1000 KILOMETERS - DONE

Upon our arrival in Bordeaux, we celebrated, with a glass of pineau, the completion of our 1000th kilometer biked in Europe. It took us three weeks and one day of off and on biking to get to this point. We are quite proud and look forward to the next 1000. The next blog entry, which we will post in a few days, will recount this most recent leg of our trip, but we wanted to make a special entry about achieving this landmark.

Here are some stats that paint a bit of a picture:

• 18 days of riding (30-100 kms/day)
• approximately 250,000 rotations of each of our bike's pedals
• over 6.5 kilometers of ascent (each)
• almost 59 hours of riding time (each)
• over 38,250 calories burned while riding (Peter)
  

• 1 helmet cracked (in transit)
• another helmet lost (don't ask...)
• 1 broken front derailleur
• 2 tune-ups
• 1 tilting bike stand
• 1 broken GPS mount
  

• 7 books read (total)
• more than 10 bike maps bought
• over 50 stickers affixed to the bikes
  

• 1 fight

• countless baguettes, cheese, mussels, wine, beer, patisseries and spoonfuls of nutella
• 2 falls at less than 3 km/hr (Alice)
• assorted physical ailments - heat rash, numb bum, pulled toe muscle, more numb bum, oddly-placed callusses
  

• And some of the oddest tan lines we have ever seen

There it is. It has been a fantastic experience for us.

Come join us for the next adventure, which will be through the Dordogne Valley (where wine is everywhere as are the famous prehistoric cave drawings). But that's for another time...

Salut!

Peter and Alice