Author: Steve

India is divided into states just like the United States, and we’ve successfully pedaled in 4 of them already in our first six weeks here.  With over 1.3 billion people, India is the most populous democracy in the world. It is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 29 states and 7 union territories.  This country is such an amazingly vibrant and interesting place, from the food, to the people, the landscapes, and the richness of colors.  We feel like celebrities as we pedal through the remote villages stopping for water and snacks and a local will approach us to ask where we’re from and sometimes ask if they can take a selfie with us, smiling and then wishing us a “Happy Journey” as we continue on.  We also love when the children yell “Hello” from the side of the road in small or big villages or sometimes from the schoolyard they’re playing in.

Here is some general history and my highlights thus far of the 3 states we’ve spent most  of our time in this beautiful country we will call home for three months total.

Maharashtra was the state where we began the Asia portion of our cyclying tour in Mumbai, formally known as Bombay.  It’s the third largest state in the country that’s characterised by 720 km of coastline where we first began pedaling after we took a ferry from Mumbia acculmating for five days after arriving from Greece.  In Mumbai, we enjoyed a food tour and slum tour hosted by Reality Gives (realitygives.org), and did our own walking tour one day and enjoyed seeing the Gandhi Museum & Reasearch center known as Mani Bhavan where Gandhi spent approximately 17 years of his life.  Various religious communities have created a unique multicultural ecosystem in Maharashtra.  Ancient mosques, dargahs (shrines), agyaris (temples), guruwaras, and churches dot the landscape, testifying to the religious harmony that exists within the state.  We took 6-7 different ferries to cross rivers throughout this state, and rode some of the bumpiest and pot hole filled roads imaginable (even worse than Albania), and hoped all of India wouldn’t be like this.  We heard from a local that the condition of the roads are caused from the monsoon season they expierience every year. 

Goa is a state in western India with coastlines stretching along the Arabian Sea. Its long history as a Portuguese colony prior to 1961 is evident in its preserved 17th-century churches and the area’s tropical spice plantations. Goa is also known for its beaches, that we relaxed and found some amazing “built for the season” huts to stay in just steps from the beach.  One of my favorite things we did in Goa, besides relax at the beaches was taking a cooking class at Rita’s Gourmet Cooking School.  We toured a local market before the class started, and then learned how to make different curries for our chicken and fish dishes, prawn puffs, Aloo Mutter Gobi (a vegetarian favorite gravy dish of ours consisting of potato, cauliflower, & green peas), and a dessert called Bolo Mimosa similar to a tart.  As some of you might know, I come from the Midwest where we are famous for making anything into a casserole, so my extent and lack of love for cooking has changed after taking this FUN class.  We hope to continue this tradition of taking more cooking classes in future countries that we visit. 

Karnataka is a state in southwest India with more Arabian Sea coastlines, stunning mountain towns, with coffee & spice plantations,  and where we spent our Thanksgiving holiday feasting on vegetarian dishes for all three of our meals that day.  It was the first Thanksgiving that we both weren’t stuffed from turkey and carb loaded dishes and we think we could get used to that…LOL.  While we missed our family and friends for this “thankful” holiday, it was refreshing to expierience a different culture nonetheless.  After Thanksgiving we climbed and we climbed, and we climbed over 1300 meters in just 56 kilometers (4500 feet in just 35 miles that’s the equivalent of climbing Torrey Pines 9 times) to the heavenly mountains of Madekeri where we spent two days in a remote coffee/spice plantation enjoying the  cooler temperatures and no sounds of horns honking.  We then went to Mysuru, that’s home to lavish temples including Mysore Palace where we spent another two relaxing days and enjoyed another walking food tour in the cleanist city we’ve been in so far in India….and they claim fame to that title.  After Mysuru, we woke up at 5am to make it to our next destination by noon for our first safari of two in Nagarhole National Park that is a Tiger Rescue area.  On our first venture out into the park in our classic safari jeep, we saw spotted deer (over 6000 in this park), the tail of a big lizard deep in a hole grabbing his dinner, several species of birds, and gray langur (monkey’s).  We awoke again at 5am the next day to try again to see some more endangered animals and we’re very successful in seeing a gaur (Indian Bison), an old female elephant, and a tiger (1500 in this park).  This was the first time either of us had expierenced a safari, and it was quite honestly breathtaking to see all these animals living freely and enjoying life in this picturesque setting.  Last but not least, Karnataka (Mangalore) is where I found new cyclying shorts of a brand called Castelli that’s popular with Team Sky and made in Italy….so my taint is very happy now just in case you were wondering?

