Prologue

July 2003

Ursula wanted to go to Europe, since it had been several years since she'd been back to see her family. She suggested that we cycle from her mom's house to her sister's house. I thought that sounded like a pretty cool idea. Then her mom moved to be close to her sister, so the plan changed to cycle from her brother's house to her mom's house. We just had to decide which brother. After studying maps and getting advice from her brother Peter, we decided to ride from her brother Martin's place in Lugano, Switzerland, through northern Italy, to her mom's, in Oberhaag, near Graz, in Austria.

I had a tooth that had been bothering me for some time, and it had gotten worse. I got an appointment with my dentist on the Wednesday before we left. She replaced the filling, but when the freezing wore off, I discovered that it was much worse. I couldn't eat without searing pain. I went back to her, and she filed down the filling. I could eat as long as it was on the other side of my mouth. She decided to book me in at a root canal specialist.

Meanwhile, I realized late that night that although the freezing had mostly worn off, my tongue was still slightly numb. When the dentist had stuck the needle in to freeze me, I had felt a shock run up my tongue. She had hit the lingual nerve.

On Friday I went to the root canal dentist. When he froze me, he hit the same nerve. But he did get the root canal done.

Then I had to drive up to Queensville, pick up Ursula, and drive back to the city. Ursula had been taking a couple of night classes. They weren't finished yet, so she was going to have to take the finals early. She set the alarm for 3:00 am, and got up to study. Then in the morning I drove her to the college to write the final.

Our flight was in the evening. My tongue was still numb, and would remain so for the entire trip. We loaded the bikes into my car. Since there wasn't room in the car, Ursula took the TTC to to airport, while my brother and I took my car. Brian dropped me at the airport, and drove my car home, and I waited for Ursula to arrive.

Once she did, we checked in. I was worried about security and the bikes, since September 11, but there was no problem.

We changed planes in Frankfurt, and arrived in Zurich on Sunday morning at 11:00. Peter was there to pick us up in his bike shop van. He drove us back to his house in Nussbaumen, which he shares with his girlfriend Michelle. Peter owns a bike shop, so Ursula got him to spiff up her 20 year old Raleigh. He also discovered that I had cracks in my rear rim, and so he built me a new wheel.

We did some day trips, checking out Liechtenstein and Lucerne, where we took two cable cars to the top of Mount Pilatus, and the world's steepest funicular down.

After several days there, we loaded up the bikes. Peter put our duffel in a trailer, and we pedaled down to the train station. Michelle found out what end of the train the baggage car was supposed to be at, so we went there and waited. But when the train arrived, the baggage car was at the other end. We had to race the length of the platform. When we got there, the big doors on the baggage car were locked. Peter leaped through the passenger door, and unlocked the baggage car door. We threw the bikes and duffels on just as the train pulled out. Luckily, when we changed trains in Zurich, we had more time.

We arrived in Lugano, and were met by Ursula's other brother, Martin. He threw our big duffel on his back, and hopped on his bike. We followed him through the streets of Lugano, to his tattoo studio, where we left the bikes. Then he drove us to his place, up in the mountains surrounding Lugano.

We spent a couple of days seeing Lugano, and hiking in the mountains.


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