Overview

Your grand cycling adventure begins in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, where centuries-old spires share the skyline with design icons and an effortless cycling culture. Your Trek Travel guides will meet you at the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel at 9:00 AM. After a thorough bike fit and a few safety tips to prepare you for the days ahead, join your guides for a casual picnic-style lunch before heading out on your warm-up ride. The route eases south through Copenhagen's leafy outskirts toward Amager, the roads giving way to farmland lanes and glimpses of the coast before looping back to the heart of the city. This is a day designed to find your rhythm, dial in your saddle height, and take in that first exhilarating taste of what 40 days on a bike across a continent feels like. Back at the hotel, a free afternoon awaits to rest, explore the city, or fine-tune your setup before your guides host a welcome social hour and dinner to celebrate the adventure that has just begun.

Overview

Today's route carries you out of Copenhagen and across the Danish countryside toward the country's southernmost tip. The roads unspool through a patchwork of farms, beech forests, and wetland reserves, crossing from Zealand onto the island of Falster as you head south. The riding is rhythmic and rewarding, the landscape open and luminous with northern light. Small Danish villages appear and disappear at a satisfying pace, a bakery here, a harbor there, each one a reminder of how gently this crossing begins. As you approach Gedser, the horizon opens to reveal the Baltic Sea, and you understand exactly where you are, at one edge of Europe, about to cross to another. Tomorrow we are on the way to Germany by ferry; tonight brings a proper Danish dinner.

Overview

An early morning begins on the water. Boarding at 6:00 AM, a two-hour Baltic crossing from Gedser to Rostock delivers you to the German mainland as the light shifts and the landscape transforms. Once your wheels touch the dock, the riding begins in earnest—through the rolling fields and birch-lined paths of Mecklenburg, a region of tranquil lakes, Hanseatic market towns, and enormous skies. The pace builds as the day deepens, the roads becoming quieter and more rewarding as you push inland toward the Müritz Lake District. Your arrival in Klink feels like a discovery, a storybook town on the water's edge, sailboats at the dock, and a castle hotel rising from the lakeside. Tonight, we'll get together for dinner in the castle restaurant.

Overview

The roads south through Brandenburg are a cyclist's gift, long straight pine-forest paths giving way to lake-dotted heathland, the horizon wide and unhurried. You'll pass through villages where time moves slowly and the air smells of pine resin and lake water, gradually feeling the gentle gravitational pull of Berlin approaching from the south. The riding is steady and satisfying, a day for conversation on the bike, for watching the landscape shift from the lakelands of the north to the flatter, open farmland of the Brandenburg plain. You'll arrive in Oranienburg, a town with a complex history and a green riverside setting, with strong legs and a growing sense of how far this crossing reaches. Tonight the group gathers for dinner at a local restaurant just steps from the hotel.

Overview

Leave the Berlin metropolitan orbit behind and pedal into the Fläming, a gentle upland of heather moorland, ancient oak forests, and half-timbered villages that feel entirely removed from the modern world. This is one of the quietest, most unexpected stretches of the entire trip, a landscape that asks nothing of you except to pay attention. The roads thread through forests and over low ridges, revealing long views across the heath that shift color with the season. Bad Belzig, your destination, is a market town anchored by a medieval castle and framed by the rolling hills of the Hoher Fläming nature park. It's the kind of place most cyclists never find.

Overview

Today, you earn it. The longest stage in Germany unfolds across 85 miles of Saxon countryside, carrying you from the Fläming heath all the way to the Elbe River—one of central Europe's great waterways. The route rises and falls through farmland and forest, the roads calm and well-paved, and the miles passing readily beneath you. As the afternoon deepens, the landscape begins to shift subtly southward, while the architecture grows heavier, the church towers more ornate, and the food more substantial. Arriving in Riesa on the banks of the Elbe, a river you'll follow southward for days to come, you feel the geography of the journey opening up. Tonight, dinner is at your leisure at the hotel's buffet restaurant. Come down whenever you're ready, eat at your own pace, and rest. Today's miles have been well and truly earned.

