Comments and lessons: We had 3 small inexpensive digital cameras with us. Well, two of them do not have memory cards and we lost all the photos, about 150 pictures because the batteries did not last. Lesson: use only digital cameras with memory cards on (long) bike tours. The third camera had the wrong settings and the last several pictures are blured. Most cameras reset the settings after turning it off, this one does not! wrong settings - bad pictures, a real shame! the above pictures show only a small portion of our adventure in 6 weeks of splendid bicycle travel

Summer Tour 2004 (Barbie's comments about the tour)
Basic outline and time line

Day: 1 - Tuesday 20 July 2004
Heidelberg to Basel: Ride on Baden-Wuerttemberg ticket with young missionary man to Offenburg. He gives us ticket so we can continue to Basel. Basel to Waldighofen, France by bicycle: Bike through Basel, Switzerland to St. Louie, France. Have trouble finding a way to Besancon.  Purchase map of Alsace region of France. Storm comes up but we ride ahead of most of it. Some rain but found a farm building till rain stops. 2 rainbows. Many hills through farms and small towns. No bike paths, must ride on main roads. Traffic was light and most vehicles were respectful of bikes on the road. At night we found a sports field in Waldighofen and set up tent.

Day 2 - Wednesday 21 July 2004
Waldighofen to L'Isle sur de Doubs; Early start, on the road by 7am. Stopped at 10am in Seppois le Haut to buy supplies. Ate hot roast chicken in parking lot. Many more hills. Went to Della, stopped to have a coffee and a beer. On to Audincourt where we found the Doubs canal and followed this to L'Isle sur le Doubs. We followed same route used by "Bob" Perowitz on his website www.perkowitz.com which gave info on the road conditions and direction. We stop in L'Isle sur de Doubs to rest along the canal, looking for a camp site. Almost gave up and left before discovering a huge sign we nearly missed advertising "International Camping". Paid for this campsite. Hot day, very humid. Showers felt very good.

Day 3 - Thursday 22 July 2004
L'Isle sur de Doubs to Besancon; Good breakfast of coffee and fresh croissants. On the road by 9am. Another hot day. Traffic was bad on some roads. Not much of a bike lane on the hills. Asphalt was very hot and made riding difficult up the hills. Stopped for lunch near Baume les Dames along the Doubs River. Family run restaurant where truckers were eating. Menu was very local and very good. Barbie had mixed grilled fish, Bernd had steak. A tray of cheeses was presented after meal with local varieties. Dessert was fresh strawberry tart. Rode a short distance and stopped along the river to rest from lunch. Bernd showered. Very humid day. Rested one hour. Tackled several hills and one mountain within 40km of Besancon. Pushed bikes up most of it during the heat of the day. Found a rest area with a very cold water source and doused ourselves to cool down. Rested 30 minutes. Mostly downhill after this. Found La Plages, the campsite found on the internet. Large campground and quite full. Set up tent with several other small tents. Went swimming at separate pool complex but were not charged entrance because of the late hour. Pool closed 30 minutes after we got there. Ate at the snack bar and watched TV. Bed by 10pm.

Day 4 - Friday 23 July
Up early. Shower, on the road to Besancon. Breakfast at a bakery. Long downhill ride into town. Found Tourist Information which opened at 10am. Toured the city along the river within the 7 hills surrounding Besancon. Located the train station. Located the start point of the Tour de France in Chamars Park. Return to camp. Eat small snack at little snack bar and watch TV. Bed down and rain begins. Thunder storms most of the night. 

Day 5 - Saturday 24 July
Decide not to stay another night. Pack and head into Besancon for the time trials that begin at 11am. Breakfast at the bakery. Go to train station to see about a train close to the border of Germany. Plan to leave after we see Lance Armstrong. Streets are blocked off for the course. We set up our viewing just below train station. Meet Jeff from England and talk. Watch promotional cars parade by throwing candy, T-shirts, caps and other items into the crowd. I get a hat from Jeff. Then the rains begin! It delays the beginning of the trials for 30 minutes. Later we go to the start point to watch the activities. See the Postal Service van for Lance Armstrong's team. Lots of private tents with VIP's drinking fancy wines and being important looking. Rain and more rain! Sun then returns late in the day making it hot and humid. We return to the train station view point. Each cyclist the rides by has an entourage of cars and police escorts. Lance had the most coverage as he whizzes by. We see him for almost 3 seconds!

