Repeat bike tour

[glucas]

The Danes say that you never go back to the same destination.

Is this true for bike tours?

I have had such fantastic tours - Pennine Way/EV12 North Sea Cycle coast route/Munich to Venice in the last 3 years but am superstitious about repeating them.

Does anybody repeat their tours? Is it as good as first time around? Or a flat disappointment?

[axel_knutt]

Not possible, they're all blighted by closed hostels, 95 of the hostels I've stayed at are now closed. I won't be repeating them for health reasons either, but I wouldn't anyway, because I think it's a mistake trying to re-live the past. There's a lot more to a memory than just the place or activity, and almost all of it is unrepeatable, including the special feeling you get when you do something for the first time. Not only that, but your memory is selective: you remember the goods bits and forget the rest, so it's become something that reality can never live up to. In essence, it's likely to be a disappointment, and then you run the risk that it will spoil your memories.

[nirakaro]

There's the story of the elderly couple revisiting Paris after half a century, and the old guy says, ah, Paris isn't what it was. The wife gives him a look, and replies, of course Paris is what it was - it's you that aren't what you were…
I've never repeated a tour, but I've often taken new routes to familiar places (for example I rode over the col de l'Echelle last week for the fifth or sixth time – loved it every time). It's always fine as long as you don't go expecting to repeat the same experience.

[MrsHJ]

Not a whole tour but I've crossed over places I've cycled before and redone segments a few times- especially as I route through Brittany quite a lot for instance due to my home/ferry access. The Loire valley would be another area I've passed through a few times. I did redo the Rhone route but that was because I was ill the first time- I filled in the bits I had missed and steadfastly avoided the place I was really ill but actually the only places I went to twice were train stations (Lyon, Montelimar) where I'd missed parts before and was now returning to do the bit I abandoned.

There are some fabulous towns etc where I'm more than happy to go back to on tour but I realise that's not quite what you were asking.

[PH]

I've done Lon Las Cymru twice, Pennine Cycle Way twice, Coast and castles twice, C2C four times.
Each time has been different, solo or in a group, or with different friends, different route options, different accommodation. Mostly the same roads, but if they're good enough no reason not to. Apart from the C2C's the others have had at least 10 year gaps, so arguably I've been a different person, certainly a different rider.
If I was going back in the expectation of the same experience, I'd have been disappointed, which I guess is the meaning of the Danes saying. If touring solo, or in the same group, I'd probably prefer a route I hadn't done before, but even that isn't essential.

[mattheus]

The Danes say that you never go back to the same destination.

Is this true for bike tours?

Not unless you burn down all the villages you visit.

[brianleach]

I really liked D Day beaches. Either Ouistreham to Cherbourg or vice versa. Have done it two or three times. Would do it again like a shot.

[nirakaro]

At the risk of overthinking it...

Can you step in the same river twice? Wittgenstein v Heraclitus

‘I am not a religious man,’ the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said to a friend, ‘but I cannot help seeing every problem from a religious point of view.’ These problems that he claims to see from a religious point of view tend to be technical matters of logic and language. Wittgenstein trained as an engineer before he turned to philosophy, and he draws on mundane metaphors of gears, levers and machinery. Where you find the word ‘transcendent’ in Wittgenstein’s writings, you’ll likely find ‘misunderstanding’ or ‘nonsense’ nearby.

When he does respond to philosophers who set their sights on higher mysteries, Wittgenstein can be stubbornly dismissive. Consider: ‘The man who said one cannot step into the same river twice was wrong; one can step into the same river twice.’ With such blunt statements, Wittgenstein seems less a religious thinker and more a stodgy literalist. But a close examination of this remark can show us not only what Wittgenstein means by a ‘religious point of view’ but also reveal Wittgenstein as a religious thinker of striking originality.

‘The man’ who made the remark about rivers is Heraclitus, a philosopher at once pre-Socratic and postmodern, misquoted on New Age websites and quoted out of context by everyone, since all we have of his corpus are isolated fragments. What is it that Heraclitus thinks we can’t do? Obviously I can do a little in-and-out-and-back-in-again shuffle with my foot at a riverbank. But is it the same river from moment to moment – the water flowing over my foot spills toward the ocean while new waters join the river at its source – and am I the same person?

One reading of Heraclitus has him conveying a mystical message. We use this one word, river, to talk about something that’s in constant flux, and that might dispose us to think that things are more fixed than they are – indeed, to think that there are stable things at all. Our noun-bound language can’t capture the ceaseless flow of existence. Heraclitus is saying that language is an inadequate tool for the purpose of limning reality.

What Wittgenstein finds intriguing about so many of our philosophical pronouncements is that while they seem profoundly important, it’s unclear what difference they make to anything. Imagine Heraclitus spending an afternoon down by the river (or the constantly changing flux of river-like moments, if you prefer) with his friend Parmenides, who says that change is impossible. They might have a heated argument about whether the so-called river is many or one, but afterwards they can both go for a swim, get a cool drink to refresh themselves, or slip into some waders for a bit of fly fishing. None of these activities is in the least bit altered by the metaphysical commitments of the disputants.
(cont'd on page 94)

[glucas]

Nah, I agree with Heraclitus.

[simonhill]

I was just about to head off tomorrow, although cancelled till next day due to public holiday for Death of the King Day (not UK). I'm going somewhere from somewhere both of which I've been to lots of times and ridden to at least 3 times before.

Some of the route will be the same, a particular favourite river section springs to mind, but I don't know about the rest. I haven't looked at my old diaries so not sure which way I went before.

I'm certainly taking some new roads, but probably some old ones as well. I doubt there will be any things along the way that will be over familiar as it is a few years since I went this way and plenty of Kms and sights under the wheels since then.

I suppose if you photograph, document and write up all your tours, then it might be different, but I ride, enjoy and move on.

[Tiggertoo]

I was just about to head off tomorrow, although cancelled till next day

Having always had a great deal of difficulty requesting last minute changes of itineraries with United, may I ask which airline do you use that is more flexible?

[simonhill]

I meant head off from my hotel. The DotK holiday, plus a bonus day has turned this into a very long weekend and accom on Saturday night where I'm headed may be scarce (and noisy). Decided to stay put for another night.

I agree, airlines rarely flexible, unless it suits them, or you buy the most expensive fare.

[glucas]

Thanks for all those who replied.

Real food for thought. And some interesting new routes to consider!

[simonhill]

No one has mentioned going t'other way round. It's surprising how different things look.

............... and who knows, the wind might be in the right direction that time.

[bohrsatom]

I've never repeated an entire tour but have re-ridden sections of previous tours a few times now. This year I re-rode part of the Canal de Garonne which I previously cycled in 2014, and a few years back I rode the ViaRhona southbound having previously travelled northbound. Actually you could say I've ridden the ViaRhona three times as I spent a week in Valence with my Brompton and headed out for a few day rides along the Rhone.

Repeating a section can be handy as generally you're already familiar with the route, accommodation, etc which can make planning a trip a little bit easier.

There are some bits I would try and avoid repeating though. You know you have those days on tour where the planets align and everything about the ride is just spectacular - the kind of day you know you'll remember forever, that kind of day that makes bike touring worthwhile?
I have a handful of those, and although I'd love to re-ride them I know they wouldn't be the same the second time around. They weren't spectacular just because of the scenery - the weather and events before/during/after the day have a big effect on how it is remembered. I'm afraid that if I tried again I'd be really disappointed!