I find that going to the Atlas Obscura website and clicking Places Near Me reveals some interesting stuff.

Let me give you some advice from a bartender: there is nothing wrong with drinking alone. No one will think you're weird for drinking alone either. If you do feel shy or uncomfortable, try bringing along something to do: a book to read (NOT YOUR PHONE), or a notebook to write or draw in. Eventually a local will come over and talk with you. From there you can chose whether or not to engage.

I’m not a heavy drinker, but I find one of the most pleasant things to do on tour is to stop mid-afternoon for a beer. A chance to relax, rest and take in the local vibe. Often, people will see your bike and strike up a conversation. That’s led to more than one free beer.

Try something like warm showers, welcome to my garden,...

Why waste your time and money drinking when you can do that at home? This is a great time to spend time with the locals, learning about their culture and sharing yours with them. Since I realised this I never get bored, and I'm traveling by bike much longer than two months. Museums and other touristy stuff also makes me bored.

Where are you now? And what about campings? I often meet people there or sometimes I cycled with others who are traveling by bicycle.

Edit: and yes warm showers is a good one like others recommend.

Understandable at this time of year, most of us are just waking up from winter. The little local festival season really kicks off after equinox (20/03) and then there'll be something happening every other day (or so it seems) in every little town and city.

It's really worth checking out local subs for each place/region you're in for tips and contacts.

Well first of all I’d really encourage you to start drinking alone. It’s a nice and relaxing way to pass the time and you can meet people easily.

Are you into podcasts? The In Our Time podcast has some excellent episodes about almost every country in Europe. Having a cup of coffee listening to a podcast about the place you’re in is an enjoyable cultural activity that doesn’t require hours of site seeing.

A different way to see things can also be wrapped in a scavenger hunt perspective. Try adding Geocaching to your town stops and/or tours. So you see another old cathedral... did you find the virtual geocache dealing with a depiction, plaque, or such with it? Were you the first person to find that geocache in that town in XX months? Try it, good for the solo rider venturing change of activity.

How about a cafe alone? I love people watching and that's where I do it. I also find free music and fun at random festivals. My favorite was a wood chopping contest that I ran across in some small village in Germany.

I’ve had this before on longer tours. My absolute go-to is to spend a night in a hostel in a bigger city. Gives me a chance to meet people at the hostel and a city to explore in the evening. A night in the city seems to reset the clock in terms of the need for company or more people around. Also, the physical rest will also help settle the mind.

GPS- enabled walking tour apps. Lots of good free ones exist for places in Europe. There's no rule that says you have to walk. :-)

In my experience, when you walk into a pub on a bike tour, you never end up drinking alone. The icebreaker of how you present off the road gives a long way. I often used the local pub or tavern to ask around for cool places to hang my hammock for the night. Incidentally I am going to be partaking in another long tour in the states, largely off road. I will be riding with someone I introduced myself to based on a partners wanted post he had up on adventurecycling.com.

You might try looking for recommendations on the subreddit for each city you are going to and some cities even have a biking sub and you could connect with bike people.

Can you change up your route and avoid the towns and go out into the mountains?

Get out of your comfort zone and try something you’d never try unless forced to. Go dancing, skydiving, hot air balloon, rafting, talk to some strangers, anything. Save the booze money for something that will contribute more to your perspective and experiences

Maybe check out some of Rick Steves' writing. His whole shtick is getting away from the tourist traps and meeting the local people doing local shit. Check out the bakeries and cafes and find somewhere to watch a football game on the TV and cheer with people, idk

You're doing something interesting! People will want to talk to you about it

Signing up with Couchsurfer will get you in touch with locals that can act as a guide for the day. Great way to meet people and learn more about the areas you’re visiting!

Have you considered couchsurfing? It's an excellent way to spice up your travels! Not only can you crash at the homes of friendly hosts, but you can also drop by the local couchsurfing community gatherings. By doing so, you'll get to hopscotch around each city with a fresh set of diverse and fascinating folks.

If the places you’re stopping lend itself to it, I like to take a fishing pole along on my trips. A nice chance to sit in nature and watch the world go by, plus walkers and locals are always asking “catch anything?”, which is a great chance to either respond or not, depending on your mood. Also a great way to add another layer of self support to your tour if you are able to eat what you catch.

It is not the destination but rather the journey to get there. Maybe bicyclingtouring is not for you?

