Travellers’ tales: Cycle touring in Europe on the cheap
“I have come across Europe from Scotland to the Black Sea. Please take me and use me well.” We Google translated that message into Romanian and wrote it on notes tied to our bikes.
It was the evening of 17 May 2024. My partner, Saartje, and I had just completed our project to cycle across Europe from the North Sea to the Black Sea, following the Rhine and Danube. Our route had taken us 4,000km in 53 days of cycling through 11 countries.
In planning the project we knew that work commitments wouldn’t allow more than two or three weeks’ cycling per holiday, so it would require several instalments. But it would be too expensive and inconvenient to fly our ‘good’ touring bikes out and back for each trip.
So we decided to use cheap bikes we could leave with friends across Europe between trips, and which need never make the journey home.
We bought both bikes locally – my Viking Alghero town bike for £50 and Saartje’s Merida Dakar MTB for £30. After a little sprucing up, they set off with us to the Netherlands by ferry from Newcastle. Both bikes did us proud.
That final evening in Constanta we left our newly labelled bikes outside the main station. Next morning we returned to catch a train for Bucharest and our flight home. Both bikes were gone. I hope their new owners get as much pleasure from them as we did.
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