First tour done

TL;DR. First bike tour done. Objectively not as big or epic as other tours, but an important tour for me, as I’ve learned that touring as a heart transplant recipient is possible.
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I’ve always loved bikes and have commuted on bike, sometimes combined with train, most of my life. Due to congenital heart conditions, bike touring or racing was never a proper option for me as I was too “fragile”. That said, I had a better bike than most so that I could keep up with friends across town and to school/Uni – I maintained it meticulously.

My heart started failing severely during the end of my BSc degree, I went through a bunch of open surgeries during my MSc degree, reached a stable level and went abroad for my PhD degree. The heart started failing in the middle of the PhD, my national hospital requested my return so that I could enter the waiting list for a donor heart.

I had biked all the time until I went on sick leave and I had maintained my bikes – which took lots of time. Consequently, I used part of my sick leave scrolling through the internet to find the perfect commuter bike for the Danish weather and ideally a bike which could also be used for touring.

Post transplant, I finished the PhD, got a job and started to earn proper money. Found the ideal bike frame on ebay and had an awesome mechanic assemble my red bike. For light commuting, I just used the front back, but if I need to bring both computer, fancy clothes and shoes, I add the two rear panniers.

Last year, I had planned a tour along parts of the Rhine river, but my body was very unstable most of spring and summer. So I gave up that plan.

This year, I’ve been on top and I scaled down the expectations to a 7.5 day credit card tour in Northern Germany. Lots of zig-zag across the Kiel Canal, so that I could extend or reduce the length of the daily “stages” which were between 43 and 68 km and a total distance of 420 km. I have 21 km to work (if not combined with train), so the distances turned out not to be a major challenge.

Five of the seven days, the weather was quite poor with amble amounts of rain and wind. My rain jacket has passed a couple of years and was on the edge of worn out, however thin wool layers kept me warm – despite the water. The two days with sun were awesome and I had no mechanical defects, which I consider a big win as all components was chosen due to reliability and ease of maintenance.

I had a bit too much stuff with me – even for a rainy tour: The long trousers, the big woollen sweater and three of my four nice shirts were not used. The last nice shirt was used for evening restaurant visits.

I enjoyed the tour quite a lot, but realised that zig-zagging through the same landscape was boring. Next time, I will travel in a direction and have multiple end destinations, so that I am not forced to stay in the same regions during the whole tour.

Thanks for reading this far 😀.