After many years in the working world, we are off to see the world from the comfy seats of our recumbent bikes.  Jim and I are preparing to ride from Paris to Istanbul with about 25 other intrepid souls who also think spending weeks on their bikes sounds like fun.  For now, we are in the preparation phase:  planning, packing, vaccinating, training, anticipating.

The route is about 2,200 miles (or more Euro-appropriately 3540 kilometers) over 7 weeks.  It crosses France, Germany, Austria, a corner of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and finally into Turkey.  The terrain ranges from very gentle on the Danube bike trail to the strenuous crossing of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania.

We are traveling with Tour d’Afrique, an adventure cycling company based in Canada.  Believe it or not, this is their easy and gentle tour!

We think this trip promises adventure, culture, interesting people and great food as well as sweat, pain and aches.  Such fun!!  Please join us on our adventure via this blog.  We will try to keep posting as we go.  After a few days in Paris we begin to ride on July 12, 2015.  Wish us luck!  Hope to hear from you.

Barb & Jim