I have wanted to tour Europe by bicycle after seeing the infrastructure on various vacations. The bicycle roads in Amsterdam and the paths outside the city and throughout the Netherlands. Bikeways following the Rhine, Danube, and Loire rivers. The respect afforded the bicycle in Europe is hard for my American mind to grasp. I want to participate in that pro-bike mindset. My wife is going on a yoga retreat; I'm going on a bicycle ride.  The EuroVelo routes seem like an easy, ready-made solution to part of the "how" problem. The choices of routes is large. I have a friend in the Netherlands and he rides so we manage to cobble a few days where we can ride together. The starting point became Amsterdam. The end would be Paris, perhaps London if time permits.

  The general plan is to fly to Schiphol, reassemble the bicycle, ride into Amsterdam, spend the night, pedal to Utrecht. I will then push on to Sleeuwijk, spend the night at Ashley and Annemieke's home. The Eurovelo 19 runs near Ash's house. Ashley made reservations at hotels in Cuijk and Roermand for the next two nights. He will catch the train in Maastricht for the ride home. I will continue on the EV 19 till Namur and then catch the EV 3 to Paris. If all goes as planned, from Paris I will ride the Avenue Verte toward London to my buddy Martin's house. I have 21 days to get to London.

 I purchased a EuroVelo 19 map guide book by Bikeline. It was in French, while the EuroVelo 3 Guide was in German. I took guidebooks of Belgium and the Netherlands out of the library and copied the relevant pages. I couldn't find much detailed  info in English on these routes. I did find this: https://www.eurocyclo.eu/content/uploads/2023/05/EV3_Roadbook.pdf  and printed the relative parts. 

  I am riding a late 80s Trek 720, lugged 531 Reynolds steel with a triple upfront, 7 in the rear cluster, Suntour friction shifters and a Brooks C17 saddle. My friend Rob swapped out the drop bars for some wide mountainbike-style bars. The 700c wheels are sporting Panracer Gravel Kings. It's a sweet comfortable ride. I picked it up in Florida for $100. It's cheaper to ship it and leave it than to rent or buy a used bike in Europe.

 I plan on using my phone as my primary navigation tool. I have created, downloaded or linked to the various routes I intend to take. My primary bicycle app is RideWithGPS. I paid for an enhanced version. I downloaded some official routes from the EuroVelo website. Some of the routes are set up in the opposite direction of travel than I am going. cycle.travel was another application I used to generate routes. I found the Amsterdam to Utrecht route on the bikingamsterdam.com website. The RWGPS app's osm cycle map layer has the EuroVelo clearly defined. I brought a back-up phone but I will have to buy a SIM card to use it, if needed. I purchased a Nomad eSIM card with 10 GBs of data for my primary phone, a Pixel 6.

  I used one of my LighterPack.com packing lists and modified it for this trip-I removed the camping gear and added some town clothes. The weather appears to be forecasting the 50s and 60s, so I brought some shorts and left the puffy. For cash, I moved money to my Charles Schwab checking account which reimburses ATM fees but I hope to charge most things. I called and  went online to notify my credit cards of my travel plans. Writing a few short paragraphs does not convey the stress. But at the end of the day I'm going to Europe not the Guatemalan jungle, I'll be able to find anything I need.

   The JetBlue site stated that it doesn't want the bicycle in a cardboard box for an international flight. A bag or dedicated bicycle luggage is required. I bought a bike bag on Amazon. Brian from Utiliity Bike Works in Kingston, NY gave me a cardboard bike box. I used the card board from the bike box to reinforce the bike bag. My buddy Rob helped me pack the bike. We used pipe insulation and Zipties, removed the pedals, front wheel and handlebars.  Rob Ziptied all the parts to the frame.

   I realized that I didn't have a lightweight duffle to put the panniers and other bags into--I wanted to have one big bag for my checked airline luggage. REI wanted $150 for a fancy collapsible duffle so I went to Chinatown and got one to suit my needs for $35.

  The day before my flight, I check the JetBlue site to reaffirm the bicycle rules and realize that I am over the total acceptable volume. My length + width + height is over the XX inches. My plan, if this is an issue, is to remove the rear wheel and Ziptie it to the frame to protect the derailleur. I will shorten the internal cardboard and tighten up the bag with the packing tape I threw into the duffle. Besides the bicycle, I have about 30 pounds of gear.

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