INTRODUCTION

After discussing, saving, and preparing, we have decided to set off on an 8-month Round The World Tour. Our itinerary covers Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Europe, Canada, USA, Canada again, and Australia.

Our choices of countries evolved and grew over a period of about a year. The first idea was that we would take 2-3 months and do the North Sea Route. Then we wanted to include France in that plan. And I got the idea in my head that I wanted to spend Christmas with my family in Canada. While we were discussing these ideas, Rowan mentioned he'd like to go to South America too. So Rowan started looking at what was involved with purchasing and using a Round The World airline ticket.

The world, according to the Round The World ticket organisation we went with, is divided into zones. We were allowed a limited number of flights/stops in each zone, and we could only move forward in the direction we chose. We were also limited by weather/seasons, and my desire to be in Canada by Christmas.

With those limitations in mind, we started picking places in each zone ... and after narrowing and reworking our list of places we would like to visit, we came up with our finalised itinerary. Several places were dropped from the list because we just couldn't fit them in. But they are on the list for future tours ... some of the places that didn't make the cut this time include New Zealand, Peru, and the Canadian Maritimes.

I have started the Europe report below, and will link to the other segments as we go.

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round The World Tour - Europe

*Note* - Many more photos can be found on my Flickr site. Click the Photo Gallery link to the left, or the links below ...

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

THE NETHERLANDS

Tuesday 31 July - I'm not much of a sailor ... queasy with the slightest roll of a ship. Therefore I felt I was extremely fortunate that the crossing from Newcastle to near Amsterdam was as calm as possible for most of the way. I was actually able to eat dinner without too much difficulty.

About 4 am, however, I was wakened by the fact that the sea was not quite as calm anymore. Fortunately, I was able to sleep on and off till we had to be up for breakfast. Rowan was able to eat quite a large breakfast, but I was not. I managed a little nibble then returned to our cabin to lie down till we docked.

And there we were ... in The Netherlands, and wouldn't you know it, it was raining and cool. In fact, it came down quite heavily for a while.

We had been given instructions on how to find the fast ferry, from the big ferry we had come in on to the middle of Amsterdam, but somehow we missed a turn and couldn't find it. So we cycled.

We passed one campground, but opted not to stop there. It was bucketing down with rain and stopping to camp just didn't seem at all appealing.

Finally we found ourselves in Amsterdam, and quite soon found ourselves in the middle of Amsterdam at the train station. Almost as soon as we arrived, I didn't want to be there anymore. Way too crowded. People on people everywhere we turned.

We tried a tourist information centre, and managed to get one useful map, but it was surprisingly lightly stocked for a tourist information centre in the middle of a city like Amsterdam.

And then we attempted to find a particular cycling route which would take us south out of Amsterdam. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful finding that route today.

However, several people did stop to try to help us, including one young man who even cycled with us to a certain point where he directed us onward. We weren't quite able to follow his directions, but his directions did lead us to a place where I noticed a hotel, and as it was getting late in the day, we stopped.

After spending the day cycling around Amsterdam trying to find our way out of the city, I have to say ... Amsterdam is not a cycling mecca of any sort, it's a scary place to cycle. Lots of people cycle here, and there is some infrastructure for cyclists, and perhaps 20 years ago it was an innovative place for cycling, but it looks like it has not advanced to accommodate the number of cyclists. I preferred cycling in Hualien, Taiwan ... and that had its terrifying moments.

It's hard to put my finger on the problem, but it was like there are too many cyclists for the infrastructure, and the scooters/small motorcycles just added to the congestion because they try to use the bike lanes too. The bike lanes are very narrow. So narrow it is difficult for two cyclists to pass each other. And then to add to that, we have panniers on, so it was really difficult for people to get around us, even though we tried to move over as much as possible, and everyone was getting frustrated and upset.

Pedestrians (who were also sometimes in the bike lanes), bicycles, and scooters often took no notice of traffic signals. We would stop, but others would bolt right on through and we saw a scooter/bicycle collision that left both the cyclist (who had run the red) and the scooter lying in the middle of the road. They both got up and the scooter driver gave the cyclist quite a piece of her mind!!

No one signals or anything like that, and there is so much dodging and weaving as the bicycle lanes meander on and off the sidewalks and around other traffic furniture. Then you've got the trams running back and forth in among it all.

And just to add to the congestion, bicycles are "parked" (piled/stacked/heaped) everywhere. Some are actually in the stands where they belong ... others are just leaning or lying everywhere. One wonders if they've been abandonned, or if people still use them.

You've got to stay alert and be ready for anything the whole time.

I'm glad we came so that I could experience it, and it certainly is an "experience" ... but it's not something I'd like to repeat at any point in the near future.

One interesting aspect were the number of different bicycles. There are an amazing array of styles and configurations of bicycles and an amazing array of things are carried on these bicycles. And one amusing aspect were the women, dressed in skirts and high heels, who would fly past Rowan and me with the greatest of ease in their very non-cycling attire.

Odd sighting of the day ... a cyclist here in Amsterdam, riding a dutch bicycle no-hands, carrying a cat carrier in one hand (presumably with animal inside) and an umbrella in the other hand. I admire his bicycle handling skills, but given the bad cycling conditions here in Amsterdam, I really wondered how long he could maintain the no-hands riding!!

(Cycled 38.69 km)

Wednesday 1 August - Something very strange happened today ... something we haven't experienced in quite some time. So long ago, I can't remember the last time this happened ... it might have happened once or twice when we were in Japan, but the last time I remember it happening, we were in Taiwan.

There, above us, all afternoon ... blue sky and sunshine!! I actually applied sunscreen for the first time in a month, and we cycled in T-shirts and shorts!

Of course it started to rain as evening fell, but a few hours of blue sky and sunshine were a nice change!

We are not in Amsterdam anymore. I'm not quite sure where we are. But we cycled 58.5 km along many canals to get here ... wherever "here" is.

Cycling along the canals was lovely. The terrain is flat and relatively easy to ride, and the canals were interesting. It was also very nice to get out of the city environment and get into the country again.

We weren't sure where we were going to stay, and had stopped to have another look at a map, when a cyclist going the other direction stopped and asked us if we needed assistance. We mentioned that we were looking for Utrecht and also accommodation and she told us about a place where we might be able to camp. She told us that the place had a really good restaurant, was an old fort, and sometimes allowed people to camp.

We wondered at that description, but continued on. Then a bit later we chatted with another cyclist who had a similar description of the place, but said that she didn't think they allowed people to camp there.

Nevertheless, we decided to give it a try, and sure enough, not only did they allow camping, but they also had "motel units". We opted for a room.

And so, we are staying in a converted military base associated with a fort tonight, while a thunderstorm rumbles outside. Our room is a somewhat rustic loft room, but it suits us quite nicely. This fort and military base were built in the mid-1800s, and include facilities for groups to hold meetings and retreats as well as areas for camping. There is also quite a nice restaurant. It has a moat around it, full of water, as well as quite a bit of parkland, They keep goats here, and there are two white cats roaming about.

(Cycled: 59 km)

Thursday 2 August - We've decided to stay here tonight and tomorrow night ... here is near Utrecht, a little bit south of Amsterdam. I desperately need the break after several days cycling through the UK in challenging weather and terrain.

Today we cycled about 13 km into Utrecht to get supplies, and when we returned, I crashed ... collapsed into bed and slept for 2 hours. So tired, I didn't even shift position. And that, after 10 hours of sleep last night. We're over 300 km of cycling in the past 8 days, which is the most cycling I've done in a little while. It may take a bit of time to get into the swing of things again.

But I took the opportunity in the evening to sort through my panniers and bags to see what's hiding in there, and what I might be able to get rid of. I left several brochures about Scotland behind. It is amazing how much stuff you collect as you go along, and a lot of it is "paperwork" ... maps, brochures, etc. etc. We will have to mail some stuff home at some point soon, I think.

We're learning a bit of Dutch as we go along here ... written Dutch. I still have a lot of trouble following spoken Dutch. For example, we were able to decipher a sign about the geiten (goats) and that they were fed a diet of hooi (hay) and gras (grass). And in the grocery store, kaas is cheese, boter is butter, and brood is bread.

If we stayed here a couple months, I might be able to pick up the language, but we are only in this country a few days.

(Cycled: 13 km)

Friday 3 August - No cycling today!