Overview

The Elbe is your companion today, the river narrowing and quickening as you follow it south through the Saxon heartland. The riding is magnificent, the landscape shifting from open farmland to wooded valleys before revealing the town of Meissen, one of central Germany's most beautiful river towns. Half-timbered houses climb a steep hillside to a gothic cathedral and a porcelain-white castle above. You'll want to take your time here. From there the road dips south into Saxon Switzerland, a dramatic national park of towering sandstone pillars, deep river gorges, and forested plateaus that erupt from the landscape. Tonight, dinner is at the Gasthof with the sound of the Elbe running outside.

Overview

Today is a crossing in every sense. You leave Germany behind and enter the Czech Republic. The border brings the biggest climb of the day, a significant ascent that crests into Bohemia before the terrain settles into a long, rolling rhythm of valleys and ridges carrying you steadily toward Prague. You'll notice wider skies, deeper forests, and villages with a different rhythm and architecture. As the afternoon unfolds, the city begins to pull you toward it, Prague assembling on the horizon, its spires and rooftops sharpening with every mile. Navigating into the city center with your guides, through cycling paths and along the river, you feel the extraordinary weight of what you have ridden. You've reached one of Europe's great capitals, earned on two wheels from the Baltic. Tonight, the whole group gathers at the hotel restaurant for a social hour to raise a glass to Prague, then sits down together for dinner, a proper celebration of the first leg of this journey and everything that still lies ahead.

Overview

Prague is exactly the kind of city that rewards a much-deserved day off. Cross the Charles Bridge in the early morning before the crowds arrive and lose yourself in the labyrinthine lanes of Malá Strana. Your guides will be on hand with their favorite local recommendations—hidden courtyards, the best spots for a traditional Czech lunch, and the corners of the Jewish Quarter that many visitors walk straight past. If you feel like simply sitting in a café with a Czech coffee and watching the city move around you, that is equally the right choice. Tonight is yours to explore, a free evening among the restaurants of one of Europe's most beautiful capitals.

Overview

The city releases you gradually, the cycling path along the river easing you out through Prague's southern suburbs before the roads open into the Bohemian countryside, gentle hills, hop fields, and villages that look unchanged since the 15th century. Elevation builds steadily throughout the day in long, consistent waves rather than one sharp climb. South of Prague, the country reveals a quieter self, farmsteads, forest, and church towers on low hills. Along the way you pass through Tábor, the spiritual home of cyclocross, a perfectly preserved Hussite stronghold on a rocky promontory above a lake. From there, the route follows the river to Bechyně, a smaller sister town crowned by a castle above the confluence of the Lužnice and Smutná rivers. Tonight, the group gathers for dinner at the hotel restaurant to share the stories of the day.

Overview

Today takes you from Bohemia into Austria, the route climbing through the Šumava, one of central Europe's great wilderness forests, a vast upland of dark spruce, peat bogs, and river sources straddling the Czech-Austrian border. The riding is demanding and beautiful in equal measure, a long morning of forest paths and river valleys, the landscape growing wilder as you climb. Midway through, the valley narrows and a fairy-tale castle appears on a rock above a bend in the Vltava River—Rožmberk nad Vltavou, one of Bohemia's most perfectly preserved medieval towns, rising without warning from the forest. A lunch stop by the kayak runs of the Vltava provides an ideal midpoint before the final push toward the border. The descent into Bad Leonfelden, an Austrian spa town tucked into the Bohemian highlands, feels like a reward, and the Spa Hotel Bründl, with its pools and wellness facilities, is exactly what the body needs after a day like this. Tonight, dinner is included and at your leisure at the hotel restaurant. Head to the buffet whenever you're ready.

