We’re back. Back in Europe, back in France and Germany, and back on our bikes!
We spent two weeks after our return from Korea catching up with friends and family in Colorado, California, and then another week to relax and prep for cycle touring in lovely France. But flying through 17 time zones in 2 weeks was not easy. Our 12 hour flight in a packed cabin from Seoul to Dallas was a particular low point, and our circadian rhythms really took a hit. I’ve vowed from now on we’ll only fly West around the globe as it always seems easier that direction -;)
Luckily we had some relaxed days to get over our jet lag visiting family in Grand Junction, CO. It really is easier to return when not heading into the office the next day! We were also lucky to score two saver business class seats with miles on Swiss Air (booked months ago) for our trip back to Europe.
We also recharged our social souls catching up with as many friends as possible in the Bay Area. And as always, many thanks to all our families and dear friends who hosted us during our stay, including so many delicious meals. We also managed to keep a constant supply of burritos in our blood stream, hopefully holding us for months overseas.
We set off in this leg of our nomadic wanderings with a very specific goal; picking up two new touring bikes that we decided to give each other for our 25th wedding anniversary last year. We picked Koga World Traveller-S bikes, since we tried them in a shop in Groningen last year. Luckily; we found a nice shop and Koga dealer in Freiburg, Germany who were willing to take our orders over 3 months ago from Sri Lanka.
We spent 3 days in Freiburg getting the bikes configured and tweaked to our liking and then headed out to start another planned 4+ months with our bikes. We were both a bit nervous starting out on our new set ups and were relieved to finally get pedaling again.
The Koga signature bikes are nicely configured and allowed us a good amount of customization via their website. After some nervous days in France wondering if they’d be ready on time, we heard that they would likely be delivered to the shop in Freiburg on the day we planned to arrive! Perfect timing from the cycling gods (and Dutch Koga craftspeople). Koga strives to deliver in 12 weeks and they were pretty close as we had ordered about 13 1/2 weeks prior in Sri Lanka.
Our first day included a short link by train to bridge a busy main road (or super steep mountain option) up to the higher parts of Black Forest. This allowed us to ride nicer roads and trails onwards to Donaueschingen. It was still a hilly and varied 52k first day with 2,500 feet of climbing and lots of dirt sections.
But it was beautiful and the new bikes are a joy. We love our old steel bikes, but these bikes are built to be loaded, handle wonderfully, and have geometries that make long days on dirt and old town cobbles so much nicer. We opted for a classic 3×10 Deore XT drivetrain, including fantastic hydraulic disc brakes. Koga includes nice built in racks, strong kickstand, fenders, and dynamo hub lights.
After 4 beautiful days cycling in the Black Forest and upper Danube, we took a rest day (Ruhetag!). Ulm is a nice small city on the Danube with a cathedral famous for having the highest spire in Europe, easy to spot cycling into town. Our rest day coincided with a local holiday in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, Corpus Christi.
We then spent the next two days along the more agricultural parts of the Danube Valley and are now enjoying another day off the bikes in Ingolstadt. We’ve mixed our routes up a bit to try to stay in woodland as it’s been warm and sunny, but primarily have followed Eurovelo 6, “Atlantic to the Black Sea”, which runs an incredible 4700km from eastern France via the Loire and Rhine, and then along the Danube to the Black Sea.
We head out tomorrow to do another 80km to Regensburg, but after that, the upcoming sections on the Danube, especially Donau to Vienna and Budapest are some of the most popular bike touring segments in the world. (And for good reason).
But thousands of bikes on each side of the river, with an awkward mix of the inexperienced and e-bikes thrown in, will make us a bit crazy and claustrophobic. So we plan to the explore that heart of the route more off-season, some early spring or late fall. We are always glad to trade some rain, cold weather and earlier darkness for a more peaceful experience.
But the upper segments of the Danube are much less toured, and have been generally blissful. As Cheryl knows, I’m a lot happier off the beaten track, at least a bit, and tend to break out in hives when in tourist clusters these days. Sometimes we lean in to being tourists, but other times it’s just life for us now, so we need to make our own adventure. After Regensburg, we may use our €49 monthly DeutschBahn tickets again to head east towards Czechia.
But this is the magic of our third year of nomadic travels. We relish flexibility and the ability to change course on short notice. It’s also our third year in a row touring in Europe, and I definitely am seeing the landscape through slightly different eyes. We’ve seen hundreds of quaint squares, rivers, bridges, and old towns. Places are starting to look more normal, and a bit less exotic. But I also have a warm feeling of joy that we are able to control our destiny in life for now. Explore where we want, linger where we want. But we also have enough life experience and years of hard work to appreciate it all. And we know life can throw us all surprises at anytime, so for now, we roll on into the summer, thankful for everything.
Remember, the smaller places can be even more rewarding than fighting the crowds in the most popular cities. Happy summer travels all and hope to see a few of you along the way!
Less Car, More Life 