Discover EuroVelo 6 - The rivers route

discovereurovelo (59)in #travel • 8 years ago (edited)

Hello steemians,

I’m Dan from Romania and I want to share with you my bicycle touring trip on the EuroVelo 6 route, also called the rivers route, connecting the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, following some of Europe’s largest rivers on an unforgettable journey from east to west.

I will start with the most recent stage of EuroVelo 6 I did in France this summer in July cause it's still fresh in my memory and if you like it, I'll write more posts about the other stages of EV6 route I cycled in the past. But let’s start with the beginning:

What is EuroVelo?

EuroVelo is a network of 15 long distance cycle routes connecting and uniting the whole European continent. It currently consists of well over 45,000 km of bike paths and thousands of kilometers more are planned, when completed by around 2020 it will total over 70,000 km. Please visit the official EuroVelo web site for more info here.

Here are some quick facts about EuroVelo 6:

Length 3653 km
9 countries visited
-Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Swiss, France
4 capitals visited
-Belgrade, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna
6 UNESCO sites (blue dots on map)
-Danube Delta, Romania
-Budapest, Hungary
-Vienna, Austria
-Regensburg, Germany
-Citadel of Besançon, France
-Château de Chambord and the Loire Valley, France
6 european rivers
-Danube, Rhine, Doubs, Saône, Loire, Cher

EV6 will not just take you across beautiful landscape, pretty villages and historic cities but the route itself is an open air history lesson.

The route follows the entire course of the Danube from the Danube Delta in Romania to its springs in Donaueschingen, Germany. Across centuries it shaped not only the European landscape but also its history. It was the border of the Roman Empire, later of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, also the border of the Communist Bloc and nowadays it’a the border of the European Union. It was the scene of many battles, just to name here the Battle of Mohács, 1526 (Hungary), one of the most consequential battles in Central European history and the more recent Balkan wars at the beginning of 1990s.

Many historical sites, fortresses and castles can be visited along the route in every country.
This journey is for everybody, it's mostly flat terrain with few exceptions being accessible for people of all ages and experience. Can be done in stages depending on your available time and schedule, one week at a time, two weeks or more , you can do camping or stay in a hotel, you can buy food from the supermarket or you can eat at restaurants, may be you like the french wine or prefer the german beer, or may be the paprika gulas is your thing, there is something for everybody on EuroVelo 6 waiting to be discovered and that’s the beauty of it.
I’ll show you my trip, hope it will inspire you!

Altho I’ve started EV6 in July 2009, only this year I managed to finish it. Along the route I took a lot of photos of many beautiful places I’ve seen which I’m going to share with you here.

Let me tell you how EV6 worked out for me:

2009 Tulcea (RO) - Donaueschingen (DE) “The Danube”

2012 France (I lived in Tours for 6 months)

Tours - Samur
Tours - Amboise
Amboise - Blois
Blois - Meung sur Loire
Samur - Saint Nazaire

2015 Tutlingen (DE) - Montchanin (FR)

2016 Montchanin (FR) - Meung sur Loire (FR)

As you can see it wasn't a straight forward journey for me, it took me sometimes years of waiting to come back on route due to other priorities and life circumstances, but after I've done the Danube in 2009 I knew I have to finish EuroVelo 6 one day.

July 2016, France - EuroVelo 6

And that day arrived this year. I only had one week at my disposal and I was on a tight budget but with the right planning and a bit of luck for good weather ☀️ it was a blessing for me to cycle the last 500 km of EuroVelo 6 in beautiful France, probably the best country to have a cycling holiday.

I booked a low cost plane ticket round trip three weeks in advance and decided to send my bike by bus. I also bought a TGV train ticket from Paris to Dijon after doing a bit of research to confirm that I can take my bike on train without disassembling it, which for 10 Euros extra was possible on this route and time.

So on the morning of 29th of June I was at the Otopeni international airport in Bucharest just with my backpack as cabin luggage and nothing else on my way to Paris Beauvais airport.

Paris Beauvais airport (low cost flights) - bus shuttle to Paris Porte Maillot

All the rest of my luggage and the bike I've sent one week in advance by bus and that was the best logistical decision I could have done because it gave me freedom to move in Paris by Metro and to be in time for my train.

Arrived at the bus station around noon two hours in advance of my train departure, picked up my bike and commenced mount it, one hour later I was ready to go to the Gare de Lyon train station ready to start my new adventure.

Atlassib agency in Paris - romanian coach serving many european destinations

Gare de Lyon Paris

TGV - french long distance high speed trains

I arrived in Dijon around 16:30 and my connecting train to Montchanin the final destination for the day was scheduled for departure in 2 hours, plenty of time for me to visit Dijon city centre by bike and also to have a cold beer in the Place de la Libération while admiring the beautiful gothic architecture of the Palace of the Dukes, presently the City Hall. Dijon is a beautiful city, don’t miss it if you plan to visit France.

Jardin Darcy

Place Darcy

Place Francois Rude

Place de la Libération

Dijon City Hall - Palace of the Dukes

Saint Michael Church

Here are some quick facts about Dijon:

The ancient capital of Burgundy, well known for its fantastic vineyards is one of France's main wine producing areas. It is well known for both its red and white wines, mostly made from Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes
Not only famous for mustard, it was also the birth place of Gustave Eiffel, who built the Eiffel tower in Paris
The city has the largest amount of buildings which are more than 300 years old and still standing, this makes the old town centre very agreeable to walk around, its half-timbered houses and narrow cobbled streets are very charming
The town has a gourmet reputation and the choice of good restaurants is vast

The 2 hours in Dijon passed quickly and I returned back to the train station just in time to catch my train to Montchanin, the place I stopped my journey last year.

Bike friendly short distance TER train

I was very happy to be back, one year passed quickly. I was ready to continue, to see more, to enjoy each of the last 500 km of EuroVelo 6 along the picturesque channels and the beautiful river Loire.

Arrived around 8 PM and went for a short town visit by bike to buy some dinner before going to the hotel for the night.

A day to remember! ✈️🚍🚇🚄🚉🚲

Hope you liked my first post :) Do you want to see the rest of the trip?

Next post will explore the Burgundy region by bike along the Canal du Centre on our way to Paray le Monial, passing through Montceau les Mines and stopping for a quick look at Chateau de Digoine.

#biketouring #adventure #france