Overview

The Austrian countryside south of Bad Leonfelden is cycling at its most civilized, small lanes through apple orchards and rolling hills, a landscape that feels designed for the bicycle. The riding is steady, the elevation is modest, and the views constantly deliver. As the day progresses the terrain sharpens, the hills taking on a more Alpine character, and then the town of Steyr appears unexpectedly at the confluence of two rivers. A baroque market square, pastel-colored burgher houses climbing toward a castle on the rock above, and two rivers meeting below in a glittering V. Few towns in Austria stop you like this and many travelers speed through on the motorway without knowing it exists. Tonight is yours to explore. Your guides will share their top picks for dinner in town, from riverside terraces to cozy Gasthäuser tucked into the old lanes.

Overview

Make no mistake: today will challenge you. The road south from Steyr climbs steadily and then relentlessly into the foothills of the Alps, the landscape transforming from the pastoral river valleys of Upper Austria into proper mountain terrain, steep forest slopes, narrow valley roads, and switchbacks that demand your full attention and reward it with views that keep getting better. This is the day the Alps announce themselves. You will feel it in your legs and see it in the skyline. The descent into Mariazell, Austria's most important pilgrimage town, is hard won, and the moment the gold spires of the basilica come into view above the valley, set against a ring of Alpine peaks, it will be clear why people have been walking and riding to this place for a thousand years. Tonight, the group comes together for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Raise a glass to the Alps, and the legs that got you here.

Overview

If yesterday was the Alps announcing themselves, today is the Alps delivering on every promise. The route climbs from Mariazell over the Seebergsattel Pass, a high mountain crossing that takes you up through Alpine meadows, past still lake waters, and over a summit that offers views in every direction. The descent into Styria is one of the great cycling moments of the trip, the road following the Mur River along the R2 cycling trail, a superbly engineered path winding between forested mountain walls, the river running green and fast below you. Judenburg, your destination, is a Styrian market town with a medieval watchtower and a welcoming character. Tonight, Schloss Gabelhofen, a historic castle hotel on the edge of town, marks the end of the first Alpine crossing, and we'll get together for dinner in the castle restaurant—a fittingly grand setting to celebrate the mountains behind you and the Adriatic that lies ahead.

Overview

After the Alpine crossing of yesterday, today rewards you with a long, sustained descent, the road following the Mur River south through the Judenburg Valley, the mountains opening and the air warming noticeably as Styria gives way to Carinthia. The landscape softens, broader valleys, sunflower fields, orchards, and the first unmistakable hint of a more Mediterranean character beginning to seep northward from Italy and Slovenia. The riding is 82 miles of sustained momentum, a day when everything feels like it's flowing in the right direction. Villach, your destination, sits at the crossroads of three cultures—Austrian, Italian, and Slovenian—and the city wears this confluence easily, with a relaxed southern atmosphere, a generous stretch of the Drau River, and mountains rising in every direction.

Overview

From Villach, the route crosses into Slovenia and the road begins its ascent toward the Vršič Pass, a mountain crossing built by Russian prisoners of war in 1916, with 50 hairpin turns rising through pine forest to a summit at 5,282 feet. The views from the top are commanding, the Julian Alps in every direction, nothing but sky and stone. The descent into the Soča River Valley is among the finest in Europe. From there, the route follows the valley east and climbs toward the Pokljuka plateau before the final, unforgettable descent to Lake Bled—the lake, the church on the island, the castle on its cliff above, all of it emerging at once as you crest the final ridge. It's one of the most celebrated views in Europe, and arriving here on a bicycle, after a day through some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on the continent, makes it feel like something no one can take from you. Tonight, join your guides for a social hour to raise a glass to the miles behind you, before sitting down together for a replenishing dinner at the hotel's Kavarna restaurant, Lake Bled shimmering outside the windows.

