The route

When we tell people that we want to go from China to Europe on a beerbike we logically get a lot of amazed faces about the beerbiking aspect. Almost instantly, though, people start asking us about the route we will be taking: 'which way will you go then?", "through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan etc.?" or "How are you going to go through the Muslim countries?" or "Are you guys going all the way through Russia!?".

Our idea is to start our trip with a tour through China. As the three of us have been studying Chinese and living in China for at least a year and a half at the moment of departure we really want to travel around China to see more of this fascinating country. Besides the combination of travelling overland by bike and our language abilities will allow us to get in close touch with (curious) local people along the way.
The first leg of this China tour will be travelling from Kunming Souhtwards. We want to make a little jump into Vietnam to visit the very fascinating and cool city of Hanoi (as it is kinda on the way). Vietnam's draft beer and street beer drinking culture are important reasons for us wanting to go there with our beerbike.
From Hanoi we want to cycle back into China where we will subsequently pass through Hong Kong and Shanghai to finish our China tour in its capital Beijing.
This entire China section is about 5000km long.

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The next part of the trip will consists of traversing Mongolia and Russia from Beijing to Saint-Petersburg. We want to partly cycle this section and partly use the transsiberian railway express. With the help of the train we will be able to cross this 10000km vast landmass with relatively 'ease'.

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From Saint-Petersburg onward we enter the European section of our trip. The idea is to head for Helsinki where we will take the boat into the Baltic states. After that Poland, Northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden (Oskar's home country) and Norway will follow. In the East of Norway we plan to take a boat to Newcastle in England. From there we will head into Scotland, Northern-Ireland, Ireland (Eoin's home country) and back into the South of England. The last three countries will be Northern-France, Belgium and finally the Netherlands (Marc's home country). This section is 'only' about 7500km long.

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All in all this trip will pass through twenty countries in two continents and cover a distance of 22500km! Just a little bike ride.

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This is the route plan at the moment but it is to no extent the final plan. We are always open for route suggestions by people along the way, travelers or people that just visit our website. We actually really encourage you to make suggestions about where we should go, which place are not to be missed and of course you can invite us over at your house for a night on your couch, a meal or simply just a beer!

The idea

It all started some years ago when I first stumbled upon the phenomenon called 'beerbike', or 'bierfiets' as it is called in my home country the Netherlands. It is basically a multiperson bicycle with a bar. So while you are cycling with about 10 people you sit behind a bar and can enjoy some draft beers. [Photo source: fietscafe.nl and lakkie.nl]

In the Netherlands these bikes can be rented for a fun day out on the road with some friends.
Ever since I stumbled upon these bikes back home for the first time I have been thinking about doing a long-distance trip with them. Especially cause for me it is the ultimate combination of cycling and socializing under the enjoyment of a beer.

So now here I am in Kunming, China. I have been living here since August 2007 to study Chinese. And more and more I have been thinking about a long-distance beerbike cycling trip. Up until the point that me and my friend Oskar had a brainstorming session (of course while drinking beer) about cycling back from Kunming to Europe. "Great idea" I said, "but what about cycling a beerbike back to Europe?!" This happened about two months ago.

From that moment on I have been asking around to see if we would be able to find someone who could help us build this bike here in Kunming. Slowly the word spread around Kunming up until the point that I discovered the father of Fanfan (a Chinese good friend) saw one of the beerbike photos I spread around and got really enthusiastic. Being a former car designer, cycling fanatic and a current beer fan he turned out to be the best thinkable person to help us with this project.

Some days ago I met up with him and fanfan and it turned out he had already drawn a technical beerbike drawing! Amazing.

After some discussion I felt that he was the most suitable person to help us with this project. So from that moment on I have been 110% confident that we will be able to build a beerbike here in Kunming and therefore that we will be able to hit the road with this bike to make our trip: the long way home; from China to Europe on a beerbike!

On this blog I will be posting all the plans, developments, setbacks and progress regarding this unique overland trip back home. So stay tuned. Cause this is gonna be a hell of a ride!