We gonna fly across the ocean then git some kulture over with them there EURO-peons.
OK, so fortunately, you will not have to read that kind of hillbilly slang for the entire blog.
Welcome to our latest riding blog. I cannot say "motorcycle blog" for this trip because there will be more riding than that done on a motorcycle. We will be riding e-bikes to kick this trip off and then collecting a Honda NT1100 at about the halfway mark.
But first, a little background. We are riding into the sunset with our friends Gloria, Kevin and Peter, long time friends who jointly conceived of this trip some years ago. In fact, long before Nan and I moved to the Okanagan. Somehow, they just couldn't seem to get their respective acts together and the trip never materialized. Then of course, COVID, which further put a damper on any idea of international travel but here we are, with all of that behind us and their plan was re-born, largely at Kevin's instigation. Luckily for Nan and me, that group sat around to think about who they could invite that might write lies about them and publish those lies for the entire world to see. I hope the three four of you like your perspective on this trip from under the bus.
In order to test our prowess at e-bikes, we rented five at Oyama and rode them up to Vernon, a round trip distance of about 56 km. Some people, who shall remain nameless but none of which was me, failed to refrain from drinking beer, wine or any other spirits at our lunch break. I managed to keep a clear head the whole way back to Oyama.
We are flying to Prague, which will be our base of operations, for the first half of the trip on August 30th. There we will meet the rest of the group. We will bicycle to Dresden, Germany, approximately 250 km away where we will settle in for a few days, nurse our sorry posteriors then say our goodbyes and Nan and I will return to Prague to collect a motorcycle and ride in Europe for a couple of weeks.
Having just successfully navigated a full six week motorcycle trip with hardly a reservation to our names, we are going to see if we can keep that style of travel for the Europe trip. I had originally planned to book every night, just like in the olden days but it occurred to me that maybe we (me) have grown past that, so keep your fingers crossed that I don't lose my mind with OCD anxiety.
The outbound flight itself posed problems almost immediately. Since I used points to assist with our fare, I was obliged to book through Expedia. Entering a starting point, ending point and dates leads to an algorithm selecting our flights, fares and connections. Computer-based thinking doesn't allow for rationale thought so it sees the minimum connection time in Vancouver of OVER one hour as acceptable. Thanks, Algo Rhythm, one hour and FIVE WHOLE MINUTES should be plenty! Eagle eyed Peter identified the folly of this strategy and even though it looks great on paper, the reality is that the particular flight from Kelowna to Vancouver has a history of being late; so much so that five out of eight of prior departures for the flight in question had departed after our flight to Frankfurt had departed. Pretty tough to make that connection.
Not prepared to take that much risk, I called to change our flight to Vancouver to one an hour earlier. At a cost of $185 and having our entire trip downgraded to basic economy. Plus, we had lost most of our seat reservations including the partner flights where we were required to pay to book seats. the Air Canada website wanted to charge me an extra $250 to re-book our seats, which was the last straw, so I got on the phone and said "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I'm the Emergency Back-up Volunteer Coordinator at the Kelowna Women's Shelter Thrift Store! (EBUVC). I can tell you THAT got their attention! In short order, I had our seats back and no additional fee. The fact is that I had a customer agent who was extremely helpful and pleasant who went out of her way to make sure I recovered our seats. I sent the Air Canada complaint address a reverse complaint indicating how helpful the agent had been to me. Lesson learned and next time, I will decide how much time between flights.
OK my NEXT gripe. After we went to Mexico to see the solar eclipse, I called Bell Mobility to whine about Nan being charged for her phone turning on in Mexico for 5 seconds and being assessed a $16 fee for connecting to the network. Tough noogies, I was told. Eventually, after my tears, I did get the fee dropped by $8. Then the agent told me for our motorcycle trip to the US I should just upgrade my plan to North American including Mexico roaming for an extra $15 a month then when we get back, to just revert my plan to the basic Canada roaming. Wow, great idea! Keeping my number, having tons of data (to watch playoff hockey games from campgrounds) and bouncing to the strongest carrier in the area. I did that, with plans to do the same when we go to Europe. Get back from the US and now the CHEAPEST Bell plan is MORE EXPENSIVE THAN MY NORTH AMERICAN ROAMING PLAN. And no more international roaming plans. Bell dirtbags.
So I decided to get an "e-sim", or virtual sim card suitable for Europe. If you are a technological Luddite, an e-sim allows the user to store an additional phone number on their phone with access to different networks than your home carrier. Not a perfect solution but better than nothing as at least we can have cell service in Europe without it costing $500 for the duration of our trip. Lo and behold, our three year old Samsung phone says "tough noogies" to e-sim. One last hope: I can get a Freedom Mobile sim card for my OLDEN days phone, my seven year old Samsung, from before when most of you readers were born. And for only $55, it allows roaming in 92 countries (fortunately, includes European countries as opposed to only central African countries). I do recognize that one limitation of Freedom Mobility is that the network is slow. I may be able walk to Europe faster. However, I'll cross that bridge (or ocean) when I come to it.
Nan is getting ready, too.
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| Czech out those toes! |
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| Czech out that colour name! |
Now THIS is what I call riders! Getting prepped!
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| Four days before departure. One more before we leave Friday. |
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| One checked suitcase holding all of our motorcycle gear, including rain gear. |
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| One shared check bag and one carry on suitcase each. Nan's helmet has eyes for you. |
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| Leo and me in 2016. |