European End to End

[Lady Cavendish]

Hi

This is a consideration for me now.

The spanish end looks fine, but anyone ever done this, or know anyone who has got a bike back from Nordkapp in Norway without getting on a flight?

I'd really like to do this as some sort of charity event thing, but the logistics of getting back from Nordkapp look almost impossible without flying. Or how do you fly a bike over without a bikebox? Can you do that? #naive

[Pickled Onion]

Airports often sell cardboard bike boxes for a few Euros, and some airlines have been known to allow bikes to travel naked.

Alternatively, you could post one to yourself poste restante, or to your hotel if you are booking in advance.

[Lady Cavendish]

Don't bikes just get smashed up in cardboard though?

[fuaran]

There are a variety of ferries along the coast of Norway. The Hurtigruten goes along most of the northern coast, not sure how close it goes to Nordkapp.

Or most long-distance buses in Norway can take bikes.

[Lady Cavendish]

Looking at it, the most logical thing to do is to buy a cheap bike box off ebay and bin it when I get to alta in Norway

[Saracen Sean]

I did this four years ago. I avoided the stress of flying by getting the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao and then cycling down to Tarifa to start the end to end. When I arrived at Nordkaap I then cycled down to Kiruna where I got the train to Malmo, then made my way to Esbjerg in Denmark to get the ferry back to Harwich.

Here is a map of the route I took. The blue line is the European end to end, the others are other tours I have ridden
 




If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask

[tiermat]

There are a variety of ferries along the coast of Norway. The Hurtigruten goes along most of the northern coast, not sure how close it goes to Nordkapp.

Or most long-distance buses in Norway can take bikes.

Yes, but only one that, now, goes to the UK.

Visqueen is your friend, to answer the OP. Available at all diy stores, relatively cheap and light.

It is all I use to protect my bike during air travel (and have only suffered one bit of damage, a dented rim (which was on a disc braked bike so didn't really matter)so far)

[Gus]

Hurtigruten ferry comes to Honningsvåg, that is around 20 miles from the Cape.

I just checked what SAS says about flying with bikes, they recommend bikeboxes, but it's not mandatory.
Dropping a bikebox in Alta won't be a problem if you choose to use one. (DO USE IT !!!!)