Backpacking trip

**Moros** · 06-14-2008, 21:51

A freind and me are thinking about hiking in a country, from village to village. However we've never done this and we're not sure of a good place. It can't be too expensive, and I guess not to warm. It would also be nice if they'd talk English or French there. Well of course doesn't need to have it as hgis first. But the average guy/gal should be able to talk a bit of this. Also it should be in Europe. We were planning on going in September.

So does anyone have tips as it is our first time, and does anyone have suggestions for destinations?

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 06-14-2008, 21:59

Bavaria is quite nice.

**Ferret** · 06-14-2008, 22:47

Have you looked at the lake district in England? In summer it will be pretty hot and there are some great walks there.

**cmacq** · 06-15-2008, 03:03

After fair Cumbria, you may want a quick trip (by boat) to Innse Gall or the Hebrides. I suggest Mull, Iona, and Staffa. Actually, I hate to admite it but Skye's no less than a waking dream to behold (both clear and cloud); and alone well worth the trip. Some of the Outers are nice as well, but that might make too long a jaunt.

**Moros** · 06-15-2008, 13:33

What about the Isle of Man? Could that be a good place?
How about Scotland or Ireland?

**Adrian II** · 06-15-2008, 14:59

Originally Posted by Elite Ferret

Have you looked at the lake district in England? In summer it will be pretty hot and there are some great walks there.

Highly recommended. Well okay, I did it in 1976 which is quite a long time ago. But it was a great three-week hiking trip: rain and tea and forbidding rocks and tasty scones and deep ice-cold lakes and deep warm pints of beer, steam trains and steam boats, and a Church concert in a schoolroom in Grasmere with (or so we were told...) William Wordsworth' initials carved into a wooden bench.

**cmacq** · 06-15-2008, 16:31

Originally Posted by Moros

What about the Isle of Man? Could that be a good place?
How about Scotland or Ireland?

Right,
I should have said, the Hebrides are the western isles of Scotland.

**Fragony** · 06-15-2008, 17:32

Iceland

**Louis VI the Fat** · 06-16-2008, 12:03

Originally Posted by Moros

not to warm.

English or French

it should be in Europe.

suggestions ?

Belgium?

But seriously. If it's the hiking you're after - as a goal in itself instead of a cheap way of getting from A to B - then I would recommend the Pyrénées. There is a God and on the eight day he created France to supply humans with all the good things in life. One corner of it he created as a hiking heaven, the Pyrénées:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Adrian II** · 06-16-2008, 13:07

Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

Belgium?

You'd be surprised.

One surprise is contained in a 1997 novel titled Bellevue/Schoonzicht, of De kunst van het wandelen ('Bellevue/Schoonzicht, or The Art of Walking') by Flemish authors Koen Peeters and Kamiel Vanhole. It's a novelesque report of their long walking trip along the Brussels Canal, right through the heart of the old industrial quarter that is now totally derelict and practically deserted. Belgium was the first European country to be industrialised after Britain. The images and sounds and colours they evoke - of deserted train stations, gone dark red from corrosion and grown over by vegetation the colour of fresh lettuce, of empty factory halls still echoing the sounds of tough, virile blue collar work, and of old bridges with wood panels and Art Nouveau decorations - are absolutely fantastic. And in the background of this quiet, worthy graveyard made of copper, scrap iron and concrete, there are the constant sights and sounds of the cranes and draglines that are creating the new, post-modern Brussels of diplomats and tourists, 'like giant Tyrannosauri swallowing the remnants of a great civilisation'. Some stark imagery there.

It's something entirely diffferent, I know. That's Belgium for you. Love that country. I've always wanted to do that walk myself, never got around to it.

**rajpoot** · 06-16-2008, 14:24

All right, I'm adding Pyrénées to my must visit list of places. Sounds like everything I've always wanted.

**Moros** · 06-16-2008, 15:13

Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

Belgium?

But seriously. If it's the hiking you're after - as a goal in itself instead of a cheap way of getting from A to B - then I would recommend the Pyrénées. There is a God and on the eight day he created France to supply humans with all the good things in life. One corner of it he created as a hiking heaven, the Pyrénées:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Looks good...

**Samurai Waki** · 06-16-2008, 17:01

God I hate you Louis.

Next stop the Pyrenees!

**cmacq** · 06-16-2008, 17:32

Right, I found this little thing about Skye. Where I live now, there are some good hiking trails. Actually people come here from everywhere to hike. This is from the eastern Superstition Mountains.

I hear it it snowed there in May this year.

This is from the western Supers, which I can see right out my front door. I know this might be too far afield.