I’m getting good at this. I usually make a Wunderlist of ‘things to take’, ‘stuff to do before leaving’ but now I’ve gotten smart and actually made a few generic reusable lists. After all, I’m taking more or less the same things on every bike trip and check the same stuff before locking up the house. Even smarter, I checked the ‘things to take for bicycle trips’ list with my mom, who does this kind of thing more often than me.
The route is easy this time, we’ll follow the ‘100 Schlösser’ tour around Münster, Germany, should be a relatively easy and relaxing trip: not too many steep inclines and not too many people. It’s a total of 1000 km but we’re doing half with a bit of improv, we’re estimating to end up with about 550 km at the end of 9 days. Seems slow, but you have to take into account the 100 castles (Schlösser in German) strewn along the route. I’m supposing since we do half the trip, we’ll get half the castles. Expect many pictures of big old buildings against a green back ground. If you’re interested in the (German) folder, follow this link.
This time we checked the 14 day weather forecast before making hotel reservations, so we’re not expecting rain all day every day like last year in the Bourgogne. The back-up plan – now fortunately obsolete – was to take the car and drive to Spain. According to the German weather sites we may expect mostly sunny weather with maximum temperatures between 22 and 30 degrees, so I’m mainly taking shorts and tshirts, with a fleece and light gloves for the cold mornings.
All that’s left to do tomorrow morning is the actual packing and the short drive to Münster. Since we’re dragging the luggage along on the bike, we’re very motivated to pack light, so I can’t image it will take very long to pack. I checked, cleaned and lubed the bikes yesterday, gathered all the bags and accessories and now I’m just prepping the electronics. I’ll need the tablet for loading and sorting through pictures, as well as for writing the daily travel journal. Must still buy some new ebooks.. or perhaps I’ll restart some old favourites..
Febe writes 