An adventure long-in-the-planning is finally here! Ben and Harald are headed to Germany where they’ll start their cycling tour through the Alps!

On Sunday (July 7, 2024), Harald began his journey to Stuttgart, Germany and on Monday, I’ll follow in his footsteps. If all goes to plan, sometime on Wednesday we’ll begin our first leg south from Harald’s hometown of Wellheim. Some ten or so days later, yada yada yada, we should find ourselves near Rabland in Tyrol, which ends the cycling portion of our tour.

Once in the Tyrol region, we’ll meet up with Harald’s partner Nicole, and for a few days I’ll stick around as a third-wheel. Then I’ll take the bus to Munich, where I have a full day to explore, finally flying home. Together at last, Harald and Nicole can enjoy a well-deserved week of R&R in the Tyrolean Alps.

We’re planning to stay in hotels and ride as far as we want each day but we don’t have anything pre-booked except for my first night in Wellheim and our destination in Tyrol. The route is not the most direct route, rather it’s the most interesting — to us! In other words, we’ll be doing lots of climbing when we could more easily go around.

If you’re interested, Liz helped me make a video where I go through more or less what I’m bringing. The truth is, it’s in a constant state of flux up until the last minute.

You can follow me on Komoot for daily ride info and you can follow Harald over on Mastodon and Strava where he’ll post a few updates. Of course, I’ll do what I can to post updates here and for that complete set of blog posts on this adventure, you can use the #alps2024 tag.

Once things get rolling, you’ll be able to track our real-time progress directly on the tracking site.

Unfortunately, Liz is sitting this one out (someone’s got to watch the dogs and pay the bills) so pour one out for my favorite bicycling partner who’s holding the fort down at home! I’ll miss you and the girls!