Thursday 27 June 2013

It begins 😊

So I finally hit the road on June 26th. It took a good lot of planning to get this far, a few headaches and some nerves but once I got on the bike they all disappeared and now I'm free, just me, my bike and a rough idea of where I'm going!

My neighbours, the Westport Smarter travel team & my clann have given me great send offs so far.

I cycled from Westport to Castlebar yesterday, it's a cycle I'm well used to but not going to miss, especially not the trucks and buses over taking me. I'm also hoping that on the rest of the trip I won't have to encounter as many roundabouts - 5 in 20km is a lot.

I'm on the train to Dublin now, first time with bike & it's super. I had to deal with a few train companys to get across the UK & for the Eurostar and I can definitely say Iarnrod Eireann were the easiest to deal with.
You can book the bike online, pay €6 and the station master even helped me load the bike. With all other train companies I've dealt with you can book your ticket online but you've to call the company to see if they can take your bike. In the UK it's free to take your bike on board but I think I would have been happier to pay a little and not spend so many hours on the phone trying to figure out if there was space or not. Arriva trains Wales were very difficult to deal with but Virgin trains were great. The Eurostar was good to deal with too but it does cost £30 to bring a bike on the Eurostar!

                                                          The journey begins
The Westport Smarter Travel team waving me off
 
My bike on the train

Tuesday 25 June 2013

The Plan!

Here's my proposed cycle route. I imagine it's going to change a lot over the course of the next 5weeks but it's my guide for the minute. I'm definitely leaving Ireland on July 1st and arriving in Trento, northern Italy on July 31st! I've a few visits planned along the way but if you have any recommendations of places I should go or people I should meet, I'd love to hear them 😊

To see the map, click here:
Westport to Italy rough draft cycle route