Last year, when Grampies went in Circles we did 5258km (3286 miles) in 86 days, for a general average of 61 km (38 miles)per day. At the end of it, we wrote: "Pedalling our last 10 km, from the camping to Schiphol Terminal 3 could have been a bit sad or nostalgic, or we could have had enough, and be glad of just 10 kms left to do. In fact, it did not turn out to be quite like any of that. The fact is, we are stronger, fitter, than when we started. If we had been setting out this morning for another 1000 or 2000 km, it would have been fine. So on these 10 km (6 miles) what I mainly was thinking is how much darn fun this is, and how good it feels to propel an overloaded (packing materials, duffel bags, and gifts and souvenirs that we failed to mail back) bike with a broken derailleur (haven't actually mentioned that yet) with little or no strain. I was thinking it's a waste to just be hitting our stride after 5000 km and now to be out of time."

This time around we did 4580 km (2863 miles) in 92 days, for a general average of 50 km (31 miles) per day. These measures can be a bit misleading, because they include planned days off staying with people or taking trains, but even if you pull those out (8 days like that this time) the daily average is still just 55 km (34 miles). So, are the Grampies weakening? Maybe a little, but it's not that simple:

• This time around we consciously spent more time absorbing the places where we were, rather than charging on to the next place. For example, though we are not at all religious, we seemed to seek out and visit a lot more churches, curious about what relics they might be proudly displaying or what frescoes they had.
• Maybe a sign of weakening, but we stayed in many more guest houses this time. In Germany, the included breakfasts are not to be missed, and it takes time for these to be set out, and then to eat them. So there were many fewer early morning starts.
• Just as last year, when we came to the end of our allotted time (visa time) we looked ahead and thought "Oh, look at that open road - we could just keep going!"
• On the other hand, yes, the knees are weakening. Dodie was fighting pain most days, and knee surgery may be looming. So when the times came when we could have pushed on hard to reach someplace, maybe we eased off instead.

Anyway, here is how it played out this time:

• Days where we went "nowhere": 8
• Days with 30 or fewer km (19 mi): 6
• Days with 70 or more km (44 mi): 14
Average daily distance when pedaling: 55 km (34 mi).

Watch for the next Statistics chapter - to learn about Costs