I signed up with Hotel.com and their rewards program several years ago. I have also used Booking.com and Trivago at times. I suppose it is possible that the number of listings available using Hotels.com is less than Booking.com. The Trivago site does a search of several booking sites and then directs you to the booking site for the accommodation that tweaks your interest …. it may be Hotels.com, Booking.com or others. For Hotels.com I have it set to quote in Canadian dollars but you should be able to have quotes in Euros. I just checked my account and have collected 9 “free” nights since enrolment. Hope this helps.

We had a look at hotels.com after reading your note, but so far find their selection seems to be less that what we find on Booking in Sachen Anhalt, and for the life of us we could not get their site to talk to us in English without quoting prices in dollars (vs euros), despite apparent available settings. We tried phoning them, but without an existing confirmation number there was absolutely no way to get a human on the phone. Are we missing something?

I’m with Dodie I don’t trust those custom tracks. I used Komoot a couple times to generate a route - both times it tried to put us off our route onto an adjacent goat track when a perfectly good paved bike path was in front of us. I agree following an established Gpx track is great and we do that when we can. And we also found the same thing going south on the Romantic Road and/or Claudia Augusta where the track veered off trying to take us through the towns. Thats okay sometimes. We typically book our rooms on the road the day of or possibly the nite before if we are certain of our destination. We mostly use Hotels.com to take advantage of the “free night” after 10 bookings.

You could, of course, look each place up on online to see if it has a website. I’ve had luck doing that and booking directly or through whichever booking system they use.

Wild horses couldn’t keep me from following your trip! I hope everything goes well for both of you! I’m so impressed with Dodie’s determination to hit the road again!

It's impressive and encouraging that you can find time and strength to read other blogs while you are on the road. We will really appreciate having you along for the ride. Tomorrow the blog will have our actual route, though you may have already seen it in an email.

I’m so happy to hear you’ve chosen Germany for your bicycle tour! There are so many beautiful and safe bicycle routes there as demonstrated by your map above. We had a great time there last year. I look forward to reading your journal!

I will go have a look at Guru, but maybe it's an IOS thing only? Open Cycle Map is good, but easily getting the relevant gpx files allows you to follow any route with such ease, as the gpx file guides you through all the needed twists and turns. Then there are the many "algorithm" sites, like RWGPS, cycle.travel, bikemap.net etc. that will make you an original, fresh route on the spot. Dodie hates these, as they never say what they are thinking. She suspects them of sending us over mountains just to cut two feet off the calculated route distance. Actually, we are suspicious of the "published" routes as well. One case was the Romantische Strasse, I think, that took us way off to the east in one spot, apparently we thought just to go through some town that must have lobbied to be on the "route".

For places to stop, we have in hand this time the map of "Bett und Bike" places. Bett und Bike has standards for cycle friendliness that we like. And we got a gpx file that we can use to show all their stops on our route. The tough part is that they have no online booking service, so we would have to phone each given place, and confront the possible language barrier in arranging to stay.

Yes, I think there is a general aspect of respite from everyday life in cycling. Like, on the bike you don't have to talk to anyone, and off the bike you don't have to cook or do the dishes (unless camping). But Dodie often mentions a feeling of perfect mobility on the bike, which with the knees and all, she has lacked for some years with feet on the ground. This will come into play even more now for you with the new ortho problems.

You bring up Biroto - I have completely forgotten about that resource and wonder why I stopped using it several years ago. I suspect its because I started using Galileo (now Guru) for all my navigational requirements. It has several mapping layers but the important one for us is Open Cycle maps. And with that the incredible web of all those bike routes in Germany is at your fingertips. Germany is number 1 in my mind for cycling route options. And on top of that you have incredible breakfasts usually included with the price of your room.

Maybe for you two you will have to swap apple strudle and schnitzel with noodles for tortes
You make me wonder what is motivating us with my orthopaedic problems to feel so determined to get touring again. Perhaps it is just the joy of feeling normal. I always think cycle touring is a time of respite from everyday life

Julie Andrews mentions noodles with the schnitzel, but I think you need "pommes" for the full health effect.

Nothing wrong with schnitzel and strudel…two of my favourite health foods!

We're going to highlight one thing daily that makes life worth living and was worth cycling for. Could be 90 pieces of strudel, one each day!

By the way Speed Turtles comes from the album Blue Moo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY6a1DfkivM

I don't know why they keep pushing the pace now
Every minute of the day is like some kind of race now
With a gotta get there attitude that never fails
They blaze right past every one of us snails!

Hi Michel! This time we will only touch briefly in France - at Strasbourg. But we are missing you a lot and will have to come to France soon. This time out it's schnitzel and strudel, but later, baguettes and croissants.