Hi all, my husband & I just finished a 4 day bike tour of the Erie Canal in New York state. We cycled with a large group from Buffalo to Syracuse. The vast majority of the riders are continuing on to Albany NY, making a cross state trek. We opted for the 4day tour as it was my 1st time riding long distance. I highly recommend the tour for anyone interested in a supported bike ride. The history of the canal was fascinating, for example we learned the coining of the name Empire State (NY) refers to the role the Erie Canal played in knitting together the agricultural Midwest to the industrial Northeast. Because of the Appalachian Mountains, NY state was the only geographic area where a canal could be dug linking the port of NY C with the Great Lakes. We camped along the way (some folks hotel led it), there were talks about the history of the region at night, music at night, etc. Breakfast & dinners were provided, as were healthy snacks& water along the way. The tour was incredibly well organized. There were 760 of us, some were volunteers helping out, but the vast majority were cyclists, yet I never encountered a line for showers (amazing,huh?), only quick lines for meals. The was a support crew at the ready to help change a tire, bandage someone up, or rescue some one who needed to call it quits. There were also creative talks on bike safety, etc.
Hey there, Cayu. Welcome back home, I sure did missya. What a nice thing to do. Perhaps the next trip will ber over here in Europe. hahaha. Well, the advantage to that would be that my country is flat, should you pass through. I would like to strongly second Island's request.
Hi all....wish I could post photos but alas it is not to be. Sjoerd, another rider was telling me about great cycling opportunities in the Netherlands. The operant word is FLAT!!
Heh,heh.heh....yeah the word here is indeed, "flat". However,, ity you think that it will all be easy., do not forget that one of our big resources is wind...and if you have to bike 50 km's into that, you will be just as tired as if you had a mountain. hahaha. That said you can plan your routes so that you do not have wind in your face the whole trip. That is an impressive tent camp. The foto's really showed it well. As I looked at the foto's...it was like having a dèjá vu...if you get what I mean. chuckle. Thanks for the foto's though.
Wind?! Oh my. And you can plan a route that takes into account the wind? Like, it is predictable? RE the photo (photos.. photos...photos..) Every so often I am able to post! Got a little carried away there though... I was trying to post other photos & I obviously was hitting the wrong thing....thing....thing....thing. Wait till Frank sees it.
Yeah Cayu...It is simple--in the summer the wind comes from the west and in the winter from the east... You do have some days when the wind is say, from the south-east or north-west a bit. We are coastal here and so it is pretty easy to predict...rain is another thing. The strength is measured in Beaufort and varies as well...but, we can tell that a couple of days in advance. The discussion of weather is a cultural thing here--everyone talks about it...daily. Also if one is a gardener, then he keeps current. There are people who come here from foreign countries for biking vacations. I'll bet that Frank will blink twice when he sees your posts....cackle.
I like the picture of you all standing around the lottie, talking about the weather! Re Frank, more like he will simply roll his eyes about me.
Ach, wel nee! I am just glad that you post a piccy now and then. I am such a visual bloke, I so enjoy seeing foto's to supplement words.
Hi. Ref biking in Holland/Netherlands. We found it is taken very seriously there and cyclists get much consideration in terms of cycle tracks/paths and generally - both in the Cities/Towns and in the country. Bikes bikes bikes everywhere and it is a real eye opener to go to the Rail stations and see the masses of them used daily by commuters etc. I did have some pics of it all but not now. They cut down a lot also on car usage. A good day out was to catch a train (wonderful clean punctual services) to an outlying Town/place and hire a bike - as stated its mostly flat with a few slopes. Cannot remember the name of the place but on one of our bike rides we took in Hollands highest hill - more a bump.
