Eerrph, the nearest airport is Friedrichshafen, 40 km away on the slow lakeshore road, and then the cost is 5x that of the train (I checked Expedia. However it was impressive that they have heard of these crazy places.)

OMG. I will be honest, I have never been successful at booking a train online...I find the only solution is going to a train station, which of course I cannot do until we are in Europe and which always means we pay top dollar. Why is it so hard? Couldn’t their IT department visit an airline for a quick tutorial?? Perhaps you should fly. That would be easy to book from here.

Hi Noreen, we are pleased to now know someone from Mainz! One day maybe we'll try to pass by and visit.

We will instead watch your progress across Canada by van, and see what you make of cycling on the Route Verte in Quebec!

😳

We are sorry we will be gone by the time the West Coasters get together! Next year!!! I didn't know that Hughes lived in Nanaimo or about the gallery in Duncan. We will stop in next time we head down island!

In terms of using the DB website/app, I might be able to help you (if you still need it or if you should need it in the future). Qualifications: long-term-user, German native speaker and I seem to be able to endure much mental pain ;-).

When it comes to dealing with SNCF website, last time I tried, I admit I eventually gave up and went to the DB counter instead to book a journey from Frankfurt to Marseille exclusively in trains that will take bikes - which (as you might know) can multiply the degree of difficulty ...

P.S.: I've been reading some (if not many) of your journals over time and I really enjoy your sense of humor, the photos and your writing style!

Greetings from Mainz, Noreen

I think we know our dates, actually. We expect we’ll arrive in Victoria on July 8th, the day after my mother’s birthday weekend, stay there three nights, and then head west for Port Renfrew. We’d be back in Duncan 4 nights later (roughly 7/14), and then head up the coast.

When we had lunch with the Klassens last week we tossed around the idea of having a first annual Cycleblazers west coast potluck picnic. Hopefully this would happen in mid July, or thereabouts. Maybe you can time your trip to join us. Anybody else out there interested? A more definitive level of planning will happen in June when we get back from our upcoming European jaunt. If the timing is off for you and Rachael re the get together you always have a welcome here whenever you are passing through.

Well, this is timely. I’ve been spending my idle hours yesterday and today plotting out our summer tour, which will begin in Victoria and end back home in Portland. We’re planning on taking the loop west through Port Renfrew and Cowichan Lake on our way up to the Comox ferry, and expect to bike through Duncan. We noted the attractions of Ladysmith a few days ago also. It will be great to see this country again - Rachael and I haven’t been up there for about 25 years.

It looks lovely. We always think that one day to get to Europe we should fly into Vancouver, get the train across Canada then fly on to Europe. We lived in Portland , Oregon for a while but never went up to Vancouver and the only time we have been to Canada was when Ken was at a meeting in Toronto
Have a lovely trip
Tricia

By March people here expect to be able to get their gardens started. But yesterday we were riding our bikes in hail. At the local store, the wailing of the people was quite something.

On Tuesday we will be in Montreal, where tonight's low is -9. So it will be sort of a setback. On the other hand, Paris will be 14. Bregenz is quite a bit cooler. We expect to start out cycling with mornings at 2 and daily highs at 10.

Still waiting for our crocus to poke leaves up... A few daffodil leaves are showing though.

You are sort of right. Two or three Nikon Coolpix's have died by the jamming of the automatic lens cover vanes. That is possibly the result of being carried in an open pocket of my safety vest - exposed to dust, rain, and snow (or yesterday, hail). Dodie is careful to remind me to put the camera in the handlebar bag when conditions get rough, but then what do I do? Toss it in there.

One camera has a scratch on the lens - showing that the lens covers even though working could not defend against the insouciant operator. One Sony had its battery/SD compartment cover fall irreparably off. One "waterproof" Fuji XP was rejected for not being able to take clear enough pictures through the waterproofing. Several Canon Powershots were scrapped because their 4x zoom was deemed insufficient by an operator too lame to draw physically closer to the subjects.

When all lined up, it certainly is a despicable tale. If I were a kid, my parents would buy me no further cameras. A deeper enquiry would likely extend to sunglasses and keyboards. However my TV and other lawyers would insist it would be a witch hunt and that the Chinese manufacturers are to blame.

On being read this confession, Dodie generously has accepted blame, saying that she is too slow to permit a Scott Anderson stop and carefully make photos model. In your case, Rachel seems to carry on and you eventually meet up with her. But I freak when Dodie is out of sight, since without her I will end up lost. Such an imperfect world (but great for camera sales)!

Maybe if you didn’t take your photos while you were biking you wouldn’t average a broken camera per tour. Just a thought.