Steve, having been a statistician for his working life, is naturally interested in how the numbers crunch out. It is interesting to see that our split in expenditures by category has stayed remarkably consistent, although the daily averages have been relentlessly creeping upwards.

I came here looking for Frankfort airport info, and ended up finding this interesting page. Just this morning we added up the costs of our last two trips. In 2022, we rode seven weeks near home (straight out the door, no transportation expenses). We spent $9,000. In 2023, we visited Portugal/Spain for five weeks and spent $7,500., not including airfare. I expected that number to be lower, as food and lodging both seemed a good deal. Plus, no tipping.

Perhaps those trips seem expensive, but we spent $2,000. this August visiting the new grand baby for a weekend (includes airfare). So - going by the day, bicycling is a great deal!

Did you find the Weser Route to be mostly flat? I'm trying to decide whether to take a 6-speed Brompton or a 24-speed Bike Friday when I go next month! Your view would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for the comment. We had almost forgotten about this!

Wow - yes!

Hi Annette, an email with photos to our dermatologist was ignored, hopefully by his staff and not by him. So we were left guessing. Our best guess ended as chillblains, but in your case that could not be, because of the torso - not being exposed to cold. The only other thought is a form of long covid. Could that be a possibility? In Dodie's case, it slowly faded. Each blister took two weeks, but some came up as others went away. The whole "attack" lasted about a month.

Oh, I see the lambs part now. Took me three months!

If I recall correctly our first trip in 2014 worked out to approximately $175 per day in Canadian dollars. This excludes airfare. Out most recent tour in 2019 came to approx $250 per day again excluding airfare. Bearing in mind in 2019 there was some time spent in Switzerland (which has a reputation of higher prices) at the beginning and end of our ride. I rationalize the cost by asking myself what would we have spent if we were home for that same period of time (food, entertainment, local travel, etc.) The difference in my mind is the real cost of your adventure.

Don’t know. See the surgeon tomorrow and will be full of questions

Does that mean that in one more month you will be able to get on your bike?

I've been reading your London to Rome - still interesting!

Interesting Steve. The most expensive place we have found was in 2019 when we were travelling the Italian Riviera so in the end we decided to just pretend the prices were in NZ dollars and it seemed not so bad!
Now just into my second month of non weight bearing and am hopeful that by the end of three months I will be ready to tour again

I wonder how they work? Clearly involves a lot of hand work - no square balers or giant compacted rolls. Makes me think of our lawn now that we are back after a Spring of unrestrained growth.

Mystery racks are for hay. I saw several years ago when I cycled south of Fussen to Innsbruck

To start at the bottom, I think you’re right about Greece. It’s really quite challenging, especially if you want to go to the most interesting places. We’re planning on giving it another shot in the spring, and hopefully we’re not too late.

We’re almost exactly half way through our tour of the UK. We’ve for the most part enjoyed it the whole way, although the fens grew a little monotonous after awhile. The north though is fantastic. We’re already talking about when we’d like to come back. Stellar scenery, appealing market towns and villages, and tons of history of course.

We’ve had an unusual experience because it’s been such an unusually dry summer this year s the weather has been unusually pleasant. Great for us (so far), but of course the underlying message is dire here as everywhere.

Costs are reasonable (especially with the exchange rate the dollar is getting this summer), people are friendly, open and interested. It’s a refreshing change to travel in an English-speaking lane for a change.

Road quality/safety/signage is hard to characterize. We tend to find our own routes and not rely on other resources so much, but there’s certainly a robust, well marked and well documented cycle network in the NCN. If you just followed their routes and kept an open mind I think you’d do well, as long as you did at least some research to steer yourself away from the most scenic (often horribly hilly) terrain.

There’s not the impressive investment in cycling infrastructure you find in Germany/Austria/France for example, but I’m sure a big cut above places like the Czech Republic or Croatia. Maybe more like Italy and Spain, meaning oftentimes great, if you’re careful with your route selection.

And maybe it wouldn’t live up to your breakfast expectations. Forget the 10 jammers, and think standard English Breakfast: egg, sausage, ham, a wedge of grilled potatoes, stewed tomatoes, baked beans, and possibly black pudding if that’s your thing. Tea or coffee, OJ or tomato juice, an array of cereals, one or two varieties of jam, generally prepackaged. So that’s a thing to be aware of and prepared to accept as the norm.

Although you are still in the middle of it, what is your really quick assessment of general interest, road and trail and signage quality, traffic safety, accommodation cost, food quality and cost, friendliness of people. I guess by writing Northern Britain you are giving those collectively the thumbs up. But a further short paragraph would really help. Is that coming at the end of your current blog? A pie chart like the one we have here would be fascinating, in addition to the non-monetary factors..

p.s. Been reading your 2009/2012 Greek odyssies, but did not find too much Grampie type encouragement in it, True?