With a little help from my friends

During my last days on my job back in january, friends and colleagues met me for lunch breaks and several fare-well parties and gave me quite a selection of useful gifts for my trip. Amongst others, I was given the book "1.000 places to visit before you die", a pair of red (!!) cycling tights, a compass, a guide to Youth-Hostels-International, a guidebook for the northern leg of St. James way, a pair of cold weather gloves as well as a high-visibility signal flag to be mounted at the rear rack of my bike. Thanks again for all the presents, I am sure they will come in handy before long.

On the above foto you may appreciate nearly all of the gear and clothing I will take initially. Quite surprisingly all of it fit on my bed and IN the panniers with some room to spare. For the ones interested I will compose a separate packing list to download from this site. Any queries regarding any part of equipment or gear, please let me know.

Shots, Drugs & Rock´ N Roll

Part of my preparations durning the last weeks has been the task of refreshing and completing my health vaccinations for the trip.

Health official at the Foreign Medicine Board of Madrids Carlos III hospital recommended to get rabies, Hep A + B, tetanus, polio, FSME, thyphus and cholera. Only the yellow fever vaccination is compulsory when travelling to some parts of the worlds, as sub-saharan africa and most parts of south america, but nevertheless I prefer to have a rather complete spectrum of vaccinations.
Fortunately (and luckily for my travel funds), getting all the shots at the hospital is free of charge. I only had to pay for Dukoral (cholera) and Vivotif (Typhus) vaccinations. Only four days to go and I still have to stock up on the first aid department with painkillers etc in the nearby pharmacy.