Winter months in Europe

[caldini]

I'm currently on a tour through Europe that will go right through the winter months. However, I'd like some confirmation that all around the Mediteranean coast is suitable for cycling at this time of year - I assumed it would always be around 15-20 degrees there (at least it was in Seville when I visited in January 2007). Was this a freak accident or is it something I can rely on?

[megilleland]

The English version of the website TuTiempo has historical weather records of countries in Europe.

[delilah]

My experience of the last 5 winters spent on the Costa Blanca is that its perfect for cycling. The majority of days you can cycle in shorts.
Temperature rarely falls below 7C. Usually between 14-18C sometimes around 20C but even at the lower temperatures when the sun is out then its very pleasant.
However if you go north towards Bacelona and over the border into France the from what I saw of the weather forecasts it can be a lot colder.
Moving further east towards Nice (from a friend who lives there) the the weather is very much like the Costa Blanca.
Its certainly better then a gray winter in England if you're a keen cylist.
Daz

[JC4LAB]

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[iviehoff]

When I went to Tunisia in midwinter, we went to the south of the country because it was a bit too cool for comfort in the north, and snow in the northern hills is normal. It wasn't very warm in the south either, we were cycling in coats some days, though apparently it was cooler than average. Some colleagues of mine got stuck overnight in Athens because the airport closed following 30cm of snow. When I was at Petra in mid-winter, it was very warm, but they showed me photos of the 1m deep snowfall that they had the previous winter. It was still warm when I got to Amman, but the cyclists coming the other way told me it had been cold and wet the previous week. Visiting Sardinia in April, it was mostly pretty cool and damp; I don't think I would want to be there in Feb. Snow in Jerusalem is so common that it is nothing to write home about. It's been known to snow on the beach in Barcelona. Recently it snowed in Algiers, though it was the first time for about 100 years or something.

So, no, you can't guarantee it will be pleasantly warm all around the Med all winter. But snow on the beach at Barcelona, etc, is pretty unusual, and likely not to last very long. But you will have plenty of pleasantly warm weather, more of it in more southerly areas. Be aware that it does rain a lot around the Med in winter, especially later in the winter, into early spring.

The BBC website has good climate information on selected locations. There are other climate info websites that can be found.

[iviehoff]

Also did a bit of Switzerland one Winter.hiring a bike when there.Totally frozen out over say 500ft ...

The lowest point of Switzerland, I think, is Lake Lugano, on the Italian border, which is about 900ft. Lake Geneva (lowest point of the Rhone Valley in Switzerland) is about 1200 ft, and the Swiss part of the Rhine Valley (including the Bodensee alias Lake Constance) is higher still.

[Gearoidmuar]

Andalucia and Southern Portugal are very pleasant

[caldini]

Excellent! Thanks for the replies everyone. Just what I was hoping really. As someone who has happily cycled to work in shorts throughout the winter in the UK I think it sounds pretty good!

Keep riding!

David

[reohn2]

We were in The Algarve for a month (mid Jan to mid Feb) this year the lowest day time temp we had was 14C the highest 20C the locals were complaining of the cold! cycling was very pleasant even up in the hills.
We spoke to a few english regulars and they told us it was the coldest winter they'd experienced,not the norm at all.
All being well we'll be going again next year.

[fausto copy]

Hi John, where exactly did you stay and what was the cycling like?
We only found a few off-road routes a couple of years ago (near Albufeira) and it was blinking freezing in February and as I already posted elsewhere, was as wet as Manchester for the first four days!
Bet you didn't take t'tandem

[reohn2]

Hi John, where exactly did you stay and what was the cycling like?
We only found a few off-road routes a couple of years ago (near Albufeira) and it was blinking freezing in February and as I already posted elsewhere, was as wet as Manchester for the first four days!
Bet you didn't take t'tandem

We did take the tandem (boxed up cost us £60 extra with Monarch Airlines) http://lh6.ggpht.com/_jnHFbX4iOxc/SaLgz ... %2CUSM.jpg

Stayed in Tavira for three weeks and Loule for a week.
Tavira was very nice and rustic, the cycling was good, though we'd ridden in out in the three weeks we were there as there wasn't a lot of roads inland.
Loule on the other hand was more hilly and very scenic with a lot of varied routes into the hills.
We hired a minibus whilst there to explore and ferry the tandem(s) about.We found the topography and roads from Loule and west very good for cycling and a lot greener whereas Tavira and east was scrubby even desert in some parts but nice nevertheless,we did find a particularly lovely ride from Villa Real north following the river Guardiana to Alcoutim on small roads with good surfaces.
A lovely scenic ride was the N2 north from SB Alportel, very beautiful!
Sometimes we did did get caught out with road surfaces though,on one occasion we were descending on a long picturesque road after a day in the hills with a beautiful smooth surface when suddenly it ended,the road was still there but "not as we know it Jim"which is a bit of a surprise at 40 mph .
After a while we got used to The Algarve's rustic charm.Such as the lady who live next door to the villa we rented in Loule,we were told by the lady who we rented the villa from,that we should greet her as Senhora Celeste as she was quite formal (most people are) I enquired of Mrs Celeste's first name and was told it was it was Marie,I asked if she knew and was told no
We can't wait to return and explore some more

The roads were mostly like this:-

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_jnHFbX4iOxc/SqaWx ... M1501..jpg

And on one occasion like this:-

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_jnHFbX4iOxc/SqaWt ... M15013.jpg

[fausto copy]

Well done then, on taking t'tandem. I bow to your greater sense of adventure.
The "roads" on the second link, were more like what we found when I was driving our minibus around, exploring the hills north of Albufeira. My mate's an ex-water board engineer and wanted to go up into the mountains to see the reservoirs.
As they'd had a drought for half a year, they were all empty. Which was a bit ironic, given the wet weather we encountered.
To be honest, we had nightmare journeys out and back, which has put me off the whole rigmarole of flying again.
May consider sailing over to Spain from the south coast in future, but as our passports have expired, we think we'll stick to Blighty for the time being. We must be due a warm winter surely, after this miserable summer.
May even venture to that northern hotspot..what's it called.....oh yeah, Manchester!

[reohn2]

Well done then, on taking t'tandem. I bow to your greater sense of adventure.
The "roads" on the second link, were more like what we found when I was driving our minibus around, exploring the hills north of Albufeira. My mate's an ex-water board engineer and wanted to go up into the mountains to see the reservoirs.
As they'd had a drought for half a year, they were all empty. Which was a bit ironic, given the wet weather we encountered.
To be honest, we had nightmare journeys out and back, which has put me off the whole rigmarole of flying again.
May consider sailing over to Spain from the south coast in future, but as our passports have expired, we think we'll stick to Blighty for the time being. We must be due a warm winter surely, after this miserable summer.
May even venture to that northern hotspot..what's it called.....oh yeah, Manchester!

We haven't had any problems flying so far,and we're off again on Sunday Italy(Tuscany) for three weeks (with the tandem again)
If you're in the Manchester area let us know and we can get together for a multi tandem ride