I toured a lot in my early 40s to mid 50s. I was then sidelined for almost 7 years due to my ankle tendonitis so have gotten back to it at 62. Those 7 years have made a lot of differences primarily due to improvements in technology.

1.  Accommodations:  In the past, to book a room you either had to make a phone call, or send a fax! This was always a pain in Europe so often we would just arrive in a town and either ride around to find a place or go to the local information center. Online research and booking is a sea change, both in being able to evaluate options calmly when your at home but also in being able to budget your costs ahead of time. (And, I could always ask for a tub in advance!) Finally, it is very convenient when you need to make a last minute booking. 

2. Weather data: the ability to obtain up to the hour forecasts was super helpful in planning the timing of daily rides. If it was hot, we TRIED to leave early in the day. If there were thunderstorms in the afternoon we tried to arrive before they started. If it was going to rain all day we had a leisurely morning and just dealt with it. 

3. GPS  navigation: Komoot did a great job. Much of our navigational glitches were user error and as we learned more about how to use the app, those errors were eliminated. The ability to navigate without carrying a bunch of paper maps is really a space saver. We always had enough juice on our phones for a 70k ride but carried a battery pack to be safe.

4.  Reading material: having something to read is a real crutch for me. Before tablets, I would always a carry several paperbacks and finding English book stores was a high priority. That issue has gone away with iPads and tablets.

5. Cell phones: besides using them for navigation, the biggest advantage of cell phones was the ability to communicate with Dave in an emergency, which usually was because we got separated inadvertently. It turned potentially major difficulties into minor inconveniences. 

6. Ebikes: using the ebikes was a boon to us. It allowed us to go longer distances, climb more elevation, and just relax a little more on our longer  days. We always arrived tired but not wrecked. A downside to them though is their heaviness makes them more difficult to handle on a train. We are going to have to be more strategic about taking our bikes on trains. 

Overall, the changes in technology take a lot of uncertainty out of touring. That’s probably better but it feels a little less adventurous than in the past. I still love it and we can’t wait for next year’s trip.

And some thoughts from Dave:

1. Jill is awesome (in case any of you had any doubts!). She spent months pouring over cycling blogs, maps and the internet planning out this trip, and her advance work clearly showed. It's as if I married a professional travel agent. My itineraries were set, I was reminded of where I needed to be and when and almost all of the logistics were already taken care of. In addition she's a marvelous traveling companion. Any disagreements during the course of being together 7x24 for 2.5 months were minor and soon resolved. I never tired of her company. She really did make this trip wonderful for me. 

2. I learned a lot about myself on this trip. I confess to having approached it with a bit of trepidation. I'm a bit of a homebody and the thought of being away for 2.5 months had me wondering if I would get antsy about getting back home. I needn't have worried. Although we were both ready to go home, I never faced a day when I wished I was back in the USA. I had a wonderful time and am so glad I could enjoy it as much as I did.

3. Packing: I generally tend to overpack and this trip was no exception. My panniers were jammed to their limit, and each weighed over 20 lbs. In retrospect, I didn't need an awful lot of what I had brought with me. My electronics were definitely over the top. Next time I'll leave the electric razor, electric toothbrush and their respective, non-typical chargers and cords behind. That leaves me with a big decision. What to do about camera gear as my Olympus had a separate charger and cord with US prongs as well. I'll never again take any rechargeable device that isn't USB C and now that we've acquired European USB charges, I'll use only those and leave the US chargers behind. If I can find a European Olympus power cable for the charger, I won't have any need for easy-to-lose, US-to-European adapters.

As far as clothing goes, I'm not sure I can improve much on what I took with me. We had to pack for 3 seasons on this trip and that simply meant lots of different clothing requirements. At the beginning of the trip when we were experiencing 85+ degree days, I begrudged the room taken up with my rain and cold weather gear, wondering if I'd ever need them. At the end of the trip when we rode in cold and rain, I regretted having too few warm clothes. In the end, I think things balanced out well. If I'm going to save room, I'm not sure there's a lot I can do about the clothing.

3. Komoot/cell phone navigation vs. Garmin dedicated device. Prior to the trip Jill and I struggled over how we were going to map out each day's route. We simply could not figure out how to easily build a route using our Garmin and I will be the first to admit that this is most like user error as of course many people have been able to successfully ride with Garmin. In the end, however, Komoot easily won out and we abandoned any pretense of using our Garmin. Jill is technology averse, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see how quickly she picked up on how to build and edit Komoot routes. For $29 we purchased their catalog of maps and we quickly discovered that once you're ready to start a route, Komoot automatically downloads the offline maps needed for successful navigation. At the beginning of each day's ride, and while we were still on our lodging's Wi-Fi, we would download the day's route for offline use. Even in the hinterlands of Hungary and the Czech Republic, we were seldom out of cell phone coverage, but when we were, the predownloaded map route was a god send. 

Tricia Graham warned us that although Komoot was good, it was a real battery hog and drained her phone quickly. I too noticed this tendency but quickly learned that the drain came from constantly displaying the map on the phone which, for the most part, was entirely unnecessary. When riding on well defined trails, which was the majority of our riding time, I really didn't need to see the map on my phone. Komoot kept giving me audio directions even when I turned off the display. I only turned it back on when we were in towns in which there was the possibility of confusing turns. Once back on the trail, I turned off the display, saving power. By the end of the day, I always had plenty of juice remaining. Still, it's a good idea to ride with a power bank at the ready.

4. Photography. As I had noted earlier, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the shots I was able to take with my Galaxy S22+. Regardless, I also took around 600 shots with my Olympus E-M1 MkIII and now that I've had a chance to look at these, I remain convinced that for printing at least, I want to have as much control as possible over the editing of the shots taken and for that, the Olympus couldn't be beat. For a interchangeable lens camera, it's surprisingly light weight and I rarely found it to be an inconvenience to carry on the bike.  My takeaway is that I'll probably continue to use both on future trips.

in any event, thanks for reading. See you next year!