1. Before We Go

A late addition--- because it's difficult to follow the chronology of the blog I've tried to put all the entries in chronological order. The astute amongst you will have worked out that this is entry 1. the next entry 2. and so on. I realise that the majority of people who would have looked at the blog and therefore this late, helpful change comes far too late. Such is life.

Welcome to the Crazy Dreamers [ apologies to Leonard Cohen ]http://www.leonardcohen.com/us/home  blog.
Hopefully this will catalogue our triumphs and disasters as we sweep through the continent from The Hook of Holland to Vienna.

The three of us comprise of Fred- he is there for languages and interpretation.
Bruce, he is there for technical expertise and also because of the fact that in his youth [ a very, very, long time ago], he cycled to Australia, and a few years ago he and Mary, his wife, cycled all the way to the south of France  and back. Basically a cycle trip to Vienna is like a trip to the shops for Bruce.

The third member of our party is me, David. My function is to make the other two look good.

We realise that the Tour de France- or the ' prelude' as we like to call it, has set off before us but we really think that we are the real deal. I mean, if you view the Tour de France where are the tents? where are the panniers? and who needs all those cars and motorcycles?

                                         

         Fully loaded.

Maps

The plan is to land at the Hook of Holland- navigate our way through Rotterdam, head for Nijmegen [ which I can't find on this map- worrying] and then power our way into Germany. We hope to be following the rivers- flatter terrain- and so we should be next to the Rhine and enter Germany near Werkendam- ish.

Not many pointers on this map- we shall be mainly following the Rhine and should pass near Essen, Cologne- or Koln as they misguidely call it, Mainz, perhaps Nuremburg - or at least we'll rally there [sorry], and then on to Regensberg where we pick up the Danube and then onto Passau and into Austria.

From Passau we follow the Danube all the way to Vienna.

We think it's about 800 miles- Fred is doing the journey in Kilometers which means that he'll be faster than Bruce and me. We have sixteen days to do it so we have to do ??? miles a day- I put the question marks in so that you could, as the Americans say- do the math.

If its more than 800 miles then we are, as the English say, b**g***d.

It's all in the preparation.

Packing was a problem- in the end we decided upon three of everything. This means three pairs of underpants , three pairs of socks and so on.
One theory is that these are changed and washed daily, the other, favoured theory, is that one pair is worn for six days, the second for six days, and the last pair should see us into Vienna.

           
                                       

    Three weeks' worth- the shirt will get washed- occasionally....