We rode from Rome to London as complete beginners at bikepacking and made plenty of mistakes along the way! This video is the Germany, France & Luxembourg portion of the trip. See timestamps below for some favorite highlights. This is a great way to explore Europe on a budget! If we can do this, you can do this!
Timestamps:
2:07 Ferry across Lake Konstanz
12:58 Black Forest of Germany 🇩🇪
25:16 France and Strasbourg 🇫🇷
29:09 Side trip to Heidelberg
32:21 Side trip to Düsseldorf
39:38 We hate French Flies 🤣🤣🤣
42:19 Stealth Camp in France
44:28 Lost on logging roads in France
1:04:12 Favorite Gear
1:08:45 How to quickly repair a flat tubeless tire using DynaPlug
1:15:34 Bloopers
1:19:06 Luxembourg 🇱🇺
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#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #germany #france #luxembourg
We went bike packing across Europe as complete beginners, starting in Rome and ending in London. We rode 1,700 miles through 10 countries over 4 months. This is the biggest adventure we have ever attempted. This video is the Germany, France, and Luxembourg portion of the trip. We rode a ferry across Lake Constance. We rode across the Black Forest in Germany, then entered France and went to Strawburg. We took side trips to H Highleberg and Dusseldorf. Then we rode from Sarbrooken to Luxembourg. We spent about 3 weeks in this area and 11 riding days. This is a great way to explore Europe on a budget. If we can do this, you can do it. [Music] Good morning. So, we’re getting everything hooked together in the hotel here in Briggins, Austria. We are packing up in the next hour. We have to change money. We have a bunch of Swiss Franks left. We have to eat. We have to uh go to the grocery store. We have to get to a ferry because we’re going to get on a ferry and go along Lake Constants, which is a huge lake. How many kilometers did you say, Susie? 65. 65 km long. So, it’s a really long lake and we didn’t want to ride just along the shore for 65 km. So, we’re going to take a ferry to multiple places along the lake. And at the far end, we’re going to get off, ride our bikes about seven more miles to a camping spots, campground, and camp there. So, that’s the plan. Hama mama. All right. Waiting for the ferry. Just have to go through the dining room in order to put our bikes on the back of the boat. Yeah. You want them to be able to lean together. Is this okay? My back My bag’s in the way kind of. It’s okay. Goodbye Austria. Okay, goodbye Austria. It was fun. Off to Germany today. It’s better to do a trip like this with a bicycle than wait till you have to do it with this. In my opinion, is this exciting or what? number one arriving our ship I think. Then we go to Constance and into Uber. My thing right behind us is a nice little board that tells us exactly where to go. Oh yeah. First broken uh rack. Looks good. Thank you for lingan. I think we have about 12 km to go to our camping spots. We only have like 20 or 30 m of elevation. Hug car. All right, we’re getting close to the end of Lake Constants. Beautiful bike path here. Cherries over there. Kchin Kchin cherry trees. Yep. What up? [Music] I don’t want to leave now. You know I believe [Music] friends and family. Um, we are leaving the beautiful campground here at the north end of Lake Constance to head on a 3-day trek, I think maybe through the Black Forest. I’m heading towards Strawburg. Um, we have about 500 or 600 meters of climb gradual. Um, going to a place that doesn’t know we’re coming for $8 a night. Um nice restaurant, hopefully a good campground. So anyway, thanks for following. Why did we do the pit stop? I forgot my Algra and um allergies have been really bad here. So had to do Algra and Flonace and Darren needed some sunscreen. Little pharmaceutical stop. Nine weeks. It’s beautiful. Good job, my friend. Thank you. Pick some that we didn’t pick. We bought some strawberries. I think these are apples to our left. There are some pears to our right. It’s funny how they just put the nets over the top. Like like the birds won’t go in the ends for fruit sands. And what else did I stop for? Orchards. Pie. Pie. I do stop for pie. Germany where it’s kind of forested farmland. It’s really pretty. Rolling hills, cities, woods, big trees. We’re still not near the black forest yet. 15% grade. Woo! You see that? Hello. Well, we’re almost done with this big climb going to this restaurant. Hopefully I can keep in place with it. Any flies, the little black flies have started getting crazy again. And I don’t know if I secrete a blackfly mating pheromone or if it’s the color, but can you see all those on my arm? That gross. Gross. Hey, welcome to prone to wander Europe bike tour. Germany. Good morning. We are waking up in Germany. We are um I don’t know we rode about 35 43 something kilometers yesterday and we went to this hotel that’s a restaurant way out in the middle of the country and you can eat at the restaurant. You can stay