And clean laundry!! Rowan took our clothes out to a laundromat this morning. It's the first time we've done laundry in about 3 weeks. The situation was getting just a bit urgent.

I spent the day working on photographs, trying to catch up to where we are now. It's kind of like fighting a losing battle because every time I catch up a bit, I take more photos!! :)

And we went for a walk around the fort and the moat, and up and down the canal. It was nice to stay off the bicycle today, but also nice to get out for a bit of a walk.

We also spent some time discussing what we want to do next, and looking up options on the internet.

From just south of Amsterdam to ...

We were thinking of Denmark/Sweden, but the weather and the fact that we spent about an extra week in Scotland (we liked it there!) means that we'll probably put Denmark/Sweden etc. on the list for next time. We do want to see the Scandinavian countries, but we want to spend a bit of time there to do them justice.

So now, with 2 months in Europe ... where to go and what to see??

When all was said and done, we decided to try to follow the Rhine Cycle Route for the next few weeks. But we won't be cycling the whole 1230 km described in the link below. We'll be starting a little way into the route, and we'll see how it goes as we go. Trains are an option if necessary. In fact, if all goes well, the plan will start with a train trip tomorrow.

Rhine Cycle Route

Saturday 4 August - Today we cycled into the city and booked tickets for us and the bicycles on the train. We do have to get tickets for the bicycles here in The Netherlands, but we can use whatever train we want. We're not limited to one particular train. Of course, it helped that there were trains every 15 minutes.

We waited on the platform for about half an hour, and had lunch, before deciding finally to take a train.

And half an hour later, we were in a town on the Rhine Cycle Route, Arnhem. We attempted to collect some tourist information, and came away with some maps, but not really what we wanted. It has been surprising difficult to find information about the Rhine Cycle Route, especially considering I've heard quite a bit about it.

However, as "luck" would have it, when we stopped at this campground to ask about accommodation, the manager asked Rowan what kind of cycling we were doing. Rowan mentioned the Rhine Cycle Route, and the manager gave us a book with detailed maps and information about it all the way to Mainz. Another cyclist dropped it off just recently, having finished with it, so it is ours now. :) There is information available!

Between here and Mainz, a little over 400 km, there is an elevation gain of 100 metres. My kind of terrain!! :)

There's another 600 km to the Switzerland end of the route, but we'll decide about that when the time comes. In that section, there is quite a bit more climbing from what I understand.

This is the first time we've camped since Japan. We had intended to camp in Scotland, but the weather was bad, and there just weren't very many campgrounds. So it is good that we can camp here ... good for the budget, in particular.

After we got settled in the campground, we decided to stroll up to the grocery store ... but it turned out to be a bit longer than a little stroll. Short cycle but long walk today.

The observation of the day ... an interesting "rule" in the places we've stayed in The Netherlands ... no radios or music allowed. It's nice. No loud music being played in a neighbouring unit or campground disturbing everyone around.

(Cycled: 12.5 km)

Sunday 5 August - Another rest day to try to give my right knee a chance to heal. I kind of overdid it on some of the climbing in the UK.

This campground seemed to be the place to rest today. We situated ourselves in the camp library to recharge our computers and get caught up on things. But when I emerged a few times to wander about the campground I noticed that children were active and playing while parents and grandparents were snoozing. A good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Spending a day here has also given Rowan the opportunity to do some repairs on the bicycles. The brake pads needed replacing, and some other minor adjustments needed doing.

We did get up enough energy to cycle to the grocery store. We walked it yesterday because we weren't sure how far it was. Turns out, it was 6.2 km return. So yesterday we cycled 12.5 km and walked 6.2 km! Today we just cycled 6.2 km.

And over dinner tonight, we are talking about spending another day here to recharge both ourselves and our computers, and to further catch up on things. It would be nice to start the Rhine Cycle Route feeling refreshed.

We also had a nice chat with a couple from the UK who were touring around The Netherlands on a tandem, and with their dog. Their dog either ran along side, or rode on top of the bags on the rear rack.

(Cycled: 6.2 km)

Monday 6 August - Another day at the campground near Arnhem. It does seem to be a very nice quiet campground, and the camp library is an excellent place to spend a cool, windy, rainy, thundery Monday afternoon.

We didn't even summon up enough energy to cycle into town for groceries. Another day off the bicycle.

But I have been able to go through heaps of photos in the last couple days. Finally making some headway with them. Now, if only I could load them into Flickr! For some reason, I seem to need a strong internet connection for that.

One other thing I've done over the past couple days is to read a book, a fictional novel. The library at this campground had a small, rather limited selection of English books, but I was able to find a mystery novel that looked all right.

I don't read a lot, compared with other members of my family, but I do like to have a book or two on the go, and I do make regular use of the local public library. So I miss books when I go on a longer cycling tour. They are just too hard to carry with me.

And I was quite happy when an opportunity like this presented itself ... I got my reading fix in! Who knows when the opportunity will come again.

A few observations about cycletourists in The Netherlands, in no particular order, and there may be more later ...

-- Families - we've seen several families touring together ... parents and child or children. Some of the children have been quite young. One of the first of these families we observed was on the ferry crossing from the UK to The Netherlands, all there waiting with us, with their panniers etc. ready for a tour in The Netherlands ... parents and two young daughters. And then they all cycled off into the rain when we arrived in The Netherlands.

It's nice to see families all cycling together on tours like that.

-- Variety of People - all sorts of different people tour. I mentioned families above, but there have been all sorts of other groupings. Couples, older people, two or three ladies together, two or three men together, people riding solo, and one group which I found entirely unexpected ... a group of 5 or 6 girls who looked like they were in their late teens. They sort of straggled into the campground quite late one evening, set everything up with much hilarity, and then stayed for a couple days. They were still there when we left. It wasn't just that 5 or 6 teenage girls set out on a cycling tour, but they rode quite standard Dutch, step-through, bicycles, dressed in the latest fashions here, and carried quite a bit of stuff with them (big tent, all sorts of clothing like any female teenager might bring, etc.)

It's great to see that all sorts of people are just going out and cycletouring.

-- Variety of Equipment - the Dutch stepthrough bicycles are quite popular of course, but we've seen mountain bikes and tandems and all sorts. People appear to be riding whatever they've got. And I've been rather suprised by the size of tents people are carrying (big!), and the amount of stuff. I personally wouldn't consider jeans as touring wear, but I've seen a lot of people change into jeans after cycling, if not wear jeans while cycling. Weight doesn't seem to be a huge issue.

It's interesting to see that people are touring with whatever equipment they've got at hand, and not necessarily the lightest, most technical equipment.

-- Cycling Attire - in Canada and Australia, quite often the "usual" cycling attire is cycling shorts and jerseys. But here, people wear everything from cycling shorts and jerseys to normal everyday clothes to quite dressy wear (including those high heels and skirts). Most of the cycletourists seem to wear casual but relatively normal everyday wear.

Rowan has opted to ride without padded cycling shorts. His choice of clothing has been unpadded cycling shorts with regular shorts or long pants over them, and wicking T-shirts. I've chosen to wear padded cycling shorts, but will often wear capri pants over them (I'd really like to find another pair of this style of capri pants). And I use wicking T-shirts as well. I did bring one jersey, but it is a pullover sleeveless jersey which could appear to be a normal sleeveless top.

The only thing that really makes us stand out from the crowd is the fact that we wear helmets. Most people here don't.

-- Casual pace - we're following touring routes, and in general the people on these touring routes don't seem in a great hurry, or ride like they are on a mission. And in the campground, we weren't the only ones who settled in for a few days before carrying on. We talked to one couple touring on a tandem. They were there for a few days, but said that the last time they were touring in that area, they just stopped at that campground for 5 days.

We like this casual approach to touring ... ride a bit, see the sights, relax a bit, stay in an area for a few days if we feel like it.

Tuesday 7 August - Happy Birthday to Rowan!

Time to embark on the Rhine Cycle Route. Maybe we should have cycled around town during the last couple days to see where the route started. It might have made today's start a bit easier. As it was, it took us a while to figure it out, not helped by the fact that we were ducking for cover from the rain every so often.

But we did get to see more of the town. And we discovered that The Netherlands is not completely flat. There is a fair amount of climbing around Arnhem.

Eventually we were on the right track, and before we knew it, we were in the next town where we stopped for lunch, and to shelter from the rain again.

