tire! Our bikes. The front one is Eric's.
  • Bags: each of us had two small bags on the front wheel, and one attached to the handlebars. In back we had:
  • Eric's bike: 2 rear bags, and the tent and sleeping mats were tied on top of the baggage rack.
  • Judith's bike: one large bag which hangs off both sides of the baggage rack, and also has a large top compartment.
  • All of our bags were made by Agu. They're not watertight, but we lined them with trash bags, and nothing ever got wet.
  • Each bike carried two one-liter bottles.
  • Tent (Active Leisure Mt Hale, 3.15 kg). Both tent poles broke on this trip, even though the tent was brand-new. We returned to the store to complain, when we got back, and it turns out to be a production defect. We were given two new tent poles, but haven't tested them yet.
  • Self-inflating sleeping mats.
  • Sleeping bags (Vaude mummy-type bags that supposedly go down to -20 Celsius. We bought these for our trip to Nepal, and they've never let us down).
  • Sheet sleeping-bag.

  • Camping Gaz stove, with a spare can of gas
  • 1 deep pan
  • 1 lid/frying pan
  • lighter
  • pocketknife
  • 1 knife, 1 fork, 1 spoon
  • 2 cups (note: no plates, we ate out of the pans)
  • sponge
  • dishwashing liquid
  • olive oil
  • chinese thea

  • compass (useful to place the tent such that the morning sun shines on it, so it dries more quickly. We didn't need it apart from that.)
  • route descriptions Amsterdam - Barcelona (Paul Benjaminse)
  • spare inner tube
  • spare spokes, and an emergency spoke (wire) (you can put these inside the frame, underneath the saddle)
  • 2 wrenches
  • screwdriver
  • tools to repair flat tires, and to tighten spokes.
  • We bought a bottle of lubricant in Beaune - it was really necessary!
  • flashlight
  • Philips Xenium cellphone
  • battery charger for the phone (even though the phone runs on one battery, on standby, for about 2 weeks)
  • cable lock for the bikes
  • Canon EOS analog reflex camera + filters (big and heavy, one entire handlebars-bag on its own, but it lets you take the best pictures!)

  • wallet, money, bank card, credit card
  • passports
  • insurance card

  • 3 books
  • pens, paper, diary
  • sun-tan lotion
  • bandaids, disinfectant
  • vaseline (to protect our behinds)
  • medical tape for our wrists (not used)
  • anti-diarrhoea medicine
  • other medication
  • portable female urinal for Judith, so she can pee in the tent

    clothing, per person:
  • 2 cycling shorts
  • 1 cycling shirt
  • We took the shorts and shirt in the shower, in the evening, to wash them. The shirt was usually dry by the next morning, and the shorts were tied to the baggage, to dry: no problem!
  • cap (useful with sun and rain!)
  • Teva sandals (we normally cycled on these)
  • 2 convertible pants (zip-off pant legs; to make sure everyone can see we're Dutch, from a mile off...)
  • 2 t-shirts (Judith secretly took 3, but the third was really not necessary)
  • 3 pairs of socks
  • 3 x underwear
  • 1 fleece sweater
  • swimming gear (not used, mittens and a wool hat would have been more appropriate)
  • sports shoes (Judith also secretly took 2 pairs of these, but one would have been enough)
  • rain coat (no rain pants: we let our legs get wet when it rained)

  • 1 bottle of Sanex shampoo (which we used as soap, shampoo, shaving cream, and laundry detergent)
  • contact lens box and liquids, hard contacts, disposable contacts, glasses, a box for the glasses (pretty much everything you can get in the optician's field, except for liquid to clean the hard contacts: Eric simply did not clean his contacts for 5 weeks, which is not unusual for him anyway)
  • toothbrush, toothpaste, flos (our dentist would be proud)
  • hair gel and mousse (Eric did use his gel, Judith didn't use the mousse)
  • facial cream
  • deodorant
  • shaving razors
  • a camping towel each (about postal stamp-size, but they dry very quickly)

    We were through the first route description book in Cluny, and considered sending it home, along with some other stuff that we didn't need. However, all of this stuff together weighed about 1.5 kg, and the mail costs were quite high. We figured that a bit of headwind is going to do more than those mere 1.5 kg, and didn't bother to send it home.

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