Some of the lifts we have seen on this trip have been tiny. I mean, you'd be lucky to fit four moderately large people in them comfortably.

But on the whole, the hotels just are not amenable to letting bikes into the rooms, even if they and the lifts were large enough. However, everywhere we have gone, the staff have been more than amenable to allowing us to leave the bikes in conference rooms, or under shelter at the back of the hotel, or a store room at the side with access through an outside door.

And that would be OK, except that more often than not there is quite the trek between the bikes and the lift, or the stairs to the room. After Machka's bike was stolen several Easters ago, we are, well, I admit it, paranoid about leaving any of our stuff unattended, and CFB's tales about bikes being stolen off trains in Central/Eastern Europe hasn't been reassuring, either. So we carry everything with us as we go.

Getting on an off some of the trains here has been a real chore, too. Often the panniers have to come off the bikes to get the bikes up three steep and narrow steps into the allocated area. We tried this with the panniers still on the bikes, and ended up with Machka falling out of the train with my bike.

Then when the bikes are separated from our panniers, we might have to walk two or three or more carriages further down the train to get to our booked seats.

And some of the stations here don't have lifts or ramps to every platform.

So our motivations are more than laziness and the idea that you "get your husband to carry your panniers" (whatever that is supposed to mean).

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Wheels on the bottoms of suitcases and bags have been a viable option for travellers for a long time now. The thought struck us that to make travel where the bike has to be separated from our panniers a pair of wheels on one pannier might be the ticket, with a retractable handle so one pannier could sit on top of the other, with a handlebar bag, and away we would go.

Admittedly, using a Bike Friday with the suitcase/trailer might make things a tad easier in this regard. But not everyone uses BF on their international travels, and not everyone wants to travel light or UL.

Thanks, Agent9 for the drawing. It does reflect what I have been thinking since, oh, Japan over two months ago. And yes, pacificcyclist, you get it! That's exactly where we're coming from.

We are using the English brand, Altura panniers at the moment, and they proving to be robust, and I have been considering a way to discreetly attach something like scooter wheels or a pair of plain caster wheels in place of the rubber pads on their bases. I have been considering a handle made of a collapsible alloy walking stick, and that could fit where the pump pegs are on the bikes' seat stay when not in use.

But on tour where we're moving about a lot, getting all that stuff together is not as easy as it seems... so I will have to wait until I get to Machka's parents in Canada or home to try to bring it all together.