Once we were out of Arnhem, the route is almost entirely flat, which is good for me right now. It's also quite windy, but for the most part we had a tailwind. As this is the delta of the Rhine, there is a lot of water around and lots of water fowl. We've seen herons, ibis, geese, ducks and all sorts of birds.

There were two ferry crossings. The first was a slow, flat crossing over a narrow bit of river. The second was a faster crossing over a wider bit of river, and as the wind was kicking up some waves, it was a rather bouncy and wet crossing. I've been splashed by the Rhine! The second ferry appears to be for pedestrians and bicycles (and maybe motorcycles). It's a lot smaller and needed to dart between long barges.

Not long after the first ferry crossing, we rounded a corner and saw ... an elephant! From a bit of a distance, it almost looked lifelike. At first glance, I thought it was a statue, but then I thought maybe it might be real. But what was an elephant doing out there? And then I determined it was not real. But what was a statue of an elephant doing out there?

After the second crossing, we climbed the bank of the river and found ourselves at a bicycle cafe. The interior of the cafe was full of bicycle ornaments, and there was ample parking for bicycles outside. There were quite a few cyclists of various sorts there as well.

We weren't hungry for a meal, but the ice cream sundae was delicious!

We had been thinking we'd carry on to another town, but it was already late afternoon and we figured that it was probably time to seek out accommodation.

Since we had been camping for 3 nights and since it was Rowan's birthday, we decided to try to find indoor accommodation.

After riding around Millingen aan de Rijn a little bit, we spotted a B&B, and they had room for us. They've just been in business for a couple weeks, and we're they're 11th guests.

They showed us to our room, and what do you know ... more elephants! A large shelf in the room is full of elephants, and there are a few other elephants around the room. They've been collecting them for about 50 years. So we asked about the lone elephant on the path, and apparently it used to live in a neighbouring town, but for reasons the hosts here don't know, it was moved out to the path.

Rowan and I went out to dinner for his birthday ... and, of course, walked home in the rain.

Interestingly, apparently this town did not have rain all day today. Not till I turned up here. It's following us!!

(Cycled: 34.05 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

GERMANY

Wednesday 8 August - On the road again. Day 2 of the Rhine Cycle Route. Today was, amazingly, relatively warm and relatively sunny. In fact, we experienced about half a dozen drops of rain during the evening, and that was it all day. We've both acquired tans on our arms from being out in the mixture of sun and cloud all day.

We were served a large and filling breakfast by the B&B, which kept me going for several hours. And it was suggested that we make up sandwiches and take some fruit with us so that we could have lunch along the way. Very nice.

Our ride took us mostly along the banks of the Rhine, although there were a few little bits through towns or inland away from the Rhine. It is very flat, although by the end of the day, we could see hills in the distance. From what I understand, we go between the hills, not up the hills. We'll see.

And, within a few km of leaving Millingen aan de Rijn, we crossed into Germany. It's a very unobtrusive crossing, much like going from one province to another or one state to another.

There were still lots of birds to watch, and the little towns are fascinating, but the Rhine provides a great deal of interest. Barge after barge move up and down the Rhine carrying all sorts of stuff from coal to semi-truck cabs or white vans to piles of shipping containers. Sometimes 2 or 4 barges are hooked together and all go up or down together.

About midway through the ride, we were looking for a place to stop for a bit, and found ourselves in a small town, Grieth. I noticed a path and some activity up on the dyke wall between the town and the Rhine, and when we went up there, we discovered a cafe with lots of bicycles parked nearby, and we had a lovely snack there. We were also able to sit and watch the barges for a while.

When we decided to start looking for a place to stay, we tried at a very large youth hostel, but they were booked for the night. However, they directed us out to where some camping was located, and we found a campground with quite a bit of room. In fact, we're located in a field, almost in the middle of nowhere, with a handful of other tents.

The pub on the property wasn't serving meals (or anything from the looks of it) so we were very glad we had the sandwiches and fruit from this morning. It was a good idea to take the B&B up on their offer!

And then we spent a relaxing evening ... Sudoku, games on the computer, and a walk around the campground property.

(Cycled: 52.2 km)

50 days on the road, and we've cycled on 32 of them. We're over 1000 km (1037.33 km to be exact) of cycling now on this trip.

Thursday 9 August - Day 3 of the Rhine Cycle Route. We were up and away quite early ... no reason to stay in the middle of nowhere.

We cycled into Xanten, and through, trying to find our way back onto the Rhine Cycle Route. It can be a bit challenging to get back onto the route if you cycle off the route for some reason. In many cases our maps are not all that detailed.

However we did eventually find the route, and make our way out into the country again.

One of the best parts of the day was stopping in Rheinberg for ice cream. The town square was quite old-looking and charming. We walked around a little bit, and then spotted an ice cream shop.

The ice cream dishes we are served are quite something. For less than €5, you get a large dish of ice cream (several scoops) topped with whipped cream, a sauce of some kind, depending on what you choose, and sometimes other toppings like nuts or chocolate pieces. It's wonderful!! I've never seen ice cream sundaes that large in Canada or Australia. (Getting hungry for ice cream just writing about it here)

We have met some lovely people along the way. Quite often, we stop to consult the map, and someone comes along asking us if we need assistance. This has been very helpful because, although the signage along the route has been quite good, every so often the signage seems to evaporate and leave us hanging without any idea where to go next.

We stopped at what looked like the end of the road in one place and weren't sure where to go next, when a woman asked us if we were OK. We told her we were looking for Orsoy and trying to follow the Rhine Cycle Route, and she immediately told us exactly where we needed to go, and what we would find in the way of accommodation once we got to Orsoy. And she spoke very good English.

In The Netherlands, most people seemed to speak English, and the Dutch wasn't too hard to figure out. In Germany most people don't seem to speak English at first, and German is a little more difficult for me to figure out. So it has been a bit of a challenge to communicate, but when asked if they speak English, all the responses we've received have been "a little". And then most people are off and running in quite good English!

Campgrounds have dried up a little bit, but we wanted to stay just outside Duisburg/Krefeld in order to have the whole day tomorrow to tackle the city areas. So we opted to take a hotel in Orsoy.

Getting through cities can be quite a challenge sometimes. Although the route on the map might look relatively straightforward, once you get into city traffic, things can look quite different, and it is easy to get lost.

The hotel was quite nice and looked traditionally German. It provided us with internet access, and a storage area for the bicycles. It also provided us with a huge meal. Two massive pieces of veal for me and a huge plate of various types of meat for Rowan.

Meat is plentiful here, and is served at most meals, even breakfast!

Good thing we did all that cycling, and took a walk around town and up on the town walls. We couldn't justify eating like that otherwise!

(Cycled: 44.31 km)

Friday 10 August - Day 4 of the Rhine Cycle Route.

It seemed that there had been a bit of a mix up in the hotel this morning. A large group of young men arrived quite early (part of a sporting club) and expected that they could move right into their rooms. Only, it appeared that the hotel did not expect them that early. There was a mad rush of room cleaning, and we were hastened out of our room.

We weren't too impressed with all the rush. After all, most places we've stayed in the Netherlands and Germany have a check-out time of noon. So to be rushed out shortly after 10 am wasn't what we expected.

Today we tackled Duisburg/Krefeld, on the west side of the river, and it was a bit of a tiresome slog. We opted for a shortcut route, mentioned on the map, rather than the alternate route which meandered through town, and ended up on gravel and dirt tracks, and all over the place. Some areas we cycled through were not what we expected a cycle route would be. And as expected, we got temporarily lost a time or two.

Perhaps the route through the city might have been better, although it was full of twists and turns, and that can be very slow on a bicycle as we try to figure out where to go next.

It was a relief when we came out the other end and found ourselves in countryside again.

I had hoped to be able to ride 2-3 days and then take a day off on this part of the trip, but this was the 4th day on the road because we had not been able to find a suitable place to stop. I hoped that maybe we would find a good place tonight, but it wasn't meant to be.

Not that the place we found was bad, it just wasn't the sort of place we wanted to spend more than one night.

We found what appeared to be a temporary campground set up on the banks of the Rhine near Langst-Kierst. It looked like it was moved into place early in the season, and then likely dismantled at the end of the season ... all the buildings (toilet blocks etc.) were temporary.

However, they did have a tent site for us, and they had a little bit of internet access.

