Sabbatical 2021 – Europe

The Sabbatical 2021 is our big time-off from the job and should be our first tour longer than 3 weeks in a row just on the bikes and most of the time in our tent. We want to go around Europe for about 6 months. Read more about the motivation and our plans here.

If you are interested in the equipment we chose to take with us on this adventure you can find an (incomplete 😉) overview here. Details and photos from our bikes are described in this article.

First stop Sweden

We started our Sabbatical Tour at the 8th of April in Skanör at the south west of Sweden. We cycled along the west coast and passed the major cities Malmö, Helsingborg and Gotheborg till we came close to the Norwegian border. Than we cycled east wise and passed lake Vänern, Vättern and followed the coast of lake Mälaren to Stockholm. From Nynäshamn we took a ferry to Poland and continued our tour there.

Total distance: 1507.72 km
Max elevation: 184 m
Min elevation: -18 m
Total climbing: 10367 m
Total descent: -10375 m

Here are some impressions of our stages through Sweden.

East Europe – following the EuroVelo 9, river paths, and some national ways without any signs, crossing Bosnia and finish this part on EuroVelo 8 and in Dubrovnik

On June 1st we took a ferry from Nynäshamn to Gdańsk to continue our tour in Eastern Europe. This makes Poland the second country that we will pass through, followed by Czech Republic where the EuroVelo 9 further continues. Afterwards we crossed Austria staying a few days in Vienna and followed further the track down to Slovenia. In Maribor we left the EuroVelo and got on the Drava river path, also well signed until the croatian border.

In Croatia we followed the national bike path N2 (just by GPX track) to Zagreb and further on the Ruta Sava along the river Sava and a huge national park. In Slavonski Brod we crossed the border to Bosnia and had to get along with busy main roads, stray dogs on smaller gravel roads and in general cylcing in that country. Managed to cross the land from north to south to get to the coastline of Croatia again, using some parts of the EuroVelo 8 and ending in the heat of August in Dubrovnik. Now we will wait for the temperatures to go a bit down and plan the way back via Italy.

Total distance: 2590.1 km
Max elevation: 1209 m
Min elevation: -8 m
Total climbing: 17635 m
Total descent: -17620 m

Impressions of our stages in East Europe

South Europe – Climbing the Apennine Mountains, exploring Roma and Napoli, enjoying the Toscana and climbing the Alps till we followed the river Rhine home

On August 29th we reached Bari by ferry and entered country 8 of our trip – Italy. After crossing the Apennine Mountains we visited Napoli and just a few days later Roma, where we spent some time to explored the city. After the captial we crossed the hilly and beautiful area of the Toscana. After a final view at the Mediterranean Sea we crossed the Apennine Mountains again. Through the Po Valley we arrived at lake Como and the Alps.

Then we crossed the border to Switzerland and enjoyed beautiful views on the Alps. The queen stage lead us up the Gotthardpass which was a fantastic expierence. After a few more beautiful days in Switzerland we arrived at Basel and crossed the border to Germany. It was already getting cold at htis time of the year and the river Rhine was leading us homewards to the end of our epic journey.

Total distance: 2035.22 km
Max elevation: 2101 m
Min elevation: -11 m
Total climbing: 18229 m
Total descent: -18126 m

Impressions of our stages in South Europe

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