I’m down to my last weekend before departure. Today was errand running day starting with a trip to REI for a new cycling gps unit. I’ve been using a Garmin Edge 705 for about 6 years. Does what I need including providing turn by turn directions from preloaded routes. I have maps of Germany and Austria that I loaded up to the device from a website several years ago. I went this week to download maps for Italy and discovered the website no longer works. I also couldn’t find any other websites with publicly sourced maps that would be simple enough to download either. Garmin no longer offers paid maps for such an old unit so either I’d have to burn through a lot of cellphone battery, or go without gps. I opted to go with shelling out the bucks for a new gps. Bonus, this one has a special climb function that shows you how far you are through a climb, assuming you’re following a preloaded track.   

Errand #2 was to find a new pair of walking/hiking shoes. The running store I stopped at unfortunately didn’t have anything in my size so I ended up going back to REI and finding a pair of light hikers there. Fortunately the replacement of my brake pads and one brake cable went much better than the shoe hunt. At the moment my brakes finally done squeal. 

As you know if you’ve read my previous post, the EU met Monday to debate restrictions on US tourists due to our alarmingly high covid rates. I was surprised that Germany hadn’t made any policy changes given how strict they’ve been with other countries, including even some EU countries. That all changed today. Germany will now only admit vaccinated tourists. Given that I’m vaccinated, that is not a problem for me and, quite frankly, pleases me. It means that much lower a chance I’ll be sitting next to an unvaccinated person on the flight from Iceland to München. Last I knew unvaccinated people could still get to Iceland with a negative test. I have not seen anything about Italy changing restrictions on tourists. I think most of the EU countries update their policies on fridays so I’m likely good to go now. I will need to fill out the digital locator forms for entry into Germany and Italy. That and packing up the bike will be my post ride activities on Sunday. Tomorrow I’ll have one last shakedown ride on the bike before it goes into the suitcase to wait for Thursday. 

Bitte drück mir die Daumen!