One thing I've noticed about some of the businesses (like campgrounds, cafes etc.) right along the Rhine is that they adopt a tropical appearance, as though we've arrived at some sort of tropical paradice. And this place was like that. It had an area attached to the office that was all palm trees and outdoor tables, next to an imported pile of sand, overlooking a small rocky beach of the Rhine.

We had dinner at a restaurant down the road, including apple struedel, and then sat outside our tent, wrapped in our sleeping bags, chatting to friends and family over the internet.

(Cycled: 45.6 km)

Saturday 11 August - Day 5 of the Rhine Cycle Route. Getting through Dusseldorf/Neuss, another industrial city area.

Shortly after starting the ride we were sent on a detour around and back and forth through the area, and on more gravel roads. But we were not alone! There were lots of other cyclists out today, all trying to figure out where to go.

The plan was that we would stop at a campground about 7 km down the road, and if it was nice, we would stay there for a couple days and get some rest. However, when we arrived at the campground, and cycled around it, we didn't get a good feeling at all, and decided to continue on to a Youth Hostel.

When we arrived at the Youth Hostel, we didn't get a good feeling about the area it where it was located, and so we decided to continue on to another town which looked like it had two campgrounds.

We were well into Neuss by this time, and this time we decided to follow the route through town, rather than attempting the shortcut route. That was better, and it was remarkably easy to follow. It didn't take us too long to get back out into a somewhat more country area again.

When we arrived at the first campground on the map just outside Sturzelberg, we were told it was full. Not even room for a small tent. So on to the next campground. And there we were told that they didn't have room for tourists. Apparently a member's only campground. We came across one like that in Scotland as well.

It was suggested several times that we return to the other campground, but we knew they were full. So we continued on to the next town, Feste Zons.

We were thinking of staying in a hotel there, but they were all very expensive (touristy town), so we hopped on the ferry, crossed the Rhine, cycled down a dirt path with several other cyclists, one of whom directed us to a campground.

And there, finally, we were given a patch of ground on which to pitch our tents.

The campground seemed all right at first, but it wasn't very appealing for anything more than one night. For one thing, the toilet block was a long, long walk away from the tent area. For another thing, the owners/managers didn't really seem all that interested in having the tent campers there. And there weren't much in the way of facilities.

One of the best features was that it was right on the Rhine. We were camped a matter of metres away from some of the barges going by.

We had dinner at the restaurant associated with the campground. Another massive piece of veal, but not as nice as it was at the hotel in Orsoy.

The waitress staff here, and in other places, have been great ... all trying very hard to speak English, while I try to learn a few German words.

Rowan and I had a long chat in the evening (since our computers did not have power or internet access) about touring related topics.

We discussed whether or not we missed having a motorised vehicle. Rowan didn't particularly, but I do. (Uh-oh ... true confessions of a cycletourist!!) I miss the hub-and-spoke style tours we did in Australia with our van. For me, it was so convenient to be able to drive to a destination, set up camp, and then cycle from there if we wanted ... or drive to another location, as desired.

Having the vehicle could also make the business of going from place to place looking for somewhere to stay a bit easier. We ended up cycling almost 54 km looking for a place to stay which was at least 44 km more than we had hoped.

On the other hand, we're getting see a lot of things we probably would not have seen if we had a car. And there's the cost factor of renting and running a vehicle here. At the moment diesel is €1.44/litre and petrol is €1.60/litre or more. (Multiply that by 1.17 or so to get Australian dollars)

Another topic we discussed is that some people have mentioned that they think cycletouring is freedom and is care-free, but I'm not sure that it is. There are a lot of cares on tour.

Where will we find food or other supplies? It's not always obvious, and sometimes there isn't the selection we hope for. Or it could be quite expensive. Last night and tonight, for example, we ate at a restaurants near the campsites. Unless we had wanted to cycle quite a bit further to try to find groceries, it was our only choice. It wasn't really expensive, but it wasn't cheap.

Where will we sleep? Finding a decent, inexpensive place to sleep can be quite easy ... or quite challenging. Tonight, it was beginning to look like we might just have to wild camp, which is not something I enjoy doing.

What will we do if there are days and days of rain and cold weather? What if we get sick ... or are eaten alive by insects? Where can we find medication? And in our case in Japan ... of all the possible medications on the shelves, which one will take away the itching and swelling of all the insect bites? How do we get out of an area we don't particularly like? Where is the nearest train? Will it take bicycles? Where can we find power and internet access?

And speaking of areas we don't particularly like ...

A group of young men departed from the tent area late in the evening, heading into town to take part in the party/festival that appeared to be going on there. We could hear fireworks going off, and as the evening progressed, we could hear the music and the shouts and screams of the people. At times, it sounded like the festival was taking place about 500 metres away, but it was probably 2 or 3 km.

The festival sounds were making me edgy, and then the young men scared me half to death stumbling back into camp so drunk they could hardly walk.

Probably one of the more alarming but funniest moments was when they tried to walk through the fence right next to our tent. It wasn't enough that a fence was there, but the fence was full of stinging nettle plants, and we heard about that experience loud and clear.

Then they sat up till about 3:30 am making all sorts of noise, while the noise of the festival continued. I didn't sleep until near dawn when things finally settled down. In fact, at times, I felt extremely uncomfortable with the situation.

(Cycled: 53.95 km)

Sunday 12 August - Day 6 of the Rhine Cycle Route

I was relieved when morning came, and everything was OK. But I wished a massive headache on the young men who disturbed my sleep in the night.

Last night Rowan and I had a long talk about various things and came to a decision about our travels. The area of the Rhine Cycle Route we had been cycling through (specifically through Duisburg and Dusseldorf/Neuss) was less than inspiring. Very industrial, even on the west side of the river (which is apparently better than the east). It has its interesting moments, of course, but we had been hoping for more "Romantic Rhine" and less industry.

Ahead of us were Koln and Bonn ... more industry. And we were getting desparate for a break from cycling, but were struggling to find a nice place to stop for a few days.

There were a couple campground choices in the area where we were, but I didn't feel particularly confident that there would be room for us, or that they would be appealing. The campgrounds in this industrial area haven't been overly appealing in general.

So, we decided to cycle into Dormagen, and catch a train past Koln and Bonn to an area which had been suggested to us as more appealing.

I acquired tickets for the bicycles and ourselves (bicycles need tickets too), and we made our way to the platform. A few minutes later a train pulled up and we were able to board with our bicycles, and with numerous other people with their bicycles.

A short time later we were in Koln where we disembarked.

We checked the train time table and one was arriving for the precise area we wanted to go in 6 minutes ... we got on, and a short time later we were in Mehlem.

The whole thing was surprisingly quick and easy.

And this is a bit more like it. The first thing we spotted was a castle on a small mountain. And when we got down from the train station to the Rhine, we thought it was beautiful. Gone are the flatlands and industry, and in their place are hills, small mountains, castles and other historic buildings, and recreational/tourist stuff.

We were able to get into the first campground we spotted - a very small, quiet campground. We've been able to recharge our computers, but unfortunately, we do not have internet here. So we'll have to see if we can access it somewhere else. There is, however, a laundry facility which has become important for us again. And did I mention ... quiet. I do like a very quiet campground.

And we were able to find an inexpensive place to eat something other than veal. We had pizza ... what a nice change! :)

(Cycled: 17.91 km)

Monday 13 August - Happy 47th Anniversary to my Parents!

We are taking a break from the Rhine Cycle Route. Although, actually, we did cycle a bit of it, back the other direction. So Day 7 on the Rhine, I guess.

We had a good night last night which I really needed. I was so exhausted yesterday both from several days of cycling without a break, and from the goings-on during the night.

This campground reminds me a little bit of something in the Banff/Jasper area. The reception building is a log cabin with a feel of the Lake Louise Tea House (at the top of the climb near Lake Agnes) about it. I was able to curl up in a comfortable corner yesterday afternoon, plug my computer into a power outlet, and update the story here for a couple hours.

We had a fairly relaxing start to the day ... camp shower and laundry. Although both were "experiences". The showers here are usually the type where you put a token into a box and the water comes on ... and these are no different.

Since Rowan was doing the laundry, my first order of business was to hastily change into my clean clothes, and then drop my bag of laundry down to Rowan waiting below. (The toilet block was on the second floor of the main building.)

