Off to Cycle the Rhine 🚴

I picked up my bike in Munich. Friends had been storing it for me since LAST summer.

We had a great time. Several good meals. Plenty of wine. And one round of golf.

Claudia and her buoys 😀

I’m planning to cycle the Rhine north through Germany ➙ Continue up to Denmark ➙ Ferry to the Faroe Islands ➙ And on to Iceland.

I’ll fly out of Reykjavík.


I’ll start in July 2024 where I quit cycling summer of 2023 — in beautiful Lindau on Lake Constance, Germany.

… I want to get back to this kind of shape. 6 foot, 3 inches. 215 pounds. 😀

Summer 2023

I’ll mostly be riding the Eurovela 15 – Rhine Cycle Route.

As the Deutschland Rail ticket is still next to free in 2024, I’ll hop local trains as needed in Germany.

At some point I’ll leave the river and head for the Danish border. Likely joining the Eurovela 12, the North Sea Cycle Route

I must reach the north tip of Denmark to catch my long scheduled ferry to the Faroe Islands.

Visiting Kitzbühel, Austria

You’ll already know the name Kitzbühel as a legendary winter sports resort

The famous Hahnenkamm mountain above Kitzbühel, where every January the world’s best downhill skiers race for World Cup glory. Many consider it the most challenge course on the circuit.

I went to hike down that famed slope. Over 1200m. … I took a cable car up. 😀

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Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Crazy Canucks Tod Brooker and Ken Read won here.

The town itself is not particularly gorgeous when compared against other famed ski villages.

But I still enjoyed it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Visiting Zadar, Croatia

Many tourists skip Zadar ➙ a mistake, I’d say.

Most of my photos are sunsets on the Adriatic coast.

I only went to Zadar as it’s the best jumping off point for Plitvice Lakes National Park.

UNESCO World Heritage site with close to 1.5 million visitors each year.

Zadar gained its urban structure in Roman times; during the time of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus, the town was fortified and the city walls with towers and gates were built. …

There’s an interesting sea organ.

An unusual light show called Monument to the Sun.  Photovoltaic solar modules collect power during the day, producing a light show after dark.

As an important port city, a competitor to Venice, there are a lot of sunken and junky ships.

I do recommend a stopover in Zadar. Stay close to the Old City.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.


Keep in Mind

I found about 80% of Croatians I met as a tourist were rude. Rude by Canadian standards. There’s a good chance they weren’t intending to be rude — but it’s simply the culture here and in much of Eastern Europe.

Croatian men I found mostly macho posturing, chain smoking, or shouting into a mobile phone in public. And they all seem to have buzz cuts.

Many things do not work for the tourist in Croatia 2024. If you are promised snakes, there will be NO snakes. Also no coffee. Nor a machine. And the rental bike will be unusable. 😀

Wifi will be terrible. Use DATA instead, which is inexpensive in Europe.

Visiting Edinburgh, Scotland

I was happy to find flying Vancouver to Edinburgh was even cheaper than to London in June 2024.

I’d really enjoyed the city in the past ➙ Edinburgh FRINGE and Military Tattoo in 2009. (The Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps stole the show.)

This city is perfect for me.

I stravaig the  labyrinth of dark alleys and steep streets  through gorgeous architecture. Said to be built on seven hills. PLENTY of stone staircases.

Edinburgh now restricts motor vehicles in the city centre making it more walkable.

… On the other hand, their pedestrian lights simply don’t work. Everyone jaywalks. 😀

Highest priority is the BEST HIKE out of the city centre out along the Royal Mile past the Parliament Buildings

Read my trip report on hillwalking to Arthur’s Seat. With a detour on the return to Calton Hill.

I stayed at a Castle Rock hostel directly under Edinburgh Castle in the Old Town.

Here’s the view of the Castle from the hostel.

Across from this impressive … Fish and Chips shop (?). 😀

The National Museum of Scotland is great. Entry by donation.

Though I didn’t visit ALL of the hundreds of thousands of exhibits, I did see Dolly — the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell 1996.

Dolly and surragate mother

Actually, my favourite single visual in town is this monument to author Sir Walter Scott. Over in the new town.

Wandering town, there’s much to see. Tesla had vehicles on display in one plaza.

On a weekend there are any number of festivals and events in progress. Plenty of street performers, some getting ready for FRINGE.

I do love Edinburgh.

BUT it’s swarming with tourists. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Planning for TRAVEL 2024

Update May 31, 2024

Last year was excellent for cycling and hiking in Europe. I want to do more of the same in 2024.

Click PLAY or watch my 2023 hiking highlights on YouTube.

March 2024 I made my first trip. Down to Couer d’Alene, Idaho for the Great West Gym Fest, visiting friends on the way there and back.

Enjoyed my 4th year in a row downhill skiing and winter hiking in Banff.

UPDATE ➙ I landed Edinburgh, Scotland on June 1st.

Next flying to Dubrovnik to visit Croatia for the first time.


I left my bike and gear in Munich. Planning to pick it up around July 1st.

Summer 2024 I’m thinking to cycle the Rhine north ➙ Continue up to Denmark. ➙ Ferry to the Faroe Islands ➙ And on to Iceland.

I’ll fly out of Reykjavík.


I’ll start on parts of the Eurovela 15 – Rhine Cycle Route.

As the Deutschland Rail ticket is still next to free in 2024, I’d hop local trains as needed in Germany.

Click PLAY or watch the first week on YouTube.

I’m booked July 27th to Aug 8th, for the Faroe Islands. I’ve long wanted to get there.

Likely I’ll be cycling solo. No problem.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Cycling Faroe Islandsgenerated with AI ∙Dall-E 3

Right now I’m considering flying back to Scotland late September.