in the campground. I use that term loosely. Looks more like a playground but anyway it was free. We’ll take it. You see that way? Now we’re going to go have a breakfast and get on the road and the Black Forest. Oh, and today we enter the Black Forest, which is interesting. It’s kind of a mountain range on the southeastern part of Germany where where we the border with France and it’s a dense forest, hills, lots of battles were fought there in World War I. So anyway, look forward to seeing what that looks like. We stayed in Rubenberg, Germany. It was just this one little farm in the middle of nowhere. Look at the isolation here. We’re 10 miles from the town. And this little thing way down here is a restaurant, a little hotel on top of it. Couple of houses and a farm. And you know, it’s just right in the middle of nowhere. So unexpected. So perfect. Thank you, Risa Berg. R I S I B E R G. No, it’s just so beautiful. I I couldn’t keep going. And I thought we’d turn our lights on, too. Dirt behind me. All for a Thursday morning. Thursday or Friday? Friday. Friday morning. [Music] Hope there’s no dogs around here. [Music] [Applause] Thank you. Taking a picture with the GoPro. You want to take a picture? I am with the GoPro. Okay. Good job. Thank you Germany for the bike paths. Time to eat. Time to eat again, Susie. Hi. Come on in. This is our lovely Airbnb. We have a living room. We have a dining room with skylights. We have a cute little kitchen. An adorable bathroom is right here. And a sweet bedroom. But the best part is the balcony. And that is the black forest. All right. Black forest cake. Breakfast of champions. Say good morning. I think I’ll bring my little My little German house right into town. Thank you for this great breakfast. Thank you. Moo. Woo. [Music] Okay, I’m Would you look at this little shop? It’s a hay bale. Look, a hay bale. So, we’re still in Shamburgg. Big festival planned here. We’ve accomplished breakfast. Uh Black Forest cake with a cappuccino. Uh getting money. And now downhill and fruit and bread. Fruit and bread. Man shall not live by bread alone or carrots and nectarines and bananas. Bananas taking videos, but it’s so pretty. I can’t stop. This is unique. Leaving Chamberg Redstone. They call this actually the Redstone area. Rocks are red, buildings are red. I always try to take Susie to the wastewater treatment plant and the industrial area of every town we go through. So, that was that. So, we’re still going through the Black Forest. We’re going to be going through the Black Forest all day today and I think half the day tomorrow. And so to commemorate, I did have the Black Forest cake for breakfast. Be yummy. I’m a fan of cherries. I think whatever cherries are in, I like I like it. [Music] So, we’re heading to this campground about halfway from Shamberg to Strawburg. And it’s really surprising how comforting it is when you know that you have a place to go. And so tonight we’re at the campground and then the next day we’re going to Strawburg. Um, and we’re going to stay at a welcome to my garden, which is a I guess they charge a fee now for the membership, but it’s former, it’s current cyclists, other cyclists who like to bike tour. And so they offer you a place to put your tent and you can use their I guess their toilet and their shower electricity and electricity and water um for no fee when you’re at their place. Um, and so they sort of a group that gives back or whatever. Anyway, so we’re doing that at Jim Marie, her place just outside of Straussburg. Um, then we’re going to leave our bikes there for a few days and take a train to H Highleberg. Our bottoms need rest, our minds need rest just uh just to take a little break. We’ve been on We’ve been on the bikes for seven weeks. Seven weeks. Seven weeks. Yes. And so, uh, it’ll be a a nice break. Up here on that bridge is a cow. I don’t think you’re supposed to be under. [Music] Morgan. Morgan. We’ll take it. And the craftsmanship of this thing is incredible. Is that a rail? Yeah. Has it been beside us the whole time? Follow the river. So Susie and I figured out this is an old rail trail. The uh angle would suggest it. The incline would suggest it. Yeah, that hard. This town looks like every other town, but this is what it seems like most of the little German towns would look like. Kind of flat faces, shutters, um kind of organized, clean, but not extravagant or not. Tons and tons of flowers, sunflowers. At least that’s been my perception. Okay, I I take it back. I think Germans are into beauty as well. I was just mistaken. I spoke too soon. I was wrong. Look at this. Ah, you’re smart. As soon as you saying Volksw like Volkswagen was the people’s park. She’s so smart. You come from England, Texas. Texas. America. Yes. Yes. Bang bang cowboy. Yes. And you come from here. Yes. Yes. Well, we have come a long way to visit you. Yes. We started in Rome. In Rome. Isaac Beach. Yeah, that’s no motor. Yes. And