Europe Day 15: 0 Miles

Lucerne, Switzerland

Today was another rain day, so I decided to take the day off from riding. Basel is 70 miles from Lucerne and the ride will be much more enjoyable in nice weather. Today was not unproductive though. I spent much of the morning planning out my route and made some big decisions on how the rest of the trip will pan out.

I spent last night hanging out at an Irish pub in Lucerne. In all honesty, I chose the bar because I thought I’d find people who speak English there. The one thing I’ve missed out on during this trip is socializing with the locals. The language barrier has had a significant impact on how I speak to people. While everyone has been nice and helpful, it has been hard to get passed the normal pleasantries. I figured if I couldn’t communicate with the locals, I could at least interact with some Americans who also happen to be in Switzerland. My intuition was right, and I immediately found myself in conversation with a couple from Tennessee and a couple from Florida. We all happened to be around the same age as well. I ended up staying at the bar much later than I had planned, but it was a great time.

I woke up this morning around 7:00 and my thoughts were focused on planning my route going forward from Basel. I headed to the breakfast buffet at the hostel and then immediately got to work. I knew I’d be following the Eurovelo 5 route going from Basel to Brussels but had not broken that long stretch down into individual days of riding. It’s not as easy as breaking up the distance by doable mileage. I need to check elevation to make sure I’m not overdoing the climbing in a day and I also like to know my options for camping or lodging.

My goal is to get to Amsterdam some time around June 15^th so I can meet a friend there. I was able to successfully break the 700 miles down to arrive in that time frame while also allowing myself some days to explore Basel and Brussels. Once I had the trip planned all the way to Amsterdam my thoughts went to what would come after Amsterdam. The ride from Berlin through Prague, Vienna, and Budapest really excited me, but I was not all that interested in the ride through northern Germany to get to Berlin. I looked into trains from Amsterdam to Berlin, but the long distance train would likely require taking my bike apart and boxing it up. I have also been monitoring flights home and realized a flight from Prague, Vienna, or Budapest was going to be very expensive and require a layover somewhere. With all this information laid out in front of me, I decided the smartest thing to do would be to fly home from Amsterdam where I can catch a direct flight. In the end, I booked at flight for June 19^th because it aligned with the date I plan to arrive in Amsterdam and was the cheapest flight I’ve seen to get home. The base ticket price was only $229 and once I added on a checked bag and my bicycle, I will be able to get home for just under $400. It was much better to lock this in 3 weeks out, rather than trying to book a last minute flight. I realized trying to see all of Europe in 1 trip is impossible and once I arrive in Amsterdam, I will have been traveling for 6 weeks, which is right around what I had planned for.

With my planning done I headed into the center of Lucerne for lunch and some sightseeing. The hostel I’m staying at is about 1 mile from town, but they provided a free bus pass which gets me there in 15 minutes. It rained on and off for most of the afternoon and after walking around for a few hours I decided to go back to the hostel to get dry. I also wanted to clean my bike up and was able to get that done as well. Tonight, I will likely head back into town for dinner, but will try to make it an early night so I can get on the road early tomorrow morning.