Overview

This rest day is entirely yours. Explore at your own rhythm, linger over lunch by the water, or simply find a terrace and let Bled do what it does best. The lake is the town's axis and everything orbits it. Rent a pletna, the traditional flat-bottomed wooden boat, and head out to the island church for its 99-step climb and the bell you ring for luck. Walk the path around the lake's edge as the light changes through the morning. Climb to the castle and look down at a view that has been drawing visitors for a thousand years, from medieval kings to today's hikers. Ask your guides about the places that rarely make the tourist trail, among them the Vintgar ravine gorge, the quieter northern shore, and the bakeries that make the town's famous cream cake. Tonight, dinner is on your own and your guides will be happy to point you toward their favorite spots in town.

Overview

Today you cross from Slovenia into Italy. Leaving Bled behind, the route climbs first through the Julian Alps, a sustained ascent through mountain scenery that demands everything you have, before the reward arrives as a descent into the Soča Valley, where the river runs impossibly turquoise between limestone walls draped in forest. There are few descents in Europe to match it. The road is close to perfect, quiet and smooth, set against some of the grandest mountain scenery on the continent. The border crossing into Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia region brings an immediate and delicious shift—the language, the architecture, the food, the light, all of it softening into something distinctly Italian. The day ends at Castello di Spessa, a working winery and castle in the Collio wine country, where the hills are covered in vines and the cellar runs deep into the hillside. Tonight, dinner on the castle terrace for an evening few cyclists anywhere ever get to experience.

Overview

Today is a journey through geographies and cultures, the route carrying you from the vineyard hills of Friuli back through Slovenia and into Croatia, the landscape shifting from wine country to the sparkling coastline as you descend toward the Kvarner Gulf. Rolling vineyard roads give way to forested Slovenian hills before the final approach to the sea, the Adriatic appearing below and the air shifting to something saltier and warmer. Opatija, your destination, was the Austro-Hungarian empire's favorite seaside resort, a town of grand Habsburg-era hotels, a palm-lined lungomare, and the kind of faded grandeur that makes you want to sit in a café and order something unhurried. After days in the mountains, the sea feels like an arrival at something entirely new. Tonight, dinner is included at the hotel and enjoyed at your leisure—find your table whenever you're ready and let the sound of the Adriatic do the rest.

Overview

The Adriatic highway south of Rijeka is one of cycling's great wild cards, a road carved into the limestone flanks of the Velebit mountain range, the sea dropping away below and the mountains rising to over 3,280 feet above, the wind coming off the water in gusts that require your full attention. The first 11 miles out of Opatija demand focus with tight city streets and some traffic, your guides leading you through in close formation before the road opens and the drama of the coast takes over. A café stop once you reach Kavranj provides the perfect moment to look back at what you've ridden and appreciate the scale of it. The afternoon is all about the Velebit range, a winding succession of exposed coastal ridges, secluded bays, and rocky inlets, culminating in the tiny village of Jablanac with a few houses, a small harbor, and the ferry point for the crossing to the island of Rab. This is Croatia at its most elemental.

Overview

The day starts on the water. A short ride to Prizna takes you to the 15-minute ferry to the island of Pag, a landscape unlike anything else in Europe: white limestone karst stripped bare by centuries of the bura wind, the island's surface bleached and lunar, the sea on both sides an impossible shade of blue-green. The Pag Bridge brings you back to the mainland and the route south toward Zadar steadily unfolds through Dalmatian farmland and coastal settlements. Zadar, your destination, is a city of extraordinary density, Roman columns, medieval churches, a Venetian old town, and Alfred Hitchcock's favorite sunset—the sun drops into the sea here in a way that seems designed specifically for the end of a great cycling day. Tonight, dinner is at the hotel. You can help yourself to the buffet at your own pace and let the colors of that sunset linger a little longer.

Overview

The road south of Zadar traces one of the Dalmatian coast's great stretches with limestone headlands, hidden bays, and island views stretching to the horizon. The riding surface is excellent and the traffic manageable as the tourist areas thin out. A lunch stop about two thirds of the way along lets you linger on a terrace above the sea before the final approach to Šibenik, where the Krka River estuary announces the old city, a medieval cathedral, Venetian towers, and steep stone lanes climbing from the harbor. This is one of Dalmatia's least-visited old towns and one of its most striking. That's precisely why it's on this route. Tonight at the Bellevue Hotel, the Adriatic and the horizon spill out before you.

