I'd really like to know more about how to go about this down to the nitty gritty.
- Train to Sofia, they accept bikes on the trains, you have to buy a ticket for it, but there is no actual bike space, get in at the rear most door, and lock your bike across the rear door that would go to the next carriage if there was one.
- Despite what the timetable says, and thus what the rail planner apps say, you can take your bike on the train from Sofia to Belgrade. You can buy the ticket in Sofia station, note that they only take cash at the international ticket office. They can reserve you a seat, and provide you with a bike ticket, but it is only valid as far as the border with Serbia, once across the border you can buy a ticket for the bike from the guard. Make sure you have Serbian currency for this. This train has no aircon, no catering, and takes ages. Pack accordingly.
- From Belgrade, conclude that Zagreb is cycling distance, so take the largely flat route along the river that follows the railway line. Bump into a Hippy at a bus stop, exchange stories while eating a kitkat and watching migs flying around. Cross the border into Croatia, and realise that Zagreb is ages away still, so get a hotel in the town of Vinkovci.
- Wake up realising that you haven't actually recovered from 36 hours without food in 40°+C heat, and you feel like crap, take train to Zagreb. Same arrangement as train to Sofia they can sell you a ticket for you and the bike but there is no bike space stick it across the door at the back.
- After a nice nights sleep in Zagreb, decide that you might as well try cycling to Ljubljana. Follow the Sava river, bumping into Mikää at a pizzeria just across the border in Slovenia. Discover that slovenia is really pretty, but you're still slow and not 100%, train the final 20k to Ljubljana.
- Laying in a dubious booking.com hotel in Ljubljana, realise that you're mentally utterly fucked and you kinda want to be around people who can related to what is going on, as social media is a dumpster fire. Decide to head for CP3. Book train from Ljubljana to Innsbrook. Randomly bump into Frank who's wrapped his bike in a bin bag, and against all odds had the misfortune to get not only onto the same train as me but into the same coach. Exchange war stories. Night in Innsbruck.
- Cycle the 100k to CP3. Realise there is a hill at the end wimp out and take a bus the final 15km. Overtake hippy on the bus. Try to persuade Austrian traffic police to give hippy a speeding ticket, but they claim that at 9kph there is no way they could do it, even as a joke.
- Spend 2 days at CP3, help out on the desk, greet riders, chat to other scratchers and volunteers, chat to Anna, come to terms with wtf I have done.
- Hitch hike to the top of the pass, cycle all the way down to Germany, Catch train to Mannheim.
- Decide that it's a good idea to try and ride the final 500km home, it's all down hill along the river right? Get 12km out of town, shelter from a massive cloud burst in a bus shelter. Accidentally drop bike derailer side down. Discover that you now have gears -1 through 10, rather than 1 through 11, and after getting chain out of spokes, ride slowly to the station, find all IC class trains are fully booked for bikes for the day, so proceed to take 7 regional trains the rest of the way home.
That was the route I took.
If I was to do it again as a simple I just want to get home fast, the train I got on in Ljubljana actually started in Zagreb, and it went all the way to Frankfurt, which has direct connections to the Netherlands (ICE, if bike bagged, change at Osnabruck or Dusseldorf otherwise). There is a night train you can take that goes all the way to Ljubljana from Belgrade, I haven't worked out the precise connection times tho. There is an alternative route from Sofia to Bucharest, then Budapest, Wien, Munchen, and what ever German IC train works.
If I successfully make it to Burgas this year, I haven't worked out what my plan is to get home. A flight to Brussels is quick, and even bought at short notice not too expensive, but finding a bike box may be hard. Or I may try the Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Wien route...
Anyway, this is probably stretching the limits of staying on topic for a tcr thread. I hope that it doesn't attract the ire of grumpy PM's. Maybe if you have questions we should fork this section of the thread?
J