We have finally found an internet cafe that will let us upload pictures! Make sure to look back at our previous entries to see them! We left our Koblenz hotel room by 10:00am on the first of October, and had a rough time finding our way across the Rhein to get back on our bike path. The bridge was definitely made more for cars, and the bike route was poorly signed. The bridge was incredibly windy, which made it difficult to steer straight. After finding our bike route again, the clouds became gloomier and threatened to rain. We were hit by [View Full Entry]

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Although we had a path and a river to guide us in the right direction the Mosel River Valley was like a sea of vineyards. In a way it reminded me of Holland, but in a more extreme way. There you can't look in any direction without seeing a windmill, while here you can't even open your eyes without seeing more rows of grapevines than old people on bikes (and believe me, there are countless old people on bikes in this valley). It seems that since school has started, and the summer is ended, the retired people have decided it is [View Full Entry]

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Well it didn´t take us long to make our way through Luxembourg, being that it is smaller than the smallest US state. As we experienced Luxembourg City and the beautiful countryside, we were intruiged by the mixture of French and German language and culture. What language do they speak here? While sitting on a bus we saw three: most of the ads were in French, all of the signs telling you to 'be good!' were in German, and the "Bus Stop" sign was a mysterious hybrid. In fact, the official language is Luxembourgish as well as French and German. Now, I [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Maastricht quite exhausted from our 65 mile goose chase for a place to sleep. We wolfed down our dinner at the Youth hostel buffet and although it was a bit humiliating, but we just couldn't slow down until we were uncomfortably full. That night we talked about how most of our day was spent cycling in order to stay on schedule. You see, we didn't have a really accurate map when we were planning our itinerary and we seem to have significantly underestimated all of our daily mileages. It was cheaper to buy our maps in Europe. However, [View Full Entry]

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After our wonderful rest day in Utrecht we were excited to get back on our bikes. We rode through the city, and after a couple of lucky turns through poorly marked bike paths we found our way out of Utrecht. What can we say, the landscape was nearly identical to how it has been through the whole trip. We saw lots of flatness, corn fields, sheep, and cows. Horses seem to be getting more popular down south, and sheep slightly less. We rode 60 miles out of the city and set up camp. In the most amazing campsite ever. We were [View Full Entry]

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After 270 miles of riding, I'm certain that the Netherlands is the best place for one to try out bike touring for the first time. Here's why: 1. The Knooppunkt system and LF Route network: It is very easy to find your way cross country by bike in the Netherlands. The country is covered with a network of bikeroutes called 'LF routes'. Just check your LF map or a map online and decide which route number to follow. The routes are well marked with signs posted everywhere. Don't want to follow a route? Thats ok too! Holland is also covered with [View Full Entry]

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Time for another update already. We're now enjoying our first rest day since we left Amsterdam. After six riding days and over 270 miles we think it's about time. So here we are staying in a hotel in Utrecht, living it up in the city. Well, more like resting it up. We're quite tired. So we still go to bed early and sleep soundly. But before I get too in depth about Utrecht, let's discuss how we got here. We left Spakenburg at around 5pm. Luckily we only had 10 miles or so before we hit camp. These were a fun [View Full Entry]

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Last time we wrote we were in Sneek for the afternoon. Now we've made it all the way to Spakenburg. Here's how it all happened. We left Sneek and headed towards Lemmer. We just happened to leave Sneek right as school had ended and so we found ourselves trapped in a mass of children heading home for the day. This was rather annoying as they tend to be loud and obnoxius, as well as slow. With a bit of effort we found our way around them all and continued on south. The country side here is much like it is anywhere [View Full Entry]

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The bike touring lifestyle has been a blast so far... You are always living in the moment: Where to get the next meal (or three), where to sleep, where to relieve yourself. Its very refreshing. We spent so long looking forward to this trip and living in the future but now we are in the moment. You always have a perspective of the entire country when you visit a little town: When you roll into another rediculously cute town, many of the tourists there (if there are any this time of year) have arrived by car or train. But we have [View Full Entry]

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Experiencing Amsterdam in 3 days (one of which was in a Zombie state) was overwhelming but so much fun. We purchased an 'I Am-sterdam"' card which allowed us 48 hours of all the free museums we could handle. Here are some highlights: The Rijks Mueseum: Featuring some of the best Dutch Golden Age Paintings and Objects. There were several Rembrants, all displaying his mastery of light. And there were only 2 Vermeer paintings (my favorite!), and both were delicate and marvelous. The Van Gogh Museum: This is the largest permant collection of Van Gogh pieces in the world. Amazing! In p [View Full Entry]

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