Then I decided to use the hairdrier power outlets to recharge my computer while I was showering and in setting that up, I dropped my shower token on the floor without realising it.

So ... undress in the shower cubical, turn the taps ... nothing. Oh yes, I need a token. No token in my bag. Dress quickly. Dash down the stairs and back to the tent to see if I could find it. No luck. Back to the shower, and I spot it on the floor. Good. Undress in the shower cubical, look for the box in which to place the token. Oh yes, it's outside the shower. Peek out the door only to realise that the outer door to the toilet block is open and anyone looking up could see me. Dress again. Place token in shower, which starts the shower immediately. Dash into cubical only to be sprayed with water while dressed. Undress very quickly and have shower before clean clothes are totally soaked.

Tomorrow I will try again and will hopefully be more organised!!

Rowan did the laundry and was having difficulties of his own, not quite understanding the machines.

We finally got going into town on the hunt for ice cream, internet, and groceries. And we found all three.

The ice cream was easy. We knew where that was, we had seen it last night. These, of course, are the huge bowls of ice cream with all sorts of toppings.

Then we began the search for internet and finally found it at a McDonalds about 5 km down the road. That gave us an hour to do a few things we needed/wanted to do.

And then groceries. Between an Aldi near the McDonalds and a more local grocery store, we had dinner, breakfast, and probably tomorrow night's dinner.

And finally we were able to relax a bit, and I was able to work on some of my photos and updating my story here.

(Cycled: 11.3 km)

Tuesday 14 August - Sort of Day 8 on the Rhine Route. Today we decided to cycle to a ferry crossing up river, cross to the other side of the Rhine, cycle back to a ferry down river, cross and return. A loop. And that's exactly what we did.

We crossed over into Bad Honnif, and spotted some discount warehouse outlets. One sold clothing and the other sold linens. In the clothing outlet, I was able to find another pair of light synthetic capris pants. I have one pair which I brought with me from Australia, but after wearing them a lot, I decided I wanted a second pair. These are great for on and off the bicycle. Very comfortable. So I was quite pleased to find a pair that should work.

We also stopped at an outdoor shop and debated about getting camp stools, but the jury is still out. We're not sure. From my perspective, they would be comfortable and handy, but on the other hand, they don't fold down very small and might be awkward to pack and carry.

And we paid a quick visit to a bicycle shop in Mehlem. Rowan has lost his bicycle computer, which is a shame since it was quite a good one, and hoped to find something to replace it. But the shop was quite expensive and didn't have much selection.

Tonight we opted to use the set of tables and chairs outside the reception building to cook and eat and work on the computer. Much more comfortable than sitting on the ground! And I was able to process a lot of photos which I will post next time I have decent internet access.

(Cycled: 15.39 km)

Wednesday 15 August - Off the bicycles completely today! We had cycled 8 days straight, it was time for a break.

In fact, we spent a very relaxing day. I had mastered the shower yesterday, so I enjoyed a long hot shower today.

Then we pulled everything out of the tent on the hunt for Rowan's computer but also to hang the sleeping bags etc. on a line to air them all out. The tent was getting a little bit stuffy.

And since the mattress and my pillows were out on the grass, partly in the sun and partly in the shade of a tree ... and since it was a warm day and the mattress looked so inviting. I laid down and fell asleep for an hour or so. I think Rowan did the same.

Eventually we mustered up enough energy to walk to the Rhine and sit on a bench watching the cyclists and barges go by. And then we made out way down to one of the Rhine beaches.

All along the Rhine in this area, there are little rocky beaches. I think the Rhine is a bit low, so there is sand down to a point, before the rocks begin. And people take lawn chairs down to these little piles of sand and watch the barges, while others will actually swim in the Rhine. Rowan waded in but I sat on the side remaining dry till one larger wave from a passing barge swept over my feet and legs. I'm not convinced I would want to swim in the Rhine.

We opted to stroll into town and had a look in some of the shops before stopping for ice cream again. So tempting!

And then we spent another nice relaxing evening at the tables outside the reception area.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Thursday 16 August - Day 9 on the Rhine Cycle Route. Today we decided to keep moving south again. We had spent 4 days at this lovely little campground, but it was time to move on. We will, however, keep it in mind. If we feel we are slogging and need a break, we may take a train back here to stay in this campground.

However, the cycling route here is much different than it was earlier. It is so much prettier with hills, nature, castles, little towns, and so on. And there are more facilities. There are eating places, hotels, toilets, tourist information places, shops and all sorts of things along the route. This is much more like what I expected.

Further north, that sort of thing was hard to find, especially in the industrial areas. We would have had to go some distance off the route to find a variety of eating places. Toilets were elusive. And accommodations were hard to find.

We are in an old, but nice, hotel on the banks of the Rhine tonight, in a town called Bad Breisig. After 6 nights camping, we decided to spend a night indoors. And I am encouraged that there's a good chance of more decent accommodations further along.

(Cycled: 21.48 km)

Friday 17 August - Day 10 on the Rhine Cycle Route.

For the first 10 km or so, things were like yesterday ... all the way to Namedy. Prettier with hills, nature, castles, little towns, and so on.

And then the route started to wander around through more industrial areas, and on all sorts of different path surfaces. And it became much more of a challenge to follow as we passed through Andernach, Weissenthurm, Urmitz and into Koblenz.

We checked out one campground in Koblenz, but didn't feel comfortable there at all. For one thing, today was very hot and the campground hardly had any shade. And also, it was quite close to the middle of the city, and just didn't seem quiet.

So we decided to try to find another campground which we saw on our map, but as we got closer to it, we discovered that it did not take tents. That's been one of the difficulties with the instruction booklet we've got. They'll list campgrounds, but not all campgrounds take tents or even tourists.

Finally we ended up in a little hotel near the Mosel River, about 5 km off the course in Guls. It was a nice little place, and quiet.

But we are kind of at a loss of what to do next. We had thought about following the Rhine Cycle Route all the way to Lake Constance (the source), which is another 700 km from here, but we're not really enjoying it as much as we had hoped. There are good parts, but it can be a bit of a slog.

Today, for example, we rode 44 km, and I was wiped out by the time we arrived where we are. And yet, we've ridden about 1200 km since we started this trip, so a 44 km ride shouldn't leave me feeling so tired. I'm sure I could go out and ride one of the routes we used to ride in Australia and not feel as tired as this.

I think the difference is the fact that we have to be so focused on riding all the time. The paths are relatively narrow, there are lots of other cyclists, pedestrians, roller bladers etc. on the paths, and the paths are not in any sort of consistent condition. One minute they are smooth and lovely, then we turn a corner and we're on gravel, then we turn another corner and we're on a very lumpy section because of tree roots, then we're on cobbles or bricks, then smooth again for a few minutes.

We're both used to getting onto quiet country roads and being able to ride with some concentration on the road, of course, but also being able to look at the scenery without fear of hitting or being hit by another path user if we happen to drift a few inches over. And without having to deal with ongoing bad road conditions. We're also used to being able to go for more than a few hundred metres, or maybe kilometre or two if we're really lucky, without having to pay attention to signs telling us to turn left or right. There are a lot of things we have to focus on when following these routes.

And the accommodation is not quite what we imagined. We imagined lots of nice quiet campgrounds. There are quite a few campgrounds listed on the route instructions, but some are a ways off the route and are rather remote, some of them don't take tents, some are members-only campgrounds and don't take tourists, and many tend to be "party" campgrounds.

It is really the rare occasion that we find a nice one. When we do we have stayed several days in them (we've found 2 in mainland Europe so far), otherwise we end up in hotels ... or using the not-so-nice campgrounds if really necessary.

We really enjoyed Scotland, and The Netherlands were nice, but Germany isn't quite what I'd hoped. Too industrial, too noisy, too busy.

So, we're not sure what's next.

(Cycled: 44.1 km)

Saturday 18 August - We were up and on the road a little bit earlier than some other days for Day 11 on the Rhine Cycle Route.

Just before we left the hotel, we had a really nice chat with a family from Hong Kong. We had chatted with the son briefly last night, but told the family more about our trip today. They were on their way back to Hong Kong very soon ... and a little part of me wished I were going back there too.

We cycled back into Koblenz, and picked up an entourage for a short part of the journey ... another couple who were also trying to figure out how to get to the central part of Koblenz. And we all got their successfully.

