TID 1999	22 juny – 15july	1640 km / 24 days
		ПPrague – Kladno – Marianske Lazne – Ingolstadt – Regensburg – Pasau - Linz – Vien - Bratislava (see map)

author: Emil Milev – published in “Na Raba” journal (“On the edge”-Eng.) 2/ 2001

The Beginning!?

You are young and full of energy! You yearn for seeing attractive places, to attend interesting events, but not watching them, on TV! But you have in your pocket only the coins needed for a breakfast.

What can you do?

It is simple. Just take out the sleeping bag and the tent, dusty and untouched since the last year’s excursion in the mountain, chose on of the world’s directions, get on your bicycle and go.

You think it is a joke? OK, then answer yourself the following questions:

Where spending the night costs more – on the Tirol medows or in the Bulgarian hotels or cottages?

Where the food prices are higher – in Bulgarian shops or in German supermarkets?

What would be more expensive – the bus tichet to the Black sea or to make a bicycle tour round the Rivierre?

Yeah, that’s right. You have only to believe in you and to devote your time to a vacation.

The Quiet Blue Danube

A perfect opportunity to check your abilities for a longer trip with modest intensivity is the international tourist boat travel on the Danube river – TID.

It takes place annually from the town of Ingolstadt in Germany to the town of Silistra in Bulgaria. Every Summer water toursirt from all over the Europe and other continents gather there. Unofficially in the recent years more and more bicyclists have been joining this event. With a minimum gain the hosts provide comfortable places for camping, food and drinks.

I will tell you something more about the stage Ingolstadt – Bratislava – it was the most interesting for me at the upper river stram.

The laps are short – maximum 60-70 km. After each 3-4 days there is a rest day when the organizers arrange a sightseeing in the host town or another interesting place

If you want to see everything which is interesting in the Austrian capital the day for rest even using a bus will be not enough for this. The Palace of the Emperor with its exposition, the museums and the Residence of Schonbrun…If you want to raise your adrenaline, the perfect place is the Prater. In this park you may try the cradles where you will have to hold your breath, high-speed little trains, catapults and other surprises, and the symbol of this place is the famous Ferris wheel.

The Bratislava fortress dominates over the surrounding area. Another interesting places are the little streets and the old town’s squares.

The river itself is, of course, the greatest attraction of the whole layout. There are lovely places for sun-baths and swimming. Provided good conditions you can replace the handle-bar with an oar for a while, and people say that fishing is also good.

What else must you think about and what else you have to know if you are interested in this route?

It takes about 20 days. The only problem could be going to the start point and going back from Bratislava or another place. Some years ago a Bulgarian group has travelled with its own bus arranged by the Bulgarian Tourist Union. .

Now this is unfortunately impossible. If one makes some calculations it may come out that it is more convinient to use your own mini-bus or car inspite of all insurance or other travel costs. It also gives the opportunity for taking additional luggage – an equipment and other things needed in unrgent situations. The problem for transporting this luggage between the camps and the “hospitals” is also solved.

The other alternative are the travel agencies. The “luxury” is garrantied of course, with eventually some additional money given for the bike which is usually unwanted by the drivers. In such a case it is always very important your luggage to be as little as possible. You will have to take your day’s laps with it. Besides all this the sleeping bag, the tent, tools, spare parts and tires, and the equipment has to be suitable for the particularities of the Middle Europe climate. Even during the July hottest days it is not something strange to have two or three rainy days. If the sleeping accommodation is preliminary arranged and you have to get to the spot in any case, a pair of mud-guards are also welcome instead of “forgeting” them. Think also of how to isolate your luggage from the water, or at least for your clothes. An advantage is the correct distribution of the luggage on the front and on the back side of the bike. For longer trips like this for example, the fronter luggage-carrier is plainly necessary. In principle, for a tourist bike its strength and the loading ability are more important than the light weigh and you can make a compromise with the fastness. It is not a good idea to use the standard rucksacks – the waist and the back are loaded too much during the bike day-long lap and the bike’s stability is also under question. Suitable saddlebags take down the weight, the stability is kept and the most important part of the system – the human – is not burdened.

Don’t think that such a trip is possible only with good trade-mark superbikes which you can see on the advertisements.

Our small group, for example, took the described route including the segment from Prague to Ingolstadt (about 1600km as a total), using two racing bikes, middle class, a city-bike and the widely spread in Bulgaria semi-racing bike “Tourist” (you may find such a thing in quite a good status for 20-30 Euro). You may also use your city bike, bought from the shop of METRO, if you take care of it and be careful. The heavy and burdend bike together with large tires have more friction interaction and it takes more physical strength,; you will need some technical skills to avoid the defects and the damages.

In conclusion, your limited abilities or your unwillingness to invest some more money in a serious equipment cannot be an obstacle for realising your plans, but think about how long do you want to deal with bicycle tourism.