On the 6th of June 2022, we started out on an 18 day long "vacation". This is a longer vacation than either of us had ever taken before.
Trip Planning
I can say that on this trip we made a lot of mistakes. When I say we, I mostly mean me. I was the one in charge of planning the trip.
What I have learned about myself is that I tend to try and go to too many places. This leads to long hours on the bike going from point to point and not enough time at each location. The other thing it causes is the requirement to travel on the highway. We all know that the highway is harder on the body over time than the backroads, but the backroads are slower. That being said, over the 18 day trip my original plan had us stopping 16 places. That mean't long rides every day. Setting up and tearing down the tent every day. And in an attempt to see more, we would actually see less, unless you count what you can see from the seat of the bike on the interstate.
Be Flexible
The one thing I did right was to not book all of the lodging locations up front. This was our saving grace, because we were able to change our plans at the last minute without worrying about losing a bunch of deposits. After about day 3 we realized that we were going to want to shorten the miles and lengthen the stays at some key areas. With that we decided to add days to Nice, Barcelona, and San Sebastián. We skipped Madrid, because it was supposed to be over 100 degrees F while we were supposed to be there. We also skipped Paris on the way back and decided to hit up Zurich instead. We have been to Paris in the past, and didn't really enjoy it so I think this was a good choice.
With that, please check out the other BLOGs as I will go in depth for each location. Where we stayed and what we did. I hope you find it interesting, and as always if you check out the YouTube channel you can follow along on video.
Matt
Saint Paul De Vence, France
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