However, just before we got to the central part of Koblenz, Rowan and I stopped off at a bicycle shop and picked up a few supplies. As mentioned earlier, Rowan lost his bicycle computer a few days ago, so he picked up a new one now. And we needed a few general maintenance supplies. We also each got bells.

One of the difficulties we've been having on this route are the other users. Not that we mind them using the path, and they are generally pretty good about sharing the path. But we have noticed that other cyclists have bells and ding them when they need a slower cyclist to move aside, or when there are pedestrians who don't notice the cyclists. We call out "hello" in various languages, but that just seems to startled the other users. So now we've got bells to ding as necessary.

Our next stop was at the Deutsches Eck, a point of land with a massive statue. I will have to look up the information about this statue next time I've got internet access. If I thought any of the statues in the UK were large, they're mere toys compared with this one! It was impressive! Yes, I took photos.

Information About Deutsches Eck

Today's route was a bit of a struggle all the way. The signage was pretty straightforward, but the condition of the paths left something to be desired. There were long stretches of gravel, and then long stretches of cobblestone, and then long stretches of generally poorly maintained path. The last few km of the day were probably the best.

And the scenery improved again around Rhens. In fact, I've finally seen my first "fairy tale" castle on this route. There it was, up on a hill, looking like something out of a story book.

We checked out one campground, but it didn't appear to have much in the way of tent sites available. So we continued on.

And finally we arrived at the one we're staying in tonight. It had lots of room (good for a Saturday night), and although it is quite big, it seems to be a bit more of a family campground. It even has a swimming pool.

Today was HOT. Quite possibly the hottest day we've had on the trip including Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to the thermometre on my bicycle, the temperature was 43C in a bit of sun, and 37C in a bit of shade.

So we looked for a spot with a bit of shade and found one near the Rhine. Then we went to the cafe and ordered several cold "cola light" drinks. Incidentally, we are served cold drinks, but no ice. That was something I noticed when I have visited France in the past too ... no ice.

Then there was some wading in the swimming pool, and wading in the Rhine, and some resting before we decided to go for dinner.

Dinner was a bit of a disaster. The service was very, very slow, and somewhere along the line, they lost our order. We arrived about 7 pm, and didn't get out of there till nearly 9:30 pm. I know some people like to linger over dinner, but that was a bit much! Especially since our orders were some of the simplest dishes on the menu.

And now, in a supposedly very quiet campground, we've got loud music playing from a place across the river, and a loud group of people (middle aged people, not young people) in the campsite next to us. Why is everything so loud here?

Evidently it is a bad idea to camp here on a Saturday night. We did it last Saturday and had issues with very noisy drunks till about 3:30 am, and this time this group shreaked and cackled until about 1:30 am. Meanwhile the very loud music continued until about 2 am when it stopped, but all the screaming and hollering by drunks in the street continued until at least 3:30 am.

Let me tell you ... people here can drink! The group of middle-aged adults next to us started drinking about the time we arrived (if not earlier), so about 3 pm, stopped drinking to get a bit of sleep about 1:30 am, and continued drinking upon waking up.

But not much sleep for us tonight.

(Cycled: 29 km)

Sunday 19 August - By 10 am, as we were doing the last preparations to depart, the campground was already hot, the sun was blazing, and the sky was a clear blue. I slathered sunscreen on my slightly burned arms to try to keep them a bit cooler and to prevent further burning.

We were debating about catching a train from a nearby station to Mainz, and then catching a train to Luxembourg today, in the hopes of finding quieter accommodations. But then we decided to give the Rhine Cycle Route one more go ... and we cycled to the next town.

The route was lovely, and the town was lovely. We stopped for bite to eat and something to drink in a little outdoor cafe surrounded by pink flowers, and the service was wonderful.

So we decided to keep cycling a little further down to see how things would go. And the route continued to be good. Beautiful scenery, castles, wineries sloping up the hills on either side of the river. Best of all, the path was good. In fact, it was fantastic much of the way ... wide, smoothly paved, and right along the river.

Along the way, we were touched by a trio of other cyclists we encountered. In a side-by-side tandem were a father and his disabled daughter. And following behind on a single bicycle was another daughter. The three were cycling a portion of the Rhine Route! We had to admire them for getting out and doing something like that.

We stopped after about 15 km of cycling in a shady spot next to the Rhine and stayed there for nearly an hour. The grass was green and cool there, and the shade was very welcome. In the sun, where we had been cycling, the temperature was well over 40C. Even in the shade it only dropped to about 35C.

Reluctantly we returned to cycling again, and before we knew it, we were in the next town where we decided to stop for the day.

Our first stop was for something to eat and drink in the middle of St. Goar. And there we asked if our waitress could recommend a place to stay. She did, and off we went to check it out.

The hotel and hotel manager, Gil, were wonderful. We got a beautiful room with a tiny balcony overlooking the Rhine, and Gil was very helpful with bicycle storage, and suggestions for sightseeing the next day.

It was so nice to sit in the shade on the balcony, getting a little bit of a breeze from the Rhine to cool us.

For dinner, we chose an Italian restaurant. There are choices of so many different nationalities in the places we've travelled through. It is almost hard to find local cuisine in some places.

And the night was peaceful.

Summing up our experience on the Rhine Cycle Route so far:

-- We cycled north to south.

-- We started in a town in The Netherlands called Arnhem.

-- Arnhem has a lovely campground. Very nice ... the best we've seen so far. It was a pity to leave.

-- From Arnhem to the border between The Netherlands and Germany, and as far as Orsoy, the cycling was quite pleasant, although there are some longish sections of gravel. It's flat, and perhaps a little bit boring in places, but the waterfowl and barges are entertaining.

-- From Orsoy to Mehlem, the route deteriorates badly. I'd recommend hopping a train in Orsoy and not getting off till Mehlem. Skip Duisburg, Dusseldorf/Neuss, Koln, and Bonn. We struggled through Duisburg and Dusseldorf/Nuess, and then caught a train to Mehlem.

-- There are two campgrounds in Mehlem. There's a really nice, very small, quiet campground (which is where we stayed). But if you're into the "party campground", that's just a bit further south (1 km) of the really nice quiet campground if you prefer that atmosphere.

-- From Mehlem to Namedy, the route is really nice. That's about 30 km of beautiful scenery and lovely little villages.

-- From Namedy to about Oberwerth (south of Koblenz) the route deteriorates again. More industrial stuff and bad path surfaces ... smooth for a few minutes, round a corner and it's cobbles for quite a while, round a corner and it's gravel for a while, then push the bicycles up and over ramps, then some path broken up by tree roots, then some relatively smooth brick, then more cobbles and more gravel and more broken path. I felt really beat up by the time we got into Koblenz.

-- From Oberwerth southward to near Mainz, however the route improves, and the path improves, and the scenery improves, and it's actually quite nice. This is where the castles and quaint villages are. If you can't do the whole Rhine Route, I'd recommend doing this bit. It has actually encouraged us to continue cycling rather than packing it in and taking a train to Paris or somewhere.

As for accommodations, we have stayed in the following:

Arnhem - beautiful campground. Wish they were all like that.

Millingen - brand new B&B which is not listed on the route yet. There is also apparently a campground, but we didn't see it.

Xanten - very remote campground with inconvenient tent area (middle of a field, long way from toilet block, and no services in the area - good thing we had some food with us). There is a big youth hostel just outside Xanten, and we tried there, but we would have had to book ahead.

Orsoy - hotel - nice but rushed us out in the morning because of a booking mixup on their part.

Langst Kierst - temporary campground presumably set up for the season. Not bad, but not a place we'd want to spend any length of time.

Feste Zons - campground on the west side of the river - full. Campground a little further along - "No Tourists Allowed". Campground on the east side of the river ... horrible. Mostly permanent caravans, small sloped tent area, miles from toilet block, and part of the tent area became a party area till about 3:30 am. Also noise from neighbouring town was very disruptive, loud music, screaming people, etc..

(Caught the train then to Mehlem ... enough of the city stuff!)

Melhem - lovely, quiet, small campground. We liked it so much, we spent 4 days there! It was an oasis. But really ... what's with the firecrackers in surrounding town areas and along the Rhine most nights?

Bad Breisig - hotel with view of Rhine. That was quite nice and Bad Breisig is a scenic little town.

