Of  course I planned our trip to make sure that the rest days would all occur on rainy days. So it came to pass today!  

Traveling light necessitates washing your cycling kit in the shower/bath  every evening and drying it out for the next day’s use. This is just fine with me - I would happily do this for the entire two months. Dave, on the other hand, is a bit more fastidious and actually prefers to machine-launder his clothes on occasion. As a concession to this admittedly legitimate desire I try to plan a weekly stop so that he can launder away.  (Dave interjecting: Oh who does she think she's kidding? She appreciates properly cleaned stuff as much as I do!) Today was such a day:  I located the local waschsalon a mile away and he dutifully packed up a pannier and rode off in the rain with our soiled clothing.  So, this next bit was his report by text from the laundromat: 

“Good news, not so good news… Good news: A machine freed up just as I arrived. Bad news?  No change machine. Good news? Hotel next door can provide change. Bad news? Closed at noon and will not return until 3. Had just enough change to do wash, but not enough for dryer.”  

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Rachael AndersonI’m with you about wanting to periodically have my clothes machine washed. Sorry you didn’t have enough change. I had the same issue but someone at the laundromat gave me enough change so I could use the dryer after washing the clothes.
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2 years ago

Jill GelineauHey Rachel, thanks so much for the reach out and sorry for my tardy reply. We are still sorting out routines and how to work out quiet time for stuff like doing the journal and returning emails. The hard thing is that the best time for us to do it is
in the morning when we are fresh, which of course runs against getting an early start. (We are in Spittal an der Drau today with only a 40 k ride to Villach so we are a little more relaxed.) Dave is doing better after his fall, which is a relief. I will reach out to Scott separately but his recent entry about the lost wallet and the tooth was hilarious; we go through that everyday (the lost stuff, not the tooth!) and every time we leave anywhere this is our conversation: do you have your phone, wallet, hat, keys, tablet. Invariably we lose stuff but we are just hoping it’s not too serious. Yesterday it was a converter. That is survivable.

Anyway, take care, JILL
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2 years ago

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The weird thing: when you are cycle touring it’s easy just to laugh and take this stuff in stride.  When I received this text I was at the Intersport cashier forking over 116 euros for some not-really-critical purchases and the cashier was willing to provide 5 euros in change. Dave and I met up for the change exchange and he completed the dryer cycle — unfortunately the dryer burned the elastic off my 10-year-old Icebreaker wool jersey and red rubber is now imprinted on one of his two t-shirts.  The good news: at that moment I was thinking my old favorite red wool jersey  was looking tired and I was in the process of updating my “look” with a new pink jersey - so you will see me now everyday in pink rather than red.

Rests days are a good time to reflect and we had to chance to do that over a leisurely breakfast.  What have we learned in 3 days: 

1. 60 k per day is plenty for us, even on an e-bike. We were pretty tired at the end of each day, which was aggravated by the heat.  I have a few 70 to 80 k days scheduled in our future and those will be big days for us. 

2. Riding 3 full days in a row and moving inns each night is plenty for us. We were ready for a rest day. 

3. We are digging Komoot as a navigation tool.  Each day we get more comfortable with it and it works well offline.  Our phone batteries are managing well, although they are pretty run down by the end of the ride. We have a  battery pack if needed. Now that I understand what Komoot can do, I need to go back and review the routes I prepared at home and study some issues I kind of skipped over; namely, I really don’t want to do single-track descents or ascents on a loaded e-bike. 

4. The e-bikes are great -  not perfect - but really good. I have had a few days of adjustment to the very heavy bike. Stopping  and starting quickly is hard and I lack confidence to make quick, unexpected maneuvers. I am a lot better after 3 days but hope to improve.  On the other hand, the e-bikes let us do a route that would be impossible otherwise. The ascents are fun and not stressful and eliminates the marital discussion that often occurs when Dave thinks I am not pedaling hard enough on the tandem! Those of you who ride tandems will know what I'm talking about. We bought KTM e-bikes, a German brand, and they are very well-made. We love the Bosch motors, because the pedal-assist is so intuitive and easy to use (you just get to be one with your bike).  

5. We have ironed out many little routine details of traveling together:  ie; who pinches the food off the breakfast bar for lunch, who showers first, who is in charge of navigating, and the list goes on.  It feels good. 

5.  We still love cycle touring.