Europe from a new perspective

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I think hav­ing my wife along­side me for this, the final leg of my three-year bike jour­ney through three con­tin­ents and down one aisle, is going to be a really good thing.

As a guy on your own, it seems you very quickly slip into a target-oriented kind of stupor. Sure, this equals large dis­tances covered and for­mid­able chal­lenges over­come. Man’s indom­it­able spirit, and all that. But this time – for this last, envi­able stretch of footloose free­dom between here and the fin­ish line – I’m determ­ined to slow it all down as much as possible.

Pit stop during one of Tom's adventures / photo by Tom

Many times I’ve often found myself day­dream­ing about what it would be like to ride home through Europe. Now Tenny and I find ourselves at the port of Bari in south­ern Italy, Europe’s giant open-air museum.

I must admit I was sur­prised to find that sum­mer is still very much in full swing here – so much so that many of the res­id­ents are escap­ing the heat and humid­ity in other parts of Italy or abroad. Today’s a sticky 36-degree day, and the nar­row streets are hot and quiet, shut­ters drawn, park­ing spaces empty.

Continue reading this article on Tom’s blog, Ride Earth.