Europe

Dear friends and family, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! I am spending a few days in Trieste, Italy, which is supposed to be the coffee capital of Italy, a country which loves their coffee. There are coffee shops everywhere and I am doing my best to sample them. I toasted to my close friend Brent, […]

Dear friends and family, Yup, I’m in Italy. The plan was to get across the Italian Alps with an easier method than riding a loaded bike across. There’s the plan and there’s the reality. Day one I took the hotel shuttle van with Liz to carry her bagged bike to the check-in desk at the

jDear friends and family, Both Liz and I have left France behind for now, she back to Port Townsend and me to Italy.  As we slowly rode our way through southern France, we kept opting for lingering and staying longer than originally planned as we so thoroughly enjoyed touring here. The French cycling system is

Dear friends and family, It’s getting close to wrapping up our time in France and specifically in Provence. Instead of hurrying through, we opted for shorter rides with stops in the quaint little villages along our way. Half the rides were on bike paths, some along highways, but mostly in the country. The other half

Dear friends and family, Even though I’ve done a few major bike tours, I’m still not used to: After a couple of hours riding today, I noticed that my quads were burning today. Then I realized that I was kinda tired overall. A couple of big days in the saddle after a month was wearing

Dear friends and family, Rumor has it that there’s been a whiner hanging around my blog site. Hopefully he left for good. He should for heaven’s sake. Update: we made it to the Mediterranean Sea. Crossed from the Atlantic to the Med by bicycle. Not a long distance, but an interesting one, by following rivers

Dear friends and family, Today is the second day in Carcassonne recovering. We arrived here after riding two days in a row into a headwind of 20-30 MPH. Imagine pedaling hard, in a low gear, hands gripping the handlebars, while making headway at only about five MPH. I was riding far to the outside of

Dear friends and family, The combination of biking the canal path and meandering on country roads through tiny ancient towns suits me fine. So far it’s not too hilly, not too hot, not too long. Goldilocks conditions. We passed a couple of rowing clubs on the Canal. They paddle river kayaks and single and double

Dear friends and family, Charley’s slow weight loss method seems to be working. The routine is pretty simple: sleep well, eat croissants, baguettes, cheese, lunch meats followed by pastries all day. Perform a few strength and core exercises and watch the pounds fall off. Oh, did I forget to mention to pedal your heavily laden 

Dear friends and family, ” Dear, I’m off to the gym to ride the exercise bike for five and a half hours” Spouse responds ” shouldn’t you work your way up to that volume?” Me: ” just six months ago I could ride all day, so I’m sure I have muscle memory” ” It probably