Hi, we’re Brian & Amy Sweet from Winthrop, Washington. In the fall of 2010, after being business owners for eight years, we decided to sell our small town bookstore, rent out our house, and hit the road with our bicycles. We packed our panniers with our camping gear and headed down to the start of our bicycle trip in San Diego on January 25, 2011. We rode our bicycles through the southern U.S. and then up to Washington DC. From there we flew to Portugal and cycled across Europe all the way to the Black Sea. We wanted to see as much of the world as we could, at the pace of slowly rolling bicycle wheels. We met the people, ate the food, and experienced the culture and scenery of many places unknown. After our six months of bicycling, we went on to our next part of our world wide tour to teach English to highschool students in China for the fall and winter months.











Where we have been

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Thursday, July 28, 2011

The End of the Road (for us)

Well, it is the end of our bike tour for now. We went from San Diego, California to Washington D.C. in the United States, and from the southern tip of Portugal, across Europe to Odessa, Ukraine on the Black Sea. We cycled over 7,000 miles; we were on our bikes and in our tent for 170 days; we visited 11 states and 8 European countries.

Our next adventure is to go to China to teach English to teenagers for the next five months. We fly to China on August 12th and have a contract with a recruiting agency, so we don't know which small town in China we will be teaching in until the conclusion of our week long Chinese training and are fit with an appropriate school.  We had the most amazing experiences during the last six months, and yet cannot wait for this next part of our world journey to begin.

This is the end of our blog. Here is a little chronological collage of images that will stay with us most vividly from our bicycle journey.

Dusty California road side.


Gorgeous desert camping


Arizona canyonland


Single digit temperatures in New Mexico - riding in every piece of clothing we have.


Texas wide open spaces


Indulging in famous Texas BBQ



Louisiana Swampland


Eating Cajun crawfish boil with the locals

Officially the deep south over the Alabama state line


General stores like this Alabama one all over the South


Working at 100 year old Falls Mill in Tennessee


Crossing the Appalacians


Hilly Tennessee farmland


Even hillier Portugese terrain


Whitewashed Portugese village


Water fountain in Portugal = drinking water for cyclists


Tiny mud-brick Spanish village


Price fixed menus including a bottle of wine in Spain


Abundant fruit and veg stall


A shepherd with his flock


A bus stop nap to beat the heat in Spain


All time favorite camping spot - high up on the French side of the Pyrenees


French town in the Pyrenees


Abundance in the abundant French bakeries


Good hearty German grub


Riverside riding and the beautiful city of Regensburg Germany


Mini groceries in Czech Republic


Visiting Auchwitz in Poland


Women walking their cows in Ukraine


The prevalent use of horse and cart for transportation in Ukraine


The "roads" of Ukraine

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1 comment:

  1. Barn Bicycle campingAugust 2, 2011 at 9:48 PM

    We had a China bicyclist in our Barn Bicycle campground the other night. It was interesting hear about China life. Sounds like google and most likely blogs do not work over there. We have really enjoyed your blog...I think you should do a China one also!

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