We didn’t end up leaving on Thursday the 7th as planned… We got up in the morning and started getting ready to go to the airport, but we were interrupted by a text message telling us our flight out was cancelled. We were very happy we’d signed up for text message alerts and that we …
European Travel Logistics as of 2015
We’ve been traveling around Europe for a month now (about to fly home), and I had some thoughts about the practicalities of how we’ve been traveling that I thought would be useful to share. Packing and luggage We both used travel packs for the trip, which allow you to either carry your stuff on your …
All roads lead to Rome
The last stop on our trip was Rome (Roma in Italian). We took a fast train from Venice to Rome on Saturday the 2nd of May, which arrived in the early afternoon, and our flight out was scheduled for Thursday the 7th. This gave us four and a half days to explore the city. Saturday, …
Venice and the Veneto area
On Monday the 27th of April, we packed up our bags in Florence, and took a train up to Venice. The first thing that happens when you arrive there by train is that you go out the front of the station, and instead of being on a busy street with tram and bus connections, you’re …
Florence
Before leaving on this trip, we’d looked at a map of Mediterranean Europe, and noticed that the famous cities of Florence (Firenze in Italian) and Venice (Venizia) were easily reachable in a grand tour from Barcelona to Rome. So… we decided we’d be crazy not to visit both of them, and headed to Florence first. …
Mediterranean Italy
Our long train ride on Tuesday the 21st took us from Arles, France, across the border into Italy, where we stopped for the night at a generic hotel in Savona, a small city on the Mediterranean coast. We had been looking forward to Italian food, one of our favorite cuisines, and had a nice Italian …
Montpellier, Arles, and the Camargue, France
We spent the week of April 13-19 in Montpellier, France. Jennifer attended the “Drupal Developer Days” conference, where she spent her days collaborating with other developers on Drupal code improvements and having other Drupal conversations. She normally works alone at home, using text chat to keep in touch with the Drupal community, so she really …
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On to France
On Saturday, we packed up our bags and headed north from Barcelona. The first leg took us on a high-speed (over 200 km/hr) train ride to Figueres, a small town up near the border with France. We hopped on a bus into the center of town from the train station, and visited the very interesting, …
Barcelona!
We’re in Europe again! This winter, I applied for (and received) travel funding to attend a Drupal conference in Montpellier France, and since it takes so long to get to Europe, I decided to expand the trip a bit, and of course Zach wanted to come too. So, last Sunday we embarked on an 18-hour, …
International Selkirk Loop, Aug/Sept 2014
We decided to do a bike tour at the end of the summer of 2014 on the International Selkirk Loop, which meant that we could leave and return from our front door. It sounded pretty nice, and we thought early September would be a good time for the trip. So in July, we sent off …
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Planning Rides for the Garmin Edge Touring GPS
Garmin recently came out with the Garmin Edge Touring, which is a combination GPS and cycle computer unit that is specifically made for the recreational and touring cyclist. I decided I needed a new toy… I haven’t had it for long yet, but it seems to do a great job of showing me a map …
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Upper Missouri River
The week of September 14-21, 2013, Zach, Jennifer, and Jennifer’s dad Alan took a canoe trip on the Upper Missouri River in Montana, which we all really enjoyed. This section of the river is a designated national “Wild and Scenic River”, and it is within the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, administered by the …
Riviera Maya
On Thursday, March 7, 2013, Zach and I (Jennifer) left the house at about 4 AM for a short but very pleasant Mexican adventure, courtesy of Zach’s employer. We flew from Spokane to Cancun via Denver, and were driven to our very posh home for the next four nights: the Grand Velas Riviera Maya, a …
Allerdale Ramble
I was in London last week to attend DrupalCon, where everyone who works on the Drupal software open-source project (Drupal is the software I use to build web sites for my clients) gets together. Since it is very tedious to fly to Europe, and I was going to have to adjust to 8 hours of …
A Moving Adventure
We have just moved across the state, from the Seattle, Washington area to the Spokane, Washington area! The place we left was a pleasant 1500 square foot house built in 1960, located in a hollow in the city of Shoreline, Washington, about three blocks north of the Seattle city limits. It was in an urban …
Highlights and Lowlights
People keep asking us what our favorite part of our recent cycling trip to Central Europe was. It’s a tough question to answer, since we both enjoyed the trip quite a bit, and each day brought different experiences. But I thought I’d gather a few thoughts on the high and low points of the trip. …
Thoughts on Equipment
At this point in our trip (i.e. the end), I think we’ve been touring long enough to form definite opinions on the bicycle/tricycle/trailer equipment we are using. There are certainly pros and cons to each of our setups. Here are some thoughts: Description of our Setups I have been riding a Bike Friday Sat-R-Day recumbent …
Berlin: Lessons in Recent History
After arriving in Leipzig, we counted up the number of days we had left before our flight home, the number of days it would take to bicycle to our next destination, and the couple of days we needed to get to Frankfurt, pack up our bikes, and catch the flight home. The conclusion: more long-distance …
Jakobsweg
Several times during our trip, we saw directional signs pointing out “Jakobsweg” (Jacob’s Way), with a distinctive starburst on the signs. We saw some in the first few days of the trip in Switzerland, and then later on when were were in Germany on the Danube. I was curious about who this Jacob was and …
Two National Parks and One City
When we were planning this trip, one of the reasons I wanted to try ride the Elbe River route was because where the river crosses the Czech-German border, both countries have national parks — Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic, and Saxon Switzerland in Germany. They sounded like pretty nice places (descriptions such as “the …