In our first "post covid" travel, we are preparing for a ride in Europe comprised of 4 phases. 

1. We start by picking up our new bikes (Koga World Traveler Signature) in Amsterdam and cycling around Holland with two friends for 5 days to put the bikes through their paces. 

2. Then after a checkup at the bike shop (De Vakantiefietster) and boxing them up, we fly to Zurich, then start biking our second phase down the Rhine River - and a bit of the Neckar so we can see Heidelberg.  We finally come to Koblenz, Germany and take the train northwest to Metz, France.

3. We cycle down the Mosel River from Metz eventually back to  Koblenz, sampling riesling along the way, no doubt!

4. Finally, from Koblenz, we head south along the Rhine down to Amsterdam for our flight home.

We started our prep by biking near our home in Canmore to get our fitness level to where we think it needs to be. We are hoping that our friend Kirsten is right that "you don't need to be at peak fitness when you start, because as you bike, you get in better and better shape!". Sounds like a plan.

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Karen DeanLooking forward to reading about your travels. Stay safe xx
Karen
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Marjory here at a rest stop, a local favorite called Cascade Pond, where hordes of  Ground Squirrels greet you upon arrival.

We have to admit that biking around here does make you wonder why we need to go to Europe for scenery!

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These are typical scenes in the Canadian Rockies near Banff, Alberta. Some roads are actually closed to cars for May and June, then in September too making for great road biking conditions.

For this European route, we are planning to rely on our cell phones running an app called Komoot. Our entire route is preplanned on Komoot, and it allows us to follow the route using our phone gps. 

It's important that this works well, as so many blog recount how you are biking along the river and come to a stop (lots of new levies from flooding over the recent years), forcing you to double back - 15 km sometimes - to a bridge or ferry crossing. Ouch! So Komoot keeps you on the right side of the river, telling you when to cross. And has you on the correct side for your hotel, another variable.

Speaking of hotels, we originally planned to just book hotels a day or so before needed, but after seeing the travel surge in Europe, we decided to book the entire trip. Lots of research and changes. We booked every single night (about 50 hotel nights), which means if we wake up and its pouring rain, get on the bike cause we are leaving anyway!

I am totally bought in to the utility of an app guiding us, Marjory not quite as much. One downside of using cell phones is how quickly they drain when using gps, so I am adding a power pack that should power us all day and more. Each night we will be in a hotel though for a recharge.

We have packed, repacked, and tweaked our packing about 3 times. Can't wait to finally pack all of our final stuff!