Getting Ready to Hit the Road Again

It is official, we have decided on our route.

We have planned another route for this year’s three month trip to Europe. It’s hard to believe that we have been retired for 7 years and that this will be our 7th long distance trip in Europe. It just keeps getting better!

This year the Alps and Italy are calling to us to return. Our plan is to fly from Vancouver to Frankfurt and spend a few days with our German friends, Georg and Cora. Our recumbent tandem has been stored on the Reitz family farm near Limburg on the Lahn since last summer’s trip. We will need a few days to organize the gear that we left in Germany and the gear that we are bringing with us. Every new trip we take our Rans Seavo to a local bike shop in Germany to prepare our bike for its new adventure. We have learned through experience to start with new tires, disc brake pads, Rohloff oil change etc.

This year we will follow the Rhine River south to Besancon, roll through southern France to the Mediterranean and on to Barcelona. From there we will take a ferry to Sardinia, spend some time cycling there and then another ferry to Livorno, Italy. We look forward to further exploration in northern Italy and then over the Alps to Salzburg via the Alpe Adria....and then back to Germany.

A special highlight this year will be attending the Spezi Bike Show in Germersheim on the Rhine. The Spezi is an annual event featuring recumbent bikes, tandems, folding bikes, velomobiles, quadracycles, e-bikes, etc. This is the largest bike show in the world featuring recumbents and basically, it celebrates and showcases all that is weird, innovative and exciting in the world of unusual bikes. As passionate recumbent bike enthusiasts, this is nirvana for us. It will be fun to test anything we like at the Spezi as 3 test ride areas are devoted to this. Last year, over 10,000 people descended on the small town of Germersheim. This year, 10,002!

The Spezi bike show looks like a lot of fun!

At this year's Spezi there will be 3 test tracks. Over 150 different bikes will be available to test ride

We are looking forward to test riding lots of different bikes

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Steve Miller/GrampiesOur timing was just off this year as we passed through Germersheim a few days ago. Have you reservations forma place to stay? Imagine the town will be jampacked. We are looking forward to reading all about the Spezi from somewhere in Provence.
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6 years ago

Barry BartlettTo Steve Miller/GrampiesHi Steve
We have been following your journey with interest. We have not ridden south of Mainz on the Rhine and your journal makes us look forward to it.
We booked a Bike & Bett guesthouse close by in Romerberg (Speyer). Germersheim has been sold out for some time.
Only 4 more sleeps until we head to Vancouver - lots to do!
Safe and happy travels....and may the winds always be at your back.
(How do you like your e-bikes?)
Mary Ellen and Barry
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6 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Barry BartlettWe are finding the area south of Mainz really interesting. Even though we have done this routing before we still find new things to interest us. Since we always have these very ambitious itineraries we never seem to have enough time to look at all the places we should spend more time in. Oh well, we say, there is always next time. Speyer is one of the places we would plan to revisit so lucky you to be staying there. We did the math and found that without assist we were averaging 50 km per day on our last few most recent tours. With the new bikes we are so far averaging 65. The difference is not only the distance though, it is also the confidence we have in our ability to cover the distances without total exhaustion. It has made touring so much more fun, and it was already really enjoyable before. We look forward to soon reading about YOUR travels.
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6 years ago