In recovery mode ... I've processed a whole bunch of photos of the Rhine Cycle Route portion of our trip. What I've uploaded takes us to about the halfway point ... where it started to get good.

Enjoy!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7630913118566/



German ice cream ... very good! Very bad for my digestive system ... but very, very good! I've posted several ice cream photos.

Good job on not swearing at the guy.

Sometimes the murderous look is appropriate.

The train companies have alot to answer for in my opinion. As I remember from my 2010 trip you pay a hefty surcharge (especially in Switzerland and Austria) to take a bike on a train, yet people can get on with as much luggage as they want, and it is usually stuffed in the bike spaces (where people also like to hang around). I never could quite understand this, especially in Austria where you get a spoke card and a reserved spot for your bike, only to hop on and find your space full of luggage which you would either have to move or locate the disgruntled owners (too bad I used to tell them, I paid for this space!)

We are in europe at the moment (croatia, heading back to Italy today) but this time we have bought bike fridays in the travelcases and we can get on any and all forms of transport with no penalties, even though our total luggage would be not that much less in overall dimensions to a regular bicycle. I still dont get the policies, but fwiw I will keep my cases well away from the bike areas whenever I travel (this is why trains have luggage racks). Hope you are feeling better soon Machka.

Great photos! thanks for sharing! good luck to you guys!

Oh you are sooooo right about that premium to carry bikes on Swiss trains. Like the equivalent of $18 for each bike on the fateful trip that lasted a total of around 3-1/2 hours.

We truly have been suffering sticker shock since we got here. Transport, restaurant food and accommodation can be a real killer to any budget. But apart from being the banking country for the world's despots, it's also the playground for the rich and famous, so we are probably out of our league.

We stayed in a nice Ibis hotel in the French city of Metz (which was a nice surprise as a city, by the way) for around 64 euro, or converted to $75, and stayed in a virtually identical room in an Ibis in Basel for 157 Swiss francs, which is around $157.

Try McDonald's for cheap? A medium double cheeseburger meal will set you back 12 Swiss francs ($12) each!

And you'd think the service would be top-notch and the facilities the greatest. Well, the service sometimes is, but if the public toilets at Lausanne station are any indication... well, the toilets in the heaviest populated areas of Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong that we used were many times cleaner!

Fortunately, we have found a nice little campground with dormitories at Sarvaz, almost right next to the upper reaches of the Rhone River and near Martigny, and we have taken a room there for 60 Swiss francs a night as a base for from hub-and-spoke day rides in the region.

At least fresh food is at a reasonable price.

And definitely, Bike Fridays certainly are on our wish list for any future overseas touring we will do.

Along the Rhine in Germany, with our loaded touring bicycles ...




Crossing the Rhine River ...



More Rhine Cycle Route photos ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7630913118566/

Almost 1500 km cycled on this trip so far! I'm at 1499.76 km, and Rowan is about 14 km more than that (he did go out and do a ride one day when I rested). We're 75 days into the trip, and we've cycled on 50 of those days.

Such a wonderful trip!
The photo of the barges on the Rhine bring back memories of living in Germany when I was a kid.

We've seen some absolute monsters that really would qualify as coastal ships. These are single-hull, not the doubled ones. Having said that, we've also seen quadruple barges locked together.

I have been continually fascinated by the seamanship (canalship?) of the masters of these vessels. They seem to be able to spin these things on a dime, using the current on the Rhine to help them. Then on the Moselle, we watched as they negotiated locks with eye-of-the-needle accuracy and delicacy.

And the ferry masters are pretty good at their trade, too, although I think doing 30 or 40 trips across a narrow waterway each day might make the job a tad boring.

We sat on the balcony of our St Goar hotel and watched the cruise boats do their thing as they pulled in to drop off and collect passengers. Again, the masters seemed so nonchalant with their deftness at manouevring these things.

Of course, the Rhine barges are a lifeblood for German industry up and down the river, transporting coal, oil, gasoline and gas in what must be huge quantities every day. It's a slow, almost painful trip for them up, but once turned and heading back downstream, their speed across the ground virtually doubles.

We spoke to another couple on a bicycle tour with their 18-month-old daughter, and Bruno said he had tried on several occasions to hook up a trip on a barge. But the masters were reluctant because of liability issues. Bruno seemed confident that if one had the time and patience, they would eventually find an agreeable captain to take them.

We looked at maybe hiring a canal boat, but the costs are quite prohibitive for us right now. A cruise down the Moselle, for instance, or the Marne, or along canals that are no longer used by commercial traffic is something we would consider in the future. They stop off at the same campgrounds we have stopped at while cycle-touring.

Spending a day in Bologna today en route to the next cycling portion of our trip in Tuscany. Gelato = €2, coffee = €1 and pasta or pizza meal about €5 - I love Italy, these prices make for a refreshing change after the Croatian coast which is lovely, but the prices are generally designed to separate cruise ship passengers from any money they might have left. Will be able to do our own cooking tomorrow, which is also a plus as the Italians have the best supermarkets in the business (IMO). Hope you are enjoying your trip, Switzerland is expensive, but it has some fantastic scenery and I would love to get back there someday (so many places, so little time). Here is a link to our flickr page with some of the snaps from our trip so far. https://www.flickr.com/photos/84448690@N06/ Happy travels.

