Bøger af Tomas Belcik

As the title reads, "Hokkaido on Two Wheels" is a cyclist's guide to Hokkaido, Japan's Northern Frontier. Discover where in Hokkaido to ride with detailed insights into four key areas: Cycling Sapporo: Explore the bustling streets of Sapporo, a vibrant city that blends modernity with tradition. Navigate through its dynamic urban landscape and outlying areas.Wakkanai and the Extreme North: Conquer the northern frontier, including Cape Soya, Japan's northernmost point. Experience the thrill of cycling where untamed beauty meets the resilience of nature.Shiretoko National Park and the East: Immerse yourself in the serene landscapes of Shiretoko National Park. Bicycle through its pristine wilderness, witness breathtaking views, and connect with nature only Hokkaido can offer.Furano Valley and the Center: Cycle through the picturesque, vast valley adorned with lavender fields and wildflowers. Traverse the heart of Hokkaido from the Blue Pond to the smoking caldera of Mt Tokachi.Written by a seasoned, avid cyclist and world traveler, with 35 published cycling guides to destinations all over the world, "Hokkaido on Two Wheels" stems from the author's fourth extensive journey in Japan. This is your guide to the allure of Hokkaido!The book outlines 22 stages, complete with GPS tracks. Seamlessly navigate between the four highlighted regions and back to the starting point of your tour. Gain more insight into each of the 22 stages and their respective areas in beautiful and informative pictures, 140 images total.Whether you're an experienced cyclist or a newcomer to the world of bicycle travel, "Hokkaido on Two Wheels" is your indispensable companion for planning your own Hokkaido cycling adventure. ** Please beware, this version of Hokkaido on Two Wheels is printed on "Standard Paper", a definitely lesser quality paper where the images are considerably washed out. Chose the more expensive version of the book printed on "Premium Paper" if you prefer images in high contrast, glossy and vibrant.

Cycling Tuscany and Umbria samples the experience and charm traveling in two of Italy's most celebrated regions by bicycle.The author takes you from Florence to and around Chianti, through Radda, Panzano and Greve, via Gaiole to Siena, then on south through Val D'Orcia to San Quirico, Montalcino, and Pienza. He continues southwest through Sorano and Sovana to Pitigliano, a mere fifty kilometers from the sea. Umbria and its opposite corner of the route is next. He heads east to Orvieto, Todi, Spoleto, Assisi, and via Perugia to Lake Trasimeno. At last it's back to Tuscany, to Arezzo, Montevarchi and into the foothills of Pratomagno. With the landscape so stunning, he crosses Chianti once again en route back to Florence.Tomas Belcik is an author of many cycling guides. Cycling Tuscany and Umbria is a full-color travel pictorial of an amazing passage across Central Italy.Containing 180 photographs with informative and entertaining captions, details of stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the journey-related GPX cycling tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler.

From Taroko Gorge to Taipei 101, the Mazu festivals and pilgrimage temples, recognized by UNESCO as a world intangible or living heritage, Taiwan has become popular for an endless variety of incredible food, and as of last also a world-class cycling destination on account of having popularized cycling to the masses.Born of the love for cycling and a cycling network of local bike routes, Taiwan created Cycling Route No. 1. as the route of choice for most to circumnavigate the island.Cycling Taiwan is a full-color travel pictorial, a photo-essay, a documentary, and a guidebook with all the info you need to set out on much the same journey around Taiwan as the author did.It follows a counterclockwise route around the island, first cycling south from Taipei along the West Coast. Propelled by the powerful winds of the Typhoon Alley and visiting Taiwan's colorful temples at Hsinchu, Daijia, Lukang, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, you ride to the southernmost point of Taiwan. Turning north, you traverse the southern mountains en route to the East Coast and up from there you ride back to Taipei.Written by an avid cyclist and a photographer, with many cycling guides to his name, an adventure and cultural travel professional with an architectural background and four decades of travel throughout Asia and the rest of the world, Cycling Taiwan provides an insightful background for a richer and more rewarding travel experience on this extraordinary island.Containing 472 photographs with informative narrative and captions, cycling details of route stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the route-related GPX cycling tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler.Above all, this is not only a cycling tour pictorial of Taiwan but also a visual appetizer to Taiwan's mind-boggling variety of food as nowhere else you can say "Ride to Eat" and "Eat to Ride" has as much meaning as in Taiwan!