And possibly Everest Base Camp in October.

Dreaming …

Hiking / Skiing Banff March 2024

For the 4th year in a row, I stayed at the Samesun Hostel in Banff.

Alternated days of winter hiking and downhill skiing.

I skied one day with Kelly from Canmore. Two days with Rocco.

Click PLAY or watch Rocco on YouTube. Footage from my new Insta360 Ace Pro action camera.

April 1, 2024 conditions were PERFECT for me.

I opined that this was the best ski day at Sunshine for 10,000 years. 😀

Me and Assiniboine

Kelly introduced me to happy hour at Hello Sunshine Banff Sushi. Fantastic.

I’ll be posting 2024 hiking videos on BestHike.com.

Here’s a hike from the past that gives a good idea what it’s like to get on the trails in the Spring.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

MORE videos from Banff.

related – Spring Hiking/Skiing Banff 2023

I’m already looking forward to 2025 in Banff.

Still using the Komoot app for Cycling

For 2024 I’m still using a paid version of Komoot for Bike Touring / Bikepacking.

Other sports included are Running, Hiking, Mountain Biking and Road Cycling.

Currently I’m still using a paid version of AllTrails for Hiking.

Komoot uses OpenStreetMap.

It has an Apple Watch app assistant.

Click PLAY or see how it works on YouTube.

What is Bikepacking?

Any bicycle carrying enough gear to allow you to sleep overnight … somewhere.  Even a motel.

There’s a continuum between those who carry panniers. And those who use smaller bike bags.

Those who are trying to make more miles. On rougher trails. Possibly carrying their bike, … I call bikepackers.

I use panniers and call what I do bike touring. I might add a trailer, one day. … Perhaps an electric motor. 😀

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Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – WHY Bikepacking ?? … 🚲

For me bikepacking was a logical extension of hiking.

My NEW Insta360 Ace Pro Action Camera

A Christmas present to myself 2023.

Here’s my 1st video using mostly Ace Pro footage. 

Videotaping animals and birds is particularly challenging when using cameras without much optical zoom.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’d long planned to replace both my old GoPro and my Sony ZV1 camera with one action camera — and finally made the leap when the Insta360 Ace Pro was released December 2023.

My minimum gear for shooting video has never been lighter nor more compact. 

I can use the Ace Pro with all my GoPro attachments.

Action cameras are even more durable than phones.

Of the dozens of cool features available with the Ace Pro, I’ll actually be using very few for my hiking videos.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Settings

90% of the time I will be shooting:

  • 4K 30fps HDR.  Stabilization STANDARD.
  • Automatic focus.

I like HDR (high dynamic range) and shoot the same on my iPhone.  Over-saturated video looks good to me on YouTube. Especially if watching on a phone.

4K 30fps is the most I can shoot in HDR on the Ace Pro. (Better would be 60fps in HDR. That would be my request for future upgrade.)

I export at 1080p 30fps so can crop / zoom down without losing resolution. 

Shooting in this setting I can quickly zoom 50% and yet still end up with 4K video whenever I want by double tapping the screen. How does 4K zoom to 4K? … Some sort of digital trickery in camera they call clarity zoom. 

Their 8K is 4K with 4 small pixels replacing each normal 4K pixel. So far I haven’t been much impressed with 8K for video.

Ultrawide gives the widest possible perspective for outdoor scenery. I’ll use that mode when shooting BIG outdoor vistas.

Most of the time, I’ll use Dewarp (minimal distortion) as it most closely matches a normal camera with almost no curvature to the image.

iPhone App and Apple Watch App

I’ll be using the Apple Watch app quite a bit. It’s simple. Quick. And intuitive. 

I might never use the phone app which is complicated. And really not needed for someone who plans to edit video later on laptop.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Photos

Initially, I thought I’d shoot photos on iPhone 13. Video on the Ace Pro.

Comparing different photos on the Ace Pro v iPhone 13, so far I’m MUCH preferring iPhone. Seems Apple does a much better job with photos.

On the other hand, it’s bloody convenient to take a photo simultaneously while videotaping with the new camera.  A great feature of the Ace Pro.

AND I’m thinking it will be more convenient to take selfie photos and video with the Ace Pro on the tripod using Voice Command. 

Voice Command on iPhone seems to screw up a lot for me. I probably won’t use it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Voice Command on the Ace Pro works most of the time, even in noisy environments.

This camera has Gesture Control — but it works inconsistently, as it does on every other product I’ve tried with that feature.

Downsides of the Insta360 Ace Pro

The AcePro has no GPS.  With iPhone photos and video, I sometimes look up the metadata to see exactly where and when I took the picture — very useful.

It’s possible to use the phone app — or even the watch app — to get the metadata, but that’s too much hassle for me.

The biggest problem now, however, is lack of much zoom on any of my cameras. I’d love to have something with 10x optical, as well. 

Since I export at 30fps, in my normal shooting mode I won’t be able to slow down video. In reality, I don’t use much slow mo anyway, so it probably won’t be a problem. BUT I’ll need to remember to switch to slow motion if I ever want some of those captures.

Still experimenting …

Life in Parksville, Vancouver Island

Since Covid, I’ve spent far more time in Parksville than in Calgary.

It’s terrific for year round beach walks, cycling, hiking, and running.

On a Globe and Mail survey of places to live in Canada, Parksville was 32nd “most livable” out of 438.

Factors: economy, housing, demographics, health care, safety, education, community, amenities, transportation and climate.

My parents, brother Rob and his wife live here. It’s a small retirement town.

The numbers aren’t quite right, but this real estate guy generally gives a good overview of town.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.