London. No, London. And it’s Germany. Netherlands or or France? Amsterdam. Amsterdam. And the har witch and the fairy. Yeah, English. Right. A little bit more. Learn. Yes. Yes. Good. Good. This is a beautiful picnic area. Thank you for You have to take care of these. This is yours. Yes. Yes. Very beautiful. Nice lunch break on a little bench. We met a a German man named Eric and he um in his broken English uh asked us about all kinds of things. One was, “What do you make of Donald Trump?” And oh, just different things. He was very uh he knew a lot of history of the area and he was very sweet. And um I don’t know I think he still lived here with his mom who was 96 years old. This is her house actually. He was a welder or electrician or something like that. You welder. He was very kind man. And we were very glad to use his bench. All right. We got lunch legs coming up. We always have that after we eat. We have tired lunch legs. Mhm. Not too far to go. Probably just 8 km, I think. All right, back in the saddle. [Music] Oh, they may be closed reception cuz it’s guess close in 13 to 15. Oh, we arrived in France, our sixth country. Good morning. We are in a campground in Steinbach Steinbach Steinbach Germany and we’re heading to Stber today. It’s about 30 47 kilometers and this is our lovely campground. Another little jog to the right and another little jog to the left. Don’t run over the cat. Looks like he’s been run over before. Uhoh. That That was our turn back there. Nope. There’s a little bike path that I didn’t see the sign. Is this the story of my life or what? [Music] So, you guys are missing out because yesterday Susie said I did 25 videos in one day from the bicycle talking and videoing. That doesn’t include the things I had on my phone. So, you miss out today. You don’t get to see any of this prettiness in that castle up on that hill. Nope. You’re not going to get to see it cuz the director has issued a a decree. doesn’t grow. Doesn’t grow a rope. Darren saw a fruit stand and is buying some blueberries. And now Darren found some cherries that looked ripe and he’s talking to somebody. I got he got them with their permission. Wow. [Music] instead of the thumb. Shh, don’t tell Susie I’m filming. We stopped for a second breakfast at a It was almost like a Cracker Barrel, a German Cracker Barrel on the side of the road and it was so inviting we just couldn’t not go. So anyway, we’re still traveling towards Strawburg. We’re flying in this isolated area that looks like a park of some sort. No cars, very peaceful, flat as a pancake. Not a very exciting road flat beside the auto stress. And I guess I really thought there was some cute stuff, right? Yep. I don’t know. This is pretty picturesque here, honey. Just wait. It’ll get cute. Look, we have some debris on the side of the cycle. I mean, what else do you want? I think we’re about to enter. Oh, we are in France. Welcome to our fifth country. Welcome to France. [Applause] We’re a little lost, but one of the things that’s reassuring is when you look down and you see a bunch of bicycle tracks. Can you see those? So, it encourages you that at least you’re on a bike path. I didn’t think it was a a lock, but I guess it is a lock. Um, I know they’re way behind us, but interesting, huh? Adorable free camping spot at our Welcome to my garden host backyard in Strawburg, France. What number lunch is this? It’s first lunch. How many breakfastes did we have? Oh, we got our Oops. We got our wires crossed again. I think there was a route back here we were supposed to take. We missed as usual. I missed these things. How do I miss these things? So, uh, we got our tent set up that are welcome to my garden. Met Jean Marie met a great guy. He was going to see his 95year-old mother, took some flowers, and uh, we’re just going to go take a quick look at Strawber and see what it looks like. Glad you could come along. Got another lock. And look at the difference. I don’t know if you can tell the difference in height of the water. See close. And if you look right through there, you can see how far it drops down. And here is the lock and the boat that’s coming through. I think it’s equal, Susan. So, I bet it opens soon. Oh, man. This is beautiful. