Wrapping up our time on the continent

Lots of people seem really surprised when we tell them that we brought our bikes over from Canada. I guess most people have never considered bringing their bike on a plane. I think the bigger issue is what to do with all the bags, as you don’t really want to check lots of small things. Here’s how we made the trip from Zagreb to Edinburgh. 

The first step was to find these bags, sometimes called a “Chinese shopping bag” or “zippered laundry bag”. We had no idea where to find one, and we were wandering through a market when I spotted a vendor packing up his wares into one. I asked him where he got it, and he scrawled some directions onto the back of a receipt for another market. We managed to find these bags the next day, for 3 Euros each. A duffel bag would also work. 

We then did a trial run to make sure everything fit, and to figure out what would need to go into the carry-on bags, and what to check. 

On flight day we loaded up the bikes as usual, bringing along the shopping bags as well. 

Also we made a bunch of peanut butter and honey sandwiches for the trip. 

Riding to the airport.

Tim took off the pedals, the front wheel and the handle bars, so that the bikes were a bit more compact. These guys helped us to wrap up the bikes with the giant saran wrap machine.

 

Ready to go!

We then flew to Munich, forgot to buy supper before all the restaurants closed, ate all the peanut butter sandwiches and also some granola bars, and tried to get a few hours of sleep. We woke up at 5am to make sure we could get some breakfast before our 6:30 flight. Our flight was then delayed 3 hours, so we ate breakfast again before we actually left. 

Once we arrived in Edinburgh we found a quiet corner to assemble the bikes, found a camping store and bought some fuel (which we couldn’t bring on the plane), found a cell phone store and bought a USB-to-UK-plug-adapter-thingy, found a grocery store and bought some food, and rode a few more kilometers before finding our campground. Here’s me at 7 pm. 

I had some we-made-it-to-Scotland Scotch and slept for 12 hours. Woke up ready to tackle the UK!