I don't fully understand the nature of addiction, although I've been in and around it for some years now. I assume I'm addicted to cycle touring. I am not addicted to cycling per se I dislike training rides and sometimes have to deceive myself into riding by means of flimsy purpose. Still, I don't feel right if I a year goes by without a tour in it.

Last year we rode most of La Via Francigena and while not wishing to discontinue touring altogether, Barbara, my wife, said she'd had enough of hill climbing [in particular, the likes of Le Col du Grand St. Bernard]. Fighting gravity doesn't get any easier with advancing years, so I meekly suggested the Danube bike route. We would ride part-ways to the start though; from Hoek van Holland to Maastricht, three days across the Lowlands helps to get the body in condition without too much strain. Then into Belgium, up into the German speaking part of that country, into the German Eifel, then down the Kyll valley to Trier, a short stretch by the Mosel and finally the Saar Radweg to Saarbrücken. By these means we would be some way into Germany, ready for the train ride to the start of the Danube trail at Donaueschingen.

I wanted to start this ride back in June, but for one reason or another couldn't. September should be OK weatherwise and now with no impediments, we're off to Harwich and the ferry to The Netherlands.