Here is the complete country list (34 countries), in order of first visit (some places we visit more than once based on our route):

– USA (New York)
– England
– Wales
– Scotland
– Northern Ireland
– Ireland
– France
– Belgium
– Netherlands
– Germany
– Denmark
– Sweden
– Norway
– Finland
– Latvia
– Poland
– Czech Republic
– Switzerland
– Luxembourg
– Spain
– Portugal
– Monaco
– Italy
– Vatican City
– Malta
– Croatia
– Slovenia
– Austria
– Slovakia
– Hungary
– Serbia
– Bulgaria
– Turkey
– Greece

50 days to go!

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Our route through Greece is set!

Jord and I land in Athens, Greece on September 7th, from Istanbul, Turkey. On the 8th, Samantha arrives in Athens. Due to jet lag, we will be spending a couple days in Athens before heading through the cyclades. On the 10th we will start our voyage to Milos. From Milos, we head to Santorini a couple days later. We plan to spend 5 days in Santorini, before heading to Koufonissi, which is a tiny island south of Naxos. After Koufonissi, we will head to Iraklia, another tiny island (only 18km from end to end). After Iraklia, we head north to Naxos, where we will be staying in a very nice beach resort, on the longest and nicest beach on the island. Leaving Naxos a couple days later, we head to Mykonos, the last island before heading back to the mainland.

We fly home on the 26th of September.

69 days to go!

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The rough route to Athens, Greece is planned. Turns out we have 10 days to spare before having to be in Athens. We are now going back to look over which areas we may of missed and re-planning a bit of the trip. We are perfectly aware we will deviate from our initial plan… but this gives us a rough guideline so we can see as much as possible in the 118 days we are in Europe.

New possibilities: Morocco, Malta or Croatia

Samantha arrives in Athens to meet us on the 8th of September. We have 19 days to travel around the Greek islands… although this part of our trip will be a little more relaxed.

90 days to go!

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All the tickets for our trip are in hand. BritRail Passes, EuroPasses, Rock Wertcher tickets and all flights.

110 days to go!

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Our route through all of the UK is planned and our BritRail passes have been purchased. We arrive in London at 6:25am, June 5th, and head immediately into Wales, stopping in Oxford, Warwick and Stratford-Upon-Avon along the way.

From Wales we head back north through Manchester, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, Scotland. From Scotland’s capital we head to Inverness along the coast, and back down through the Highlands into Glasgow and over to Belfast, Northern Ireland (making sure we visit The Giant’s Causeway). From here we will head to Dublin and explore Ireland’s west coast for roughly a week. Then, back to southern Wales, making our way back to London. We will be stopping at Avebury Stone Circle and Stonehenge along the way.

We will be departing London for France on June 27th.

128 days to go!

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Our plane tickets (Victoria to New York City, New York City to London, Athens to Victoria) have been purchased! We depart June 11th at 6:45am. We will be spending 3 nights in NYC at the Park Central Hotel overlooking Central Park. On June 4th we will fly from NYC to London, arriving at 6:25am on June 5th.

We will spend 22 days traveling the UK before entering into France. At this point we head to Rock Wertcher  in Belgium for a 4 day camping rock concert. Followed by a few more ‘mellow’ days in Amsterdam.

We will be returning September 26th, 2011 after visiting more than 30 countries in Europe. More information to come as the plans progress further.

193 days to go!

Comments Off on The Route is Set, Our Tickets are Purchased

We figured that prior to our big cycling trip around Vancouver Island that we’d go for a “warm-up” ride to and around Salt Spring Island. We had set aside the August long weekend, loaded our panniers and set off on Friday evening.

We stayed the first night on Jordan’s friend’s sailboat. Rather luxurious way to spend the first evening.

We caught the first ferry in the morning over to Salt Spring and began our ride towards Ganges. Half way up the long hill heading towards Ganges, I got my first flat. This gave me the chance to try out my patch kit. Shortly after patching the tire, we were back on the road.

We took a small detour towards a small lake that I saw on my map. We decided to take a quick dip and cool off… it was f’ing hot out!

We got into Ganges around noon and stopped for some food and entertainment.

We continued our ride up a series of ridiculous hills (good warm up) over to the most northern tip of the island. Keep in mind this was our first try with this amount of weight on our bikes.

We setup camp on the beach on the north end of the island, no sooner to be kicked off the beach and told to go elsewhere by some old coot who lived on the beach. Instead of arguing, we packed up and started heading back to Ganges.

Arriving in Ganges without any lights, at around 10pm, we setup camp in a small field behind a community hall. We woke up pretty early and started our ride back to the ferries.

A good warm up, nonetheless… although I was rather worried that the weight of me, my bike and my supplies are going to prove a problem for the 3 week adventure that starts next week…

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