Epic European Cycle

2015-05-26 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Saumur
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 sur-Loire to Saumur
$0.00 45.00 45.00
Brent's butt has disappeared. We might have to rig him up some suspenders because his belt is completely useless now. Either that or he's going to have to start walking like a gangster to keep his pants up. Not that he had much of a butt to begin with, but now there's nothing left to hold up his pants. I have lost a little weight, but my butt certainly hasn't disappeared!
Brent and I are tag-teaming on the French conversations. It's awesome. He remembers and recognizes different words than I do. He's also better at listening and understanding than I am. Most of the time when one of us understands what is being said, the other has no idea. So, I can respond half the time and he responds the other half, and together we approximate one person who can bumble along in the language.
The terrain was a lot bumpier today than what we've had the last three days. Oh well... I knew the flat couldn't last. Oh my legs!
When we were staying in Paris with Pierre, he asked why we put flags on our bikes. He said that Canadians were the only people he knew who did that. I said that it was an invitation to conversation. He said that others told him it was so that we wouldn't be mistaken for Americans. I said that was part of it too. Well, my own answer has certainly proven out. We have been greeted and stopped for conversation so many times I can't count. I wonder if people from other countries started doing it if they would be stopped more for conversation as well, or if it's just that people are that amazed that folks would show up from Canada to cycle here. In any case, I'm really glad we have our flags - they really are a great invitation for conversation and lots of folks take us up on the invitation!
Brent and I have been missing having picnic tables and fire pits at the campgrounds in France. The first time or two I thought it was just one of those things, but consistently, our campsites have been table and fire-pit-less. Last night we were camped near some Brits and in our conversation I mentioned that we're missing those things. They seemed genuinely surprised that Canadian campgrounds provided tables and fire pits at essentially every single camp site. Apparently that just isn't done here. Huh. Too bad.
Today we decided to stop in Saumur to stay in a hotel with a proper bed, private bath, WiFi and nearby laundromat. We are staying in Hôtel Anne D'Anjou in Saumur, in a room overlooking the Loire. It's beautiful! On our way into town, I decided that we should follow the signs into town rather than staying along the velo route. After going down a few little confusing streets, we stopped and I was collecting my thoughts when we were approached by a French couple who spoke very good English and spent several minutes talking to us and explaining some of the history of the town. They were very enthusiastic and it made me very enthusiastic. They live across from a B&B which, unfortunately, is closed for some maintenance right now - they very enthusiastically recommended it. They recommended another B&B next door to the hotel we're in, but B&Bs open later, and we didn't want to wait around for check-in... we want to go walk-about in search of sights and the laundromat.


2015-05-27 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Chinon
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle La Loire à Vélo Saumur to Chinon
$0.00 39.00 84.00
When we stayed in the hotel last night I almost couldn't stand to be in the room, and I didn't want to try to sleep there. I had to swing the windows wide open in order to sleep. I'm losing my taste for being indoors! I need to be camping!
Today was NOT a fast moving day. We had a cafe-au-lait stop first, then breakfast, then more cafe-au-lait before we even made it out of Saumur. We finally got underway and then the trail took us into Souzay-Champigny, a crazy crazy town built into the caves east of Saumur. Brent and I took forever going through them, and when we were finally done, we climbed a hill into vinyards as far as you can see, which we also had to spend a lot of time appreciating. Once out of the vinyards we had to stop for ice cream at Parnay. We still hadn't gone 15km and the day was half over. After that we started making better time and actually finished our 41km to reach Chinon.
We bought some Munster cheese yesterday. Man is it tasty, but it smells like ripe feet, so after we're finished eating some, my fingers smell like feet and Brent's beard smells like feet. Charming.
We decided to take a detour off of the Loire a Velo route (velo trail 38) and stay in Chinon along la Vienne river (instead of Loire) tonight because it looked like nothing but teeny tiny towns at approximately "Rhonda stops for the night" kilometers on the real route. We're camped at Camping de l'ile Auger.
We often eat dinner out, but we're making good use of the plentiful groceries for our other meals - breakfast, second breakfast, and sometimes lunch. Our mainstays are yogurt (preferably Danio), rug bread (aka Volkenbrot), fruit, cheese, pre-fab crepes, pre-fab chicken breasts (packed in jelly which is, oddly enough, not offending me) and chocolate (Milka bars, please).
Our campsite for tonight is the first one which has provided us with a picnic table. They have a special area for velos and hikers. Yay!