Overview

The ride from Šibenik to Split takes you through the heartland of Dalmatia, limestone karst, ancient walled villages, olive groves, and island views that multiply as you move south. The terrain is rolling and satisfying, with a final descent into Split delivering one of the great urban arrivals in the Mediterranean. Split is a city that doesn't sit back and let you admire it from a distance. Diocletian's Palace is not a ruin but a living neighborhood, with restaurants and apartments built into Roman walls that have been inhabited continuously for 1,700 years. The afternoon arrival at the sea-facing park on the Marjan headland makes for a natural cycling finale before your guides take you through the Golden Gate and into the warren of lanes beyond. Tonight, dinner is at the hotel restaurant when the time suits you. You can take your time, explore the old city at dusk, and find your table when you're ready.

Overview

The day begins at Split's port, where a two-hour ferry carries you to Korčula, and from the moment the mainland drops behind, the pace shifts. The island welcomes you with a climb inland, the roads rising through vineyards and pine forest before the sea appears on both sides of Korčula's narrow spine. The climbs and descents are equally gratifying, and the riding throughout has the warm, unhurried character that comes naturally to island roads. Korčula town is a medieval walled city with narrow lanes, a grand cathedral, and defensive towers, on a peninsula so well-proportioned it looks designed rather than accumulated. This is where Marko Polo is said to have been born, and the weight of a city once at the crossroads of the medieval world settles around you. Tonight, the sea is close enough to hear from every window as the whole group comes together for dinner, a fitting close to a day that felt, from first ferry to last bite, like a gift.

Overview

Leaving Korčula by ferry, the route crosses to the Pelješac Peninsula, one of Croatia's great wine-producing regions. The Mali Ston bay opens below as the road descends from the vineyards before carrying you east past the walled city of Ston and its ancient salt pans. The city arrives exactly as it should, old town walls rising from the sea, terracotta rooftops in the afternoon light, limestone cliffs behind. You have cycled here from Copenhagen, over 1,700 miles, and you have earned every stone of it. Tonight begins with a social hour to raise a glass to the moment before the whole group sits down to a celebration dinner, Dubrovnik reached, the Adriatic behind you, and Montenegro, Albania, and Greece still ahead.

Overview

Today belongs entirely to Dubrovnik with a well-deserved rest day and time to explore. Walk just over a mile of city walls in the early morning before the crowds arrive, the Adriatic glittering below, the limestone rooftops spread beneath you. Explore the Stradun, the baroque churches, and the small museums of the Republic of Ragusa. The old city rewards those who simply wander—hidden courtyards, the cable-car viewpoint above the walls, the best seafood on the harbor. The day is yours from here. Tonight, dinner is on your own; your guides will point you toward the top tables in town before you head out.

Overview

Leaving Croatia, the route crosses into Montenegro and one of the trip's most arresting environments. The Bay of Kotor is a drowned river canyon that looks more like a Norwegian fjord than an Adriatic inlet. The road hugs the water's edge, demanding your full attention, the medieval towns of Perast and Kotor appearing one after another with mountains rising sheer from the shore. The ride through Kotor itself is a highlight, the ancient walls and harbour creating one of the most dramatic cycling moments of the entire journey. From there the road climbs before the descent into Budva, a resort town with a compact medieval city perched on a rocky peninsula above the Adriatic. Tonight, dinner is included at the hotel—find your table at the buffet whenever you're ready.

Overview

Today takes the route's most unexpected turn. Around mile 44, you cross into Albania, a country that feels genuinely off the cycling map, with mountain roads that are remote, wild, and arresting. After the coastal variety of Croatia and Montenegro, Albania's northern highlands offer something rarer, a landscape that hasn't been smoothed for tourists, roads twisting through unchanged villages with the Accursed Mountains appearing on the horizon at every turn. Shkodër, your destination, is Albania's cultural heart, where a castle watches over the lake and the café scene welcomes you in from the moment you arrive. This evening, we'll dine at the hotel restaurant.

