A poor excuse for an itinerary

So here is a map of our trip and it is about as detailed as it's going to get while we are in Australia.  Because of the weight of maps and books we have only bought the Lonely Planet for Sweden at this stage. We will hopefully swap it for one on Estonia , and so on throughout the trip.

FYI The lonely planet book on Sweden weighs in at nearly half a kilo! Times that by 10 and we’d be schlepping around an extra 5kgs – our clothing allowance.

We fly in to Stockholm, explore the city, and then ride to Gothenburg. That’s out first 450kms knocked over…

From what we have read there are plenty of campsites along the way, beside spectacular lakes and protected forests.

We would also like to explore Gotland , a small island off the East coast of Sweden that has around 100 medieval churches, the highest concentration in northern Europe. 

Then it’s across the Baltic on a 12+ hour ferry ride to arrive in Tallinn , the world famous capital of Estonia and we will hopefully be meeting some of Marcus’ extended family.

From Estonia we will ride through Latvia and Lithuania then make our way into Poland and then Germany. We imagine spending a fair amount of time in Germany as it is such a bicycle friendly country and it should be easy for us to get around. We would also like to go south to Munich where Miriam has a family friend (Hi Bill!) and we could get some guided tours from another keen cyclist. 

The Netherlands and Brussels are also on the list. We are looking forward to rolling into Amsterdam – The Mecca for cycling (and other recreational activities…).

We are planning to cross over into France at the beginning of October. So we basically have three months to get there, then 2 months in France and Spain and fly out from of Madrid December 1. In Spain we will be staying with Marcus’ cousin Nik , who may make a guest cameo appearance somewhere further north.

Miriam is especially looking forward to Paris.

Marcus is especially looking forward to opp shopping in the Baltic.

Our camping trial may have to be post-phoned until next weekend as it had been raining cats and dogs here in Sydney.

If you have any recommendations we would love to hear them, as our routes are not planned and we are happy to be guided by the good experiences of others.

35 days and counting