Overall we had an amazing trip and we're thankful that so much of the planning and resources that went into this trip seemed to pay off. But we realize that it was still a fairly complex adventure and we wanted to recap some elements of our trip that we thought we did well and some things that we could improve upon for next time. Also we're hoping that some of our experiences might help pay it forward for other people that might be planning similar trips of their own. 

THINGS WE DID WELL

1. Travel Roles - In the evenings, usually after dinner, we focused on different roles that helped us efficiently plan and document our trip. Ellen would focus on travel coordination, looking into the potential overnight destinations and food stops on our next day's itinerary and I'd gather all the photos/videos and post them online. We would definitely bounce ideas off each other, but it was easier for us to get things done in the evening when we focused on separate tasks. 
2. Following the Trail (Once we were on it) - Using a combination of our RidewithGPS route that we'd downloaded from the EuroVelo site and some of the local signs that we'd see, once we were on the route it was pretty simple to stay on the route no matter what intersections we came to.
3. Dealing with the weather - We followed various weather sites and would plan the timing of our rides to minimize riding in the rain. On the first day we left at sunrise from Oberalpass and I feel like we salvaged half of the day and saw some beautiful mountain scenery that we might have missed if we began at our preferred 9 or 10 AM start times. We also spent a day in Strasbourg, partly to see more of that beautiful city, but partly because it was easier to tour Strasbourg with an umbrella than it would have been to pedal 60 miles to our next destination in the rain. 
4. Currency Planning - A friend our ours, David Nagle, who we consulted with heavily on this trip, had recommended we have plenty of local currency. So even though we started out with what I felt was an excessive amount, having a couple hundred Euros at our disposal proved pretty invaluable. I thought we'd be able to handle most of our transactions with our Visa. We were surprised at the number of hotels/inns and restaurants that didn't take credit, or in a couple of instances where connections to Visa were down. And it's also always good to have a couple spare Euro coins for bathrooms at public buildings. 
5. Overall Flexibility - when you don't have a set itinerary, lots of curves can get thrown your way to make your trip more difficult. I think Ellen and I did a pretty good job of dealing with travel complications and planning food stops. There were a few times when we disagreed on things, but for the most part we were able to talk through options and usually make pretty decent choices about potential destinations and food.

THINGS WE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

1. Travel Itinerary Review - This was mainly an issue on my part. Because Ellen is so handy at working with travel planning and plane/train tickets, I never spent much time reviewing our tickets. I probably could have saved us a little bit of time when we missed some trains on our first Sunday coming out of Frankfurt if I would have reviewed the train tickets that day a little more closely with her. Especially after noticing we didn't appear to be headed towards the Andermatt destination on a train that we missed a connection for. 
2. Connecting to EV15 - Once we were biking on the route, it was easy to stay on the route, but we sometimes had problems getting TO the route if we had been a couple miles off it at an Airbnb or a destination that wasn't right on the trail. Google maps (for bikes) wasn't completely reliable and often created a lot of complications. RidewithGPS offered directions to get you to the nearest connecting point for a route, but it rarely worked.  We found that we needed to physically look at maps/phones and try to come up with our own plans for maybe a mile or two to get us back to the trail and we'll definitely do more of that when we do foreign bike routes in the future.
3. Packing Tools - I lost a couple tools to airport security on both the flight out of Dulles and the flight back from Frankfurt. I basically stored all my bike tools in a single bag that was in my carry on bag. I intentionally carried them with me in case we had problems at either check in point with bike box weights or something else and had to do a little bit of improvised maintenance to get the boxes checked in properly. Although we didn't have any problems with our bike boxes or weights, I think the next time we do this, I'll simply carry enough tools in my carry on to open the bike boxes but primarily try to store most of the tools in those boxes so they don't risk getting confiscated by airport security in the different countries. 
4. Off Hour Check Ins - During a couple of stops where we got into town after 7:00 PM, the staff at our overnight stays had often departed for the day. We were often pretty tired and sometimes had difficulty with internet connections or translating confirmation emails in German. It would probably help to make sure we had our check in numbers/codes all ready (if possible) and translated before we arrived. We also had difficulty calling a couple local German numbers (to help us with check in) for some reason that we never quite figured out.