About the Trip

Welcome to the blog for our bike trip from Amsterdam to Rome during the summer of 2011! Who We Are Tod Meinke of Austin, TX, and Paul Gray of Lafayette, CA. What We're Doing Riding our bikes from Amsterdam to Rome. More specific info about the trip is available on the Itinerary page, but basically we're starting in Amsterdam, riding over to the Rhine River in Germany and following it south for a few days. We'll bike through the Black Forest and up to Zurich and then over St. Gotthard's Pass to cover the Alps and descend down into the town of Bellagio on Lake Como in Italy. From there, we'll cycle through the Po Valley and head south through Tuscany with a stop in Florence before getting to Rome. But, riding bikes is only part of the trip. We're also excited about the places we'll be visiting, making new friends, and eating a ton of great food along with lots of good beer and wine along the way! Why We're Doing It This is a trip that Tod has been thinking about doing for about 10 years. Paul also likes cycling and traveling and we have traveled together in Europe before. Since we're not getting any younger, we figured we better do it while we can! Why a Blog about the Trip? I (Tod) did a lot of research for this trip while planning it. At first I thought the idea of traveling by bike across Europe was a bit nuts, but LOTS of people do this all over the world. I found great resources online about equipment and other peoples' experiences, so I decided to provide information about our trip as well. Before starting the blog, I had all of the information already available, so putting it online has been pretty easy. I also wanted to learn how to maintain the blog so that it will be easy to do while on the trip. There are lots of free and very useful resources available online for anyone planning a trip like this.  The ones I used are at the bottom right of most pages and I recommend them all.