T-24 Bicycle riding!

Finally fixed up bicycle for the season: New back brakes, fixed chain, added speedometer/odometer, which actually agrees with DailyMile about distance. Good. No need for a €150 GPS when I can do with a €7 magnetometer. Gear needs some adjustment, as it falls off when on low gear. Otherwise, it felt good to be on the bicycle again.

2.77 km, 00:09:50, top speed: 37.5 km/h, average speed 16.9 km/h

I might be 110 km behind on my training schedule, but I'm right on the goal for average speed at this stage. With the current trip schedule, I should be able to complete the entire Paris-Amsterdam trip with an average 3.7 hours bicycling per day. That leaves plenty of time for sight seeing.

But that is theoretic.

T-31 Tickets purchased

In order to avoid hotels in Oslo, I'm flying with Norwegian to Paris and return with SAS. After booking, and getting ready to register the bicycle as special baggage, the great difference between the airlines show: Norwegian wants €82 to bring the bicycle, even in a bicycle case, while SAS allows the bicycle to travel for free. Add that the bicycle case costs €250, it is cheaper to buy a brand new bicycle in Paris than to bring it with me.

And that's what the plan is now. I arrive a day early anyway, there's time to purchase a bicycle. Since my wife currently doesn't have one, it will be a female bicycle, which in turn will come back with me to Norway. After all, it travels for free on my return ticket, as long as I register it in due time.

T-31 Time to buy plane tickets

I just did a jump in the countdown. Due to time limitations with my driver, cycling begins May 15th instead of 21st. This means it's 31 days left before riding. He must return on 22nd, which changes the logistics a bit for me. I feel I can complete the trip with a few more days. By returning on the 27th from Amsterdam means five more nights, but also the cheapest return ticket and two days to spare.

As fate will have it, the cheapest plane going from Ålesund to Paris on the 14th costs twice as much as any other day, begins at 7 in the morning and arrives 17:25 in Paris after spening amounts of time waiting in Oslo and Copenhagen.

Which means I need to leave Norway on friday 13th and get one night accomodation in Paris... wish me luck!