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ain’t that cute? [Music] So after one train, two trains, one bus and one tram. And one tram. Yeah. We’re uh I think at our hotel in Hiddberg. Hi, come on in. Welcome to our Airbnb. It’s actually a hotel, but it kind of feels like an Airbnb. It’s in this nice old building with lots of windows. It has a very slanted floor, so everything kind of goes that direction. And then all the wall, most of the walls are slanted, too. It’s kind of odd, but it’s cute. You have coffee. Come over here and go to the bathroom. [Music] [Applause] [Music] This is my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] they disappear. So you don’t see those Is this good? [Music] And what is that? Sweet potato fries. Exactly right. Thank you so much. You’re welcome. This is the way Google routed us. What could go wrong? Yeah. [Music] [Music] I am beautiful. [Music] You have to walk up. Hello. These are some friends of ours. Me and 500 of our closest friends up and down. Our train got uh not just delayed, but broken and went on without us. Yeah. So, this is my friend. He actually lived in the same city I did when I was a kid. Name’s Gavin. Evan. Real friend. Cat. Cat. Ah. Excellent. So, we’re just hanging out. What else is everything? Yeah. So, tell us your story. Where you from? Where you from? Oh, Suz have to cut that goo giggle part out. I’ll cut out the giggling. Okay. That didn’t go as well as I was hoping. That was just [Music] Especially on this kind of train like IC stealth camping in France and we hate French flies. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You’re supposed to say good morning. What day is it? Any idea? It’s Friday. Friday and we 20some. Yeah, we’re leaving our host with this wonderful welcome to my garden. It’s been great. We are heading out for a 42 mile ride that goes like this for about 41 km and it goes like this for about 1 kilometer up 500 m I think. Anything to say? We’re in France. We’re in France. We’re going to ride in France along a canal and bike paths and stuff. We’re going to get a baguette. Here we are in rush hour traffic on the bike lane. We got passing. We got illegal use of turn indicators. We got helmets and no helmets. This is crazy out here. You can see the little canal we’re going beside. We are heading west from Stburg in the mountains. A little breakfast at the cafe where I said, “Do you have a croissant?” And the lady said, “No. Do you think this is a holiday?” Then she brought us some wonderful bread that was local specialty and it was worth it all. to get park. Very kind after all. [Music] The bugs. Can you see the bugs? It’s It’s just nasty. I’m going to have to change colors. It’s just not just not healthy. I could be getting disease and pestilence. Hello. Small hill up ahead. Okay. I see a small hill. I’m talking about the big hill behind it. That might be our friend for today. Yeah. Canal. Yeah. So, we figured out, guys, it’s this This canal, of course, is manmade canals that was made for long boats. Back in the day, there’s a bunch of a series of locks here, little houses along each lock. And the path run, I think, was a tow path where the horses would walk tow the boats up the river between the locks. Pretty cool. Now, [Music] I’m getting closer to the mountains. Whenever you go to a national park, they usually have a mountain. For some reason, it says to go this way. Woo! [Music] crazy restaurant, Albergo restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It’s supposed to be open at noon, but it came off of my route onto this little tiny road. If I go less than I don’t know 10 kilometers an hour, the mosquitoes are so bad. There’s probably 10 in front of my each eye while I’m riding. You can hardly breathe because they’re trying to go up your nose and woo. It’s pretty intense. We got quite a hill, too. Crazy. We go through a lot of crazy things to get to a French restaurant that has good recommendations, huh? Hi. Terrible day. No, the the first part 30K was great. In the last little bit, we have been surrounded by these little black bugs. Should I put it up to my neck? I did just so they didn’t come inside. Man, it’s hard to know what to do. They’re not mosquitoes, so they’re not um biting us, but they just stay right in your face and they fly in your nose, in your eyeballs, and sometimes you breathe them in. Or smell them in this. It’s amazing. I really I was really loving France. I really was loving France until just now. Bye. Remember the name of the place that we’re at? [Music] Elmer Forest. Elmore Forest. Elmor Forest. So the rim the brim of my hat got lost when we were in Strawburg and so my little net leans up against my little no my big no nose so that it’s not quite as effective as I would like but at least they’re not going my nose those. And they’re really not too much on my arms or legs. It’s crazy. At least they can’t get up your nose like this. That’s great. Suffocating with flies in your nose would be terrible. There you have it. So, is it good that the flies are buzzing around our head and trying to suck our blood or whatever they do and now it’s starting to rain? Is that good? I just can’t decide. Adding insult to injury. I I don’t know. [Applause] Yeah, Susie’s got an upset tummy, so she’s trying to poop in the woods in the rain with the flies around her face. Pretty glamorous vacation we got going on here, huh? It’s probably the furthest out in nature we’ve ever been with uh this little tiny road. little houses within 10 or 15 miles of the park. Kind of crazy. I think we’re almost at the top of the climb though. Thank goodness. All right. Susie’s not been feeling well. Hello. Bugs aren’t too bad