Today was a very relaxed day. Matt woke up at some ungodly hour of the morning trying to combat a pesky fly, but I managed to make it until 9:30 or so and Nate, of course, had to be roused from bed at around 10. Breakfast was bread and scrambled eggs, nothing fancy but tasted good enough for us.

After breakfast we went to the supermarket to buy lunch and trail food, and then walked over to the Hungbergbahn, a funicular (a street car like device that has two cars and uses the weight of the uphill car to pull the downhill car up), to go up to Hungerberg. From Hungerberg we hiked 4km or so up to Hottinger Alm, where we had "drei biers" (one beer per person) from a little restaurant up there. We really can't order any specific type of beer, because we can't pronounce any German, but the owner understood we just wanted beer. At €3.10 per liter, it was pretty cheap, and paired nicely with lunch we had picked up from the supermarket that morning.

After lunch we hiked back down to the funicular and rode it back into the city. We spent about an hour walking around the old city part of Innsbruck, and then went back to our apartment. And, guess what, Nate proceeded to nap. (Matt joined him)

After a dinner of pasta, meat, and veggies, we all took showers for the first time this trip, and are sitting here deciding what to do tomorrow. It looks like we're going to take our bikes over to the Olympic ski jump in Innsbruck (where the opening and closing ceremonies where held in the 1976 Olympics) and then go to a castle in the city.

Everybody here is in high spirits, with Nate complaining about "never traveling again" hourly and Matt wearing his fancy shoes around town

. We're all outclassed by the Europeans with their footwear however. And based on our dress, we must stand out like a sore thumb.

Anyway, bed time over here. Tomorrow should be another relaxed day, and then Saturday we start our trip.

Today was probably the most stressful day of the trip so far, and it wasn't that bad. We slept in until 9:15 or so, and then had breakfast of bread and cheese kindly provided to us by Michiel and Maureen. We made it to the airport with plenty of time, got our bikes and panniers from storage, and made our way to the transavia counter. With 2-4 pieces of luggage each, checkin took awhile, but went without incident.

Our flight was uneventful, with all of us in an emergency exit row. Innsbruck has a small airport, and the Boeing 737-700 that we were on took the entire runway to land. No jet ways in Innsbruck, so we took steps off the airplane and walked to the luggage area. All our luggage arrived (yay!!) and we went through Austrian customs. The customs agents stopped us to have a dog sniff our luggage. Unfortunately for them, the dog was not well trained and was much more interested in sniffing the new people in customs then sniffing our luggage. He looked like a puppy who wanted to play. We held back for as long as possible but when one of the guards starting to smile we couldn't help but crack up. The trainer kept telling the dog to sniff boxes but the dog was having none of it.

After making it through customs, Nate and Mark went on an expedition to find a taxi while Matt stayed with the gear. We found cab drivers who seemed reluctant to drive us with all our gear but finally drove us the ten minutes to our AirBnb. The guy who was renting it to us wasn't able to find a cat to pick us up, so we were stuck with Taxis. It took two taxis, but we made it no problem and waited on the sidewalk for the owner to show up.

Imed, the owner of the apartment, is a first class frat star. The apartment is a studio apartment, with a large TV, small kitchen, pull up bar, and punching bag. We arrived and he helped us move out stuff in, probably because he doesn't want his landlord to know that he has AirBnb tenants. Apparently, he's not actually allowed to have any AirBnb renters in his place, so that's fun.

Anyway, our bikes are all built up, so if we get kicked out we can just start biking. It probably took around 6 hours to complete the bike building process in this guys apartment. But, to be fair, that was mixed with drinking beer and just being lazy.

Tomorrow we're going to go to a mountain and go for a hike. We're not sure how much elevation we really want to do, so we'll play it by ear. We also will buy some more food and plan the first few days of our trip.

Matt and Nate have been adding photos to stories after they've been published, so you may want to look back and check them out. For now, goodnight!

We arrived at Schiphol at around 10:30am local time and had no issues getting off the plane. All of our luggage arrived with us (awesome) and after a brief issue where Mark left Matt in customs with two bike boxes and one piece of luggage, we were on our way... To the baggage depot. We dropped all of our gear off (including the bikes) at the baggage depot, with no issues (all our credit cards still work, yeah!) and took the train to Amsterdam Zuid.

From there we got lunch, and then walked to Michiel's house where we dropped off our things and then went to go rent bikes for the day. (Because really the only way to travel through Amsterdam is by bike.) We didn't go anywhere in particular, except for the IAmAmsterdam sign, a bar Nate frequented last time he was here, and the VundelPark, but we did cover a fairly large portion of the city.

After biking around the city for 4 hours, we took a short nap, and then went to dinner with Michiel and Maureen. I forget the name of the restaurant, but it was delicious, and they have been very nice to us during our stay here. Even grabbed breakfast for us for tomorrow. Thank you to both of you!

Now it's time for bed. Nate's already sleeping, like a champ:

Even when offered a mattress he still prefers his own sleeping bag and pad. Literally fell asleep in less than five minutes with all the lights on, including the sun, we're all pretty tired.

Matt has a few other pictures he may post, but tomorrow is sleep in until 9 or so, then pack up, return our rental bikes, and go to the airport for our flight to Innsbruck. It will be another long day, but hopefully by then the bikes will be out of their boxes and fully built. This will make them much easier to deal with. We do not look forward to lugging them around Schiphol tomorrow, but we'll give ourselves plenty of time to do that. For now, we're just going to try and get 10-11 hours of sleep.

Our first day of the actual trip. No majors issues. We crossed the boarder into Canada with out any issues (except a visibly nervous mom) and made it to the Windsor airport with plenty of time to spare.

Bags were already paid for, so we brought them to the counter to get baggage tags, and then brought them through security. Unfortunately, at Windsor, the security doesn't have scanners large enough for bike boxes, so we had to open the boxes for the agent to inspect. They were apologetic and very nice, and it wasn't a big issue.

The flight from Windsor to Toronto was uneventful, and they even managed to squeeze in drink service. We're waiting for our flight now in Toronto now, after eating 20 timbits (at prompting of Nate, you can't enter Canada without eating Timbits). Our planes a little delayed, but we're soon to be on our way to Amsterdam.

We're getting down to the last day before we leave for Europe all three of us spent 4+ hours boxing bikes over the last few days, and think/hope we're pretty much ready to go. Some last minute gear additions include a solar charger that Nate will bring, as we plan on using iPhone's and t-mobile's free international data for navigation, and new clipless shoes that Matt bought so he can bike and look fly at the same time.

We've spent three weekends together in pre-trips for this trip already. Mark and Matt are both going with four panniers, two in the front and two in the back. Nate has opted to remove his front rack and front panniers and instead use only two rear panniers and a frame bag.

This is a picture from our first pre-trip in 2014. Biked to Niagra falls from around Rattlesnake point. And then spent the next day climbing. Tim joined us for this trip as well.

The three of us + Tim at Niagra Falls, Canadian edition.

Matt getting ready to pull the roof at Rattlesnake point.

But for now, everything is packed, or close to packed, and we're looking forward to starting our trip.

That's all for now. We will try to post daily updates on our trip, but you might just get a few photos everyday.