Europe Hiking Inn to Inn

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Permalink Reply by Emily Courtney on July 13, 2009 at 3:07pm

I've never taken a Walkabout in Europe, but I certainly aspire to. When I'm ready to start planing I hope there will be lots of inviting stories told here to serve as inspiration.

Michael Marti, one of the original members of the Walkabout community, shared his inn-to-inn hiking in Europe adventure with us in his post about the VCA:

"In May and June of last year (2007) we completed the Via Claudia Augusta Roman route hike. It was everything we hoped for and more. We traveled a total of 502 miles. The trip started in Altino, Italy (close to Venice) and ended in Donauwoerth, Germany (north of Augsburg). Took 47 days, averaging about 11 miles per day. Three days we did not hike due to injuries of just relaxing. We followed the Via Claudia Augusta Bikeline detailed maps all the way and almost never got lost. The weather was good; rained only 4 days and of that time only one day all day. Temperatures ranged from 40-90 degrees F. The early mornings were the most enjoyable. After a huge breakfast we generally were on the road before 8AM. Stopping for a long lunch break, we would continue on until the temps got too hot. The trip took us through three countries, Italy, Austria and Germany. We asked directions many times and could not have been successful without Gerlinde's Italian and German language capability.

We had a new adventure each day as 80% of the area traveled we had not seen before. Very small towns and lots of farm area which is generally not seen in detail when traveling by car or even bike. The VCA maps take you through just a few of the larger cities and generally follow rivers valleys. We traveled asphalt most of Italy as the bike trails there are not as well established as they are in Austria and Germany. We saw many day bikers, a few cross country bikers and only two two cross country hikers, one traveling with a donkey. We visited several museums and stopped at many travel information spots. To our knowledge no one else has ever done this trip using the Via Claudia Augusta mapped routes on foot." -Michael Marti

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Permalink Reply by Tom Courtney on July 14, 2009 at 7:50am

For over 1,000 years pilgrims have walked The Way of Saint James, El Camino de Santiago. There are many routes, but they all end at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. We met Nancy Reynolds, host of the Point Reyes Hostel, when we took a walkabout in Point Reyes National Seashore this summer.

Nancy hiked El Camino de Santiago once. She now plans to spend a year hiking and living on the pilgrimage route. Visit the blog of her journey

Here is another great site for information on El Camino de Santiago

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Permalink Reply by Emily Courtney on November 30, 2009 at 11:12am

Walkabout member Andy Cohn shares his experience of hiking inn to inn in Tuscany.

"In October, 2008 my wife and I did a 6 day, 60 mile inn to inn jaunt across the southern part of Tuscany. This turned out to be our dream vacation. We started at a tiny town called Chiusure, about a 45 minute bus ride from Siena, and from there walked to Buonconvento, Montalcino, Castelnuovo dell'Abate, Bagno Vignoni, San Quirico, Pienza, and finished up in Montepulciano. Speaking not a word of Italian, we nevertheless had a fantastic time. The hiking and scenery is terrific, and the people are wonderfully gracious and helpful -- even though, off in the country, no one speaks English. We made no reservations in advance but found affitacamere (like b&b's) or agriturismi (farm houses which rent rooms or apts.) to stay in each night. These are all hilltop towns, beautifully preserved. Great places to eat and drink every night. We were guided by a fantastic book called Eating and Drinking in Tuscany and Umbria, by James Lasun and Pia Davis (available through Amazon). They lay out each of these walks in wonderful detail, and offer really helpful suggestions about where to stay and (of course) where to eat. The book really contains about all the information you need to know in order to do this trip, and besides covering our route, they have another 35 more suggestions for hikes in these regions. Their web site, which now includes my detailed notes on our trip, is www.walkingandeating.com. The 3 zillion pictures my wife took can be found at http://web.mac.com/seekate/iWeb/Italy%202008/Florence.Siena.html"

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Permalink Reply by Emily Courtney on November 30, 2009 at 11:17am

Another great story of inn to inn hiking from member Andy Cohn:

"After exploring Tuscany from inn to inn in 2008, this past summer my wife and I hiked the length of the Cotswold Way, a 104 mile national trail across (naturally) the Cotswolds in the southwestern part of England. The trail starts in Chipping Camden and ends up in Bath (or vice versa). This is Jane Austen country, as picturesque a landscape as exists in Great Britain. Most of the hike follows an escarpment, so the views are often panoramic. Although one never ascends very high, the trail itself is constantly up and down, with a 10,000 or 13,000 foot elevation gain (depending on which web site you trust). We did the length of the trail in 7 1/2 days, but if I had known how much climbing was involved I might have stretched the trip out another day or two. The trail passes through many towns and hamlets that seem like they haven't changed at all in 200 years. Figuring that accomodations might be scarce, I reserved b&b's well in advance. Unlike Italy, where you have to really dig for your information, everything you could possibly want to know about this hike, including accomdations, can be found on the official web site (and its links), which is: http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Cotswold/index.asp
We enjoyed the walking tremendously, and each town we stayed in always featured at least one pub, with good pub food and lots and lots of good beer. My wife's photos (of the last 5 days only) are at http://web.mac.com/seekate/iWeb/The%20Cotswold%20Way%202009/Cotswol..."

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