here. So, we’re one kilometer from the place we were planning on camping, but they’re not be may not be any camping there. But this is an old logging road, and we’re thinking that uh that’s a great place for a tent right there. So, we’ll get set up and let you know how it goes. Bye. Welcome to Prone to Wander Europe Bike Tour. Sometime adventure sucks. Good morning. This is Friday, June 23rd. It is our 40th riding day. We’re riding in France. We are riding to the west about 37 km to a town we cannot pronounce and supposed to have about a 450 m elevation climb at the beginning of the day, then downhill the rest of the day. But dot dot dot, something went terribly wrong. We get to this road and we thought, great, we have pavement the whole day. This is going to be an awesome ride. [Music] And we emerge from the deep dark forest. Yeah, let me go this way. Had to leave a prone to wander sticker there. If you know, you know. Okay, it is lovely, but it’s unfortunately very uphill. I think we’re entering an area of some active logging. There was a tracked vehicle that came here this morning and now I hear a chainsaw. Yikes. Not sure what to do here. We just keep on going, huh? I’m so glad we didn’t have to follow that road. Honey, wouldn’t that have been terrible? I say active logging, I mean active logging. Bad news is this is the route. Susie checked on Google and Shazam. We got an easy route. We didn’t have to go through the woods. at least. Think. Uh-oh. Did it turn right up there? Well, the joy didn’t last long. We came down I don’t know probably 150 ft something like that and then we were so happy and then it turned us off onto this. The other route didn’t go where we’re going. So thanks Google. I made sure that it’s on biking and not hiking. So, and it’s uphill. You probably can’t tell. Do I have a bunch of flies around me? Yes. Good. You, too. Are we the lords of the flies? We’ll call this the day of adventure or the day of routing failures because hasn’t been very successful today. Susie tried her hand. So there’s a bump. She lost. I tried my hand. I’ve lost. Here’s a trail that I’m pretty sure is the wrong trail. Maybe a game trail. I think I see our road down here. I think here comes Suzik. This is a good kind of mountain biking. Are you having fun now? Yeah. I don’t think I can get that low. [Applause] [Laughter] [Laughter] I’m I’m pretty sure you can’t go. Why? I don’t know. It’s It got pretty skinny on me. Oh, you got yours. Your your bar tilts down. Yeah. Yeah. You got this. What’s the song for the limbo? [Music] Okay. All right. Here we go. It’s a little muddy down there. I wish you could see how downhill this is, cuz it’s quite downhill. But it’s a little smooth. Like it was Guess it’s easier to go down downhill on these little ski trails than it is uphill, huh? Up a little bit of a drop off. Okay. Good job, honey. [Music] [Music] Yay. I just want to fly. I just want to fly. Anybody want to buy some firewood? Look at that. A peaceful little place. Look at that. Would you? It’s amazing. back and forth. I don’t know. Arizona, look a canal. And then when you go across, look, it’s a bridge. Yikes. So, it’s 84 in here. We can’t open a window. There’s no air conditioning. It’s hot and sticky and miserable. Welcome to prone to wander your bike tour one more time. Good. Did I mention I lost my bill? I lost my my bill for my my helmet. It came off and I put it on the back of my bike riding on the cobble cobblestones of Strawburg. This is totally gone. So, I got a sunburn yesterday and a migraine. Hot. Oh, it was miserable. So, I made a bill. Maybe I’ll get some cardboard. Yeah, that’s thing. So, there’s a lake. Really big lake way down there. probably 25 or 30 feet below this level. And then here is the canal. So they had to raise the dirt up this high to make this canal. Isn’t that amazing? Quite interesting. And I saw this tiny little cafe on the corner. I was coming downhill and there was some guy we had had a big awning out the front and there were some Italian guys playing cards out the front one of the tables and the rain was just getting heavier and so I belineed for it and literally did I was very impressed with myself. I did like a break skid stop like and twisted onto the awning these all these guys playing cards the fright of their life and literally just as but yeah I guess I think No. What’s the perfect What’s the perfect sentence to say that? Tell us that we’re amazing on bicycles. You guys are amazing on bicycles. That’s what we want to hear. It was a very fun morning. Thank you for riding with us. Thank you, Kate. What a pleasure. Byebye. We got to this uh neat campground with this whole area for tents. And the guy said, “Go pick any spot you want.” So, we picked this nice shady spot next to a lake under a tree with electricity and a bench. [Music] Happy all day. It is 10:40 at night right now. Can you believe it? It’s okay. Good morning. We just left a great camping place