We are now in the state of Kerala heading back to the coast where Tim has told me it’s mostly flat, so you know I’ll hold him to that.  In my next blog I’ll give you more details on this state that we have some fun things planned such as a house boat backwater tour and to see a local dance performance in Kochi. 

I continue to post more on Instagram as I’ve stated before and you can follow both of us on there if you want to join another social media app that I love because it’s all about pictures (no politics), and hashtags formally know as a number/pound sign.  Our screen names are Steve @scubastevecyclist and Tim @timo4242.

Here are a couple of lists to hopefully make you chuckle and as always, Thank YOU all for your love & support on this incredible journey we’re on and taking the time to read and/or comment on the blog. 

Things I’m used to in India…
-wearing the same clothes everyday
-‎cold showers or not showering for 48 hours
-‎not knowing what I’m eating 1/2 the time
-riding on the left side of the road
-‎sleeping with 1 pillow or a hard mattress
-‎talking in Celcius & Kilometers
-‎the bum gun (Google it 🤭)
-‎afternoon naps

Things I’m not used to in India
-eating with my hands & not using my left hand
-‎the honking of horns constantly in bigger cities
-‎the 60% plus humidity/40-45 degrees of Celcius
-‎the 10.5 to 13.5 time difference between family and friends back home
-‎washing my clothes by hand in a bucket or sink

As we left Europe last week after pedaling from Lisbon, Portugal to Athens, Greece over a period of 7.5 months, I was instantly reminded of how blessed and fortunate we truly are in so many different ways which in turn made me think of the “angels all around us”.

These angels come in many forms from the ones watching over us from up above, to the living family and friends we left behind, and to the ones we’ve met so far along this amazing journey.

First I’ll start with the biggest angels we left when we began the journey, and that’s our Mom’s, Dad’s, and Sisters (Michelle, Lisa, Debbie, Tammy, & Heather).  They’ve supported, encouraged, and prayed for our safety on a daily basis, and we definitely feel their love surrounding us.  We were able to spend some quality time with all of them before we departed by visiting Rhode Island, Indiana, Tucson, and Boston which meant so much.  Keeping in contact with them via text, and the occasional phone call to our parents is a true blessing with modern technology.

Our friends Darin and Russ who we left multiple totes with of “stuff” that we couldn’t get rid of as we mimimalized our lives in preparation for this trip are deeply missed.  By texting and sending them postcards we keep in touch but we really miss both of them and thankful for all they’ve done for us from having our mail forwarded to them to Darin sending us care packages along the way…(thanks again for the Peeps you sent to France back at Easter).  We feel the love and energy from all our Mo’s ALC friends/teammates and love keeping in touch through Facebook messenger or WhatsApp with these special angels as well.  With both of us calling San Diego our home away from home (Steve-17 years/Tim-8 years), we are fortunate to have the love and support from so many people and again enjoy the communication we continue to have with them so many miles away.  The comments on the blog and/or social media posts from everyone means so much to us and feeds our engery throughout the journey.  

People that we meet along this journey will often ask us what do you miss from back HOME, and we both always answer “our family and friends”.  We’ve met some amazing people in the 11,000 kilometers we pedaled across Europe, and the hardest part is that we only get to interact with them for one day and maybe sometimes two if we happen to take a rest day.  During our Europe trip we had the pleasure and opportunity to see so many friends from home which made it a little easier and they even brought us Caramel M & M’s to Croatia, which were consumed before the ferry arrived in Hvar from Split.  

I’ll never forget the “angel waitress” that gave me Raki to heal the fresh wound on my elbow from falling off my bike on some railroad tracks in Croatia.  During that fall I cracked my helmet once again reminding me why we wear them and why everyone that cycles should.  We will never forget all our Warm Shower Angels (especially Ana & Diego after a full day of rain from Seville to Jerez), that hosted us in Portugal, Spain, Croatia, and Turkey.  We won’t forget our friend and angel Matteo (an ALC hero we met in 2015) that we met up with in Italy for our ride into Venice, and then he met us again in Croatia to bring a care package that took forever to arrive from the states.  We also had some amazing couch surfing and Airbnb hosts that welcomed us into their homes with the warmest hearts and treated us as if we were their family.  

