During the corona pandemic, it feels like every second person converted an old bus into a mobile home and went on a journey with it.
A completely different type of travel was also popular for summer vacations: the multi-day bike tour.
From Prague to Vienna or from Leipzig to the Baltic Sea or from Berlin to Hamburg, the goals were varied.
This was also obvious, because cycling has become a real trend in the pandemic: Bicycle manufacturers and shops recorded record sales and those who had their bike repaired often had to wait more than a week for an appointment at the nearest bicycle workshop.
Being out and about by bike, not only in everyday life, but especially when traveling, has meanwhile become a real attitude towards life. Gestalten-Verlag has donated a beautiful new illustrated book to this feeling with “Bikepacking - Discovering the Country by Bike”. Although 40 tours through all parts of the world are presented, the book is by no means a travel guide. It's too big and too heavy for that. Rather, it is something for the coffee table on winter days, for longing leafing through and planning the next big tour.
The 40 suggestions, compiled by editor Stefan Amato and co-author Tom Hill, have it all. There is spectacular island hopping along the mist-shrouded Faroe coast, a trip around the Atlas Mountains in Morocco or a trip to British whiskey distilleries. The authors were also on the road in the USA and Asia and even a small tour in Germany is included. This is a particularly exciting inspiration: why not just do a five-to-nine tour; Get on your bike after work, ride a long lap overnight, camp in a tent or bivouac and get up early the next morning and get back to work in good time? That sounds like a weird idea, but keep in mind that there are also peoplewho go jogging during their lunch break and then are back at work fresh and full of energy. But of course, "Bikepacking" is not a band for beginners. The passengers on the tours, which co-author Tom Hill briefly portrays in his texts, could all be better described as cycling and outdoor freaks. Some work for bike accessories manufacturers, others are photographers, sustainable organic farmers or members of a cycling collective. If you otherwise like to drive around a lake for an afternoon, you might be a little overwhelmed with one of these tours and a fully packed bike.Some work for bike accessories manufacturers, others are photographers, sustainable organic farmers or members of a cycling collective. If you otherwise like to drive around a lake for an afternoon, you might be a little overwhelmed with one of these tours and a fully packed bike.Some work for bike accessories manufacturers, others are photographers, sustainable organic farmers or members of a cycling collective. If you otherwise like to drive around a lake for an afternoon, you might be a little overwhelmed with one of these tours and a fully packed bike.
After all, in small intermediate chapters, the volume offers valuable tips and tricks that cannot be found in any travel guide. For example, how to go about a tour with your family or your partner without everyone getting on each other's nerves from the second day on. Or - particularly important - how to properly cater for yourself. Actually, you always have to learn something like that the hard way. Just like the travel experience, which equipment you really need and how to pack your bike the smartest way. Stefan Amato shows all of this with beautiful, clear watercolor illustrations. Visually, the volume is generally quite impressive, because in addition to these illustrations, “Bikepacking” is above all a wonderful illustrated book. You can see cyclists in front of a spectacular natural backdrop on the Hebrides or in Slovenia, but the photos also give an impression of what it means toTo go on a multi-day bike tour: exhausted and ready, grilling food in the aluminum dish over the fire or warming it up with the camping stove and sometimes the bike simply has to be pushed up a slope or loaded onto a boat because it just doesn't go any further.
The tours are intended for children to follow
You can tell on every page of the book that the editor, Stefan Amato, is very familiar with traveling by bike.
The fact that he sometimes throws in advertisements for his company a little too often gives the whole thing a slight taste.
Sure, the company offers tours and equipment for sale, but in between the band runs the risk of degenerating into an advertorial.
He still gets the bend because the tours are all wonderfully creative and the book provides all the important information you need to follow yourself.
So in the end it is always clear that the tours here are intended for people to follow and that they are written down, but above all the book should be an inspiration to plan a tour yourself.
It doesn't have to go over hill and dale in Tibet, or across the Australian outback.
Why not from Frankfurt to Berlin, Leipzig to Prague or Munich to Lake Constance?
The bicycle, it becomes clear, is a wonderfully flexible companion for every journey and, above all, is fun because you can get from A to B with your own physical strength.
A feeling that is so unique that this band can only give a vague idea of it.