WHEN I was first invited for this tour, I was not sure how I would feel about cycling in this same area again. I was not sure if I would be able to handle mountains this early in the season. I was excited to try out my new GPS and jersey for the first 'real' tour in a couple of years. Finally, I was really excited that I would have that first week to get my cycling legs and lungs back - so all sorts of memories flooded back from my cross-Europe tour eleven years ago.

In short, there were a number of things rolling around in my head, all of which make up the excitement of cycle touring, traveling in general and heading to Europe with friends Kevin and Tom specifically.

Since I knew I was flying into Zurich on Monday morning then had to meet the guys in Munich the next Monday, I pretty much knew where I had to be each day. These days with the iNet, it was a breeze to book hotels for each day of the trip. I would not normally do this as I tend to ride along until I feel like stopping, but this was different. It was nice each morning knowing that no matter how long it took to get to the destination that I had a guaranteed place to stay. The flip side to this was that I HAD to get to the destination - which I had to anyway in order to meet Kevin and Tom.

Having had the coldest winter in recent years, I was barely able to cycle before leaving. What this meant is that I had to toughen up my sit bones and increase my endurance on-the-fly. This was fine for the first couple of days, but as was mentioned in the journal, when compounded with a few mistakes on my ride into Immenstadt, would prove to be pretty disastrous and humiliating. However, once that day was over, I just got stronger and stronger every day and soon was fine climbing long and steep hills over the remainder of the trip.

Though I cycled some of the route in 1992, this tour was all 'new' to me. Possibly the only repeats were the dumplings, dunkels, and meadows. All of which were great. The scenery was spectacular and the riding with friends was fun. This being said, my next bicycle tour will not be in Austria, Switzerland or Germany. Yes, it will likely be in Europe, but somewhere else - Spain? Scotland? Lithuania? Benelux? Bosnia-Herzegovina? We shall see.

The weather. Prior to leaving, it was looking like the first few days would be sunny and warm but then lots of rain would fall for many consecutive days. Fortunately, as each day came and went, the forecast for rain would step back one day. The only true wet yucky rain was over a two hour period with Kevin and Tom. It poured. It was really cold out. We took a wrong turn. The first guesthouse was full so we had to keep looking in the rain. It was not fun. To re-iterate. I really, really, really do NOT like cycle-touring in cold, wet, rainy conditions. See why I don't camp during a tour?

And such. Cycling with Kevin and Tom is fun. There are always things to laugh at. Conflicting GPS routes to compare. Dunkels and helles to compare. And someone to take a picture of you when you get to Salzburg. Thanks again for inviting me on the trip guys!