Finally, for me, (Steve), I know that I have some amazing angels watching over us from up above.  Most days while I’m pedaling and looking at the beautiful scenery around me and keeping my eyes also on the road I often glance down at my Garmin (GPS device) and see two different sets of numbers that remind me of my beautiful Grandma’s.  The first number is 57 (in kilometres) which is the ever so young age that my Grandma Carnes was taken from our family way to soon.  The second number I see a lot is 1111 (I see this in the time almost daily or elevation gain once in awhile)  which was the address of my Grandma Greiwe (my Mom’s mother).  When I see these numbers it brings a smile to my face and makes me aware that they are watching out for us from up above just as they did when they were alive.  These two women forever formed the cornerstones of our families existence and taught me so much that I still carry in my life today and always will.  I’ve named my bicycle Edward Vincent which is the name of my Mom’s oldest brother who passed away a couple years ago.  He’s always held a special place in my heart as a man of principle who did so much for others in his 30 years of missionary work in Indonesia (that we hope to visit while we’re on the Asia part of our tour now), and when he returned to the states in 1995.  I think of my uncle Ed often and wonder what parts of the world he saw and just know he’s keeping an eye on our safety and we’ll being too.  I think of several friends who were taken by cancer in their 40’s and wish they could’ve kept on living to enjoy a full life with their families and friends or done a similar trip of travel like we’re on.  I think of many friends of mine who’ve lost their parents unexpectedly in the last couple of years and wish I could help ease their pain as they didn’t get to properly say goodbye to them.

We have definitely felt the “angels all around us” as we acclumatted to a new continent and culture by arriving in India a week ago.  While we know Asia isn’t the first or second choice of destination travel for many family and friends, we’ve been looking forward to this part of the trip so much, so stay tuned.  

If anything we hope that some of these numbers make you laugh and others make you go W?W.

• 5211.4 kilometers
• 3238.2 miles (or 6 ALC’s)
• 128,722 ft. of elevation (24.4 miles or Mt. Everest 4 1/2 times)
• 87,733 calories
• 87 days (62 pedaling & 25 rest)
• 5 countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy)
• 2 continents (Europe & Africa)
• 2 flights (Marseille to Paris and back to Marseille)
• 5 trains (Cordoba, Spain day trip, Cadiz 10km to avoid a busy highway, and Siena, Italy day trip)
• 1 Uber from Marseille Airport to Vitrolles, France
• 4 degrees Celcius coldest day
• 35 degrees Celsius hottest day
• 2 days of rain
• 5 sets of brake pads (Tim-2 front and back, Steve-3 front once & back twice)
• 3 flats on the road (Tim-2, Steve-1)
• 3 flats changing out our tires to Schwalbe Marathon Plus (Tim-2, Steve-1)
• 2 new chains (one each)
• 2 bottom bracket overhauls (one each)
• 4 minor crashes with minimal road rash (two each)

Accommodations: some nights getting a hotel or Airbnb was cheaper than camping or it was just too cold to camp.  ✈️????️

• 1-Airplane (flight from Boston to Lisbon)
• 2-Caves 
• 2-Gymnasiums
• 5-Warm Showers Hosts (2 Portugal, 3 Spain)
• 5-Friends Yann & Patrice in Vitrolles, France
• 6-Hostels
• 6-Pensions
• 11-Airbnb
• 24-Camping
• 25-Hotels

Food: because you can eat anything you want while cycle touring.  Lots of jamon and cheeses were consumed also and the following is an estimate because I’m not that crazy to keep track of all the food.  ???????

• 34-Pastel de Natas
• 20-Bifanas
• 40-Tapas
• 48-Croquettes
• 32-Crosiants
• 10-Baguettes
• 12-Brioches
• 36-Pizzas
• 56-Scoops of Gelato

From the very first rose bush my eyes gazed upon, to the first slice of pizza and first scoop of gelato that touched my lips, I fell in LOVE with Italy.  It by far exceeded the expectations and dreams I’ve always had of visiting this country.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect with 20-35 degrees of Celcius except for that one day we climbed (walked) over the Tuscany hills and it dropped below 10C with a little bit of rain that was refreshing.

The dedicated bike paths with some through old railroad tunnels are a cyclist dream come true.  We saw more cyclist in Italy than we did France, and caught the 11th stage of the Giro d Italia out of Florence.  

The pizzas and pastas were amazing and I truly understand “That’s Amore” now as I would sing the one lyric I know from that song as we were pedaling to our next destination the following day.  Fun Fact: you can’t order pizza for lunch or on Mondays for some reason.  Our favorite pizzas to order were Quatro Formaggi and Prosciutto e Funghi.  Tiramisù, Pancotta, and Cannolis were our desserts of choice after a long day of riding and dinner.