Overview

Out of Shkodër, the first miles have traffic through town that demands patience and attention, your guides leading the group through in close formation. Once clear of the city, the route opens immediately onto secondary roads threading the Albanian lowlands well clear of the main highway. Farming tracks carry you through a landscape that rarely appears on any cyclist's map, the plains widening as you head south toward the coast. Where the route does share the road, Albania more than compensates—markets, mopeds, a country running entirely at its own pace. Durrës puts you on Albania's central Adriatic coast, the sea once again at your feet. Tonight, you'll enjoy a group dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Overview

Eighty-five miles south from Durrës, the road follows Albania's coast before quieter farmland takes over. This is the day Albania earns its most significant place on the route. As the road descends toward the sea, the light changes, warmer, more golden, unmistakably Ionian, and the Bay of Vlorë opens in a sweeping crescent of deep blue. Lunch at the Geroni bar is perfectly timed. This is where the Adriatic ends and the Ionian Sea begins. Tonight, dinner is included at the hotel restaurant, taken at your own time.

Overview

This is Albania at its best. The day opens with the Llogaraja Pass, a climb that does not apologize for itself. Rising to over 3,000 feet through pine forest, the summit delivers one of the most extraordinary views in the Balkans, the Albanian Riviera laid out in turquoise bays with Corfu visible across the strait. The descent is steep and exhilarating, switchbacks giving way to a coastal road of genuine Mediterranean character, small bays, olive groves, and a stillness that feels like discovery. A café stop at the summit sets up the descent perfectly. Sarandë, at the foot of it all, looks straight across the water at Greece. Tonight, we’ll gather for a celebratory dinner, the Llogaraja Pass behind you, Greece waiting ahead, and one last Albanian evening to mark it all.

Overview

Today the route enters Greece, your tenth and final country. The road climbs into Epirus through limestone uplands and dark gorges, the landscape shifting to something more austere and ancient than anything ridden so far. A lunch stop just across the border marks the moment before the descent toward Ioannina, a city set on a lake ringed by mountains, its Ottoman-era fortress rising from an island at the water's edge. Tonight, dinner is on your own—the tavernas of Ioannina are the ideal introduction to Greece's celebrated hospitality.

Overview

Today is the biggest climbing day of the entire journey and one of the most spectacular. The route circles the lake above Ioannina, the city dropping away behind you as the road climbs into the Pindus mountains on roads that feel entirely owned by cyclists. The Metsovo valley arrives at mile 35, a high mountain town draped in pine forest, where a strategic snack stop sets up the long descent into Thessaly. From there, the landscape opens dramatically, the plains stretching ahead, and rising from them in the distance something that looks entirely unlike anything else you have ridden toward—the rock pillars of Meteora, soaring hundreds of feet straight up from flat farmland, with ancient monasteries perched improbably on their summits. With the hardest days behind you and Athens within reach, we'll raise a glass together at social hour before sitting down to celebrate over dinner.

Overview

There is nowhere quite like Meteora, and today you have it largely to yourselves, unhurried and on foot. The rock pillars were first settled by hermit monks in the 9th century, and by the 14th century a community of monasteries perched on their summits, accessible only by rope-and-basket systems. Six monasteries still function today, and visiting them in the early morning, the light raking across the rock faces, the valley below still in shadow, is one of the defining experiences of Greek travel. Your guides know the paths less traveled and the viewpoints most visitors walk straight past. The day is yours to explore as you wander into a taverna for a long lunch, graze on mezedes through the afternoon, and fully experience the food culture of central Greece.

