Here’s our route plan at the time of setting off.
The idea is that we have an overall 16 week plan anchored around the two ferry dates – 15th May from Harwich and 4th September from Santander.
In order to be comfortable that this is still do-able, we have a week-by-week plan that has a lot of detail in the first few weeks, then less detail when it’s further in the future, but it still joins up with the ferries.
So here is the pre-start version.
Let’s see how this develops…
Epic Europe Journey – Week By Week Plans – Pre-Start
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Date
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Vaguely
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Thoughts
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Week 1:
15-22 May
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Get going, England, Netherlands and some Germany
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Weds: Home to Harwich and ferry
Thurs: Amsterdam (Hotel American)
Fri: Stay Amsterdam, find charger for the Go
Sat: Go to Arnhem Sat am, arrive early afternoon, find Operation Market Garden museum
Sun: Haltern am See
Mon: Lippstadt
Tues: Kassel
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Week 2:
22-29 May
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Germany and into Czech Republic
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Weds: Eisenach and see the Wartburg castle and/or the Wartburg museum
Thurs: Weimar (where Goethe lived) via Gotha and possibly Erfurt
Fri: Stay Weimar
Need 4 days to get to Prague somehow
Maybe Ronneburg (Thuringia) and then Manenberg?
Sat: Zwickau?
Sun: Chomutov?
Mon: Prague
Tues: Stay Prague
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Week 3:
29 May – 5 Jun
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Czech Republic, Austria and into Slovakia
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Weds: Set off towards Konopiste castle at Benesov
then stay in Humpolec.
Thurs: Brno (long day)
Fri: Stay Brno
Sat: ?
Sun: Vienna
Mon: Stay Vienna. Is Vienna open on Mondays? Hofburg palace etc.
Tues: Take the Danube to Bratislava.
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Week 4:
5-12 Jun
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Hungary and Romania
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Weds: Stay in Kormano, going to Budapest via a EuroVelo route.
Thurs: Arrive in Budapest
Fri: Stay in Budapest? If we really want to.
Sat: Go to Csongrad. A long day but we have nothing else to do and it is fairly flat.
Sun: Really press on to Arad in Romania possibly via Oroshaza 117 km but again there is nothing much else to do. Hopefully our legs have turned into bags of walnuts by now…
Mon: Arad to Plovdiv is 760 km so 6-7 days because there are some Beeg Eeels.
And go to the Transalpina at Obarsia, it avoids Serbia…
And by the way be aware of Pentecost holidays.
Ok so the plan is:
Mon: Arad to Dobra 75 miles ish but fairly level
Tues: Dobra to Tau Bistra 109 km and [only] 1,800m of climb. Book the Tau Bistra hotels in advance…
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Week 5:
12-19 Jun
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Romania and Bulgaria and into Turkey
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Wed: to Pregoria? Hilly but it all is round there.
Thurs: Craiovia? 95km
Cross the border/Danube at Bechet…
… it’s flat and we are fit so press on to Chomakovtsi 126km…
Fri and Sat: 2 days to Plovdiv, 216km somehow…..
… maybe stop overnight in Pleven becoz it is in the guide book…
Sun: in Plovdiv
Plovdiv to Istanbul is “only” 400 km
Mon: Haskovo
Tues: Edirne
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Week 6:
26-3 Jul
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Turkey
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Weds: stay in Edirne
Thurs: do 2 long days, get to Lyuibmets or something similar
Fri: another long day, arrive Istanbul
Sat: stay Istanbul
Sun: what the hell another day
Mon: ferry to Bandirma
Tues: en route to Canakkale, find somewhere
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Week 7:
3-10 Jul
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Turkey
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Weds: arrive Canakkale
Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun: do Gallipolli stuf
Mon and Tues: 2 days to get to Ayvalik for the ferries
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Week 8:
10-17 Jul
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Greece
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Avalik to Lesbos
Lesbos to Athens
Athens to Corfu
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Week 9:
17 – 24 Jul
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Greek ferries
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Across Greece to Corfu?
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Week 10:
24 -31 Jul
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Greece
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Corfu
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Week 11:
31 Jul – 7 Aug
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Italy
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2 weeks going up Italy
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Week 12:
7-14 Aug
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Italy
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2 weeks going up Italy
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Week 13:
14-21 Aug
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France
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Across the bottom of France
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Week 14:
21-28 Aug
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Pyrenees
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Over and into Spain
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Week 15:
28 Aug-4 Sep
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Spain
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The Asturias and other interesting bits of Northern Spain to Santander
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Week 16:
4-11 Sep
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England
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Weds 4th: Ferry from Santander
Thurs 5th: Arrive Plymouth, Plume of Feathers booked in Princeton
Fri Exmoor?
Sat Quantocks or Mendips?
Sun Cotswolds?
Mon Chilterns? Or aim to get home on Monday?
Tues Home in time for LCS
Thurs Pick up costumes and set off for Revival
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