We've completed a test ride on our tour bikes with all the panniers, handlebar bags and luggage on board. Everything went well and it all feels good. Wendy ended up with about 9kg while Greg's weighted in at about 7kg. We'll share the load before we do our final pack up.
Also decided on a route:- Leave Zurich via a lovely valley that leads all the way to The Rhine (river) . Yes we will be surrounded by Alps but NO we DO NOT ride up the Swiss Alps, we go cycle touring for pleasure not pain. We swing through Liechtenstein, and then follow the Rhine to the Bodensee (Lake Constance). A few days wandering along the banks of the lake follows. We then pick up the Rhine where it flows out the other end of the Lake and follow that to Basel, changing from Switzerland to Germany and back again as we go. At this point we've already gone through Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany.
After Basel we continue (north) on the Rhine Cycle Route, in and out of France/Germany till we reach Strasbourg, France. Here we pick up a canal path and head west all the way to northern France where we tour the WW1 Battlefields, the Western Front.
We then head north through Belgium and The Netherlands all the way to Amsterdam, where we fly home.
With side trips the total distance will be around the 2,000 - 2,500 km, depending on how energetic we feel on our "rest days".
Both bikes are in their respective Qantas cardboard bike boxes ($22 from Qantas). The boxes will be dumped at the Zurich Airport as we fly out of Amsterdam. Each weigh in at 18.5kg. Wendy said it's the amount of packing, mainly newspaper, I put around the venerable parts, but it's better to be sure than sorry. Qantas has been very kind to Greg's bike over many, many years. Hope they continue with that excellent record.