2015-05-28 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Savennières
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle La Loire à Vélo from Chinon to Savennières
$0.00 42.00 126.00
This was another real slow-start day. It was cold when we woke up, so we layed around for a while, then had breakfast at camp. We were going to leave our gear at the site to dry off and go into town for cafe au lait, but it started to look like rain, so we turned back to pack up. We packed up and headed into town, as the weather warmed back up. We had our cafe, had a quick look at Forteresse Ville Haute and then decided it was time to go. We weren't sure where the route was - the side routes are not as well marked as the official Loire route, but we thought for sure it couldn't possibly be the route that winds through town, up the free elevator to the fortress, and then up more hill from there. Turns out we were wrong. Brent says "when you have the option of taking the elevator on the velo route... take the elevator!" We ended up going the long way around on the highway, including one of the most evil climbs we've done on this trip. After we finished that, we had some undulations to make it to Huismes where we had lunch, and then beers with a couple from New Zealand before returning to the Loire velo route.
We are staying tonight in Camping de la Confluence in Savennières which is a nice enough campground, but the dryer is broken so we decided against doing a laundry, and the WiFi is working for the attendant but not for me.
I had a shower when we got to the campground and discovered that my dreaded saddle sore is starting to develop again. I'm glad I brought some moleskin along specifically for saddle sore management. Hopefully it won't affect the trip too much.
Grocery stores here do not give out free bags - you're expected to have your own bags. They do sell bags at checkouts and we have our bag that we use each time - we're event remembering to bring out bag in with us each time.
I finally saw another bike with a flag on it today - a France flag. I am curious to know if he will experience it as an invitation to conversation like I've found with the Canadian flag.
And just like that - there it was. My first squat toilet. And just like that - there it was. My first squat toilet trauma.
Just before we reached Savonnieres today we rode on about 500m of cobblestone. 500m doesn't sound like much, but trust me. 500m of cobblestone is a freakin' lot of cobblestone. I can't imagine how the Tour de France guys do it.
One thing I love about restaurants in France is that they offer "menus". they have prices for all of their appetizers, main courses and desserts, but if you order them together, you get a price cut. They offer "menu" prices for appetizer plus main, main plus dessert, and appetizer plus main plus dessert. It's brilliant.
Another thing to like about French restaurants... they use old wine bottles to bring water to the table. You don't have to ask for water... they automatically bring a glass for everyone, and a lovely old wine bottle full of water for the table.
In the rural areas, a neat thing is that people greet each other all the time... including when they enter a restaurant. I've seen lots of situations where people entering a restaurant greet everyone who's already IN the restaurant when they come in (including us, so it's not just because they know everyone).
Something I discovered before leaving Canada is that it's not necessarily a good thing to have a "good" accent in a language you don't really speak. I went to Sushi Boat a few weeks before we left, and our Japanese server said something to us. Her accent was so good that I assumed she spoke English and launched into a bunch of questions for her. Her response was a "deer in the headlights" stare. I realized that she didn't really speak English at all... but the little bit that she did speak, she spoke with a really good accent. Aha, I thought, I don't want to speak with too good of an accent any place in Europe lest I be mistaken for someone who can actually speak the language. As Brent and I spend more time in France, both of us are developing a decent "accent" for the few things we know how to say, and we are, indeed, experiencing the same phenomenon... people hear us say "bonjour" and assume that we can actually speak French, and then we have to apologize and explain that... we don't.
When we had our beers with the Kiwis the lady mentioned that she'd been to France once a long time ago and people then were very rude and dismissive, but now everyone is nice and friendly. That explains why I've had such pleasant experiences here - things have changed for the better! Yay!


