europe2003 – Ride Across Europe 4,906 km, 2,944 miles Part I: Lisbon – Avignon March 8 – 20 1732k, 1039m* 12 riding days Part II: Avignon – Krakow June 14 -28 1714k, 1029m* 13 riding days Part III: Krakow – Moskow Aug 30 – Sept 10 1460k, 876m 10 riding days This is the photo-journal

10 September 2003 Moscow 123 km, 75 miles *** In some sense it’s kind of a shame this trip is coming to an end. The whole europe2003 ride from Lisbon to Moscow has been healthy, educational and character building. On this last day of the last segment Charlie and I are really getting used to

9 September 2003 Mozajsk, Russia 126 km, 78 miles *** After a miserable night in a most miserable hotel (I have maybe 15 bites, no telling if they’re from mosquitoes or what) we launched aggressively into a cold, wet, miserable day. We saw a bit of sunshine at the very end of the day, but

8 September 2003 V’as’ma, Russia 175km, 107 miles *** OK. Worst hotels of your life – think for a moment. Charlie and I are debating the point, as four of the past five nights we’ve stayed in what I’ve come to call “hell holes”. Charlie thinks the Rossia Hotel in Smolensk was worst – he

7 September 2003 Smolensk 115km, 71 miles *** With no restaurant in the hotel, we had breakfast under sunny (!) cold skies on the side of the road as we readied our departure from Orsa. We rode about 10km north on the main road until we hit the M1 highway again, and then kept up

6 September 2003 Orsa (Orsha), Belarus 115km, 71 miles *** (Riders note: It’s actually 145km from Baraysau to Orsha – we did 30 of those yesterday) The Defeat of Napoleon! Our hosts in Barysau, Alexandr2 and Olga, got up with Alexandr1 and Yuri to meet us at 7AM for some local touring. Last night (see

4 September 2003 Barysau, Belarus 111km, 69 miles *** (Note to Riders: it’s really only 80km from Minsk to Barysau (pronounced Barisov), but given gaps in cities and hotels in this part of the steppes, we had no other options. We did, however, ride 30 km past town and then had Alexandr and Yuri take

4 September 2003 Minsk, Belarus 150km, 93 miles *** Well, the crime in Belarus has been a bit disappointing – we haven’t been robbed or shaken down at all, except for the theft of my cell phone – but the “sex worker” thing seems for real. In relatively rural Barnavicy and even at the Minsk

3 September 2003 Baranavicy, Belarus 51km, 31 miles * (Riders Note: It’s really 200km or so from Breast to Baranavicy) Between the cold rainy weather, headwinds, lost support (Alexandr and Yuri) which had all our clothes and my stolen cell phone, today was a bust. So this will be brief. Last night Alexandr and Yuri

We spent today adjusting to “Russia” and recuperating a bit. Some background on Belarus and the city of Brest, then a tour… Belarus (“White Russia”), located at a crux in Europe, has gone through way to many wars and owners (Russia, France, Germany, Lithuanian, Poland, Austria/Hungary) over the past 1000 years to go into. “Throughout

Leaving Lublin, Poland at 7:15a after our first breakfast of the trip, we zigzagged east and west, up and down a bunch of hills, theoretically heading north on PL19. The road eventually decided to head that way, We took this heavily trafficked, mostly beat-up, 2 lane (with some shoulders!) thoroughfare 30km/18mi up to Lubartow, where

Second day same as the first – mileage wise. We left Baronow Sandomeirski Castle at 6:45a under threatening skies. 28km into the day, at Sobow, just as we crossed some railroad tracks, the rain started.. We hid under the only shelter available. Here’s Charlie, the bikes and the graffiti. Rather than waste the day here,

The two biggest unexpected pleasures, location wise, on the europe2003 ride have been Toledo and now Krakow. Smaller unanticipated pleasures include Merida, Guadalupe, the ride into Sitges, Nabarrone and Besancon – and of course there have been and will be expected ones… But why Krakow?* Rather than distract from the story, I’m listing some of