Koblenz (or actually Guls) - hotel with view of Mosel. That was also reasonably nice, and we might have stayed there two nights if they had room

Oberspay - campground ... not bad, but wouldn't recommend spending a Saturday night there. They claim to be a very quiet campground, but allow groups to drink and carry on till all hours on a Saturday night, and the disco across the river blares music until about 2 am so loud you can hear the words. Other nights might be better.

St Goar - a lovely hotel on the Rhine with friendly, helpful staff. We decided to spend 2 nights here and did not regret our decision.

In fact, from our experience, I'd recommend staying in a hotel on a Saturday night rather than a campground if you want to get any rest at all.

(Cycled: 22.27 km)

Monday 20 August - Up for a continental breakfast. The continental breakfasts in Germany are a little bit different from what you might find in Canada. The food served up is a bit more lunch than breakfast from my perspective. There are the usual cereal, fruit, yogurt, and croisants, but then there are all sorts of cold meat, cheese, buns and breads, and even veggies. The fixings for sandwiches.

I have not been hungry enough for sandwiches in the mornings, but Rowan has had them a few times.

And I've been pleased to discover chocolate yogurt here. I often wondered why there wasn't chocolate yogurt in Canada or Australia. With all the other flavour choices, chocolate shouldn't that difficult a flavour to make. The yogurt has a slight chocolately flavour, and instead of fruit pieces like some of the more common flavours, it has chocolate pieces. Very nice.

We decided to take a day off the bicycle and instead do a cruise up the Rhine to Bacharach, a scenic little tourist town, so that we could experience the river from the water, and so that we could see a bit of what is between here and Mainz. That was a lovely experience! We stopped in the town up the river, had a little stroll around, then returned to the ferry.

Our cruise boat there was a paddlewheel style which slowly made the trek up the Rhine. And then the quicker return trip was the usual sort of cruise boat.

Along the way we passed the statue of Lorelei and the Loreley Rock. Legend has it that as weary sailors cruised up the river, they were lured to shipwreck by a beautiful, nude woman combing her hair up on the rock. Some stories have her as a mermaid or spirit of the river.

As it happens, that bit of the river is the narrowest and most trecherous with lots of rocky areas. So there have, quite naturally, been quite a few shipwrecks in that area.

Bacharach was what I had hoped to encounter all along the way ... a very old village, quite well preserved, with lots of history.

We strolled here and there along the narrow streets and up on the old town wall. But one of the most interesting experiences was watching an immense tour bus trying to make its way from the upper town (a newer area) down into the lower town (the older area). We don't know why this tour bus would attempt such a feat, but nevertheless, it did.

In order to get from the one part of town to the other, the tour bus had to drive down a very narrow road with a slight curve in it. Right where the road curved was part of the old town wall, and one of the old gateways, and the road was even narrower there.

As the bus started it's slow progress around the corner and through the narrow gate, both Rowan and I thought it might be too wide to get through ... and we were right, in a way. Its mirrors were too wide and crunched against the old walls as it came through!!

Well, we made a couple of discoveries about the Rhine Route today on our ferry cruise adventures ...

1. These ferries run between Koln and just outside Mainz ... that's about an 8-9 hour trip. There are likely other ferries that run in other parts of the Rhine too.

2. They take bicycles.

We could have skipped a whole lot of the unpleasant stuff and taken a ferry up or down the Rhine. And these ferries make stops all along the way, so if we wanted to explore a town (like we did today), we could.

I'd highly recommend looking into ferries/cruises rather than cycling the entire route. Take a folding bicycle so that you can use trains easily as well if you want. Take the ferry from one scenic area to another, skip all the industrial stuff, and when you dock in a scenic area, either do a little day ride, or maybe cycle up or down river to the next town and then get back on the ferry. Less stress, more enjoyable.

We started our tour 2 months ago today.

-- 3 weeks in Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan)

-- 3 weeks in Scotland

-- 3 weeks in the Netherlands and Germany

We'd like to check out Luxembourg and Switzerland (maybe a week in each if they are nice), and then get into France for the rest of our time in Europe. We might also possibly spend a little bit of time in Italy, but we'll have to see how things go.

We had thought about including several other places, but we've only got 6 weeks left in Europe.

When we planned this, I was thinking 3 months in Europe would be plenty of time to see lots of countries, but Europe as a whole is a big area ... bigger than Australia.

Incidentally ... about the weather ... after freezing in Scotland, we've gone the opposite direction here. It is HOT. For about 3 days now it has been HOT, HOT, HOT. Mid-30s to low-40s C (around 100F). A couple weeks ago, we were all excited if it stopped raining long enough to raise the temperature to 18C. Then we had about a week of sunshine and moderate temperatures (20-25C) which was lovely. Then all of a sudden the temperature soared. And of course, there's no air conditioning here.

Apparently a week from now we're supposed to be back to the moderate temperatures again. This is perhaps the last heat wave of summer here.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

LUXEMBOURG

Tuesday 21 August - On to Luxembourg! The hotel manager, Gil, was extremely helpful again, providing us with information about which trains to take in order to get to Luxembourg. We thought we would have to go to Mainz, and then catch a train perhaps to Strasbourg and then up to Luxembourg, but it turned out that we needed to return to Koblenz, and then change to another train which took us right to Luxembourg City.

From Koblenz, the train route mainly followed the Mosel River, and having now seen the Mosel in more detail (we rode along it a little way when we were in Koblenz), we think that's the better route. It's beautiful! And it looks like there is a cycle path all the way along. That's a option for a future tour.

When we got to Luxembourg City, we were in the difficult position again of trying to find accommodation for the night. I had noticed some campgrounds out of the city, but didn't know how far out or where exactly they were, so we decided to find a hotel in the city for the night, and then see if we could find a campground in the morning.

The area around the train station was busy. Throngs of people all crowding around. I'm not fond of those situations, especially when pushing the bicycle. We walked and walked. One hotel just had a very expensive smoking room left. So we kept walking. Finally we located another hotel, and they had a non-smoking room in our price range. They were also willing to keep the bicycles in a safe place.

When we got everything settled, we wandered around the city looking for the Tourist Information Office, which we eventually found. The people there were very helpful and provided us with all sorts of maps and information.

We ate at Chi Chi's tonight. I haven't eaten at a Chi Chi's since I lived in Winnipeg, and the one there closed a few years before I left. It brought back good memories of lots of good food. I couldn't believe that one still exists, and especially that it exists here in Luxembourg!!

The Luxembourg language is ... interesting. They have three official languages: French, German, and Luxembourgish, and of them, French seems to be the most commonly spoken language. But when reading packaging or signs it seems that Dutch finds its way into the mix too. In some places it's almost like a funny mix of Dutch and French is used ... perhaps a bit of Flemish.

Fortunately, most seem to speak French quite slowly (or maybe that's for my benefit), but it means I can understand most of what I'm hearing.

And it was HOT again today ... and we travelled by very hot trains and through very hot stations to very hot Luxembourg City.

We're sitting in a very hot hotel room in the centre of Luxembourg City awaiting the storm in the distance to stir up a breeze to float through our open windows ... anything to cool it down a little bit. But the wait was in vain. If anything it got hotter overnight.

They say, however, that tomorrow is supposed to be more normal ... i.e. 23C for a high. That would be lovely.

It's the first time I've been to Luxembourg and it isn't quite what I expected. I expected something more like Edinburgh ... old and quiet. Now we've got to decide where we want to go tomorrow, somewhere out in the countryside and away from the city.

(Cycled: 0 km, but we walked quite a way)

Wednesday 22 August - That had to be one of the noisiest nights of the tour. Our hotel room faced onto a busy square where the restaurants which lined the square served meals until midnight. People laughing, talking, and eating a wide variety of food. That wasn't so bad, although some of the people started increasing in volume as the night continued.

When we had our meal at Chi Chi's I noticed how tightly packed the tables were and how the waiters and waitresses moved between the tables and all the people with large trays of food, beverages, and empty dishes. I was amazed at how well they all did. But while we were sitting there, we heard a couple crashes of dropped dishes. And I noticed from our hotel room that as the night wore on, the number of trays being dropped increased. My guess is that people were getting tired.

That all settled down eventually, and I dozed off, only to be wakened about 1.5 hours later with the bellows of a man below. The bellowing went on and on and on, with various people talking to the man varying between egging him on and trying to silence him. Finally about 3 am, the police came and herded him off.

