Leg 3: Europe & the United Kingdom

5342km

3 Sections

10 Countries
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The Colosseum, Gondolas, The Alps, Cuckoo clocks, Frites, Mont Saint-Michel, Guinness, Zoute drops & Tulips, just a few of the sights and tastes of what is to come as we continue to promote our charities on the final leg of the tour after leaving the USA and heading across the Atlantic to Europe.

As with our other legs of the tour the planning stage has caused many late nights as I (Jason) chopped and changed potential routes. Our original plans had us looping back and forth across Northern Europe similar to an ampersand (the “&” symbol above the 7 on your keyboard). This really didn’t seem right so it was back to the drawing board to make a more direct route or at least take out some of the kinks. In the end we settled on three individual sections covering Continental Europe, Ireland & the United Kingdom and finally the Netherlands. We hope our changes will allow us to reach a greater variety of people and allow us to promote our causes better.

Our first taste of Europe is in “The Eternal City” (Rome) then its heading north through the Italian countryside, passing through Modena, the land of the “Prancing Horse,” Yeah we’re cyclists, but everyone has their own forms of porn and one car brand in particular is ours. From there we head to Venice before moving on from Italy as we head north through Europe to Germany. After what will no doubt be a hard but rewarding slog through the Austrian Alps we intend to have a stop over for a few days to rest the legs in Stuttgart.

From Stuttgart we head to Luxemburg. But first a little stopover in Nürburg before leaving Germany. I blame Garry for this inclusion, not that I'm complaining. Garry couldn’t bring himself to go past the place without stopping in for a look at the scenery…. around the Nürburgring …. While doing a hot lap in some kind of high performance hire car. Things could get quite interesting.

From Luxemburg we head through Belgium to the Flanders region and into northern France before heading across to Paris via Roubaix and the Arenburg forest made famous for its cobbled road used in the Paris-Roubaix cycle race.
From Paris we then head to Normandy and follow the French coastline to Brittany, before leaving Roscoff on the ferry to Ireland.

After our overnight ferry ride (hope someone brings the TravelCalm – don’t enjoy being sea sick) we disembark at Cork in Ireland, the start of section two. From Cork we will head north to Limerick where I intend to drop into one of the local pubs I share a name with “Nestor’s Pub & Restaurant”.

From Cork we will then head east to the other side of Ireland to spend a few days in Dublin before boarding another ferry to Holyhead and the UK.

For the next week we will ride our way east through Wales and England to Sheffield before heading south through Nottingham to London for a few days, it is here that we hope to host the third and final official fundraiser of the tour before heading off again this time towards the east coast where our next ferry awaits us.

The final section of our tour is a loop around the Netherlands. After arriving in Rotterdam from the UK we will head south of the Markermeer then head across the Houtribdijk to North Holland before doing a clockwise loop of the country to finally end in Eindhoven, and then take the opportunity to rest, recover and celebrate finishing our journey with relatives.

Many people have asked our reason for finishing our tour in the Netherlands thinking it an odd choice and why Eindhoven in particular as the final destination. Well I have a very personal reason for this choice that also ties our whole trip together. My Oma and Opa (Grandparents) both came to Australia from Eindhoven with my mother in the 1950’s, eventually settling in Ballarat (our start point & where I grew up). Throughout my childhood I had heard many stories about the Netherlands but never had the chance to visit, in more recent years I have felt that a greater connection to my Oma & Opa’s home country and my original plans to tour the Netherlands eventually grew into the Long Road Tour.

My personal reasons for choosing this particular tour route for our charity tour comes from having had both my Oma and Opa fight and eventually succumbed to different forms of Cancer (Bowel Cancer and Leukaemia) and choosing these specific start and end destinations is my way of dedicating this trip and what Garry and I hope to achieve for our Cancer charities to their memory.