Cycling through the five fishing villages of Cinque Terre was by far the biggest highlight of Italy for me.  Most people hike between the villages or take day train trips.  It was a pure joy to spend two nights and three days in this picturesque area even with all the elevation that we are so conditioned for now….a 6 to 8 percent grade seems like nothing anymore.   Florence was beautiful as we took 4 rest days to explore with one of then being a round trip day trip by train to Siena where we just missed the Obama’s.  We also had some great food tips in Florence from our new friend Megan that we met in Portugal on one of the free walking tours we took.  Venice was amazing even with the overpopulation of tourist that we did a great job of avoiding by walking down little alley ways and going over to the park while they all stayed in St. Mark’s Square.  We also met up with a fellow ALC (AIDS/LifeCycle) friend Matteo that rode with us one day to our destination in Venice.  As in the other parts of Western Europe, we enjoyed when we were out in the country side and away from all the tourist traps.  Yes we are tourist as well and you have to see all these places such as the leaning tower of Pisa…..but do you have to take a picture with with your hands acting like you are pushing it back upright…..we think not.  We glanced at David’s genitals and butt, and sighed at the Bridge of Sighs where everyone was taking a selfie.  

We are looking forward to a slower pace in Eastern Europe and hopefully spending a month in Croatia as we wait for our Schengen Visa to renew before we explore Germany and Greece in the Fall.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Italy in no particular order.  Are you following me on Instagram yet?  scubastevecyclist

It’s hard to believe we’ve already pedaled through the French part of our world tour.  It was a quick two weeks filled with lots of calories, a 36-hour whirlwind walking tour of Paris, and stunning coastline along the French Riviera.  It was colder than we liked and more rain than we had anticipated for this time of year, but I fell in LOVE with France for many reasons.

Merci for:

• baguettes under a euro
• crosiants, pain au chocolat, almond crosiants, beignets, and crepes
• croque monsieurs, truffles, camembert cheese, and all other cheeses we consumed
• Paris, Paris, Paris…will ? ever be the same?
• the beautiful colors of all the shutters on your homes and buildings that are actually used and functional
• Electing a new President for the majority of the people and resisting fear and racism from the other candidate.

No Merci for:

• the unfortunate bad drivers (except Patrice) that we experienced throughout our two weeks in what we thought was a cyclist friendly country
• the rain and 10-15 degrees Celsius 
• not cleaning up your dog ?

We had an amazing visit in Vitrolles with Tim’s (now my) friends Yann & Patrice.  We were able to take five rest days and get the grand tour of some of their favorite areas of Cassis, Marseille, and Aix-en-Provence.  Yann’s crepes are the best and Patrice cooks a mean sausage….Oh La La.

After we left our friends we pedaled to the stunning and picturesque French Riviera-Cote d’ Azur through the famous cities of Toulon, Cannes (where they are preparing for the 70th annual film festival coming up), Antibes, and Nice.

Today we were in 3 countries as we left Nice in an unexpected cool rain that we didn’t see in the forecast.  We had lunch in Monaco and went to the tourism office to get our passport stamped for another country, and arrived in Italy.  It was a beautiful ride all along the coast and the last 2km before our campground on the beach was cyclimg through a tunnel that used to be a railway.  It had a dedicated two-lane bike path and pedestrian paths as well.  Also throughout the tunnel were posters overhead with the history of cycling in Italy.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from France.  Looking back through my photos I didn’t take very many and blame it on the cold and rainy weather.  ?

This was the cutest site we saw on a bike path and had to turn around and just gaze at them.  I told the Mama that she had beautiful piglets and that I’d never eat bacon again.  I don’t think she believed one of those.

Cassis

Antibes

and while seeing the WORLD has always been a dream of mine, Paris has always been at the top of my list.  This past weekend we took a couple of rest days from pedaling and flew to the “city of love”, and it truely was everything I had imagined and more.  From the fresh smell of baguettes, to the simple beauty of the street side flower markets and vendors along the Seine River, we began our walking tour at the Notre-Dame Cathédral, which was quite impressive to say the least.  While we chose not to go into any of the tourist traps and spend too many Euros, we decided to see as much of the city by foot and logged close to 30,000 steps on Saturday.  This is a list of the areas we walked through and stopped along the way to people watch ever so often.

1. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
2. Louvre Museum
3. Tuileries Garden
4. Luxembourg Gardens
5. Montparnasse Cemetery
6. Place de la Bastille
7. Sacré-Coeur Basilica
8. Moulin Rouge
9. Eiffel Tower
10. Le Bear’s Den

We had an amazing croque monsieur for lunch at Café Trama thanks to my friend Shannon’s recommendation from her business travels to Paris, a fancy truffle inspired dinner at La Truffiere, and ended the evening with a beer and water at a ? bar.  We slept in a little on Sunday morning and enjoyed a late brunch at Who’s in the Le Marais district, and seeing the Picasso National Museum, before catching our flight back to Marseille.

Merci to Tim for planning and most importantly navigating the weekend trip as this was his 10th time to Paris.  

I’ve been whistling and singing this song all day as it seems appropriate from the high I’m on from my first trip to this magical city.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.

“What the World Needs Now Is Love” is a 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. First recorded and made popular by Jackie DeShannon, it was released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label after a release on sister label Liberty records the previous month was canceled. It peaked at number seven on the US Hot 100 charts in July of that year.^[1] In Canada, the song reached number one.

Merci Paris…until next time. ????

As we said farewell to Spain yesterday, it seemed only fitting that we had an amazing experience with our Warm Showers host George in Girona on Saturday night.  When we entered Spain almost five weeks ago, we slept in an old aircraft hanger from another host on the hospitality network for touring cyclists.  We really enjoy the time spent with these hosts who’ve completed tours or have plans to do another one soon like the couple (Ana & Diego) we stayed with in Jerez that will tour Japan for their anniversary this summer.  They often cook for us or we cook for them and we sit around swapping stories upon stories of our journeys on the road, which is quite inspiring and enjoyable.

Spain for me was just as beautiful and stunning as Portugal with the tiles that framed a window or entryway of a home, all the amazing architecture of the Roman Catholic Churches we gazed upon, or the beautiful countryside in full Spring Bloom that took our breath away.  The cities were amazing but a little too busy and touristy at times, as we both appreciate the quiet back roads and less traffic.  Spain sure loves their roundabouts and they can be nerving at times but also quite beautiful with their artistic designs in all of them.  The food was good (although it made me gassy and afraid of being kicked out of the tent some nights),  and I fell in love with the tapas all throughout the country.  Most often I wasn’t sure what I was eating and Tim would say it tasted like chicken and guess what…..the rabbit paella actually did.  I still have a hard time eating anything with eyes still attached but hopefully will get over that soon or just order a pizza or hamburgesa….LOL.  One of the best things about touring is being able to eat anything we want and getting dessert from all the calories we burn each day whether we pedal or walk over 15,000 steps being a tourist on a rest day.  Once we arrived in Valencia, it had a similar feeling to Southern California, and Barcelona had a San Francisco vibe to it.  We both fell in love with the coastal town of Sitges and the riverside town of Girona that is very popular with pro cyclists. 

It doesn’t seem possible that we left San Diego almost two months ago.  We’ve now surpassed the amount of time we spent on our last tour from Canada to Mexico during the summer of 2016 when we  both fell in love with cycle touring.  We’ve pedaled into our third country now and have visited four total with the day trip we took to Tangier, Morocco when we took a couple of rest days in Tarifa, Spain.  

I hope to get better at this blogging thing and continue to post my favorite pictures to Instagram (scubastevecyclist).  I’m looking forward to the crosiants & baguettes and many different cheeses that France will offer and can’t wait for our two rest days when we fly to Paris this weekend.   I also look forward to hearing Tim speak his French fluently that he studied 4 years in high school and one year in college.  

Here are several of my favorite pictures from Spain with some duplicated from Instagram that you might not be on.

Enjoy and Bonne nuit from France.  

The aircraft hanger we slept in on our first night in Spain.  Our lovely warm showers host made us a perfect lentil soup for dinner and she fried us some eggs the next morning from the 10 chickens that wonder the landscape.

Sevilla (our first of many tapas consumed)

Alhambra in Cordoba

Roman Bridge and Ruins in Cordoba

Our climb out of Tarifa

Ronda

View of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on our way to Granada for some rest days. 

Granada

Sunset from the Airbnb Cave we slept in.

Wildflowers

Palm Sunday lunch stop

Valencia

Sitges

Gaudi in Barcelona

Girona River and (a dirty chai latte at the popular cafe for cyclists called La Fabrica)

I fell in love with the stunning doors all throughout Spain and these are just two of my favorites.

and last but not least me being funny when I would see my last name on buildings and menus and asked Tim to take this one.  I’m sure he won’t miss this.