CYCLING CUBA recounts a bicycle journey around Cuba Oriente. Contemplating bicycle travel in Cuba, to see Cuba by bicycle on your own, on a self-guided and self-supported trip, is an ideal way to see Cuba, whether traveling solo, or traveling with your spouse or a friend as opposed to any kind of organized travel, group travel above all.CYCLING CUBA is a stage-by-stage account of the journey and a full-color 802 photographs travel pictorial, a photo-essay, a documentary, and a guidebook with all the info you need to set out on much the same journey around Eastern Cuba as the author did.Start your trip in Holguin and ride to Gibara, a small sleepy fishing port and a place of historical interest. From Gibara, pedal a quiet highway along the bay, then cut across a remote agricultural back-country. The scenery is idyllic. Past Guardalavaca, ride up and down scenic hills until the road plunges downhill to the coastal plain and Banes. Riding through agricultural flatland of sugarcane, bananas, and scrubland with roaming cattle, you'll reach Mayarí, another pleasant town.Cycling the coastal road from Moa to Baracoa, you come across entire hillsides and shoreline flats carpeted in broken and uprooted palms, their trunks carpeting the landscape as if deposited there by design. Riding past river inlets and coves, you enter the remote, hurricane-battered, yet charming outpost of Baracoa, Spain's first colonial capital in Cuba.After you soak up Baracoa's charm, then take off to tackle the La Farola road, the highlight of your trip. Climbing and descending the winding mountain road, you traverse the lush mountains of the east and descend to an arid yet ravishingly beautiful south coast. As you pedal toward Playa Imias, cacti are the only sign of vegetation, but the coastal panorama in either direction is stupendous. Having your fill of the coastal scenery, you begin a scorching hot ascent into the arid interior, and skirting the Guantanamo Bay you arrive in Guantanamo.Another stage brings you back to the ocean at Santiago de Cuba. Then it's back inland. After a stop at the El Cobre sanctuary, Cuba's most sacred pilgrimage shrine, you climb again before you begin a gradual downhill to the plains en route to Bayamo. Following day, an easy ride, your last cycling day in Cuba, brings you back to Holguin.The narrative and the pictorial are based on a journey in January-February 2017, so in a pre-pandemic era. Fast forward to September 2020, and mainland Cuba, as most of the world remains shut to tourism. But Cuba announced it may reopen to tourism by the end of the year. If so, that would be great news to tourists from all over the world, including the Americans, because self-supported bicycle travel may be one way how to comply with the regulations in place under Trump administration. Things could change under Biden, but regardless who will win the elections in November, discover what's it like to travel in Cuba on a self-guided and self-supported bicycle tour.Aside from Trump and the pandemic, bicycle travel around Cuba Oriente will be much the same for some time after the pandemic. Cuba is changing, but slowly, and that's part of its appeal for you, the Cuba traveler.Written by an avid cyclist and a photographer, with many cycling guides to his name, an adventure and cultural travel professional with an architectural background and four decades of travel throughout the world, CYCLING CUBA provides an insightful background for a richer and more rewarding travel experience on this Caribbean island.Containing 802 photographs with informative narrative, cycling details of route stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the route-related GPX cycling tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler.

Modern geographers tell us the Balkans is in neither Europe nor Asia. They consider the two the old concepts rooted in cultural variables and not physical ones and call "it" "Eurasia." The EU politicians in love with integration and open immigration of cultures from anywhere eat the concept up and want our approval. Yet the Balkans is precisely rooted in cultural variables that are a sensitive subject.Regardless of what may be the correct view on the matter, what countries are part of the Balkans, the author had no intention to ride through them all. The route he cycled from Prague to Athens was a 2700 kilometer long trip to the sea; not a trip to the beach but a journey from the heart of Europe to the coast of the Aegean. Whether you're a student of European history and culture or not, want to learn about the Balkans, or only Greece lures you, Cycling Prague to Athens is a 29-stage pictorial of an amazing passage. It takes you through Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Greece. You learn a few things about the Balkans, and you discover what it's like to travel here by bicycle. The pictorial will sort the itinerary out for you and help you decide whether you want to undertake a similar journey. Photographed and written by an author of many bicycle touring adventures, the photographic coverage of the journey follows the individual stages. With 134 photographs, informative and entertaining captions, details of stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the journey-related GPX tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler.

Cycling to Odessa is a journey from the heart of Europe to the Black Sea. En route you marvel at the many mountain ranges of Slovakia. You travel across the endless Great Hungarian Plain. You cross the Carpathian Mountains twice-the first time in eastern Moravia and western Slovakia, and the second time in northern Transylvania and Bukovina of central Romania. Upon crossing Bukovina, you descend into the rolling vastness of Moldavia. Once across the Prut River, you enter the historical region of Bessarabia. Past the Dniester River, you enter Ukraine and its flat Black Sea hinterland. In Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine, you cycle through the territory of the former Soviet Union. Photographed and written by an author of many bicycle touring adventures, the photographic coverage of the journey is an 24-stage pictorial of an amazing passage across Eastern Europe. With 80 photographs, informative and entertaining captions, details of stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the journey-related GPX tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler.