Traveling south on the French side to Nice, playing in the mountains and returning via Hansi & Gretel's home through the Black Forrest.
Here are some of my sad facts for this years edition.
We will also be spending our first night in Pont a Mousson, where we spent the first 'eventful' night of tour 1. Sadly not in the Hotel Europeen (which is still in business)
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| Day 1 Tour 1 |
BARBIE TRIVIA
- 2019 will be the fifteenth Barbietour, since the initial tour in 2003
- We have visited a total of 13 countries. (incl England and Wales)
- 10 riders have participated (incl 2 Germans)
- In keeping with recent tours this year will involve 15 days riding European roads.
- This years tour will add 3274 European miles to make a total of 35,543 covered in mainland Europe. This means that we will have covered nearly 57,000km in Europe.
- Add extra for getting lost etc.
- Total miles (incl UK miles) will be 45,215 – That is the equivalent of riding 20% of the way to the moon !…. Or over 94 round trips to the International Space Station.
- The equivalent circumference of Earth was breached in Barbietours XII day (European miles only)
- 12 of those miles were on unpaved roads. !
- The total number of Barbietour miles (incl UK) now exceeds the total of ALL roads in Switzerland
- The total number of Barbietour miles (incl UK) is the equivalent of all the Motorway miles in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, UK and Ireland, South Africa and South Korea combined !
- Alternatively, just less than all the motorways in the USA.
- After Barbie, John has completed ALL Barbie days EXCEPT 2.
- This years trip will take us to Nice and back.
- The tour will reach new heights crossing Europes highest paved
mountain pass the Col de l'Iseran at 2770 meters (cf. The Stelvio pass
at a mere 2757 meters)
- Barbie once rode this Col 2 up, fully loaded with ski gear and
tents on a Honda 550 (2 cylinders of differing sizes - 45 minutes in 1st
gear!) in circa 1978.
- The average daily mileage is 218 which is the third LOWEST since we started this whole thing and 28 miles per day shorter than the initial tour.
- Our shortest day this year is only 125 miles in the mountains near Nice, although it is scheduled to take us 5.5 hours riding, so I take it that it is a bit twisty.
- This will be the 5th time we have stayed (freeloaded) with Graeme’s Serbian friends in Germany
- I would love to calculate the number of miles excluding roads we have done twice (or more) but life is STILL too short !
- We have previously stayed in 94 different European Hotels/ locations and this year will add 11 new venues.
- We have used 7 different Ferry routes
- Only 1 major 'incident' and ALL bikes have been ridden home.
- Still only 3 occasions where the group 'lost' a rider. (Ainslie, John and Mac in Paris)
- Numerous occasions where the group 'lost' the route.
- 54 (approximately) Wiener Schnitzels and 3 rabbits eaten by JB to date.
- (UK miles, hotels etc have not been included in the Barbietour Stats unless stated.)