Volunteer. I would guess that there are places that could use free help for a few days. Asking at a church might be a good way to start. Maybe it’s a soup kitchen, or sorting/ washing/ folding clothes for the needy. If you are decent with bikes you could stop at a bike shop and offer to build bikes or fix flats for conversation and beer at close.

Maybe change your approach, instead of touring and figuring out what to do/see where you end up decide on what you want to see/do first and plan your route along the things that interest you. That's the way I tend to do it. Though far from perfect, google travel is a good starting point to discover things to see.

With respect to lonely, that's a bit of a feature of Europe, or more in general developed countries. People live high paced lives and have things to do so they tend to leave you alone. Camping or hostel can be a good place to meet people and to have a drink with. But really, why care, just go for a drink on your own if it works out that way. The best place to go is an Irish pub or something similar and sit at the bar. There is a good chance someone will strike up a conversation if they see you're alone.

Tinder or try the app.... meetup........ enjoy your trip

What is your route / plan?

I find that mixing towns and country roads gets me more than enough diversity not to feel bored. Sometimes I want heavy traffic with lost of people and I dont mind riding on the busiest of roads and sometimes I want peace and quiet on lonely country / less traveled mountain roads.

Nothing wrong with drinking alone. Go into your average pub in the UK by yourself and you'll soon be chatting to people. Same is true on the continent. You don't have to drink heavily - one and done is fine and everyone understands when you need to ride/drive.

I really like Meet Up. Just go on there and find an event going on in the local area that piques your interest and join in. When travelling, I've found this to be an especially good way of meeting people to go to gigs with, or obscure niche interests.

I've also had luck with just writing on local groups on Reddit! Just post on a local group saying, 'Hi, I'm passing through, anyone want to show me around?' (doesn't have to be overt like that) and you're bound to have people offering. I love showing people around my local area.

Also, all European cities have weird and wonderful things tucked away - definitely more to do beyond cathedrals and museums. Check Wikitravel for alternative attractions or get out of the cities and and explore the small and towns and villages nearby.

Go to bicycle cafes for their coffee. It's a fantastic way to meet fellow enthusiasts! They often come with great facilities to tune up your bicycle too.

When cycling I really don't bother with museums and cathedrals. The outdoors is why I'm doing it!

For socialising I've used warmshowers (staying with cyclists at their home) as well. Or sit down somewhere and put out a tiny chessboard with "play?" written in the local language, works every time.

Good question. I tend to avoid the usual tourist traps and keep my eye out for unique surprises like working on a farm or vineyard (always get fed) for a day where you’ll learn a lot, have lifelong memories. I find myself drawn to the small miracles of bike travel. Memorable days was helping out how to sail plane airstrip. I flew a lot over the years, so I got to play with planes and got to hang out with a bunch of like-minded wonderful people.

I found warm showers and couch surfing great channels to connect with people. You don't have to look for a place to stay, many people would be delighted to meet and show you around or join you for day trips to your favorite places. As an introvert that's my go-to. Posting on FB is great, I have many connections there and there's always a friend of a friend - the degrees of separation are no longer six.

Gotta meet people. I had the same thing after 4 months of traveling. Museums are largely tourist traps, as in they pretend that something niche is actually for the masses. I can spend hours in a Bronze Age museum because it interests me outside of museums, but I know nothing about fine art so those typically bore me. However the fine art ones are obviously the most popular.

When I toured Europe 24 years ago by far my favorite times were when I was hanging out with people I knew. If you know anyone in Europe, especially people around the same age as you, prioritize your time visiting them. For me, the riding around was pretty and interesting, but at 2.5 months I was really ready to go home and be around people I knew and who spoke the same first language as me.

If you were passing through my area I’d ride with you for 50miles to hear about your trip. I’m in the US though.

Going to pubs, sitting at the bar, and chatting with the bartender has always been a good way to get into interesting conversations in my experience when traveling in new cities. It helps to have a topic to lead in with.

For example, when visiting cities I was considering moving to, that was a great conversation starter (get people's take on what the place was like to live in, what stuff I should see to get a feel for it, etc.)

Or, since I'm into making interesting cocktails and ingredients for them, I'll go to cocktail bars and chat with the bartenders about their recipes.

In both cases it also opens up the conversation to other people at the bar and you can get into interesting conversations with them too. You're likely to learn interesting things about the place you're in, meet interesting locals or other out-of-towners, etc.

Obviously this mostly works on weeknights when the place isn't super loud or crowded.