Scott's right, this picture looks like a painting.

I may be as excited for you as you are ;’). Among other things, some of my hopes for you are for good weather, wonderful scenery and great photos I will get to see ;’). I look forward to touring with you through your blogging and you beautiful photos. Good travels to you two.

Hi Suzanne and greetings from Darmstadt .

Viel Gluck! Ich werde die Reise folgen!

April 1st is also a start day for me, but not cycling. I become a pensioner!. So now I will have some time to do longer trips too. My son lives in Madrid, so that would be a good target. My wife must work for 5 more years but we have our annual bike tour for 2024 ( 18 days) booked starting June 27 (Rhine to Bodensee and back through Rotenburg and along the Main). So that could be perhaps a good time for my first blog.

We passed you going the other direction a couple of years back as you cycled to Kassel, while we cycled from Hanover to Darmstadt.

Viele Grüße

John

I’m crossing my fingers that the weather isn’t too bad for you!

That doesn’t look like biking weather!

Whew!

We felt totally safe in this residential street in a remote village. And of course the bicycles were locked. Still first thing in the morning I peeked out the window.

Amazing. Somehow you make even a shot like this quite beautiful, Suzanne.

Glad to see you’re still coming! And the weather forecast looks like it’s improving. It might be sloppy for your first few days in Portugal still, but by the 2nd week in April it’s looking quite nice.

Just a thought.. Would it be any “safer” to back the car in, so the bikes could be not so circumspect ?

Oh, a good idea... another reason to put off packing.

Hey, shouldn’t there be a pre departure haiku in here?

Thanks and good luck to all! The trouble with bridging the bad weather with the car is that you always have to return to where you left it which usually means a major change in routes and booking. But you are the logistics wizard! I'll put you on the case.

Wishing us all luck with the weather! Hopefully it will settle down by the time you arrive. Come ready for anything. Worst comes to worst, you’ll have your car with you.

Sent you an email

Hey, I finally stared at this long enough to think about it. Where are you staying after Placencia? By my notes, that’s the last town we’re staying at together.