Once more, Keith and I are writing our reflections on the trip individually, with no discussion or peeking. It is a fun way for us to see where we have similarities of thought, and where there may be differences. Here is my thinking.

I am so grateful to be able to do this, and hope we can do it for many years to come. We will never be younger (hah) or healthier than we are right now, so we are planning next year's tour already. I use the word planning loosely as we are still in the France! Spain! Denmark! Croatia! Italy! phase, so until we decide where we are going we can't plan anything. It is part of the fun I think, the deciding, and the point is, we are going somewhere.

Last year I managed to worry about so many things before the trip. This year my only concern was that it might be a let down after last year's amazing experience. Happily, it wasn't. It was just as wonderful in absolutely every way and we loved everything we saw and everywhere we went. It is such a great way to travel. Not the only way to travel for sure, but right now, my favourite way to travel for many reasons.

I love being outside every day. Days when the weather was the grey sort that would mean in Victoria I probably wouldn't leave my comfortable home on a bicycle (I think of the day we left Innsbruck), off we go, and guess what? We have a fantastic time. On that particular day, despite a dire forecast, it hardly rained...until the last twenty minutes!

It is simply a great way to see a country. There are surprises and friendly people around every corner. We see everything too, not just the touristy stuff, and that is just plain fun. We meet the most amazing people, and this year were able to reconnect with both old friends and new.

There is also the satisfaction of a feeling of accomplishment. At the top of a hill, at the end of a day, at the end of a tour. I don't feel like I am explaining it terribly well, but for me it is just a great way to travel. As I say to friends, what could be better? Someone makes me breakfast and coffee (and my bed for that matter), we go for a bike ride and a picnic, and someone else makes me dinner. Throw in a textile free steam room or two, and you have a perfect holiday.

Once more we enjoyed everywhere we went. This tour had its favourite places though. I loved our time in Austria. It was an absolute highlight. Our legs were more than ready for the hills and the views made every effort worthwhile. We were so incredibly lucky to have picture perfect weather there, so we could see for miles.

Germany never disappoints us. They are so set up for cyclists and even when we were well off any of the major cycle routes the signs were there, to keep me happy and confirm the Chief Navigator's position. Germany is such a beautiful country. The Funf Flusse Radweg was beautiful. Actually, all the radwegs were.

Switzerland is gorgeous as well. I would love to spend more time in Switzerland, but honestly, it is so ridiculously expensive there, it may not happen. And that is OK because there are so many other places we want to explore. I wish I understood the economics behind a country where everything is twice as much as anywhere else in Europe though. I must look that up!

A surprise for me was Passau to Vienna. It was great, and I am not discouraging anyone from doing it, but it wasn't what I expected. It was my number one goal for this trip...we had intended to get to Vienna last year and time constraints meant we didn't make it. I had heard so much about it, and it is the number one bike route in Europe. I think perhaps my expectations were too high. Don't get me wrong - it was lovely, but it wouldn't make my personal top ten. It is bookended by two fantastic cities, and the day from Melk to Krems was beautiful, but other than that, it was a ride along the Danube. I have come to the conclusion, based on zero research, that it is so popular because it is the right length for seven day supported tours, Passau and Vienna are fabulous, and it is very flat and paved. It is perfect in that sense, but give me the Moselle, the Alsace, Burgundy or Austria any day. One hint though, if you do go Passau to Vienna, give yourself a week in Vienna. Even then you will have just scratched the surface. What a great city. Keith and I will have to go back.

On a navigational note, this year was a breeze, thanks to Keith and his various apps. I still function as the Go This Way device, with my strength in sign reading, but he is really the star of the navigational show. I like to have a good map on my handle bar bag, and it can come in very handy on occasion, but Keith can figure out how to get us just about anywhere with his phone. The only times we had discussions about the route were when I would be standing under a sign that said GTW, and he wanted to go the other way. Fairly or unfairly, I thought the established route would be more scenic. Of course, when you go one way, you can never know what the other way might have looked like, so the jury is still out on that one. How can one complain when there are multiple off road, dedicated cycle paths?

We were only 'misplaced' (the CN doesn't like the word lost) twice. The first time we were both so delighted with the perfect path neither of us looked at the iPhone, map or any signage until we came to the dead end. Pilot and copilot error for sure. The second time was an electronic glitch and the CN looking a little too hastily at his phone. Both make great stories! Somehow getting misplaced on a bike in Europe isn't too alarming. You are never very far from civilization, and people are always so helpful.

What would I change about this year's tour? Only one thing. I would have loved to have had more time, and that is it. I console myself that it is always better to leave wanting more than to wish you had left weeks earlier, but I wanted to keep going. Other than that, it was absolutely perfect. We stuck to our goal of remembering to poke around. We managed type one fun (all fun, all the time) almost the entire tour. We had the odd hour or two of type one and a half fun (part of it is tough, but there is a reward) and managed to stay completely away from any type two fun days, where it sucks all day, but makes a great story afterward - retrospective enjoyment! We happily avoided all type three fun as well, thank goodness.

We were once more blessed by the weather gods. We had some very cool weather in October, but I had the clothes for it, right down to my shoe mittens, and so I was never cold. We stayed dry almost the entire tour. I am guessing we didn't have more than a couple hours of rain this year. We did have twenty minutes of rain that had me thinking about building an ark, but it was the last twenty minutes of the day, and our wonderful B and B provided towels and a drying rack! It was actually raining so hard it was hilarious. I am laughing remembering, as I write this.

Riding a loop, and arriving back to the Frankfurt airport by bike was quite special. There is nothing epic about the type of bike touring Keith and I do - we are in it for the sheer pleasure of doing it, so I was surprised by the level of satisfaction we felt when we came over the overpass to the airport. It was great!

The end of a successful tour is always bittersweet, but planning for the next one is so much fun. Thanks for following along! Keith will add his thoughts soon.