BICYCLE TOURS & MOUNTAIN BIKING

Northern Transcon

Toast the French Royals' long-gone health with a "coupe" in Reims' champagne cellars. Joan of Arc crowned her king at the cathedral, and World War I was fought back and forth along the Marne. The history book of Europe comes to life; classic French cuisine and champagne toasts add gastronomy to the mix.

Then head to the Low Countries. Belgian Flanders delights with tree-lined canals, windmills, and way too many beers. On to the Ardennes: pine forests, rushing brooks, wild boar, and gnomes - there is a lot going on. Cross lovely Luxemburg ­in a day to Germany. The wine towns of the Mosel offer Roman ruins, brooding castles, and Germany's most interesting dining.

Then enjoy a two-week idyll in the realm of Vikings. Pastoral Denmark was made for cyclists. A national network of bike paths proves it. Thatch-roofed inns, hand-pulled brews and cheerful "homey" meals define a magical welcome. Norway, Europe's civilized Yukon, has geography designed for aesthetics. Fjord boats replace buses, hiking trails are where the highways should be, and landscapes are stunning! Mountain bikes and walking shoes carry you over this final week.

Three-week versions are also offered, skipping the French start or the Norwegian finish. But why would you want to do that?

Tour Details

Days 1-3 (B1 & B2 Only): Road Biking: The Marne Valley
Leave Paris via bike path, along the Canal de l'Ourcq. Through the sculpture gardens of the Cité de la Science, and out of town. Farms and woodlands start you off: this Paris exit is amazingly rural. Meaux is home to France’s “other” mustard, and to Brie cheese. Pass by the romanesque churches of forgotten Picardy villages. Château-Thierry marks the start of the vineyards. Monuments and the cemeteries of World War 1 battlefields lend the weight of history (and a note of sobriety) to the proceedings.

In Epernay, visit the Moët cellars and drool at endless Dom Perignon. Mercier’s underground railway carries you through miles of millésimes.

Days 3-5 (B1 & B2 Only): Road Biking: The Montagne de Reims
Now explore Champagne’s most famous vineyards. The bikes take you through the sleepy Champagne towns on the sides of the Montagne. Visit local farms to sample their delightful “produce”. Or climb to the top of the hill (a state park), and admire bizarre trees and lovely views.

Reims is home for two nights, itself home to a dramatic cathedral and witness to the coronation of a dozen French kings. Also to the cellars of most of the other bubblies you’ve heard of. Experience nights of fun, perhaps including a son et lumière on the facade of the cathedral.

Days 6-8 (B1 & B2); Days 1-3 (B3): Road Biking: Belgian Flanders
Meet in beautiful Brugge, Belgium’s “Venice of the North”. Cycle through farms and out to the ocean. Then spend the evening sipping red Flanders ales in cheery pubs, popping the famous local chocolates, or cruising the flower-bedecked canals.

Canals are again the theme for the next ride. Past the windmills which once drained the undersea polders, and along tow-paths lined with massive trees planted by King Leopold. Stop for a coffee at a café by a lock, or sip a fruit beer in front of an impressive brick town hall. Night in stately Ghent: Brugge without the crowds.

Days 9-11 (B1 & B2); Days 4-6 (B3): Road Biking: The Ardennes (Belgium and Luxembourg)
A train carries you to Rochefort, in the Ardennes, whose trappist abbey brews Belgium’s greatest beer. Visit the Grottes de Han, underground caverns so massive that you go in by streetcar and come out by boat. Battle of the Bulge battle sites abound. Stop by Houffalize, where gnomes run a brewery, using the piney Ardennes spring water. Or at least you think they are gnomes if you drink enough of the beer.

Cross Luxembourg in a day, through the Valley of the Seven Châteaux. One is a ruin that used to belong to local notable Atilla the Hun. No one discounted Luxembourg when he was running the show!

Days 11-13 (B1 & B2); Days 6-8 (B3): Road Biking: The Mosel Valley (Germany)
Reach Germany on Thursday, for two nights on the banks of the Mosel. Trier proudly proclaims itself Europe’s oldest city, based on its Roman past (but in that case, how could it pre-date Rome?). Delicious riesling wines compliment Germany’s most interesting cuisine.

Down the valley. Vineyards cover every inch of arable land, and much that looks like it isn’t. Pedal through the wine towns of Neumagen, Bernkastel and Traben-Trarbach. Bernkastel’s tiny “Doktor” vineyard, the valley’s most prestigious, was so named because of the good it did you to drink its wine. It still does. Saturday afternoon sees you on the banks of the Rhine.

