Good idea Jacquie. We will be seeing a friend in Paris and might try to mail not needed things to his place. From Paris we can easily contact our last hotel in Marseille and possibly forward the packing materials to them. Stay tuned for the exciting decision making ahead.

I weighed my bike and gear for my last trip in France (French Fling) and the total was around 70 pounds. I was camping but not cooking (an excellent compromise in much of Europe) and that bike (unloaded) is heavy, in my opinion, but not an ebike. I didn't include my bike case or duffle or anything else I took just for the flight in that weight; instead, I stuffed those things into the bike case and Al took it back to our Paris airport hotel. On point-to-point tours, I've shipped the case to the hotel booked for the night before departure. You might want to consider that.

Since Dodie is the more "organized" (some would say obsessive) she is the one in charge of what goes where and how to find it. At first even she has to look things up on the master list, but within 2 weeks or less she can lay her hands on almost everything, almost without looking, and even Steve has figured out where the stuff he regularly uses is located.

You two are so organized!!! We always start out like that and within a few days have messed it up entirely, then by the end we have it all down to a fine science. So sad about MEC 😥

We have enjoyed cruises but I agree bike touring is way more fun!

Thanks Patrick. We are happy you will be (virtually) along for the ride.

You can never have too many cycling books. Dodie checked the series out, and we will maybe see if we can find one that covers our area of this tour when we are in London. Thanks for the tip.

Last time we visited it felt like any other boutique store. Not much gear, too much fancy clothing and staff that were either rushing about or not too knowledgeable. The end of an era.

We are not boat people-actually Dodie especially hates the enforced inactivity (and being on the water-seasick) of a boat journey. No, it is bikes for us. OCD kicks in in terms of organization but we do seem to manage it.

The Fridays are necessary when we are locked out of Schengen, or want to start a tour in Western Europe. Too much time to go pick up the Leipzig bikes, take a train to Spain for example, ride and then take a train back to Leipzig to stash the bikes again. We have already done a quick tour in Mexico (in the Yucatan, until Dodie crashed and broke her shoulder) so this is a second try at touring with the eFridays.

Wow - that’s a lot of organizing! Ever consider a cruise? One bag….done!!!
Just checked in at the airport … went very well. Looking forward to following along with you two. Safe riding!

Ah. I was wondering which bikes you were going to use since your other ones are currently in Europe. Is this the maiden voyage for the E-Bike Fridays?

I feel the same way about MEC. I don't quite have the same relationship with them anymore with the demise of the Coop.

There are a series of guidebooks called “Lost Lanes” by Jack Thurston that cover quite a bit of England. He goes out and rides the routes he recommends to ensure they are rideable. Also quite a nice chap that likely cycles at about your pace. Just in case you didn’t have enough books about cycle routes (clearly one can never have enough books about cycle routes!)

Looks like a great route! Now we have another excellent journal to look forward to reading during the dark and rainy days here in Vancouver. Looking forward to following along.