Overview

Leaving Meteora's extraordinary skyline behind, the route climbs back into the mountains of central Greece on roads that are more remote and rural than anything you have ridden since Albania. The landscape shifts from the dramatic verticality of the rock pillars to something more pastoral, rolling green hills, sheep on unfenced roads, villages where the 21st century arrives gently and slowly. The destination is the Nature Reserve of Lake Plastira, one of Greece's best-kept secrets, an artificial lake ringed by pine-forested mountains that looks more like the Swiss Alps than anything you might expect this far south. Lunch at mile 37 provides an ideal midpoint stop before the descent to the lake, where tonight's hotel sits close to the shore in the village of Neochori. Dinner is included and entirely at your leisure—dine at the hotel restaurant whenever you're ready, or order room service, also included tonight.

Overview

Today begins where yesterday ended, riding the far shore of Lake Plastira in the morning light, the water silver and still, the pine forests reflected in it. The roads around the lake are among the most rewarding of the final week, and the climb away from the water offers views back across the reserve that make stopping feel unavoidable. Beyond the lake the character of the day shifts, the mountains giving way to flatter ground, the landscape becoming more agricultural and more ancient, the roads threading through villages where olive trees line the verges and Byzantine church towers mark every settlement. A lunch stop at the Bohème café at mile 39 provides a well-timed pause before the final run to Loutra Ypatis. Tonight, we'll sit down together at a local taverna, wood-fire cooking in a town that has been welcoming weary travelers since antiquity.

Overview

Today the route enters mythological terrain. The road climbs south from Loutra Ypatis through the Oiti National Park, winding through mountain passes and forested slopes on roads that feel entirely removed from the modern world. Mount Parnassus—sacred mountain of Apollo, where kings and heroes once came to consult the Oracle—grows on the horizon all day, revealing itself in stages as the altitude builds. The riding is demanding but rewarding, the views increasingly extraordinary with every mile gained. You approach Arachova from the north, dropping into the village from above, a perspective most travellers never see. Perched at nearly 3,000 feet, Arachova looks out over the Parnassus range across a view that has been drawing travelers since antiquity. Tonight the group gathers for dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Overview

The descent from Arachova is one of the great final acts of the journey, the mountain roads opening into increasingly dramatic views of the valley below, the Delphi mountains receding behind you, and the ancient plain of Boeotia spreading ahead. The riding is varied and satisfying, an early mountain descent giving way to rolling valley roads through countryside that feels unchanged for centuries, olive groves and wheat fields alternating as you move south. For most of the day the roads belong to you alone. The town of Thebes, Oedipus's city and birthplace of Hercules, marks the final overnight before the endgame—one of the ancient world's great powers, and tomorrow the road leads to Athens. Tonight, we'll sit down to dinner at a local restaurant next to the hotel. Tomorrow: Athens.

Overview

Today is short by design. After 38 days and over 2,300 miles, this final stage is an act of celebration with a 37-mile roll from Thebes to the ancient harbor town of Porto Germeno on the Gulf of Corinth. The fortress of Aigosthena watches over a bay of extraordinary blue-green water, and it is here that the ride ends. A picnic lunch on the shore marks the moment, the last meal eaten on the road with the Corinthian Gulf spread before you and Copenhagen impossibly far behind. A one-hour shuttle then carries you into Athens, the city you've been riding toward since leaving Denmark. Tonight: the city of the Acropolis, the farewell dinner, the stories retold one last time, glasses raised to the road behind you. This is the celebration of an achievement that few cyclists anywhere will ever match.

Overview

A leisurely morning in Athens offers time to reflect on 39 days on the road as you say farewell to your fellow riders. From the Baltic Sea to the shadow of the Acropolis, this crossing has come to a close, but the friendships forged along the way are only beginning to settle in. You will say farewell to your guides at 10:00 AM at the hotel. From here, a private shuttle will transfer you to the airport. Whether you decide to linger a little longer in one of the world's great historic cities or head onward from Athens International Airport, you leave with the rare satisfaction of having crossed an entire continent by bike.