2 days to go - Doping already!

Great - I've spent much of this week in bed with a gunky throat infection after a rainy English summer party (lovely though it was, r+p). I sounded like a pubescent Marlon Brando a day or two ago - squeaking and growling involuntarily, but fortunately the Neukölln euqivalent of Dr. Fuentes has given me some excellent performance enhancing drugs and promises I'll be fit for the start of the tour. No doubt Tina is already relishing the thought of being team leader, pacemaker and cautionary nurse to her feeble boyfriend during the first few days.


We picked up our bikes from Eckbert's shop today: http://www.ostrad.de/. Both of us have splashed out on new bits and pieces. Tina now has her own water bottle, some extension thingies for her handlebars and some neat blue bags, like this one.

Let's hope they're big enough for all those girlie things...

I was given a fancy new bike computer for my birthday - including a cadence function (showing how fast my feet are actually moving around), which I discovered on Wendy's bike in Tasmania and really enjoyed - Thanks Wendy. And thanks to everyone who contributed to Tina's and my bike accessories this year - we will put all the stuff to good use.

So we're all set to leave, well almost. I still need to do my tax for this quarter and get all that green stuff out of my throat (Mahlzeit!). Tina has a last day's work at the chemist's and no doubt a hundred little things I haven't thought of yet. We'll see...

10 Tage vor Abfahrt

Heute haben wir die Räder zur Inspektion gebracht und ich habe Radtaschen bestellt und anderes Zeug. Ben hat sich ja viel vorgenommen mit seiner Reise. Meiner Meinung nach etwas zuviel,vor allem ,weil er die 2.Hälfte der Strecke ganz allein unterwegs ist. Unfälle sind schnell geschehen und in den Alpen ist es nicht ungefährlich. Ben sieht das anders-Männer eben! Ich für meinen Teil hoffe ,daß ich die 3 Wochen bis Rosenheim(ca.) gut überstehe. Ich freue mich durchaus auf die Fahrt, allerdings bin ich noch nie mit soviel Gepäck und so lange bzw. so konstant auf dem Rad unterwegs gewesen. Mal sehen was die Gelenke und mein Hintern dazu sagen. Ansonsten bin ich gespannt und eine Herausforderung ist es für mich auch. Mit Training ist es erstmal vorbei-keine Zeit mehr, wir werden also sehen. Bis später dann.

The challenge for the summer of 2007: Cycling rather a long way for some decent pasta and meat sauce

The plan:


Covering five countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and Italy


Along 6 major European rivers: Elbe, Vltava, Danube, Inn, Etsch and Po (the Lala is a dipsy bit tinkywinky at the moment)


Over a few big hills: The Šumava mountains in southern Bohemia and crossing the Alps by the old Roman route known as the Via Claudia Augusta.


Travelling a distance of about 2500 km (hopefully) in about 4-5 weeks.


The stages:


Week 1: Down the Elbe/Vltava rivers to Prague - nice and flat

Week 2: Through the southern Czech Republic and over the Šumava - hills and moderate mountains

Week 3: Along the Danube/Inn towards the Alps - mainly flat (we think)

Week 4: Past Innsbruck and over the Alps - er, probably a bit difficult at times

Week 5: Rolling down the Alps into Italy and along the Po to Bologna - spaghetti time!


Here is a (very rough) overview of the full itinerary (click to enlarge):





The journey begins July 1, 2007...