Today we visited the Matterhorn ... I've wanted to see the Matterhorn since I was a young girl, and it finally happened today.


Meanwhile, this is one of the MANY photos I took when we were up at Mont Blanc yesterday. Mont Blanc is behind me, but there were photo-worthy mountains all around.

One of my favorite places on Earth! Enjoy!!!

We are back in France ... and the prices have dropped significantly.

I loved Switzerland ... I felt so comfortable there, I could live there. But the prices ... WOW!!

I've updated the story with the Switzerland Chapter. With a little bit of sadness, we have left Switzerland and are in France. I wasn't at all sure about Switzerland when we first arrived, but became quite attached to the place as we stayed, and we ended up staying a lot longer than I thought we would.

https://www.machka.net/RTW_2012/RTW_Europe_Main_2012.htm

OK, I've done a lot more tweaking of my UK story site, and I think I have the finished product (probably ... maybe). The main thing is that I've added lots more photos to the actual story.
https://www.machka.net/RTW_2012/RTW_Europe_2012.htm

We are in ... Bordeaux!

We spent a few days along the Mediterranean, in the most southerly part of France, but then decided that we'd better get a move on northward because autumn is coming on, and campgrounds won't be available much longer, and there is still lots to see. So we caught a train to Bordeaux.

Now we'd like to be finished with trains for a little while and get back on the bicycles again to do some exploring in this area and to gradually move northward.

The trees are starting to turn and there's a smell of autumn in the air.

I would suggest you ride a short distance eastward to St. Emilion (a very pretty town), then continue east up the Dordogne river, which gets prettier and prettier as you head eastward.

Just got back from a tour in the Czech Republic. Met a couple who had both their bikes stolen on a train in, I think, Romania. After the fact, they heard that this practice is an income source on trains in East European countries. They get 'em while you sleep in your compartment, bikes locked in the corridor, just before a station. Be careful.

We met two couples who said that while cycling there was fine, combining bikes and trains could get to be a nightmare.

Well, we're not sleeping on the trains, nor are we cycling in eastern European countries.

However, the train/bicycle thing can be a pain. In the future, I think we would want to travel with folding bicycles.

One of my favorite delicacies is a glass of German or Czech beer with vanilla ice cream. In Germany it's "Italian ice", while in the CR it's zmrzlina (gelatto). The CR version is, IMO, better.

The ice cream in Germany nearly killed me!! I loved the stuff, but I am somewhat lactose intollerant. It has been kind of a relief to get to France where it isn't as common.

Just thought I'd post a list of the clothing I opted to bring (and buy) on this tour so far ...

Outerwear
- GroundEffects rain jacket
- Route 7 hivis wind jacket
- Route 7 hivis vest
- Rain pants (bought about 2 months ago)
- Down jacket

Tops
- Fleece jacket
- Fleece pullover (bought yesterday)
- Merino wool long sleeve
- Polypro long sleeve
- 4 polyester short sleeve tops (bought one yesterday, and one today)
- 1 sleeveless jersey

Bottoms
- 3 pair of cycling shorts
- 1 pair of leg warmers
- 1 pair of Convertible pants
- 2 pair of stretchy capri pants (bought 1 pair about a month ago)
- Tights
- Basketball shorts (purchased today)

Swimwear
- Bathing suit
- Swimming shorts

Under Things
- 2 sports bras
- 3 undies
- 2 pair heavier wool socks
- 1 pair light wool socks
- 1 pair cotton/nylon socks
- 1 pair compression stockings

Footwear
- Cycling shoes
- Sandals

Accessories
- Short finger gloves
- Full finger gloves
- Helmet cover
- Neck gaiter
- Headband



I think that's it. And I have used it all, except the neck gaiter and headband. But the weather is getting cooler so they may be employed soon too.

The only thing I think I'd change would be the cycling shorts. I'd probably bring 2 pair rather than 3, and I'd have a pair of basketball shorts or something similar instead of the 3rd pair of cycling shorts.

For off-the-bike, we bring nylon hiking shorts, nylon long-sleeve shirts, and thin poly hiking T-shirts. Nancy also has a poly dress from Title 9 that looks great even after a week in a compression sack, a pair of thin black flats, and thin black tights for dressing for dinner. We've found we can get by with thin poly liners inside our short-finger gloves instead of carrying long-fingers. Our big splurge in footwear is to carry Gore-Tex trail runners. Great in the rain on cobblestones. We crush them with compression straps for in the pannier.

There is a nice rail trail heading east from the center of Bordeaux, This will allow you to get out of town without fighting traffic.

The trail which I mentioned above ends in Sauveterre-en-Guyanne. From there you could coninue East, or North toward St. Emilion or South to the Graves region. Depends on which wine you prefer.