The Europe 2011 Road Trip

The Day 0 post is really dedicated to the car purchase and prep for the trip. Partly because the story of getting it is fun. Partly because it was such a key part to the adventure. No one really goes out of their way to drive a '98 Scenic thousands of miles in summer in Europe, but that's what happened. The intention behind the trip was to travel some of Europe and ride our bikes...

Martin: One memory I have of this first night is we setup our tent after all the travel and sat down to play some cards. I'm not sure exactly what game we were playing but it just was not going to plan. We started again and sure enough again the game seemed to get to some imnpossible conclusion. Eventually we realised that the pack of cards we were using was missing 5 cards! That was...

Mikey Visit Bruges, park on the outskirts and walk into the centre spend a few hours walking around streets and seeing the canals etc. Go back to car and have lunch then use the afternoon to cycle around the perimeter canal. Return to the same campsite and have some food and then walk into town then onto the beach before returning back to camp.

Martin Not sure how much the photos do it justice but some great views from this day. The free camping spot was a real gem, especially compared to some of the spots from a little later in the trip! Mikey Commentary: Pack up and go to the hardware store looking supermarket. Pick up 24 beers and if the crate and bottles were returned would cost just over 3 euros. Drive through Brussels to see what...

Mikey Commentary: Torrential rain overnight pack up in the rain and walk back 15 mins to the car. Visit the nearby town of ettlebrook in the morning get some wifi and a subway. Walk a trail that was found on the map in the woods on the previous day that afternoon. Get lucky with the weather as it stays pretty much dry. Really nice walk and stumble upon a free campsite for the next night...

Martin: I remember Luxembourg being super quiet, but perhap that was just because of the torrential rain. Mikey's note reminds me that a recurring theme in the trip was hunting for either a free camping spot or WiFi. Mikey Commentary: Went to Luxembourg city in the morning. Go to the outskirts and park up and walk in over a bridge. Then there was a a lot of rain so we stopped in a band stand...

Martin: I am not 100% on whether I've associated this story with the correct day in the trip, but at some point whilst looking for a free camping spot we drove by some maize fields and ended up on some semi-exposed farm road. The layout gave the feeling that is probably private (perhaps our sat nav also showed us just off the public roads). As we were chatting about maybe turning around a super load...

Martin: This day introduces another theme of the trip, which is the low budget exploration. When you arrive at a city or town with very little money the main thing to do is just to walk and explore! Mikey Commentary: Went to Munich first time ending up at a large out of town shopping centre. Have a quick look round before realising that it was too far to walk to the centre. Get back in...

Mikey Commentary: Wake up with a slightly swollen ankle from an insect bite. Have a lazy morning with a nice lie in then ask the receptionist for a good cycle route. She gives us a map and tells us to cycle up to illinger alm which we later find out is the mountain next to zwolflehorn.  We then proceed up the mountain taking our time with frequent stops for water and photos of the great...

Mikey Commentary: Rain as we pack down from the campsite. Travel to Hallstatt and park up in the out of town car park. Walk into town and walk along the front and take some photos of the views. Then go up to the church and have a look in the bone house. Walk back down and back to the car. Have a live bee in my shoe for about 3 hours. Find it after martin...