We subtitled this tour a 4500 km Recovery Ride. How did it turn out?

Well, the km total up there says 4089, so it looks like we failed on that. On the other hand, 4089 is 90.9% of the plan, so maybe that is ok. I think we kind of panicked early, when we thought we were behind in terms of days and took the train from Rothenburg to Augsburg. Then we took the train again, from Verona to Venice. For that one, we just lost faith in the safety of Italian roads.

With these two trains in the mix, we both had fewer kms cycled and as it turns out, lots of days to spare. These spare days, however, were most definitely not wasted days. We used them first of all to do some gentle cycling with our friend Michel in Nantes, and his friends. This turned out to be one of the most treasured parts of the trip, and far better than piling up lots of extra kms. We also used spare days to go to Paris and join up with Joni, Didier, Brigitte, and Didier's son Jeremy. Again, more treasured than anything else.

In fact. as we think over the amazing landscapes, towns, and food we encountered on this trip, we can not help but be most nostalgic about the people - those already mentioned, plus Roland and Brigitte in Yutz, and Franz and Eva in Oberreichenbach. Any time we spent with all these, rather than hitting 4500 km was worth it!

OK, what about the "Recovery Ride"? We had several issues, starting out. Firstly there was the question of the courage to face such road traffic as we would encounter. Then there was the question of how well Dodie's knees, and my shoulder would hold out. In about the first half of the ride, I was really terrified during those moments when a car or truck would be overtaking us from behind. As the noise got louder and the vehicle approached, my distress got greater. The simple fact is that to do anything in life, while using normal prudence, you just can not focus on the possible bad consequences - no matter how forcefully and recently they have been shown to you. To get over this is just a healing process, and with us, it took time.

I haven't quite checked this with Dodie, but I did notice a point with myself where quite suddenly I was just normally cautious on the road and not terrified. So I think when we get home, we will be found on the roads with the pickup trucks, to some limited extent. That will be a big improvement over before we left, when Dodie was hitting the ditch when a pickup approached, before giving up on riding all together.

About the knees and shoulder - the knees held up remarkably well, at least when cycling. Dodie brought her two sticks and needed them while walking around cities. But on the bike - she was fine. With me and the shoulder - it did not bother me on the trip. I will be interested to see how it likes chopping wood back home with a maul. Surgery is still a possibility.

Overall, we had cancelled our planned Canterbury to Rome to Santiago de Compostella routing this year and chosen an "easier" tour. It did not necessarily turn out to be all that easy, but we did it. For next year, Santiago is at least back on the menu of possibilities. I would call that all a success!