2015-05-29 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Amboise
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle La Loire à Vélo from Savennières to Amboise
$0.00 51.00 177.00
Cycle touring in France is awesome. I can't believe how different it is from cycling in Canada and Australia. There's no fear of the traffic - there's no need. There are roads to avoid, but they're easy to avoid and so many great alternatives. The drivers are courteous... almost to a fault... it's kind of freaky. Cycle touring without the fear is, well... AWESOME! I am finally experiencing the joy of cycle touring.
We got an early/fast start today because of some morning drizzle. We had 17km behind us by the time we reached Tours, and before we had our first café au lait. Then, we had a long layover in Tours as we finally got the chain replaced on Brent's bike... something we'd failed to do a couple weeks ago. Then, with the help of a strong tail wind, we made the remaining 30km to Amboise in record time.
While we were walking in Tours today, we saw something I've never seen before. Brent and I have been speculating about how people would move furniture in and out of some of the apartments around here with their impossibly tight narrow staircases (and no elevators). Today we saw a moving truck with a freakishly long ladder up to the top apartment with an electric lift on it with a mattress that they were moving.
I was slightly perturbed with the city of Tours for putting their weekend market right on the EuroVelo route. I mean right ON the EuroVelo route so we couldn't ride on the route - it was blocked off for the market. We had to detour around, and although it was a short detour, it had a lot going on at once for us to navigate.
When we were walking around Tours waiting for the work on Brent's bike to be done, a young couple stopped us. The young man recognized us from PARIS! We had been standing on Rue Jean Juares with a map in our hands feeling lost, when he had come over and offered us directions. He had traveled down to Tours, and recognized us thanks to the flags and Brent's beard. We had a nice "reunion" chat with him. How crazy is that!? Another reason to love the flags.


2015-05-30 : Rest day in Amboise
Our plan for today was: café au lait, Amboise Chateau Royal, check out of the hotel, put on my new tires, then cycle to Blois. I took the plan sideways at the last minute, though, and requested a rest day to give my right foot a day off. It has been a little sore for a few days but the last couple days it has gotten quite bad. I've had problems with it since I was 21 and had a ganglion removed from the top when I was about 28. There's some kind of structural weakness in there, though, and now and then I get pain and/or a return of the ganglion. The last couple days it's been swollen on the top (the site of the structural weakness) and I think it's best if I take a day off from cycling. Brent, ever patient, is right on board. Love that guy.
We're having a rest day today, mostly so I can rest my foot. It also doesn't hurt for Bob the Bubon (aka my saddle sore) to have a day off from being in the saddle. I took the opportunity to update DAMDetails for the remainder of our trip, given the Schengen Area issues. I changed the day titles on about 75 calendar days, and moved all of the no-longer-relevant research items to my "Planning and Prep" placeholder date (April 30th). Then I had a little weep about it all. Stripping all that out really made it hit home for me how much I've researched and dreamed about certain places and things that I'm not going to get to do now (at least not on this trip). I'm heartbroken.
Brent has restricted himself to paying admission to only one castle per country while we're on this trip (unless something completely awesome comes up, of course). Today we paid to go into Château d'Amboise, which is very impressive. One thing that surprised us was that the St. Hubert Chapel is the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci, who was close to King Francois 1st.
Today Brent suggested having our "dep lunch" (purchased at the Dépanneur, a French-Canadian word, not used in France except for Brent and me) with wine out on the bench overlooking the Loire. I googled it, and drinking in public is legal in France, so we did! Viva la France!
We've had to get used to the "standard" beer size here, which is 25cl (a glass). They seem so SMALL! Today we were asked if we wanted the 24cl or the 50cl, so I thought, hey, let's have an actual PINT like at home, so we ordered the 50cl, and they look freakishly enormous! Funny how quickly perspective can change.
From Brent: Before starting this trip I had the thought that my bike was getting pretty old and at the end, rather than going to the trouble of packing The Tank up for return shipment, I would just abandon it somewhere in Europe. But sometime in week 2 of riding it all seemed to become so natural once again. Like The Tank is part of me, growing out of my butt. So I'm now considering bringing The Tank home...if it's not too much hassle.
From Brent: Did I mention that I'm managing to stumble by in French? I had given myself 3 weeks to accomplish this and we're getting to 3 weeks of riding now. It seems that I can now 1) order and pay in a restaurant, 2) check in to a hatel or campground and 3) carry on basic chat about cycle routes. And when you're cycle touring that's about all you need.
Seven days of cycling in a row is too damned much. I'm a wreck today, and oh so glad I asked for a rest day.


