Bike Barge& in Northern Europe by David Lamb marvel at the tales of fortitude “You folks ready to get moving?” our and endurance I read on these Belgian captain, Willy Coupe, 58, asked pages as cyclists take on moun- after the last of our group had clambered tains and deserts and the chal- aboard the Sailing Home, found the cof- lenge of the long, open road. feepot, and been sized for bikes — solid But, truth be told, at age 70, I 24-speed, Shimano-geared Gazelles, manu- no longer can identify with the factured by a Dutch company that has pro- riders, athough once, years ago, I biked duced 13 million bicycles since its found- Ialone across the U.S. So I start with a dis- ing in 1892. claimer: this isn’t a real adventure story. It’s Amsterdam was soon behind us. We a story about how a gang of Social Security headed into Holland’s countryside, biking recipients head overseas every summer for along canals and rivers lined with toiling a leisurely cycling holiday on a private windmills, through 16th-century villages tour we customize ourselves to take into with cathedrals and towering bell towers, account our age and abilities, our penchant everything green and flat and feeling so for comfort, and our aversion to the no-pain Dutch you expected to see people wearing no-gain philosophy. wooden shoes. There were cyclists every- That’s why I was on the piers of a where: men in business suits pedaling to small harbor in downtown Amsterdam work; women with kids’ seats taking their on a breezy morning last June to greet 18 children to school; and teenagers on dates. friends from the U.S. who had signed up for Not surprising, perhaps, considering that, another escapade of what they call “Dave’s with 17,000 miles of bike lanes and more Dream Team.” A dozen barges that had O’Callahan came back with a reasonable bicycles than people, the Netherlands sure- been converted into passenger ships, each quote and I emailed a bunch of friends: ly rates as the world’s most bicycle-friendly with about 10 cabins and bicycles on the “Sandy and I have signed up for this pri- country. deck, swayed in the water. I was looking vate bike trip. Want to join?” 16 did. We passed into Belgium the third day for the vessel Sailing Home, which I had On that trip, everyone knew Sandy and and docked for the night in Ghent, Captain chartered for $29,327 for a week-long, 200- me; most didn’t know each other. The risk Coupe’s hometown, just behind the house- mile bike-and-barge trip from Amsterdam of incompatibility lurked. But, just a few boat on which he lives. His family came to Bruges, a medieval city in Belgium. miles down the road, it became apparent aboard for dinner and drinks. Coupe has Before you gasp at the price — for 20 that a shared adventure, even a tame one, been hauling cargo and passengers over people, including my wife and me — it breeds a congenial cohesion. Several rid- Europe’s waterways since he went to work works out to $1,466 per passenger. Not ers who hadn’t cycled in years feared they as a teenager on his parents’ barge 40 years bad for seven nights on a spiffy floating couldn’t handle 30 miles. They were soon ago. A friend recently tried to recruit him hotel, three meals a day, bicycle rentals, appeased. That’s the beauty of a bicycle. to pilot one of the large cruise ships that and a first-rate guide who rides every mile It rises to meet you at your level of ability. carry tourists on overnight routes like with you, knows the region’s history and Since then, we’ve biked France three Budapest to Prague. The money was better, the best cafés and pubs along the way, and times, the Cotswolds of England, Sweden, but he decided to stick with the cycling can fix flats and cranky derailers in a flash. New Zealand, Holland, and the Danube crowd. My work as pro bono, self-appointed River bike path from Passau Germany, to “I just prefer to work in a family atmo- tour organizer of the Dream Team began Vienna. For the last four years, the same 20 sphere, and that’s what you get when you when a large U.S. cycling company cancelled riders — the maximum I allow to keep the take on a couple dozen bicyclists sharing on short notice a tour of Ireland’s Dingle size of the group manageable — have made a week on the water and the bike paths,” Peninsula that four of us had booked. On our rides and now it’s as though all were said Coupe, who helped set tables and the Internet, I found a family-run cycling lifelong chums. “I block off the first week dry dishes when he was moored. In the outfit in Killarney, Cycle Ireland, that let in June every January even if I don’t know evening, the crew — guide, cook, and two me personalize a tour. I had the call on where we’re going,” one of them said. The mates — would gather in his wheel room, daily mileage (about 30), terrain (hills okay, deal I’ve made with the Dream Team is that and the place would ripple with storytell- not mountains), quality of hotels/inns and anyone who joins a tour gets an automatic ing and laughter. restaurants (top notch), daily luggage trans- invitation the next year. If they skip one, If the idea of putting together your fers (essential), and length of tour (eight they go on a waiting list, which now stands own private tour sounds appealing, here days, one afternoon off). Ciaran and Mary at eight. are some suggestions. First, be selective in BARGE - 2 your invitations and leave the complainers, resource that lists more than 150 routes in off from pedaling, you can stay onboard whiners, obsessive talkers, and dullards 27 countries. You’ll find detailed itinerar- while the vessel slips through canals, riv- at home. Build into your itinerary plenty ies for each tour, the daily mileage and ers, and locks en route to the night’s stop- of time to smell the roses and dawdle in terrain, and the cost and the dates they’re over. And, the captain can drop you off at cafés and towns, castles and museums. At offered. You often have a choice of cycling different places to make the day’s cycling the end of the day, it’s the experience, not on your own or having a guide. There’s also distance longer or shorter. the speed or miles, that matters. Design a a special listing for bike-and-barge tours, a The Sailing Home, 132 feet long and trip everyone can handle. You can keep niche market for cyclists that started about diesel powered, started its life in 1927, car- both the serious cyclist and the faint of 20 years ago and is now offered in Holland, rying sand and stone. In 2000, as the bike- heart happy with two daily overlapping Belgium, Germany, and France. and-barge business grew, it was redesigned itineraries of, say, 25 and 50 miles. The tour This was the second year our group and rebuilt, with an attractive, wood-pan- company should be able to accomplish this chose a bike-and-barge tour, and we set eled restaurant and lounge and an outdoor by finding shortcuts that trim miles off the off every morning on our bikes and caught sunning area on the top deck, and 14 cabins, each with private facilities, on the lower deck. In keeping with the family atmosphere, we poured our own cocktails and wine in the evening and marked an honor sheet with our purchases, to be paid at the end of the journey. The sun didn’t set until nearly 10:00 PM, leaving us ample time after dinner to explore the towns and cities where we docked. In Gouda we bought rounds of the town’s famous cheese. In the Turkish quar- ter of Ghent, we found an Internet café to catch up on emails and baseball scores. All of us — nine couples and two singles — sauntered through Antwerpen’s infamous red light district, separated by only a few blocks from the city’s magnificent central plaza. I don’t think we asked a question that our Dutch guide couldn’t answer. What level of support do you need on a private tour? It depends on the tour. In the Cotswolds, we had no guide. In New Full-service SAG. Members of the group ride past their home away from wheels. Zealand, Steven and Tania MacKay, the Christchurch couple who ran our tour, longer route. up with the boat in a different town every provided a van to carry us and our bikes The most essential element, of course, is afternoon. This type of tour offers casual over the Southern Alps and even served an finding the right overseas tour. But where? cyclists some distinct advantages over our elegant English-style tea along the side of There’s a bewildering array of them, from earlier trips that carried us inn-to-inn over the road each day. In Ireland we didn’t have Armenia to Vietnam. Start your search land. First, you only unpack and pack once a guide, but the company gave us detailed at biketours.direct.com, an invaluable during the week.