2023 Europe Cycling Trip

In September, we took my dad on his first trip to Europe. We flew into Vienna, spent a couple days exploring, then caught the train to Passau, Germany.

We booked our bikes and accommodations through OK Cycle Tours, based out of Canada, and they were great to work with. They took care of all of the logistics of dropping the bikes off, arranging accommodations, creating a custom itinerary for us, giving us maps, and picking up the bikes at the end of the trip.

We cycled along the Danube from Passau to Vienna over 4 days, which was about 300 km. The route was mostly flat, with a few hills here and there. We caught these tiny ferries when we needed to cross the river. We signaled the ferryman by ringing a bell.

Along the way, we passed through some gorgeous wine country in the Wassau Valley dotted with little medieval towns and ruins, like Linz and Melk. We biked about 50 miles a day, which left us plenty of time to stop and explore the towns we passed through.

The Melk Abbey was particularly stunning. It’s a Benedictine abbey that sits on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube.

I enjoyed our itinerary, but if I had to do it over again I would’ve spent a couple more days in the Wachau Valley. There were a bunch of medieval castle ruins here that I would’ve wanted to explore more. We had purposefully cut our bike days short to leave time to get to Slovenia this trip.

From Vienna, we had a driver take us down through Austria to Slovenia. Along the way, we stopped at a couple castles, including one used as a set for a Clint Eastwood movie. We also stopped at Eagle’s Nest, where Hitler had his mountain retreat. In Slovenia, we visited Lake Bled, Ljubljana, hiked the Vintgar gorge, and visited Postojna Cave. We stayed in Piran one night. There, we swam in the Adriatic and saw a bunch of dolphins in the distance.

We then drove up through Italy to visit Trieste briefly. Then my dad and I flew to Amsterdam for about a week. We stayed in De Pijp, which is a hip neighborhood south of the city center. I met up with a former coworker for drinks one night and it was great to catch up. My dad and I also biked out to the windmills at Zaanse Schans, which was a fun day trip.