2015-05-31 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Blois
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle La Loire à Vélo from Amboise to Blois
$0.00 45.00 222.00
I checked the forecast before we left this morning and it looks like it's calling for some cooler temps for the next few days and a shower later today. We flew down the trail, rockin' the tailwind, all the way to Blois. About a half hour before we got to Blois, the rain started. It never got bad enough to be really miserable, but it was enough to make us check into the first hotel we saw in Blois. Just as we got there we ran into a girl from Minnesota who is just starting her tour and riding westward. She was planning to go to Ambois yet today - covering the 45km that we did today, but in a strong headwind and rain. YIKES!
At Chaumont-sur-Loire, we ended up having the cycle trail blocked by a flea marketey market. We walked through it - it was only a couple blocks long. When we got to the end, there was a velo route sign pointing us to turn right, toward Chateau de Chaumont. We dutifully followed the sign and started climbing an evil, evil hill. Partway up there was an elderly couple walking down the hill and we started chatting with them. We told them we were headed for Blois and they started vehemently protesting that we were going the wrong direction. I, just as vehemently, insisted that the sign had pointed us this way so there must be a velo route that dekes in and out a bit. Finally Brent pulled out the map and confirmed that we were NOT supposed to be headed toward Chateau de Chaumont - that is an alternate route (with an evil hill). After all of my arguing, it took a couple minutes for me to convince the people that they'd finally gotten through to me, and we were going to turn around and go back to the proper route. When we got back down to where the market was, there was a sign that the velo route continued along the same way beyond the market... the road to the Chateau was a complete red herring. Oops. We definitely toasted the old couple when we reached first beer!!

The great thing about it is that the whole conversation took place in French - they didn't speak a word of English. There was one time, though, that the old lady gestured up the hill and said something about "mort" so I asked her if she said the hill would kill me and she laughed and said yes.
May 31st. Today is the day that Karen and Ed are in Frankfurt. I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see them, but not disappointed to be spending extra time in France. Did I mention that I LOVE France? Man, do I love France! I can't believe it's the last day of our fist month of vacation. Only five more months to go. It's flying past, but when I look through our pictures I can't help thinking how much we've seen and experienced so far. Fantastic.
I definitely recommend touring with a flag... especially when you're a long way from home. This morning while Brent and I were enjoying our first cafe- au-lait, we watched a guy come by and take several photos of our bikes. We weren't sure what the attraction was, so when he finally wandered past us, we asked. He lives down the road, and likes to come to Ambois to see the tourists and he was drawn to our bikes because of the flags. He was very excited about how far we'd come to be there.
Pretty much all the clothing I brought along was chosen for utility. I'm extremely happy with just about everything I brought, but I was tired of the brown/multi-colored sweater before we even left. Honestly, I didn't expect to use it much, and when I did, I thought I'd be using it under my shell. I thought it would be warmer here and I wouldn't use a sweater, but I'm using it ALL THE TIME. It is loose, misshapen, and just plain hideous. I don't have another sweater that I would have brought instead, but maybe I would have tried to find something new so that I wasn't walking around in this frumpy hideousness ALL THE BLOODY TIME! Oh well. OK, whinge over.


2015-06-01 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Beaugency
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle La Loire à Vélo from Blois to Beaugency
$0.00 38.00 260.00
A short day of riding today and we were in Beaugency. We found the campground easily, set up camp, enjoyed a set-up wine, and went into town to snoop around. Since it is Monday, nothing is open. So, we were out of things to do too early and... sat around and got drunk while we were waiting for restaurants to open. Ugh.
Several months ago, my friend Bridget told me about Immune 7 (an immune booster that you can buy at health food stores). I have a healthy skepticism for such things having lived through the Echinacea and Cold FX crazes knowing that they didn't work for me (and, subsequently learning that they don't actually work at all). Bridget also has a healthy skepticism for such things, but she was convinced that it works, so I agreed to give the stuff a try. Before we left on holidays, it had been a really long time since I'd had a cold or flu... about the same amount of time as it had been since I started faithfully taking Immune 7. I have continued taking it faithfully on this trip, and it really does seem to be working! I haven't been sick at all, even though traveling, camping, eating a strange diet, and so on, are my usual "get sick" triggers. Yay for Immune 7!
A good part of our ride today was heading in the direction of the Centrale Electrique de St-Laurent-des-Eaux. Its prominent feature, visible for kilometers, is two nuclear power plant cooling stacks. Brent gave me a tutorial on which direction we should flee if the sirens started going off.