We are on the train for Mulhouse by 5:30 pm. We arrive in Mulhouse at 7pm, buy some groceries, eat a nice meal (I have muscles) and then try to find our way out of town towards the Rhine River. Light fades, signs are not good and we get a bit lost. Wind up in a suburb and camp in a field for the night.

Day 6 - Sunday 25 July
Mulhouse to Müllheim to Freiberg (for a pizza at Casinova's) to Lindau on the Bodensee; Camp in Lindau at Lake Constance.

Day 7 - Monday 26 July
Bike around the Lake Constance to Bregenz, Austria and have a good meal..Then from Lindau to Bad Reichenhall by train. Loads of Rain! Camp in gardens in the middle of town late at night  - out of pure necessity! A very odd experience, quite a site to see a small tent and two bicycles with feathers in the town park; a friendly voice asked late in the morning, who and what we were doing there? Bernd explained that we had found no other accomadations in the rain late that night. Today we laugh at the experience, but at the time we were desperate, because we have never experienced such heavy rain before. It was not raining but pouring and under the pine trees was our only hope of setting up tent for the night. We had no other choice! In fact, in the morning we slept quite well.

Day 8 - Tuesday 27 July
Camp at Campsite along the Saalach River and dry out.

Day 9 - Wednesday 28 July
Vist graves of Bernd's parents in Bad Reichenhall; Ride to Salzburg. Same campsite along the Saalach River.

Day 10 - Thursday 29 July
Bad Reichenhall to Salzburg by bike again and then take the train to Vienna. Camp east of Vienna near the Danube. Corner of an autobahn (freeway) and a railroad! Strange place for a large campsite in our opinion, constant traffic noise, but very large international campsite.

Day 11- Friday 30 July
Short free bicycle tour of Vienna. Camp same site.

Day 12 - Saturday 31 July
Another little tour of Vienna and then go to Grinzing and enjoy a good meal. Hot day. Ride the Danube Radweg (=bike trail, 324 km). Camp at Zwentendorf free.

Day 13 - Sunday 1 August
Continue ride along Danube. Some rain. Camp at fishpond campsite near St. Pantaleon.  

Day 14 - Monday 2 August
Arrive in Linz by bike. Take train near to the Czech Republik border, Sommerau. Bike into Czech Republic to Peznice train station. Smallest station one can imagine. Board train to Budejovice then to Prag. Arrive in Prag  atmidnight. Bike to campsite we know. Camp at 1am.

Day 15 - Tuesday 3 August
Prag to Decin by train. Bike along Elbe Radweg (Elbe River bicycle path) to Dresden. Bike to Trachau to Horst's home. Camp in his back garden after the neighbors let us in.

Day 16 - Wednesday 4 August
Have breakfast with neighbors of Horst and Sabine. Bike along the Elbe River to campsite Wostra. Pay for 3 nights. Good site with kitchen facilities. nudist beach (FKK = freie Koerperkultur) bagersee there. Biergarten (beer garden) at ferry going to Schloss Pellnitz. We drink punch and dark beer, a specialty of the region.

Day 17 - Thursday 5 August
Tour Dresden, do shopping and visit internet cafe

Day 18 - Friday 6 August
Tour Dresden, do shopping and visit internet cafe again. 

Day 19 - Saturday 7 August
Dresden. Tour Pellnetz. FKK beach again at another lake. Wait for Horst and Sabine to arrive home. Arrange with Horst to come Sunday morning for breakfast.

Day 20 - Sunday 8 August
Breakfast with Horst and Sabine. Nice time. Arrive at Dresden train station at 2pm. Get used weekend ticket for 4 euro. Travel to Stralsund (North Germany), arriving at midnight. Bike over bridge to Island Ruegen and the town of Altefaehr. Camp 2am, surprising our tent neighbor the next morning.  

Day 21 - Monday 9 August
Bike across the island of Ruegen from Altefaehr to the sea resort town of Binz by way of Putbus. Not very good bike paths and roads are poor. Traffic is not bike friendly. Arrive in Binz and find campsite. Camp on edge of campgrounds near the sea. High winds. Sounds of the sea.

Day 22 - Tuesday 10 August
Tour Binz and local area; go to FKK nudist beach. I get toasted, meaning sunburn on the butt.

Day 23 - Wednesday 11 August
Bike  from Binz to other sea resort towns of Sellin and  Goehren. Take boat ride back to Binz.

Day 24 - Thursday 12 August
Binz. Bike to Sassnitz  and visit the fishing harbor.