Days 14-17 (B1 & B2); Days 9-12 (B3): Road Biking: Jutland
Meet in Odense, and train to Fredericia, so hidden by grass-planted fortifications that it once escaped attack because its enemy couldn’t find it. May you fare better!

A three-day cycle starts along the Vejlefjord (yes, a fjord in Denmark). Jelling, symbol of ancient Denmark, is where Gorm the Elder and son Harald Bluetooth federated the Norse kingdom and buried a lot of stuff, including the queen. Runic stones abound, Wends maraud, and the whole business is somehow linked to early Christianity, at least if you believe that Christ was a Viking.

Across the moor to Silkeborg, heart of the wooded Lake District, for a night in a country krø, the typical thatch-roofed Danish inn. Then by way of lakes and lanes to lively Århus, home to Scandinavia’s longest cathedral, a royal “summer cottage”, great night life, and an ersatz 200-year-old town plunked down in a city park.

Days 17-20 (B1 & B2); Days 12-15 (B3): Road Biking: Fyn and the Islands
Back to Odense, where you first met the group. Another fun night town, and birthplace to the still-revered Hans C. Three days of biking the country’s most delightful lands. Langeland, Ærø and Fyn are island homes to fairytale fishing villages garlanded with poppies. Visit 13th century churches, spooky Viking burial mounds, water and windmills, quaint manor houses, and sea-faring museums. Castles dot the landscape and beaches line the route. Delights abound and distances are never great on these tiny paradises where fantasy flies. Can you tell Blue Marble likes it here?

Days 20-21 (B1 & B2); Days 15-16 (B3): Road Biking: Copenhagen
To the capital for a night. There’s too much to do, so suit your tastes: palaces, ancient ruins, canals, museums... Visit Tivoli, the world’s first amusement park. Stroll pedestrian streets and enjoy a multitude of street artists. Christiania reuses a military base as a fascinating experiment in communal living. The ’burbs host “Louisiana”, a modern art museum/sculpture garden with a view to Sweden. Helsingör castle was home to Hamlet, the only person Blue Marble's heard of who did not have a good time in Denmark. A celebratory smörgåsbord (that’s not how they spell it, but it’s unrecognizable in Danish) and a salute to Erik the Red before heading off. Or was he Norwegian?

Days 22-25 (B2); Days 17-20 (B3): Hiking/Mountain Biking: Biking to the Sognefjord
The Oslo-Bergen railway is an engineering marvel. It draws a line across some of the world’s harshest mountains, culminating in eternal snows at 4,000 feet. Oddly, this is where Blue Marble chooses to detrain. Go for a glacier walk, read the polar bear warnings, or retreat hurriedly to the hotel for a hot chocolate.

Mountain bikes get you outta’ here, on a three-day descent to vegetation, following an old Hanseatic trail. Multi-trip alums rank this ride among the most spectacular. Reach sea level at Voss, where the folk museum clearly illustrates the effect of central heating on farmhouse living. Then double-back to the top of a mountain by train, so to descend a spectacular gorge to the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest. A country (wilderness?) bus carries you to the “hütte”, a hiking refuge that offers more comfort than many hotels. Hot showers, hearty meals, blond wood, blonde guests.

Days 26-27 (B2); Days 21-22 (B3): Hiking: The Aurlandsdalen
Two days of hiking surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery Blue Marble knows. This wild valley is one that Norwegian hikers refer to with awe, and they are the arbiters of taste in the matter. Take day trips from the base hütte, over moors, down deep dales, past cascading waterfalls and along idyllic brooks. Return home tired and happy, for evenings of singing your favorite Norwegian folk songs in front of the fireplace (yes, we’re kidding). Or bang out some Grieg on the hütte’s piano.

Day 28 (B2); Day 23 (B3): Fjord Cruise: The Sognefjord, Bergen
A sedate ferry carries you through the lonely splendor of the Sognefjord, and up the dramatic Nærøyfjord, Norway’s narrowest. The country’s smallest zip code is on the banks: six houses and a post office. So are seals, farms you reach by ladder from the valley floor, and all sorts of other geography-induced craziness. On to Bergen by bus and train: try the diner’s salmon for lunch! A micro-climate explained by the gulf stream makes Bergen one of the warmest places in Scandinavia, though that’s not saying much. It’s also tough to tell that the city has been around as long as it has: it is made of wood, and burns down with unnerving regularity. Visit the Hanseatic Museum or the reconstructed port, buy kilos of salmon, sample culinary delights such as reindeer n’loganberries. A sleeper train returns you to Oslo.