Here We Go Again!

Horses make a change from bikes
The ground you cover's more,
But they can make your muscles ache
And leave you saddle-sore.

Yippee! The time has come to embark on our next bike trip, and this time we have chosen to cycle around the Baltic Sea. Not the entire coastline because that's about 8000 km and we're not that stupid! Our route will be about 3500 km, but this time I have a cyclometer so as long as I remember to put it on we should be able to see just how far we actually do cycle.
  

Countries Visited:   

Poland, Kalingingrad (Little Russia), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland.
We should be following the EuroVelo 10 route, but from past experience it's not always that simple...

Kit:

We are taking the same bikes and more or less the same equipment as last time, with a few upgrades - new panniers; from Lidl, £10 each pair, (I'll let you know how they fair...!),  new tyres, side stands so we don't have to lie the bikes down every time we stop, and a couple of bags from the boy scouts jumble sale to replace the Sainsbury's heavy duty bin liners that we used before! 

Plan:

As you see, no expense spared this time. Training will once again begin when the trip does, (Steve badly sprained his ankle a few weeks ago and still can't quite get his shoe on) and we'll ease ourselves in slowly, especially as I believe we are remembering the last trip through rose-tinted glasses - after re-reading the blog I'd forgotten about swollen knees, aching everythings and terrible weather!
If all goes well we hope to catch a ferry back from Holland. That's the plan, but already the plan is not going accordingly; we were supposed to fly to Poland today, but had to cancel the flight as Steve's passport and visa still haven't arrived back from the Russian embassy. Mine arrived a few days ago, I'm obviously not as dodgy looking as him!

Reason:

We are still raising money for Lake Bunyonyi Community Village. Since our trip to Uganda we have continued to raise money and helped with emergency hospital fees, school fees and clothing.
Edison has been promised 1000 laying chickens from the local MP, with the plan that they can sell the eggs and create an income, but they need to raise money to buy materials to build housing for the hens. Let's help them do it!
You can click on the Go Fund Me link under Navigation to donate. 

So, that's all for now. We are checking daily for Steve's visa, and will book a flight as soon as it arrives. I'll be in touch...