May 30, 2019, We are leaving for 90 days of cycling in Schengen countries.

Starting in Barcelona, Spain, we will cycle the short distance to Girona as a warm-up stage. In 2018, we cycled from France to Girona so rather than repeat this section, we’ll catch the train to Nimes, France. From Nimes, it is a short ride to Avignon where we link up with the dedicated cycle trail that follows the Rhone River into Switzerland,

As we close in on Lake Geneva, if the weather is kind, we will skip following the dedicated route around Lake Geneva and instead follow a route through the French Alps on some of the Tour de France famous climbs.

Crossing back into Switzerland at the eastern end of Lake Geneva, we’ve planned a route weaving through the Swiss Alps with visits to some of the spectacular lakes in the region.

Then we head south into the Dolomites. We have an elliptical route planned that will take us through the most scenic parts, including the Maratona Route. We will probably end up in Milan when our 90-day limit in Schengen will force us to leave. At the moment, plans are to fly to Cyprus and explore the island until the end of October.

 

This year, we are using a new planning app we discovered at the end of our cycling in 2018.

The app is called Komoot. 

Navigational tools for cyclists have changed exponentially over the past few years. We can remember on our very first tour from Costa Rica to Peru in 1984 we were lucky to find any paper maps at all. More recently, our trips in Europe in 2014, 2015, and 2018, we left paper maps behind and switched to maps on GPS devices, used a massive variety of navigational tools for Androids and Apple, and tried numerous ride apps for planning and recording. But, all the apps we had used before were really geared toward monitoring your physical fitness and offered little information for planning long distance tours. Not until the end of summer 2018 did we run across an app specifically designed for touring cyclists.  NOW, WE ARE USING KOMOOT!  We planned this trip using Komoot and will navigate our routes that are saved in Komoot offline.  Komoot.com. 

Here are the reasons we love this app so much:

1. The app is free. No yearly membership. Buy the maps one time, by region or of the entire world. Komoot updates for free.
2. Komoot is designed for finding and planning and following scenic routes all over the world. Not just for cyclists, but for hikers as well. 
3. Discover Page: We started with their Discover page. This is an amazing resource of actual routes you can browse and then save to your profile. Komoot-Discover Page
4. Plan routes on your computer; they send automatically to your smartphone. Save for off-line use. Navigate directly from your phone. Turn by turn instructions. No need for GPS unit. Save and share.
5. Planning a route is so easy. Choose road cycling, mountain biking, touring, hiking, or trail running. Choose the starting point and destination. Komoot follows known routes for your activity. Or import GPX files.
6. Modify the route easily. Reverse it, change parts of it, delete parts.
7. THE BEST FEATURE is Komoot describes the road surfaces. Paved, unpaved, single track, dedicated cycle route. WOW! DO WE LOVE THIS!
8. Plan using other cyclists HIGHLIGHTS. Incorporate their suggestions into your route.
9. Select what you want to see on the map. CAMPSITES! markets! cultural sights! And many more categories.
10. Komoot creates a complete summary of your planned route…with photos if you have chosen to use highlights. Sample summary
11. Profiles generated automatically. Total distance, elevation gain, and loss. Gradient percentage.

You might want to give Komoot a serious look.

Our Bikes

This year, Mike has bought a new touring bike.

Mike is now 78 years old. He has been riding the REI Safari 26″ wheel touring bike for the last 8 years, either pulling a trailer or carrying front and rear panniers. Since he is only 5’4″ tall, it has become much tougher to lift his leg up over the bar to mount and dismount from the bike. So, he bought a 20″ wheel bike that folds! Tern Link D8 Folding Bike

 

 

 

 

The bike comes with rear rack and mudguards and Big Apple tires. The only item we bought extra was a front lowrider pannier rack.

The folded size is oversize for airlines so we will disassemble it to pack it into a legal 62″ box. Once in Europe, the quick folding mechanism and small size will allow us to put on trains and buses with no special reservation. 

Anne will be riding her Azub TriCon trike 20″ that she rode the last two summers. It also folds so we hope to be able to use the trains this year to get from Girona to Nimes. So far, we have not used any trains on our past journeys.

 

 

 

 

 Equipment for Camping 

We really went overboard this year. Forever and ever, we have been camping in a 2+ person tent like the REI  half dome. It rains a lot in the summers in Europe and we are really tired of being held up in such a small unit. Our main dislike is not being able to stand up inside the tent or have any room to move around other than crawling. So….Here is our new tent! It’s designed for motorcycle riders! The LoneRider Moto Tent. It weighs 12 pounds! It will go on the back of Anne’s trike!