Greetings Bob Perkowitz, Europe2003 Part III is the last two weeks and 1,000 miles of a 3,600-mile ride from Lisbon to Moscow. Charlie Walker and I (Bob Perkowitz) will ride from Poland, through Belarus and western Russia following this itinerary. —DATE— –KM– –MI– NIGHT IN Fri Aug 29: 000 000 Krakow, Poland Sat Aug 30:

europe2003 PII, Day 16 28June03, 0k/0m*** Krakow, Poland Today was a day of some frustration, then high emotion, both good and bad. There seem to be only 3 specialty bike shops in urban Krakow. In spite of phone calls and some preparation, it took us almost three hours and two of those shops to get

europe2003 PII, Day 15 27June03, 107k/66m** Nysa, Poland At 7AM went for the usual free continental breakfast at the U Baranka Hotel in Nachod and then started preparing for what would be the hilliest day of riding on the trip. This first photo is Lisa, Sylvie, Susie and Steve in the courtyard in front of

europe2003 PII, Day 14 26June03, 151km/93mi*** Nachod, Czech Republic Bill and Jason Capps, and Don Hudson greeted us at 7AM for a departure breakfast, and presumably went back up to bed and more sleep. Lisa and Susie decided it was going to be a “train to Nachod” day. That left the bike riding to Charlie,

europe2003 PII, Day 13 25June03, 93km/56mi** Prague, Czech Republic The difficult ride into Plzen yesterday (narrow, poor quality roads, lots of traffic, smoke belching trucks) created some turmoil in the planning to get out of Prague today. It looked like we might split into 4 sub-groups, each with their own objectives and routes to get

europe2003 PII, Day 11 24June03, 111km/66mi*** Plzen, Czech Republic We all very much enjoyed our thoroughly German dinner in Roding (great beer / weak quality and selection of wine, as might be expected) and the Land hotel Lugerhof. It was nice to stay in the countryside. Here’s the hotel. The hotel is actually a working

europe2003 PII, Day 10 23June03, 140km/84mi** Roding, Germany I don’t think I mentioned it yet, but Lisa’s instructions were for “variety” in hotels. Today we’re heading toward the most rural of that variety – a farmhouse 5km south of Roding, Germany, essentially in the middle of nowhere. The first 3 pictures today are of Susie.

europe2003 PII, Day 9 22June03, 156k/93m** Ingolstadt, Germany Bill and Jason Capps, and Don Hudson joined the team today, so we’re up to 8 riders now. Thanks to Sylvie for making the run into Munich yesterday to drop off Dave and pick them up. The other highlight of the day was that our Susie rode

europe2003 PII, Day 9 21June03, 144k/85 miles*** Ulm, Germany Western Europe’s different from the USA and Australia. People have tailored every bit of ground. There is virtually nothing wild left. That said, they do a great job of preserving what they have. And no where we’ve been in 20+ days of riding is as natural

europe2003 PII, Day 7 20June03, 151km/92mi** Tuttlengin, Germany Lisa explored the clinics and hospitals of Bavaria today. But the ride was beautiful and our longest of the trip. We left Basel at 7:30A, crossed the Rhein and after a bit more riding, crossed the border into Germany. The German border crossing guard didn’t even bother

europe2003 PII, Day 6 19June03, 0km/0 miles Basel, CH Break Day! What to do when you don’t have to ride a bike 90 miles? Well, first off, everyone slept late – some of us very late. Sylvie, Lisa and Steve went into the gardens for tea and yoga. Dave and Charlie wandered around and ended

This was the most picturesque, enjoyable riding day so far. We had a cold, early, van based breakfast just outside the courtyard of our Hotel Castan***, and then stocked up for the ride out of Besancon under rain boding skies. Then there was some traffic and a few big hills for 10km or so, which

europe2003 PII, Day 4 17June03, 93km/55 miles** Besancon FR The author of the French national anthem, “The Marseilaise” was born in 1760 in Lons-le-Saunier, and if we could, we probably would have sung it this morning. Temperatures were to be coolest (mid-80’s) and distance shortest of the trip to date. Here’s the happy group stocking

europe2003 PII, Day 3 16June03, 130km/82 miles** Lons-le-Saunier, FR Charles R. Walker, aka “Charlie” arrived Sunday night and started off fresh with us on Monday. Our goal was to get out of Lyon before rush hour traffic built up. We followed the west bank of the Sonne north and then took the big climb out

europe2003 PII, Day 2 15June03, 121km/72 miles** Lyon, FR Yesterday it was Chateauneuf du Pape, today the wine highlights were Croze Hermitage, Hermitage, St. Joseph and Cote Rotie, all of which we rode through, along the Rhone, without touching a drop! We make up for it a dinner though, by trying as many and as

europe2003 PII, Day 1 14June03, 154km/92 miles Valance, FR We gathered from four different arriving flights at Charles deGaulle airport in Paris, boarded the TGV to Avignon, and slept for most of the wondrous 10:17AM train ride to Avignon. Arriving around 1:45PM, it was then Hertz, Zorbike (drop off 4 bikes for assembly), les Agassins****

