First, the numbers:
Linda and I traveled from May 1 to June 12, cycling from Munich to Budapest. Linda and I arrived in Budapest May 23 and stayed there a couple nights. Then (as planned) I cycled back to Munich by myself. Linda stayed in Budapest a few more days, catching up with me (via train) for a couple of days before spending much of the rest of her trip in Salzburg. When she tired of Salzburg she spent a few days at an agroturismo (and I spent one night there as we straightened out credit cards). She then headed to a spa & water park outside of Munich to relax while I rode to meet her.
Of the 41 nights of the trip, I spent 29 days, and Linda spent 15 days, cycling (although a few of those days are mostly train, not cycling). I spent 13 days not cycling. I rode 1737.16 km – an average of 42 km /day across the trip, or 59 km / day for days I rode. I rode 119 km on my longest day, with 5 days breaking 100 km.
My usual solo breakout is roughly 40% camping, 40% hostels, and 20% “other”. On this trip I spent 8 nights camping, 9 nights in hostels, and the remainder in apartments/hotels/B&Bs. More apartments/hotels/B&Bs because Linda reached an early end to camping. Five of my nights camping were in the post-Linda stage of the trip, which came a lot closer to the traditional 40/40/20 split. I/we also spent six nights in or around Munich.
At a simple level (not counting airfare), the trip cost each of us about $70 / day, although it’s a little hard to untangle the expense between Linda and I. Significantly more expense than past trips, primarily due to the difference of travel preferences between Linda and myself.
Except for Linda being somewhat under the weather at the end of the trip, and of course the Great Tick Incident, overall we stayed fairly healthy. Linda did not have the speed and endurance either of us had hoped, something we’ll spend a bit more time (and distance) on before the next one.
Lost Gear
While we didn’t have much gear lost, what we lost was eventful. Linda lost one of her credit cards (twice!) eventually leading to drama, including learning that the PIN on one of my own backup cards also didn’t work. That loss compounded with identity theft (and cancellation) of another of my own credit cards. By the end of the trip we had only one fully-functioning credit card out of five.
NOTE: You need to know the PIN of your credit cards. Some times for purchases, but definitely for cash advances.
Linda abandoned the bottoms of a bathing suit, because they kept trying to abandon her when they were on!
Equipment Notes
This trip was the first for our new Hubba Hubba 2 Bikepack tent. It performed admirably. Once the two of us split paths, I missed my much-lighter Mountain Hardwear SMUL2. That said, testing before the trip showed the SMUL2 wasn’t fulfilling a tent’s core mission of keeping water out of the tent; I purchased a replacement for the next time I need it.
Linda and I had put a lot of effort into gearing up Linda’s bicycle prior to the trip, purchasing a special rear rack, special mounts on her Lefty fork, and building a custom mount for her handlebar bag(s). I’d spent time tinkering with her shifting before we left, but (inadvertently) knocking the gravel out of the front derailleur mid-trip made the most difference. I still want to increase the size of her rear cassette to improve her bicycle’s ability to climb. I had only one mechanical problem—a flat tire.
I should have paid closer attention to Linda’s problems with bike fit before the trip. Even a last-minute professional fitting had NOT made things better—she struggled with hand pain and numbness the entire trip. Replacing her medal pedals along the way with plastic ones did mean she spent a lot less time banging up her shins.
We’d also split up the gear so that she had a large set of panniers in the back (since she didn’t have front ones). We should have put my smaller rear panniers on her bike, and I should have taken the larger ones, to just put more weight on my bicycle.
We never experienced power issues. I had brought a 10,000 Ah battery (and Linda a 20,000 Ah one), but we mostly stayed in hotels and B&Bs.
While this only partially falls under “equipment”, one factor we hadn’t considered before the trip was the availability of bathrooms. The most challenging day Linda had was prompted by switching to the other side of the river in the quest for a bathroom, ending up on the mountainous side with a nice, flat trail visible on the other side of the river.
Summary
“So how was your trip?”
Always a hard question to answer. Cycle touring has extreme highs, and correspondingly extreme lows. Linda struggled more than I’d hoped, which didn’t always makes things great for both of us. She’s a real trooper, and it took me a while to figure out just how far past her limits she’d push herself so that I could help manage things. That said, we had only one day where she melted down from exhaustion. Most days we covered the ground we planned, and adapted with ferries and trains along the way.
With the credit card issues, some train days, and the extended stay in Erding (at the water park) and Munich, I had a lot fewer days cycling than I expected. I’m historically a solo cyclist; having someone along for more than half of the trip cut my solo cycling window short, so the trip certainly didn’t feel like as long as usual. I did however get to stretch my legs a fair amount between Budapest and Munich; while Linda and I weren’t going as far as I’d usually go each day, the distances were enough to bump up my metabolism for later in the trip.
I accomplished my main goal for the trip—I wasn’t single at the end! Things worked out well enough that, after the trip, instead of never wanting to see me again, Linda moved in with me. After the trip she was already talking about the next trip, and we’re currently in the process of figuring out where that will be.
And where next? We’ve talked about a few places, but the current thoughts are cycling together for a combination of Sweden and Denmark, and then me cutting across Latvia/Lithuania/Estonia, where I’ve wanted to go for a while, if only to fill out a part of my map of Europe that’s fairly empty. I had someone tell me that they thought Lithuania wouldn’t be ready to cycle tour in for another 10 years, and that was about 10 years ago.
Thanks for following along on my (and now our!) adventures.
