Hi guys and girls; I'm new to these forums and I expect you get a lot of threads and questions from newbies regarding things like this, so please bare with me!
Firstly a little background about myself and what I hope to achieve;
My name is Daniel, I'm a 21 year old male from the West Midlands, England. I'm a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC (as you might have guessed from my username!) and I'm currently studying English Literature at university. I've rode my bike as a novice, purely for pleasure, since about the age of five -- it's one of the first things (alongside swimming) that my father and grandfather taught me as a child. I've never really done more than a few miles per week on average since I have a busy schedule at university (or, frankly, I've been too lazy sometimes!).
Recently I've begun to volunteer my hours towards a charity (which has to remain nameless for the time being), and I think that their cause is a fantastic one which everybody can benefit from in one way or another. It is for this reason that I plan on raising a lot of money to help my sector and those who work with me to help others. Thus the idea of a 1000mi journey sprung to my mind. If I were to be sponsored for even £5 per person, and one person for every mile, then my goal would achieve so much for so many people.
Now, fast forward to today! Myself and a few friends are really interested in doing this trip that I have (VERY roughly) worked out. However, given that we've never done anything like this before I thought it would be best to seek out the knowledge and experiences of other people. That's where you come in to it!
What I (VERY ROUGHLY) have planned is:
1. Birmingham City, England to Felixstowe Port, England
2. Felixstowe Port, England to "Hook of Holland Port" (near Naaldwijk, Netherlands)
3. Naaldwijk, Netherlands to Amsterdam, Netherlands
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands to Cologne, Germany
5. Cologne, Germany to Brugge, Belgium
6. Brugge, Belgium to Calais, France
7. Calais, France to Port of Dover, England
8. Dover, England to Birmingham City, England
I've done a quick Google Maps check, and the journey (not including highways/tolls) comes to 961mi. We plan on doing this over the space of about 2 weeks (roughly 6-7 hours per day).
What I need from you guys:
As I've said, I need as much advice, tips, experiences in these countries (if you've been), what I should be looking out for, hotels/hostels/B&Bs -- literally anything that you've experienced in these countries! We need tips on what kinds of bikes we should be using (I currently have a 21-geared mountain bike, but I'm looking at getting something else), health tips, traveling tips, possible towns/cities you've stopped in along the way, costs, equipment needed, training routines and pacing ourselves (we plan on doing at least 100mi per day)... THE LOT!
There shouldn't be much of a language barrier. I'm fairly fluent in German and I know enough French to get me by in the country. I'm aware that most Dutch people speak English as a second language (if not German) and Belgian people primarily speak French or German too. Plus I'm also learning BSL (sign language), just in case!
To add more insult to injury -- one of my friends is actually learning to ride a bike over the next year and a half in order to take part in this charity event! 🙂
It's very ambitious, and I cannot stress enough how early in the planning stages this is. If you have any advice and/or questions then please feel free to post them.
Thank you for reading!
EDIT: If you want a rough look at what I've got planned, you can find it here: http://g.co/maps/hxn6a