On Wednesday, June 18, 2008 I will be headed out on a post-graduation, pre-employment summer trip. My girlfriend Meghan and I will be riding our bikes (and a few trains) from France to Norway and back over the course of the next three months.
Our rough itinerary is as follows:
We will depart Seattle on Wednesday, June 18, arriving in Chicago a few hours later. We'll be helping to set up for and attend the P.A.P.A. Festival in Tiskilwa, IL (Meghan's hometown). The festival is being hosted this year by the farm that Meghan grew up on, Plow Creek.
On Monday, June 23, we will leave Chicago, arriving in Paris early in the morning on Tuesday the 24th. We will spend about three days in Paris, checking out the sights and gathering food and supplies for the next leg of the trip. We have found a host in Paris (as well as the other cities we will stay in) by way of couchsurfing, which is essentially a network of individuals who meet travelers by allowing them to sleep on their couch or in their backyard free of charge.
From Paris, we will bike north toward Brussels, Belgium. There are a number of canal roads throughout the region that have been converted to greenways, so we will try to make use of those, opting for quiet rural roads and bike-friendly throughfares when necessary.
After a short stay in Brussels, we will head West to the Belgian coast, where a nice road traverses the numerous sea walls and beaches. Going northward along the coast, we will make our way to Amsterdam, where our third couchsurfing host is located. A few days cycling around the Best Biking City in the World will get us ready to bike through the corner of Germany into Denmark (or take a train, depending on our riding pace).
For the first pass through Denmark, we'll be aiming for Copenhagen (also among the best bike cities), where we will meet up with our fourth couchsurfing host.
From Copenhagen, we'll be taking a train through Sweden to Oslo, Norway. This, we expect, will be approximately the end of the first week in July.
We will stay with a fifth couchsurfer in Oslo for a few days, during which I hope to make a day trip to Drammen in order to visit Cato, my grandfather's brother (my great uncle, I suppose).
The next month (mid-July to mid-August) will be spent working.
Yes.
Working.
On an organic farm near Hauggrend in central Norway. We have arranged for this through an organization called WWOOF . Basically we will help out with the cows, chickens and vegetables on a small farm in exchange for food and housing. It's a great way to avoid typical shallow and expensive tourist activities, meet local people in a meaningful way, and learn a few new things about organic farming while we're at it.
After the farm stint, we will say goodbye to our hosts and (hopefully) head toward the fjords of the west coast. If time doesn't allow, or the train fares are too expensive, we will go directly to Kristiansand, where a ferry will take us to Hirtshals, Denmark.
A short ride from Hirtshals, in Aalborg, we are going to meet up with a friend of mine, Asbjørn. He and his parents have planned a small trip to the coast while we are there. After visiting, we'll direct ourselves southward, through the center of Denmark. I hope to swing through Legoland in Billund.
Next, we'll make our way into Germany, where we have a few more people to visit. We'll meet up with these people in Wupperthal (where we will see the hanging monorail... the schwebebahn!), then Stuttgart.
Whew!
The final leg of the trip will be another mini-tour, this time through the Loire Valley in France, where we'll be chateau spotting. By this time, we will have about a week until departure. Depending on how we feel about Paris, we might spend a few more days in the city.
We fly back to the states on September 18th, and after a few days of decompression back at Meghan's hometown, we'll leave Chicago again, arriving finally in Seattle on the 22nd.
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