right by this beautiful canal. Um there’s also a lake on the other side, but it was called Camping Kur de Alsace in the Alcase region of France. celebrated a uh holiday. I think they just do it every month. Just they need a reason to party here in France. So I think they have one day a month party. Anyway, so we’re going I think 43 kilometers to Sarbrooken today. If there was a hill, I couldn’t find one. So Susie’s happy today. Anyway, slept well last night. We slept topless. That is we didn’t put the rainfly on the tent. I always prepare for rain every night. I’ve had some bad experiences in the middle of the night before. But last night there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Forecast was zero chance of rain. So anyway, it’s nice to have the breeze blowing through. It was still light at 10:40 last night. Took a video. 10:40. It’s crazy. And then the sun starts coming up at 4. It’s just crazy, Susie. I’ve eaten pancakes that were bumpier than this. I’m sorry for what I said about the whole pancake thing. I’ll take it back. I’m sorry. I was wrong. Will you forgive me, Prince? bed. Carfree path is nice. Views, not not so nice. The breeze and shade are nice as well. Not so much to see. We could be in East Texas if it weren’t for the breeze right now and the path and the pretty much everything else. Did I mention we’re about to leave France and be in Germany? Wow, look at these boats, honey. It’s like a mockup of a cruise ship. See the little tiny lifeboats? Yeah, they’re canal cruisers. Oh, well, he gone, [Music] Susie. Now, be careful. Wow, this is so beautiful. Who’s your welcome to Sarbrooken? I think we’re in Germany. I don’t know. That could be across the river. I’m not sure exactly. Seemed like a good thing to say. Bye. Hello. I think we’ve been here before. Feels like a cold. I’m serious. Feels perfectly safe. What floor are we on? I don’t know where we parked our bicycles. Okay. This This is film worthy. I I got my video on. You do? Yeah. Uh it looks a little better with the sunglasses off. Yeah. It was really dark with the sunglasses on. [Music] Like dripping water. Oh. Oh. Is that cage for bikes? Nope. [Music] up. Did they show you a number for stairway? No. Huh? All these little dark places. And ducks. Duct work. Are you seeing Are you still videoing? Yeah, I think maybe Bruce Willis did a movie down here. Stay there. Okay, we have to go to the other Wait, there should be an elevator down here. Definitely not an elevator here. Huh? I said you stay there. What did you do? I can’t. The video doesn’t work if you’re that far away. there. Not the strong. This that No, that’s not me. That’s just a door. This says hotel. What? There’s an arrow for hotel. There is. Well, there’s there’s a lot of signs that say hotel. Okay. How about Wait, there’s actually a hotel. How about we just leave them here? I found the elevator. I did. It’s right here. Okay, we’re putting our bikes over here. Okay, they’re taking all of our bags. I got my lights on. Okay. See what I was thinking. Well, we found the elevator. We got upstairs, locked our bikes, and here’s our nice hotel room. Hey guys. So, we just finished our 45 kmter ride. It was kind of boring. Not really very exciting to show. River on the right, wind up ahead, highway to the left. Sometimes some trees, sometimes not. A few hills to the left and right. You can just picture that. So, instead, I decided to show you a few things that I’ve really enjoyed about our gear. Things that I didn’t really expect to like as much as I have, but I thought I’d take a few minutes and show you what I like. So, first is going to be, you guessed it, the tent. So, the tent we bought is Mountain Smmith Morrison twoerson. So, it’s not freestanding. So, to put the rainfly on, you have to have um you have to put stakes up. Um, but we have been through some pretty significant storms. Do you remember the floods in Bolognia? We had some videos about that when we were in pretty bad storms. Caused floods and landslides and we did fine in this tent. Um, and really really heavy rain. It seemed to do well. The bottom floor was dry. Um, so the things we like about it, um, it has access from both sides, of course. It, um, has ample room. We like to put one head at one end and the other head at the other end. It kind of gives us a little the ability to kind of spread our shoulders out at each end. Um, ample room under the vestibule for all of our bags. Um, it has, of course, the ceiling ceiling rack for drying things. Um, has air vents, which is nice. It didn’t leak with pouring rain. Um, the one thing we didn’t like about it was there was no floor in the vestibule. So, I got some bite bite type sighting stuff to put underneath. That worked out fine. The other thing we really like is that it packs down into this size, including a fan that I got for those days that we know are coming and it’s going to be quite a bit hotter. So, it’s a little rechargeable fan that I