Cycling Across Europe for Four Months | Anna Ruddiman Artwork

Seek Travel Ride

Want more adventure in your life? Hear real adventure travel stories and practical insights from people who explore the world in bold and meaningful ways by bike, on foot, and close to home.

Seek Travel Ride is an adventure travel podcast for anyone curious about travel and looking to bring more adventure into their everyday.

Host Bella Molloy chats with adventurers and everyday people about bicycle touring, cycle touring, bikepacking, long-distance cycling, and other human-powered adventures. You’ll also hear slow travel, cultural discovery and micro-adventure stories that show adventure can happen anywhere.

Expect travel stories, helpful advice and practical tips you can use to shape your own adventures, whether you’re dreaming of world travel, planning your first bike travel journey, or starting small with something close to home.

Remember it doesn't need to be epic to be an Adventure!

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Seek Travel Ride

Cycling Across Europe for Four Months | Anna Ruddiman

January 24, 2026 • Bella Molloy • Season 3 • Episode 160

0:00 | 1:39:14

What would you do if you suddenly had four months free to take a bike adventure?
For London-based outdoors lover Anna Ruddiman, the answer was simple: buy a touring bike off Facebook Marketplace, catch a ferry to Spain with her girlfriend Fran, and start pedalling east across Europe.

In this episode, Anna shares how that idea turned into a four-month ride through 11 countries, wild heatwaves, Balkan backroads and dreamy alpine passes. Along the way they wild camped in secluded spots, rerouted around wildfires, dodged territorial shepherd dogs, and survived on a heroic amount of pesto pasta.

We cover:
• The serendipity of both losing work & suddenly having time
• Buying second-hand touring bikes for the trip
• Why rigid planning doesn’t work for long bike travel
• Ferry crossings, river valleys & heatwaves
• The wild camping learning curve (and mysterious eyes in the dark…)
• Mechanical drama & flat tyres in Albania
• The shepherd dogs outside Athens that forced a 60 km detour
• Finishing the trip in Turkey and what comes next
• Why comparison steals the joy from adventure

Route Highlights:
UK → Spain → France → Italy → Slovenia → Croatia → Bosnia → Montenegro → Albania → Greece → Turkey

Follow Anna on Instagram - @annaruddiman

Music Pick:
Anna adds “Oysters In My Pocket” by Royal Otis to the Seek Travel Ride playlist.

Check out the Manzanita Cradle from Old Man Mountain

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