Day 26 - Friday 13 August
Cloudy morning. Rain all day. Hot foods, walking from food place to food place to internet café. Stay warm and dry. Heavy thunder and lightening storm at night. High winds later and no rain help dry the tent.

Day 27 - Saturday 14 August
Roll tent into blue bag at 5am and bike to train station. Pack inside train station. Take train with weekend train ticket shared with young man, pay 14 euro each. Get 2 weekend tickets by machine error in our favor. Train leaves 7:47am.

Bernd decides to do Poland as we come to Berlin Zoo train station. Leaves Barbie on train alone to Heidelberg. Bernd does his own bike tour through Poland for a week and has a splendid time, so he says.

Bernd's comments: Poland is the cyclist's paradise for cycling in rural countrysides and extremly inexpensive. Poland was cheap, the 50 euro I had changed to zloty lasted a week, camping costs less than 2 euro, a great breakfast for 7 zloty, meals around 2 euro, best zhiskabab I ever ate. good fish too, most of the time I raced my bicycle, taking hills standing up. I really pushed it hard. Once I got lost in the forest for two hours, but finally found a very nice swimming spot at a lake, camped at another lake and cycled along the seacoast, stayed in one resort town two nights, lots of polish tourists there, some germans, big amusment park, felt like at New Jersey shore. Then I crossed the border to Germany and raced up the Island of Usedom to Zinnowitz. I came back to Berlin by train today with a Bavarian family (no costs) on their weekend-ticket. Ready for next bike tour now!

our bike song:
I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE
AND TAKE A TOUR THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE
RIDE RIDE RIDE
I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE!

Day 35 - Sunday 22 August
Barbie returns to Bernd in Berlin with weekend ticket. We continue with same ticket to Puttgarden on Fehmarn Island. Arrive midnight. Camp in RV parking site. No costs. 

Day 36 - Monday 23 August
Bike around the plesant Island of Fehmarn into the main town of Burg. Bike to eastern side of island and camp near sea.  

Day 37 - Tuesday 24 August
Bike off island to follow sea coast towards Kiel. Camp in Brazilien near Kalifornien. Heavy rain. Set up tent in rain at an RV campsite.
Bernd's comments: On the Baltic sea coast I could read the whole sortiment of possible german "Verbotsschilder", signs forbidding almost everything! a sad example of the german "Schilderwald", sign forest. Die spinnen! They are crazy for posting so many prohibitive signs, gets me angry - forbidding should be forbidden! At least the air and view of the sea is still free!

Day 38 -Wednesday 25 August
We bike along the coast to Kiel. Find wash salon and do laundry, clean gear and dry tent and clothes. Have dinner at Bernd's favorite Asian Restaurant in Kiel. Take local train to the Island of Sylt. Arrive in Westerland at 7:30. Sell ticket for 6 euro. See sunset into North Sea. Bike to Wenningstedt and camp at 10pm. Shower. Great stars out!  

Day 39 - Thursday 26 August
Pack. Bike to Westerland. Eat at Gosch sea food resturant. Bike to town of Hoernum see our old campsite of last year. Go to beach and swim "FKK" nudist style. Cold water and air. Bike to end of island and along lee side. Bike to Rantum then to Westerland. Eat again at Gosch. Camp at Wennigstedt at same site. Rain at night.

Day 40 - Friday 27 August
Rain in the morning. We shower first then take tent down, roll in bag. Bernd brings all to TV room to wash tent. At 12 we leave. Bike to Westerland. Eat at Greek restaurant. Take bus to List. Eat at Gosch once again. See Mr. Gosch himsself! Rain and sun the rest of the day. Bus back to Westerland. Bike to Keitum. Take train to Klanxbuell, the first town on the mainland. Ride to Emmerlsbuell, where Fank Paul lives with Helma. Most of the time Helma is in Berlin and Frank on Sylt. It is there country home for weekends. He is surprised to see us. We sleep in his spare bed room.

Day 41 - Saturday 28 August
Breakfast with Helma and Frank. Leave at 9:10am. Bike to Nebuell to meet a german born Brooklyn NY guy who sells Giant bikes. Frank's friend, Fred. We catch train to Hamburg-Altona riding on someone's weekend ticket. We buy weekend ticket in Hamburg for 8 euro, take along an extra rider for 3 euro. to Uelzen. 7 train changes. Arrive in Heidelberg 12:45am Sunday, August 29, 2004. Bed… 1:15am.. happy trails..! The End!