put in there as well. So, that works out well. All right. Next thing I wanted to show you was my pillow. Somebody ask about it early in the trip. We got these together. This will fill up. It’s kind of big over there. But anyway, there’s my hand. Um, it’s about 10 11 inches long. Um, and I’ll show you it looks like when I first unfold it. as skinny as it can be and in just a few minutes it will puff up and be about that thick. And it’s got foam inside that compresses really easily and it sleeps really comfortably. So that’s the next thing I really like. So we’re set up for tubeless on our bikes. Susie’s had four flats. Count from four. I’ve had none. She likes to ride at the edge of the road away from the heavy pieces of metal called cars and prefers to ride in the gradu which is where glass and nails and things live. So at any rate she’s had four flats. Um none of them have taken more than 15 seconds to repair. Four times and we actually met Kate. We met her met her a couple of videos ago. um she has a tuba set up on a road bike at home and she said she just really didn’t like it. And when I asked why, I said, “Oh, it’s just such a mess when you try to repair it.” Like, “Why? It’s so easy.” And she didn’t understand. But anyway, so this is my dino plug. Um it’s a little tiny thing. I bet it weighs an ounce, maybe two. I wrap some Gorilla tape around it just for anything else I need. Um, so when you have a flat, you basically can see it easily because the sealant is yellow and coming out. There’s lots of different types of sealant, but you can see them all pretty well. Um, so you find the hole, the puncture. um you remove whatever is sticking in there and then you decide whether you want to use a big plug or and I’ll show you in just a second what it looks like or a smaller one and I don’t think we’ve ever used the larger one. Um, so basically this is a brass tip and it’s attached to, you’ve probably seen people plug a tire before, but it’s attached to just a a plug. The plug is yay long. And so you just shove the shove it right in the same hole all the way in and then pull it all the way out. And that seats the head of this this brass head of the plug up against the inside of the tire. Um, and then you basically just turn that the puncture dependent so the sealant goes around it. Um, and it’s plugged. And when you do that, if you can put a finger on it, have your partner put a finger on it or whatever, stick a plug in there, pull it out, turn it dependent, and then start writing in 10 or 15 seconds, that’s a game changer. So, um, again, those are the two two tips, and you buy refills. Let’s see if I have a set of refills in here. Well, I don’t I have it in my less used, less frequently used tool bag. So, um, anyway, so dynams are a little bit expensive, but just the convenience is convenience is just amazing. So, all right, the next thing that I’ve been surprised about is my Garmin 1040 solar. I’ve really enjoyed it. Um, I guess maybe I like the big screen. It’s more like a phone, maybe. Um, so this is our ride today. um has the meters, time, temperature. Tap on it gives you all the specific data about it. Um it’s kind of useful summary. Yeah. Everything that happened about it. Oh, and it’s kind of cool because it tells you what happened with the solar. So, it gained 42 minutes. Um it charges whether it’s got uh whether it’s turned on or off. It charges both times. Um, the map is also pretty cool looking. Uh, let’s see. Good. Um, it’s just a real colorful map, easy to see. So anyway, it’s just a it’s just well done. Seems like I’ve gotten better at it. Um I can do my routes on Kimoot and then they automatically upload to the Garmin. I can share the route with Susie really quickly by either WhatsApp or by um texting it to her. Um so it’s on her device as well as my device. Um, just a all around pretty nice system. Of course, it does all the all the things that all the previous ones have done with uh notifications. My phone is connected, but right, it controls music. I have a speaker that I can I can play at the same time, which is kind of fun. Control it from that. Um, right. Um, has all the different forms of GPS you can use. Uh, just a slick machine, so I’ve enjoyed it. All right, next up, flex tail gear. So, hope you can read that. Anyway, this is a tiny little pump that whenever you have your air mattress, as I have here, my thermarrest, you can blow it up every night if you want to, but uh it takes forever and I don’t know. My lugs are old. I don’t know. So, I don’t want to use it. So, yeah, this little pump. It’s a tiny little thing. Probably weighs I can’t tell you how much it weighs, but it’s light enough that I don’t care. It’s got a lithium battery in it that I think will air this up probably four times, three or four times. Um, it also makes a nice light. I mean, it gets really bright in the tent. So, we only I mean, the most we use is is on low. When we’re stealth camping, we don’t