2015-06-02 : Loire à Vélo / EuroVelo 6 to Orleans
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle La Loire à Vélo from Beaugency to Orléans
$0.00 33.00 293.00
Another easy day of cycling coupled with a fierce tailwind. WOO HOO!
We've booked train tickets to Strasbourg for tomorrow. The Orleans gare is very nice for velos - all the platforms are on one level and easily accessible - no elevators or nonsense to go through. We have to connect in Paris, switching not only trains, but also stations, which is a little tough/stressful. We'll see how that goes. In the gare they had device charging stations... hooked up to stationary bikes. There was a young woman cycling to charge her phone. Cool.
I was really taken with Place du Martroi in Orleans, even before I found out how popular and important it is. It has great movement of people and vehicles through it, including the trams. I love the flow of the tram line around the side of the Place. The Place has a lot of restaurants and brasseries lining it, a sculpture of Joan of Arc, a carousel (amazing how many carousels we've seen in France) and a fountain that kids play in. Brent was surprised to learn that Joan of Arc's battle was for Orlean... He'd thought it was someplace in the north along the English Channel.


2015-06-03 : Transit Orleans to Strasbourg
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle Paris and Strasbourg
$0.00 16.00 309.00
At the beginning of the trip, it made me nervous to think about rolling up in a town and not being able to find accommodation. For a week or two I made a point of trying to pre-arrange our next night's accommodation, using Air BnB, Booking.com, HostelWorld.com, and so on. Without fail, our pre-arranged accommodations ended up with some kind of a hassle... usually the pressure of making it to the place that was booked (sometimes I didn't feel like doing all the kms), or finding that the place I'd booked was hard to find or perched on a hilltop. A few times, we just played it by ear and found a campground or hotel that was right along the path. So much easier. After a couple of weeks I relaxed and we've been randomly finding our accommodation ever since. It's much better.
I am SO GLAD every day that I have my pStyle along. I've used it pretty much every day. In nasty public toilets, in squat toilets, by the side of the trail when there are nettles, by the side of the trail where there's insufficient privacy... I just pStyled my way all the way across France! It is absolutely essential gear.
One of the things that I took the longest in planning for this trip was electronic devices - what to bring and what to leave behind.

I decided to leave behind the Mighty iPhone because I'm not going to pay Rogers' exorbitant roaming fees, and I'm not going to unlock the iPhone to get a European service. I bought an old cellphone through Kijiji and inherited another old cellphone from my mom, thinking that one of them might work in Europe. They didn't - we ended up buying a cheapo cellphone in France with a pay-as-you-go sim card.

The other piece of electronics we're using is my Windows Surface. I wanted to make sure I could continue to take care of certain things while I'm away, for example, my corporate fiscal year end accounting, which will happen at the end of July. I decided to buy a tablet, and because I like the iPhone so much, I thought about getting an iPad, but I need Windows software for some of that FYE stuff, so I settled on a Surface. I have been able to use the Excel program to update my GL, which is one of the main things I needed it for each month. I used it for one big trip previously - the trip to the Caribbean last November with Brent and Ed.

Although I have been extremely pleased with the Surface so far, it doesn't have all the software I'd like on it - one deficiency is in photo editing software. I'm kind of particular about photo editing software. I haven't found a way to reduce the size of photos to a size acceptable to DAMDetails, so my work-around has been to post the photos on Facebook, then save down the reduced photos from Facebook (which does it for you automatically), then post those photos to DAMDetails. Every day I save the photos from both our cameras to my OneDrive so they are "safe" in the cloud. If we lose a camera, we've only lost one day's worth of photos.
Today we're taking the train from Orleans to Strasbourg, on the far east of France... almost Germany. From there we'll ride EuroVelo 15 (the Rhine Route) north for a couple hundred kilometers before heading east to Frankfurt.

We bought our train tickets yesterday. Brent stayed outside to watch our bikes while I went in to inquire about the tickets. The guy was willing, but not enthusiastic, to help me in English. I explained that we needed tickets to go from Orleans to Strasbourg, and that we have our velos with us.

Within a minute or so, he was showing me ticket opens... from Strasbourg to Orleans. I can't imagine in what universe I would want to buy a ticket to where I already was, so I'm pretty sure he was doing it deliberately to mess with me... make sure I was paying good attention - sort of a dumbass tourist tax.

I passed that test and got a ticket for Orleans to Strasbourg... one ticket. So, I had to explain again that my husband was coming with me... also with his velo... and we would need TWO tickets.

