Plans for 2023?

[Slowroad]

I always like hearing what tours other people are planning! Especially as I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get away next year. If I can, I'm tempted by the Northumbrian coast and the canal and rail line routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow, maybe getting into Fife. If I can get abroad again I will probably just head to the Netherlands or northern France - even quite familar areas will be such a treat! Maybe France to the Netherlands via Belgium... there's a thought to ponder over winter.
Are you planning anything yet?

[roubaixtuesday]

A tandem tour of the Ardéche and a separate attempt on the Stelvio are in planning.

Very excited!

[ophspeed]

I'm planning a week-long tour of the Yorkshire Dales, with a few forays onto the moors and up into Teesdale.

[Nearholmer]

I’ve neither the time (busy with family things despite being mostly retired) nor the stamina for the sort of round the world in eighty days stuff that many here specialise in, so my plans always revolve around days out and, if I’m lucky, a couple of one week escapades each year, but I do like to find new ones.

To that end, I pin up a piece of card in the kitchen, and when I learn-of or dream-up a candidate excursion it gets listed on the card. That way, when a whole day of decent weather is forecast, I have a menu to choose from, and I can spend dark winter evenings poring over OS maps anticipating the week-long sessions.

[iandriver]

Eying up a gentle plod around the Moselle Valley area. Just trying to figure out how to get the bike to Luxembourg city or a good starting point. Perhaps cycle to Oostende and train from there.

[MrsHJ]

Eying up a gentle plod around the Moselle Valley area. Just trying to figure out how to get the bike to Luxembourg city or a good starting point. Perhaps cycle to Oostende and train from there.

I might be able help a little here depending on your plans- I got the train to Luxembourg city from Paris in September. I took a TGV to Paris from our local channel port (Roscoff/Morlaix) and then a TGV to Metz from Paris. Finally I got a local train TER from Metz to Luxembourg city. I'm sure there are other options but that one worked fine. I got a bit confused about buying my TER ticket as you only pay to the border. The TGV bike spaces must be booked and the one that goes all the way to Luxembourg city doesn't have a space (the TGV continues on from Metz but splits in 2 there).

Other stations on the river near to where I started were Perl in Germany and Apach in France.

If you look at the thread I did on La Voie Bleue that may be of interest but depends if you are going north or south on the Moselle.

[MrsHJ]

I think I've already bored on about my possible trips and I totally understand the comments on time (and I think cash will be an issue for many of us in 2023- I'm considering camping again). I'm buying extra holiday from work next year so I can do more cycling whilst I'm enjoying it.

Like nearholmers postcard on the fridge I drop future maybes into a folder on cycle.travel
https://cycle.travel/by/kate_culley/journeys?group=940

Possibly:
March Puglia (warm up week to get my legs in)
May/June Entre deux mers from the Med and on up to Nantes.
August/September St Etienne to Roscoff via the Loire valley.

Others like la Ruta de la Plata remain in the mix. I tend to gradually refine my plans and it depends what the family want to do, if cycling friends are available for a trip and what colleagues are doing.

[iandriver]

Eying up a gentle plod around the Moselle Valley area. Just trying to figure out how to get the bike to Luxembourg city or a good starting point. Perhaps cycle to Oostende and train from there.

I might be able help a little here depending on your plans- I got the train to Luxembourg city from Paris in September. I took a TGV to Paris from our local channel port (Roscoff/Morlaix) and then a TGV to Metz from Paris. Finally I got a local train TER from Metz to Luxembourg city. I'm sure there are other options but that one worked fine. I got a bit confused about buying my TER ticket as you only pay to the border. The TGV bike spaces must be booked and the one that goes all the way to Luxembourg city doesn't have a space (the TGV continues on from Metz but splits in 2 there).

Other stations on the river near to where I started were Perl in Germany and Apach in France.

If you look at the thread I did on La Voie Bleue that may be of interest but depends if you are going north or south on the Moselle.

I could start at Metz and head towards Germany, so that is useful info, thank you.

[nirakaro]

The plan for next year seems to be a rethink of my whole touring outlook. This year I had a great five weeks touring in France and Italy, including half a dozen alpine passes. That sense of, out on my own, a thousand miles from home, and I don't know where I'll be sleeping tonight – I loved it when I was nineteen, and held on to that feeling for half a century, but at seventy-five it starts to feel a tad precarious, foolhardy even. So in future the tour may be à deux, twenty-five miles a day rather than forty, more days off, more wine, more restaurants. Hopefully it'll still be southern France, northern Italy and the Alps.

[foxyrider]

I will be having a week in Brandenburg next April to ride the Spreewald Radmarathon - a flat 200km day out. I've not decided on a 'mode d'employ' as yet but i'll almost certainly not be camping.

As its a 'significant' birthday next year i do want to do a proper camping trip probably late summer, not sure where exactly but likely somewhere Germanic.

In addition i'll be doing a couple of 'mini tours', York Rally, possibly the World Championships as well as some long weekends using b&b's.

After the last 3 years without a 'proper' trip, i'm desperate to get travelling again in 2023.

[mattheus]

Like nearholmers postcard on the fridge I drop future maybes into a folder on cycle.travel
https://cycle.travel/by/kate_culley/journeys?group=940

Ooh, that looks an interesting idea ... clicks ...
Blimey, that's a lot of riding! ...

... there's 3 pages of these!!!

Enjoy

[wheelyhappy99]

'I could start at Metz and head towards Germany, so that is useful info, thank you.'

If you have the time maybe take the train to Remiremont, stop over and had up to the source of the Moselle at the Col du Bussang, watershed in the Vosges just below the Ballon d'Alsace, then head north along the river. Very different scenery and some interesting places along the way.

[Thehairs1970]

Eying up a gentle plod around the Moselle Valley area. Just trying to figure out how to get the bike to Luxembourg city or a good starting point. Perhaps cycle to Oostende and train from there.

Did this last year. Drove from Devon to Folkestone. Tunnel to Calais then drove to Luxembourg where we left car at airport parking. Caught a train to Strasbourg, cycled down the Rhine to Koblenz then back up the Moselle to Luxembourg.

Loved it.

[Traction_man]

Things did not quite work out for me in 2022 and plans I had made last winter did not come to fruition because of various commitments, all of which makes me cautious about plotting and planning too much for 2023 til I know more how the land lies...

But I do love getting the OS maps out on the kitchen table and thinking up possibilities, the one being held over from this year is Galloway Forest, the plan being to go over on the ferry from NI to Cairnryan--I had to postpone the ferry booking 3 times this year as things transpired against me making the trip on successive occasions, and in the end just cancelled the booking and got a refund, so now fingers crossed for sometime in 2023 instead...

Plus a couple of similarly shortish 3/4-day trips, 1. the Barrow River looks tempting and camping en route is seemingly permitted by Waterways Ireland, so train to Dublin with bike then a slow canal/river side cycle southwards, train back to Belfast; then 2. train to Sligo then cycle to Derry via Big Dog Forest and Killeter Forest, probably a couple of nights, possibly bivvy if (big IF) the weather holds...

Let's see if I can get these three in the bag for 2023, I would love to go back to Spain and pick up the Camino again in 2024.

cheers,

Keith

[MrsHJ]

Here’s someone with his plans all sorted out.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... SApp_Other

As a route though it fails my patisserie test so I won’t be cycling across Antarctica next year.