Introduction

In the summer of 2024, I had a sudden urge of going on a longer ride - with a rather vague idea about the overall direction. Right until the start, I was contemplating on riding towards the east, targeting the Caucasus, but then I had both my parents and some friends of mine visiting Ireland, so I thought it might be a good idea to ride there and say hello to them.

The one thing I enjoy about my bike trips - and by far not everyone would be on the same page here - is that they are completely unplanned, not only in terms of the destination, but also the duration. I usually let myself roll, not really concerned about where the last point in the journey shall be and how I would get home from there, wherever that place may be. Generally, I prefer not biking back home from "wherever", but I tend to ride as far as possible "into the wild" and then looking at plane, train, bus, car rides, etc. back home.

In the late hours of the night preceding the start of my trip, I decided on the Ireland option, meaning heading towards the general direction of the West. As I have had my rides in the vicinity of Vienna, I looked up a train leaving the following day for Salzburg and made that town as the starting place of my ride. It turned out to be a close to a six-week trip, that would lead a few kilometers through Germany, then back to Austria, later, I would spend an hour or so in Lichtenstein, then a week in Switzerland and the majority of the trip, some four weeks, riding through France, there riding through the regions Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Burgundy, Île-de-France (around Paris), Normandy, Brittany and ending in Pays de la Loire, finishing in the city of Bordeaux. In two (or maybe even three?) separate places, I was at a ferry terminal with the plan of crossing over to Ireland, but for reasons I shall dwell on, I twice (or thrice?) changed my mind and did not make the crossing. I must admit I have not regretted this, as I had a sort of a newly-found love affair with France - which was a bit of a surprise. Even more surprising was how well I got along with both the French and the French-speaking Swiss people - they were really friendly and polite.In all, my trip was somewhere around 3,500 kilometers long, with lots of mountains in Austria and Switzerland and then a comparatively flat terrain for the major part of my trip through France. The journey back home was by train and took me multiple days.

Above is the map of journey, here also have a link to it (note: you might have to switch to a car trip, then back to a trip by bike, for it to render - also, the actual trip was longer than shown here, as it is hard to map out everything in Google).So, without further ado, I will start telling you about this journey.