Schedule!

My plans for Germany have started to settle a bit. I bought my airline tickets, finally, and I now have a pretty good idea of my itinerary:

9/30 - Leave SFO.
10/1 - Arrive Wengen, Switzerland.
10/1 to 10/4 - Hang out with family in Switzerland.

10/5 - Day 1 - Wengen, Switzerland to Bern, Switzerland (following the Aare)
10/6 - Day 2 - Bern, Switzerland to Solothurn, Switzerland (following the Aare)
10/7 - Day 3 - Solothurn, Switzerland to Waldshut, Germany (following the Aare)
10/8 - Day 4 - Waldshut, Germany to Basel, Switzerland (following the Rhine)
10/9 - Day 5 - Basel, Switzerland to Breisach, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/10 - Day 6 - Breisach, Germany to Breisach, Germany (side trip: Colmar, Selestat, Alsace Wine Route)
10/11 - Day 7 - Breisach, Germany to Kehl, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/12 - Day 8 - Kehl, Germany to Kehl, Germany (rest day in Strasbourg, France)
10/13 - Day 9 - Kehl, Germany to Speyer, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/14 - Day 10 - Speyer, Germany to Speyer, Germany (side trip: Heidelberg)
10/15 - Day 11 - Speyer, Germany to Mainz, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/16 - Day 12 - Mainz, Germany to Bacharach, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/17 - Day 13 - Bacharach, Germany to Koblenz, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/18 - Day 14 - Koblenz, Germany to Bonn, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/19 - Day 15 - Bonn, Germany to Koln (Cologne), Germany (following the Rhine)
10/20 - Day 16 - Koln, Germany to Dusseldorf, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/21 - Day 17 - Dusseldorf, Germany to Dusseldorf, Germany (rest day)
10/22 - Day 18 - Dusseldorf, Germany to Wesel, Germany (following the Rhine)
10/23 - Day 19 - Wesel, Germany to Nijmegen, Netherlands (following the Rhine/Waal)
10/24 - Day 20 - Nijmegen, Netherlands to Dordrecht, Netherlands (following the Waal)
10/25 - Day 21 - Dordrecht, Netherlands to Den Haag, Netherlands (following the Waal and the North Sea)
10/26 - Day 22 - Den Haag, Netherlands to Amsterdam, Netherlands (following the North Sea)

10/27 - Rest day in Amsterdam
10/28 - Return to SFO.

The next big purchase decision is the bike box for air travel. I will likely head down to New Mexico in early September and I'd like to try out the setup, so I need to get something figured out this week.

First Real Training Ride - 93 miles

I've been planning to do a real training ride for the last few weeks, but things kept getting in the way. Even though I slept in until 9am and didn't get started until 11am, I decided I wouldn't let that stop me. :-)

I biked down the Los Gatos Creek Trail to Los Gatos, grabbed some breakfast, continued up the trail to Lexington Reservoir, looped around the reservoir, headed up Old Santa Cruz Highway to Summit Rd, grabbed some snacks at the Summit Store, headed down Soquel San Jose Rd to Soquel, crossed over Highway 1 and grabbed some lunch down by the beach at Capitola, headed back over to Aptos, went across the fields to Mt. Madonna Rd (towards Gilroy), headed up Mt. Madonna (very very steep), headed down the other side (dirt), came back up along the Uvas, Chesbro, and Calero Reservoirs down into Almaden, grabbed a sandwich at Togo's (just barely made the 9pm closing) at Almaden and Camden, headed up Meridian to Willow Glen and home. The MapMyRide tool says 87 miles, though I made the route before I left and I deviated from it a bit, leaving the total on the ride computer at 93 miles. I think the MayMyRide elevation gain of 4250 feet is pretty accurate.

The bike worked great and I was very glad I'd bought both front and rear lights yesterday. A good pair of cycling shorts and cycling socks made things relatively comfortable, though I definitely noticed the time in the saddle. I don't think I want to do too many days this long in Europe. I had switched back to the stock tires and they were awesome! No flats and they handled the dirt on Mt. Madonna with no problem.

Map below: