A pair of avid cyclists have overcome pandemic, heat and injury to complete a start-stop trip whose GPS track shows as a 600-mile-long image of a bicycle across the European continent. The trip, which started in 2019, ended August 9th.
The 4,500-mile route they traveled to complete the image crosses seven countries and was intended to raise awareness of how cycling can help the climate emergency, according to the pair whose hand-built bicycles also carried their dog along for the trip.
The couple, who live in Lincolnshire, England, started their planning by tracing a bicycle shape onto a map of Europe, and then using Google Maps to create an actual itinerary. They had to shift the location several times before settling on a final route; the first attempt would have required them to cycle through Paris’s busy CDG airport.
I love this. And illustrates what I’ve long thought, there is no “best” when it comes to planning.