Across America and Australia I rode alone. Accross Europe part I, from Lisbon to Avignon, Charlie Walker joined, and Bryan Lawson came for a couple of days as well. It was a beautiful ride, and now 10 of us will do part II, from Avignon to Krakow. So we have an official team jersey: The

On leaving the Novotel Hotel in Nimes, we first rode by the famous Roman arena in that city to add it to our picture file. It was a bright, cool morning, with a very crisp wind coming down from the north – the direction we were headed. We managed to make it the 30km or

PRETTY PICTURE DAY LAST FULL DAY OF RIDING Narbonne has had a complicated past. First a Gaullic sea port, it was taken over by the Romans and made a provincial capital city in the 1st century B.C. It was then “crushed” by barbarian Visigoth invaders, then the Moors (Saracens) took over and finally the Christians

The view from my 3rd floor hotel room in Girona, Spain. The big debate last night was whether we head straight north across the Pyrenees, saving 40km but adding bigger “hills”, or take the longer and less vertical costal “Costa Brava” route. A little sick of Spain, we decided to risk the hills. Before we

It’s 11:38PM. I just got back from a nice dinner at an upscale restaurant in Girona and am now back in my upscale (contemporary, business oriented, nothing special) Melina Hotel in that same town. My television, in four languages, says welcome “Perkowitz, Rober” while softly playing an instrumental of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.

We haven’t been able to maintain our string of “cool” hotels. The last two en route Paradors (Spanish government owned hotel chain of converted 16th-18th century buildings) were respectively being remodeled and full. We were referred to the Hotel Montsia in Amposta for the night. The hotel/rooms were so small they actually call it a

HEADING NORTH ALONG THE COAST OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA Puerto de Segunto, where we stayed last night, was a preview of much of today’s ride. It’s full (dozens) of maybe 8 story tall buildings, almost all vacant. Along the coast here, these are ‘holiday’ communities. In Europe, holiday means vacation, vacation means August, and you

Last night was our worst hotel night, and today was our best riding day. We left the Hotel del Sol in Morilla around 8AM. The hotel – not a bad place for $38/night – was typical not exceptional. It was very foggy and the coldest morning yet as we headed east on the rural road

The view leaving Toledo on the east was as great as the view entering it on the west. Last (first) shot is the mug – actually a beer cup that was a gift from this restaurant apparently dating back to the 9th century. Had to leave it in the hotel room L. (Note: you can

Yesterday and today Charlie and I rode east through rural south central Spain. Once you get past the small scale farming, the everlasting stone construction of all but the newest industrial buildings, and the occasional ancient castle or bridge to the side of the road, it’s pretty much just rolling hills. The castle at Oropesa,

BEAUTIFUL SITES, GREAT RIDING Things aren’t working out here. Too many fascinating things to see, plus a few mountains and some wind – we’re just not cranking out the miles at all. But we’re having a great time. Here’s the view from my hotel room in Guadalupe this morning, and a shot of the cathedral

We got a late start leaving beautiful Merida. After an 8AM out of bed, followed by breakfast, uploading photographs, and repacking, we didn’t leave the Melina Hotel until 9:30A. Then we were distracted by the Roman Bridge, the Temple Diana, the Roman Coliseum and the Theater. These are only some of the sights in Merida.

ROMAN RUINS, GOOD MILEAGE Yesterday I was riding across Portugal! Today I’m (Charlie and I) are riding across Spain! Fun, fun, fun! We left Evora, a city worth coming back to, at 8:09AM, taking a couple of pix of the aqueduct and walls of the city on the way out. Then it was a Sunday

We toured the impressive plant. Antonie, the plant manager, and Joao Peres, the production manager showed us around. I gained a newfound respect for bicycle chain. It is much harder to make an more precise than you might imagine – dozens of steps in the process, tolerances in the thousandths of an inch, and no

Greetings All: The europe2003, from Lisbon to Moscow, starts March 8. The new website (europe2003.org) should be up soon. Until it is, you can register for the updates on RAAUST.com. This will provide you with notices when the site is updated. If you have any questions, use ‘contact bob’ or bob@perkowitz.com Feel free to add