In September 1990 my husband and I did a two week European tour for our honeymoon, but we did it on our own. We went with 2 bikes, some Michelin maps and no itinerary except a flight into Paris on day 1 and a flight out of Munich Germany on day 14. My husband is one of those independent sorts that can get you out of any jam and is a good mechanic with a good sense of direction so I will follow him just about anywhere!

We flew into the Paris airport with our bikes in boxes. You could check them free back then as a piece of luggage. We put our bikes together in the airport and off we went. We nearly got killed in the Paris traffic :-) but quickly found our way to more rural roads. We spent a few days in southern France then hopped on a train to get over the Alps into Italy and spent the majority of our time in northern Italy then eventually (using trains) ended up with a little time in Switzerland and Germany before heading home.

Both my husband and I know a little bit of high school French but no Italian whatsoever, but that was part of the fun. We used our little English-Italian book a lot! Everyone in Germany spoke English so that was a bit of a disappointment, but the beer there made up for it!

We spent less than $100 a day for the two of us on rooming, food and other expenses and that met our newlywed budget. It was the best trip of my life!