Somewhere in the whole process, he asked me if I had baggage for the bikes. I didn't really understand the question and I said we had paniers for the bikes... he just waved and said oh that's fine that's fine. After, when I showed the tickets to Brent, he thought that we had tickets on the bullet train, which doesn't allow bikes. I realized that when the guy asked me if I had baggage for the bikes, he meant, did I have bags to put the bikes IN. Back to the ticket agent we went and talked to someone else, who, upon reviewing our tickets assured us that they were ok for roll-on bikes. WHEW!

Another possible SNAFU was the station change in Paris. We had about an hour and ten minutes to make the station change, and my original ticketing guy said we could take the Metro. Brent and I remembered from being in Paris before that the Metro doesn't allow bikes, only the RER train line in Paris allows bikes. But, with over an hour to make the 4km from Station Austerlitz to Station Est, we figured we were ok, but a longer layover would be nice. Back to the ticket agents we went to ask if we could take an earlier train out of Orleans. The lady that we spoke to spoke no English (unlike the other guys we'd had before), but I managed to ask her, in French, if we were allowed to take the 11:35 train instead of the 12:47. I received a resounding "non!" Brent thinks she just didn't understand me and wanted to get rid of me. He has so little faith in my French. I'm sure she understood.

Brent and I both used Google Maps to research our route from one station to another, in our own ways, and made some notes.

This morning we hung out at Place du Martroi after checking out of our hotel, and before it was time for our train. When we got to the gare and our platform was announced, off we went. The problem was, there were no train cars with a velo icon on them. Brent helped a lady onto one car with her bike, and realized that there were bike hooks in some cars but they weren't marked on the outside of the train cars, like we were used to. We found a car with hooks but no bikes, and on we went. Getting the bikes onto a train car, and then onto a hook, is not bad as a two-person job. Brent goes in front and "receives" the bike to get it on/off the train, and I guide the back. To hoist them up, he does most of the lifting and guiding, and I do a little lifting, and the finer "guiding" of the wheel onto the ook. It helped that we'd been through the process of putting the bikes onto hooks before (traveling to Nantes). Knowing that it was actually POSSIBLE to get our bikes up on the hooks made it a LOT easier to get the bikes up onto the hooks this time.

We made it to Paris and got the bikes down just fine. Austerlitz is a nice ground-level gare as well, which made exiting much easier than when we have to use elevators to move the bikes. Using our notes and Brent's amazing sense of direction, we found our way to Gare Est in plenty of time. Paris is an amazing city to ride through. There was heavy traffic, I was unfamiliar with the streets and where we were trying to go. I was what I would call "highly stimulated" the whole ride, but amazingly, I was not scared... not even a little bit. I did, however, make Brent walk around a couple of the enormous busy roundabouts rather than try to ride through them.

There are four underground platforms at Gare Est, but fortunately for us, we didn't have to go to one of them. When our train was ready for boarding, we again had to figure out which train car to go in. We were assigned to car 1, but car 1 also had a "first class" sign on it (in one direction) that Brent interpreted as "certainly not our car". So, I asked a guy, who pointed me at car 1. I asked where the velos go and he said "to the right". Cool. OK. So, I poke my head in the car, and there is a row of seats that can be folded up to make room for velos. Stellar.

We fought the bikes into the small area for bikes and couldn't figure out why they even allow bikes on these cars - it's a terrible small area, and our car-mates had trouble pushing past our bikes, fat with all the luggage. We found a couple of "bike seat belts" and used one to secure the bikes in place. THEN I saw the bike parking instructions on the wall that indicate that the luggage is supposed to come OFF the bikes before they're parked. Oh. D'uh. We decided to leave them in place unless we were asked to dismantle them. At the time of this writing... we haven't been asked yet. But, we know for next time... if there is a next time.
We ended up talking to the guy sitting at our station on the train and he mentioned that Strasbourg was the first city to seriously pursue cycle friendliness. When we got to Strasbourg and got off the train, the first site that greeted us was... seriously a million freakin' bicycles. There are bicycles EVERYWHERE.
Unfortunately, the campground in Strasbourg is under construction until July. We got directions to the campground in Kehl, Germany, which is just across the river. Off to Kehl we go... and the site that greeted us was... seriously a million freakin' campers!!! There are campers EVERYWHERE! I said that if I was going to stay in a crowded campground, it might as well be crowded to the point of absurdity. And it is. It's Thrasher Cove, only without the surf and driftwood.


2015-06-04 : Rhine Route / EV 15 to Stollhofen
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle EV 15 / Rhine Route to Stollhofen
$0.00 55.00 364.00
After the complete breakfast wasteland that is France, I was excited to see eggs with bacon on the menu at the restaurant in our campground last night. I ordered it this morning, but had a bit of a communication kerfuffle when I tried to ask for the bacon to be crispy. The problem was that, in Germany, they don't do bacon and eggs like we're used to. They do bacon omelette thingies, and the bacon doesn't really have any fat to worry about. I ate the bacon omelette thingy, and it was good, but my hankerin' for regular old bacon and eggs remains unfulfilled.
We woke up in Kehl this morning with the idea that our first order of business was to get a book or map of EuroVelo 15, the Rhine Route. We had breakfast, and then headed to Kehl town center. Everything was supposed to open at 9:00. 9:00 came and went. We wondered if people were lackadaisical about opening times. 10:00 came and went. We decided that it must be some kind of national holiday in Germany. We seem to have really bad luck with national holidays in Europe.

We debated whether to spend the extra 20km round trip to go back to Strasbourg. Since Strasbourg is in France, we figured even if it was a holiday in Germany, everything would probably be open in Strasbourg. We decided against it - we knew where the EuroVelo 15 route was - it ran right beside our campground. How hard could it be to follow the signs 40km up the way, right?

As we were leaving Kehl, there was an Esso station open and Brent suggested picking up a highway map. I talked him out of it because highway maps don't include velo routes, so I thought it would be of questionable value. Oh, silly me. Remember - it is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it! There were little signs everywhere pointing this town this way, that town that way, but since we had no map, we had no idea which towns were in the right general direction for us to be heading! So many times I kicked myself for not having that highway map!
We rode a good part of the day on the dyke beside the Rhine. The Rhine area where we were today is not interesting at all. It is flat, boring, and has no points of interest. It was 35C today, and the ride was mostly on a slight incline, with a slight headwind, and on gravel. Yuck yuck yuck. Along the way there were occasional maps of small regions and we tried to piece together where we were in relation to the town I had pointed us towards. We had no idea, really, where we were along the route or how far it would be until we found food and shelter. At Greffern, there was a small restaurant called Das Boot (a floating restaurant on the Rhine). We stopped there for desperation lunch and to fill our water containers just in case we ended up having to random camp for the night. It was the best desperation lunch we ever had, actually... I had schnitzel with spetzle and beer. YUM! With our bellies and water jugs full, off we went in search of the night's accommodation. There was supposed to be a campground about 3km up the road. We spotted an enormous, crowded golf country club so Brent went and inquired about camping. He got directions to a campground - yay! We followed the directions, got lost a time or two, and ended up heading back almost all the way to where Das Boot is to get to the campground. And what a camp ground...
Remember yesterday when I said if I was going to stay in a crowded campground, it may as well be crowded to the point of absurdity? Well, I had no idea. Tonight we stayed at Freizeitcenter Oberrhein, which has an area, Brent estimated, of about 1km by 0.5km with campers piled one on top of the other as far as the eye can see. It was so large that we ended up going past the "1800s" stalls to get to our spot. It was so large that, seriously, they assigned a guy on a golf cart to escort us to our spot - we would have never found it otherwise. The campground has two small fake lakes, a dep, an outdoor pub, and a restaurant. It was packed so thick that Brent thought it looked like a refugee camp... I thought it looked like a shantytown.
When we got to our campsite, there was a sign that said it was 35C. No wonder it felt so bloody hot cycling all day! While we were in France, every day was between about 15C and 20C. Some days were on the chilly side, and there were only two days where I rode with short sleeves. WOW! This is something to get used to.
When we were in Kehl, I did not get any warm fuzzies from the Germans thereabouts. They were abrupt, stand-off-ish and disinterested. I became instantly "homesick" for the warmth, friendliness and helpfulness of the French. This is so different from what I expected from all the cultural stereotypes I've heard.

Once we left Kehl, things got better, at least in the campgrounds. In the campgrounds everyone is interested in chatting us up and inviting us to their camp sites for a beer and a chat. That's nice. On the trail, and in the towns, no one is really interested and we've gotten a lot of sneers. One time, in Kehl, when I wanted to ask someone why everything was still closed, I asked a server who was setting up his tables if he spoke English. He literally yelled "NO!!!" at me, which made Brent guffaw (which I thought was a perfect response to a ridiculous "NO!!!" in response to an innocent question).


 < 1 2 3 4 5 >  Last ›