use this. Um, anyway, so you take the little blower tip that look and you That’s it. And that’s all you do. And then you just wait about 3 minutes and shazam. About 3 minutes later, you have your full pack and life is good. Don’t make dad jokes. My last favorite thing are my keen. Um, when we were in the mountains and it was muddy and slimy and Susie had her chacos, the mud was getting in between her feet and the bottom of her chacos or the top of her chacos and so her feet were sliding all around. But my canes, oh, they were happy. And so here’s the interesting thing. So, I’ve been wearing wool socks with with them. And I have two pair of slightly thicker wool socks and one pair of thin. But it keeps my shoes from getting stinky. They don’t ever stink. Susie has to wash hers probably twice once or twice a week because they just don’t smell too good because, you know, they just sweat in shoes and they stink. But when you wear socks, you don’t sweat and so you don’t have stinky shoes. And so I haven’t had to wash them for the last eight weeks, but it’s because I always wear socks with them. Okay, admittedly, they look less than glamorous. Um, so dad socks, blah blah blah. You’ll have to cut this out, Susie. Thermarrest. Thermo rest. Okay. Sorry, I’ve still got my trihawk going on for my helmet. Um, okay. And it’s up to Susie to decide if she wants to include this one. Probably not. Never mind. I got it. I’m I’m fine. Good morning. We are in Murdig, Germany. We’re leaving this morning at 10 till 8. Mainly it’s cuz we were racing the young people next to us. Um, we’re going 50 kilometers today toward Luxembourg. We’re staying in a campground just outside of town. We have 700 meters to climb. I don’t know how I found this mountain. It took a lot of work. Two mountains. Two mountains. Yes. Um anyway, there’s sometimes tears at over 2100 ft. So, we’ll see how the day goes. Susie will hold me and probably be comforted. Anyway, thanks for joining. Um yeah, thanks guys. Well, we start off the morning with a climb. Sorry about the pancake comments. Nice downhill. And you know what happens after every downhill? It’s a nice uphill. Nice car tires. Like about 500 right behind you. Yeah, but they’re not bothering me while I’m riding. Peacefully coexisting. Has issued a refusal to video this. So, I’m going to because it is amazing. Beautiful hills, grains, barley. Oh, it’s just gorgeous. We had some cherries from another cherry tree. Yes, Susie is intent on her climbs and her writing today. She doesn’t have time for art and beauty. this much better going through the mountains or the hills or the roads than going along the river. This is my personal opinion. Sometimes there’s some ups and downs. Sometimes there’s some cars back, but this seems more interesting to me. Little hamlet. [Music] Don’t need Darby, Dave, and Heather in [Music] Susie. What should we do? Well, think we should turn around and go back to Sarbrooken. No. Okay, let’s just go around. Luxembourg, our seventh country. Pretty river. Oh, we’re in Shingen. Shenan. That’s why everybody’s so excited taking pictures. Luxembourg has got some delusious vineyards. You see the grapes on the grape vines? See if I can show you some. Can you see those grapes all right there? All around seeing some active logging. Oh, that’s terrible. Not terrible yet. Look, a Reio box. A regional a box for regional stuff. I wish I could find which one’s smoked and didn’t need to be. Oh, I guess if it’s smoked, it wouldn’t be in the refrigerator. [Music] Let’s see what’s over here. Not sure, but I think that might be some milk. I’ve got to get my thing out to identify what these things are. I’m pretty sure those are eggs. Okay, so I’ve actually never been this close to a crane this size. And you can barely see the top of it. And that’s that’s something. It’s like I don’t know. It makes your heart beat fast just looking at it. Good job, engineers. Luxenberg. There’s Susie reading her book, writing in her book like she does every morning. Good morning. It’s uh I have no idea what day it is. Let’s look right here. This is our tent. It is Wednesday, June 28th, and this is our rest day. Um, we’re staying just outside of Luxembourg in this nice campground and we have to ride about 3 miles into town where we have a hotel and a nice dinner reservation and rest the rest of the day and then figure out what we’re going to do. So, beautiful morning. It’s 59 out this morning. Right. Look at this beautiful park and this beautiful fountain. So my bottom really doesn’t hurt. We’re coming into Luxembourg only about a block away from our hotel. Shall we? Sometimes names can be a little deceptive. So, we’ll see what we see [Music] left. [Music] [Music] Uh, I can’t tell where the sidewalk goes and doesn’t go. Yeah. [Music] That’s not cute. Yay! We’re here. It’s our hotel. I like bike lanes. That’s it. [Music] Hey, we got some Mexican food, a smashed burger, and we got some hus puppies. M