traveling again!

Jeff's Cycle-Travel Blog - 2022

After two years of not traveling, we were ready to try to do a bike trip in 2022. COVID, of course, put a stop to everything, and it still hangs over our heads like a dark storm cloud. Certainly, we know more about the virus than we did two years ago, and what we know is that it is still out there and even being fully vaccinated and boosted does not guarantee safety. But off we go!

Once again, we chose a tour by VBT (https://www.vbt.com/). We find that it is a good value and we are familiar with their difficulty ratings. Their most challenging tours are rated as "moderate" and we are generally among the strongest riders in the group. Compare that with the tour we did in 2015 in the French Alps with a different tour group that was rated "competitive" and where we were the slowest riders in a group of 40-somethings.

Once again, we are a group of four: Mike, Walter, and Jeff from Syracuse, and Stu, Jeff's college roommate from Trinity, who lives in Boston. Jeff has done the most bike trips with Mike and just a few less with Walter, and we invited Stu along when Stu and Jeff decided to stop doing the Pan-Mass Challenge in 2018. One bonus is that Mike and Walter, who know Jeff as a vegan, hybrid-driving college professor get to hear embarrassing stories about Jeff as a college student.

We settled on a tour in Tuscany (https://www.vbt.com/tours/italy-tuscan-coast-guided-bike-tour/). 

For those new to this blog, here are our previous trips. There is a blog for each one.

2013: Sicily with VBT (https://jeffreycchin.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/the-boys-from-syracuse/)

2014: no trip - bought a Moots instead

2015: French Alps with Duvine (https://wordpress.com/page/jeffreycchin.wordpress.com/656)

2016: Costa Brava, Spain with VBT (https://jeffsspaintrip2016.blogspot.com/2016/05/day-1-29-30april2016-travel-and-arrive.html)

2017: Croatia with VBT https://cranksincroatia.blogspot.com/2017/06/pre-trip.html)

2018: Portugal with VBT (https://cranksinportugal.blogspot.com/2018/05/pre-trip.html)

2019: Carolinas with Backroads (https://backroads19.blogspot.com/2019/05/day-1-526.html)

We are ready to go! We booked our pre-trip tours in Florence, watched, listened, and read every possible Rick Steves segment on Tuscany. We got advice from more seasoned travelers. You'll hear all about it when we arrive in Florence.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of all of us being tourists in Croatia in 2017.

 See you online!