About me and this journey
Hello, thank you for checking out my blog,
as you many know I have set myself a “bit” of a challenge this summer, and will be grateful for any support and encouragement that you can give to me so that I can achieve my goal. Let me give you a bit of background information on myself and what I am planning to do.
My name is Rebecca and I will cycle for the benefit of "Fondation Cancer" and for fun, (apparently), from Luxembourg to Lisbon. Not quite the relaxing beach holiday that most people will partake in this year! Actually I will cycle from Niederanven, the commune I live in, to its twinned town in Sesimbra.
I took a Mini-Sabbatical of 10 weeks this year and and I was looking for something to do that would be fun and have some kind of a “social” or environmental aspect to it. During the dark months of Autumn last year I fell in love with the idea to rent a house on the Azore islands. I dreamt of spending time sea kayaking, stand up paddling, whale watching, reading and chilling.
The idea came to me to take the opportunity to cycle and not fly to Lisbon and take the plane from Lisbon to the Azores. After much deliberation with the enormity of it all, the idea slowly grew.
And now it will all come a reality
I will use this little Adventure to raise funds and awareness for a Luxembourgish Charity.
PLEASE help me raising funds for "Fondation Cancer."
Why for "Fondation Cancer"
I wanted to support a Charity that is Luxembourgish but also benefits people in other countries. (Foundation Cancer supports research as part of their engagements).
We probably all know somebody who suffers or has suffered from Cancer and the older we get the more likely it is that we have to cope with losing a relative or a dear friend who suffered from cancer.
I lost my wonderful very close friend Sven, who had Leukemia at the fragile age of 9 years – the little girl I was back then was unable to go to school for weeks as she was grieving the loss so much. Counseling could have helped to understand and cope better but it was just not available at that time.
Fondation Cancer offers counseling for patients and relatives in their premises, they publish information material, and they support research.
I have had the chance to go and talk to them in their office and I am truly amazed by their work. Thank you very much Claudia Gabel for showing me around and taking time for me.
They have 4 Psychologist and a nurse available to consult free of charge.
It’s good to know they are there, to spread the word and to support their work.
The Route in Detail
The path I follow will be roughly around 3300 km in total.
The plan is to cycle wherever possible along the EuroVelo (EV) cycling routes. EuroVelo is a network of 15 long distance cycle routes connecting and uniting the whole European continent.
I will start cycling along the Mosel from Remich via Metz to Nancy .
From Nancy I will cycle along the "Canal de la Marne au Rhin" to Strasbourg. From there I will join the Alsace wine road cycle route (EV 5) which will take me through about a hundred wine producing villages all the way to Moulhouse.
From Moulhouse I will follow the EV 6 which connects the Alsace to the Atlantic by following successively the Rhein-Rhône-canal, the Doubs and Saône valleys, the canal du center in Burgundy before joining the Loire à Vélo, the last wild river in Europe, until the river mouth in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins.
From there I will join the EV 1 along the Atlantic coast of France all the way to the Spanish boarder.
In Spain I will cycle the Camino del Norte or Northern Way. It is the Camino route taking pilgrims along the Northern coast from the Basque Country, across Cantabria, Asturias and on to Santiago de Compostela. I am very much looking forward to meeting some pilgrims and perhaps to stay in one of the monasteries and to hear everyone’s stories of their travels and adventure along the Camino del Norte.
The last part of the trip will be along the Portuguese Atlantic coast following the EV1 to Lisbon and then finally to Sesimbra, which is a twin community of Niederanven where I live.