Hi Dan

I have been meaning to write for ages but you know how it is there are bikes to ride, Grandchildren to visit and the garden to knock into shape after being away for nearly 4 months.

I gave you a brief update on Mama Cass as a single after my 3 weeks in the Alps on my own, I then meet Sue in London and after 12 days off the bike attending two wedding one in Ireland the other in Wales we flew to Copenhagen to start the second leg of my tour and the first of Sue's.

As you can imagine we attracted quite a bit of attention as we assembled Mama Cass at the Airport. I don't think they could believe a bike would appear out of all the tubes and cables and that we would fit everything on her, when completed. We did of course. The Airline travel with the solo part in it's bag and Sue's stuff in a normal suitcase was a breeze, no hassles and nothing got marked or damaged, which is always a plus.

We left Denmark as quickly as we could. The people and riding infrastructure were fabulous but it was so very expensive. $8.00USD for a coffee. From there we more or less made a reasonable line for Rotterdam missing out all the big places. We loved Germany,, the people were fantastic, the drivers were awesome and the prices very much the same as home. in fact the camping were cheaper, and the cycling infrastructure is to die for. We will be going back there but to the Southern part rather than the Northern part too flat.

Holland we found the people, prices, cycling infrastructure good, not as good as Germany, but the drivers aggressive compared to the Germans.

from Rotterdam we rode through Belgium, the best coffee, Luxembourg lovely gradient climbs, back into Germany awesome, then France and Switzerland all the way to Geneva. Some days we didn't know which country we were in as you were ducking and diving back and forth across the boarders and there is no sign . The only way we knew was the cycle route signs changed colour.

Some of the cycle routes we rode would have been better riding on a fully suspended MTB rather than a fully loaded tandem. We had to walk some sections they were so bad. But Mama Cass took it all in her stride.

She is an awesome ride, Sue found she moved around a little more than our Thorn but with the slightly different angles and frame design it is only to be expected. We are experimenting with wider handle bars at the moment to see if that gives any improvement. But all things considered she is a gem and we had a ball on her. She appears to be easier to drive in a head wind, which we had for three weeks form Copenhagen to Rotterdam, and climbs well over the 3 big passes in Switzerland.

I am slowly getting the pictures up on the journal at www.crazyguyonabike.com/brownbs. Once again if you want to use any of the material for advertising or people looking at buying an 8 ball get them to read and or write to me.

Once again thanks for an awesome bike. we are going to be doing many 1000s of kms together.