And then, just when I fell asleep again, the morning activity began in the square below ... garbage truck, and then what sounded like a construction crew, and then the opening of the cafes for the morning.

We would have liked to close the window for the night, but it was so hot all night long that we just couldn't.

With bags under our eyes, and feeling less than rested, we got ourselves ready to find a quieter location. And we finally cycled in Luxembourg ... out of the city, and down a hill to a little campsite just south of the city.

We got to the campsite about noon, and were able to book in, set up our tent, and get a bit of rest both before and after going grocery shopping. This was much more relaxing than the bustle of the city. We were also able to get some laundry done which was becoming a necessity again.

It also helped that the day did not warm up to the temperatures of the previous days. In fact, the evening felt like it was freezing! After the heat wave of the past week, I was in a long-sleeved wool top with a polar fleece over that and a wind breaker over that during dinner. Tonight I think my down sleeping bag will be employed for more than just being a mattress.

We have internet access and power at this campsite so I have been able to work on photos and load them.

(Cycled: 8.79 km)

Thursday 23 August - When we were in Luxembourg City yesterday, we noticed that there were tour busses like there were in London, Edinburgh, and Inverness, so we decided to do one of the tours of Luxembourg City to find out a little bit about this area.

First we needed to negotiate regular city busses which went remarkably well. In no time we were back in Luxembourg City again and making our way to Place de Constitution to find a tour bus.

The tour was a bit different from the London, Edinburgh, and Inverness tours we've done because it wasn't just about the history of the area ... about half of it was about the modern banking area of Luxembourg. Somehow I just never thought of Luxembourg as a significant banking centre ... and I didn't realize what a modern city/area it was. In places, we could have quite easily been in a Canadian or Australian city.

I had imagined Luxembourg to be very old-fashioned and historic, and there is some of that, but it is also surprisingly modern. But that is one of the reasons I wanted to go to Luxembourg ... to find out what it was really like.

We wandered around the city a little bit again after the tour, taking a closer look at a few of the features. And then we stopped for deep fried ice cream at Chi Chi's. I was too full for it yesterday, and couldn't leave town without having some today.

Back out to our campsite, and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing, visiting the internet, and working on photos. In fact, almost as soon as we returned to our campsite, I slept for about an hour ... exhausted!

Just before we went to bed, we noticed clouds gathering around the horizons. One band of them went over without much more than a few drops of rain. But once we had settled in the tent for the night, more significant rainfalls started to occur. And no sooner than I had turned off my light, flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder started getting closer.

I closed my eyes and started to doze, but a few loud rumbles of thunder had me awake again shortly, and then as I lay there looking at the ceiling of the tent, there was a huge, sparkly, brilliant flash of lightning, and before it had even stopped flashing, the crack of thunder shook the ground. That got our attention, and if that wasn't enough, moments later, there was a second one just like it.

Then the rain pelted down.

The storm continued, although not quite so loud, for a couple hours before finally quieting down to a steady rain.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Friday 24 August - Happy 4th Anniversary to Charlene & Rowan. 4 years ago today, Rowan and I cycled 100 miles, then gathered at Lake Annette, near Jasper, with my parents, cousin and his wife, and were married.

A few days before our wedding, we were camping in the Canadian Rockies, and were wakened suddenly by a very close lightening strike with the appearance of ball lightening. It certainly got our attention! Literally hair raising!

And we got something of a repeat performance last night with two very close lightening strikes in a row. Our anniversary came in with a BANG!

We've decided to stay another day in Luxembourg ... or maybe two days, we'll see.

In the last 2 months (just over 2 months), we have been to 9 countries: Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg. No wonder I'm tired!!

Today we also decided to stay around the campsite and not do anything too strenuous. We took a stroll through a nearby park where I took photos of the many life-sized human statues in the park. And there are lots of them! Very creative. It reminded me a bit of Shepparton, where there are cows everywhere painted in imaginative designs. We also strolled up to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and breakfast.

Then I worked on my story here while technicians restored the internet service. It has been zapped by the storm last night.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Saturday 25 August - Rather than continuing on our way on a Saturday, and ending up who knows where tonight, we decided to stay where we felt reasonably comfortable. That, and the weather wasn't brilliant for travelling either ... very windy.

So ... our big effort for the day was walking to the grocery store to get dinner. Other than that, I worked diligently on photos, trying to get a bit more caught up.

And speaking of the cows in Shepparton (yesterday's comment), we have seen several very similar cows in Europe, including one on the way to the grocery store.

Another observation which came from our walk to the grocery store ...

In the Netherlands, there were heaps of people on variations of step-through bicycles, as well as all sorts of other bicycles. In Germany, the mountain bike seemed to be the bicycle of choice. In Luxembourg it is the road racing bicycle, ridden by slim Frank and Andy Schleck look-alikes.

Cycling in Luxembourg doesn't appear to be nearly as common as it is in other parts of Europe, especially in the form of utility cycling. And there doesn't appear to be much in the way of cycling infrastructure.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Sunday 26 August - Overnight another system moved in. The wind started to howl and the rain started to fall. We were planning to make the move to France today, but at 8:30 am, when it was all happening outside the tent, we decided to stay put again.

When we emerged from the tent, we moved to a little room that had been opened for us in the campground where I continued to work on my photos. And that's pretty much all I did all day.

Right around dinner time, however, the weather started to clear, and we decided to take a post dinner walk around the area to explore a little bit. It was good to be a little bit active, but I think this break has been good for us.

A little bit about our equipment ...

Our tent is the Quechua T3 Ultralight, and we have spent about 20 nights in it on this tour so far.

We purchased it from a Decathlon in France in 2007, and spent about 20 nights in it then, including the time around the PBP when it poured rain. Between then and now we've spent a handful of nights in it here and there.

It is classed as a 3-person tent, but we find it a reasonably roomy 2 person tent. I don't think 3 people would be too comfortable in there. And it has stood up to a lot of bad weather, right from when we first got it.

It packs down quite small, and is fairly easy to put up.

Link to information about our tent

We've got the Exped DownMat 7s ... purchased at one of my favourite outdoor shops, MEC! :) (Decathlon, where we got our tent, is another of my favourite outdoor shops).

I see that MEC does not have the 7s right now (they've got the 9s and the Ultralight ones), so the link is to an example from REI.

I went through an evolution of sleeping mats throughout my touring from nothing at all (very cold, and the ground is very hard), to a small blue foam mat (better, but I could still feel the hard ground), to a Thermarest (better yet, but still not very comfortable for extended periods of time). Rowan had heard about these Exped mats and we decided to give them a try.

They are the most comfortable of all the mats I've tried for cycletouring. They keep out the cold from the ground and keep me up off the ground enough so that my hips are not aching by morning.

Link to information about our sleeping mats

Our main pillows are OzTrail Resort Pillows - self-inflating.

We purchased them at a camping shop we happened across on one of our weekends away, exploring Victoria Australia.

I had been planning to use my usual pillow combination (an inexpensive square inflatable pillow from Canadian Tire and a neck pillow picked up in the travel section of Walmart), but I wasn't entirely happy with that idea.

One of the problems with that combination is that the pillows tend to run away in the night ... sliding around and escaping to different parts of the tent. I wanted something that stayed put under my head. Another problem is that even with less air in them, the pillows are hard and leave my ear and side of my head sore.

So I wanted to take a look around for another solution and when we saw this pillow, we figured we'd give it a try.

We like these pillows, although we are both using something in addition to them because they just aren't quite high enough. In my case, I'm using another inflatable pillow we got with a large mattress we purchased for our big tent (car camping). I put both pillows into a pillow case, with the OzTrail one on top, and that works quite well. Rowan is using a drybag with clothing underneath his pillow.

Link to information about our pillows

(Cycled: 0 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

FRANCE

Monday 27 August - This morning was beautiful! And we felt ready to move on.

However, my bicycle wasn't quite ready for the move. My front tire was completely flat. Rowan changed it, and we were on the road again.

We headed straight south from where we were, on the road, and there was quite a bit of traffic. I was hoping it would be a bit quieter than that, given that it was the middle of the morning on a Monday, but no.

We were also faced with a series of hills which were a bit challenging after all the flat stuff we've been cycling on in recent weeks.

And then we reached the Luxembourg/France border ... and the traffic situation improved. The traffic was lighter and the drivers seemed to move out and give us more room. Despite the ongoing hills, it was quite pleasant.

We had lunch just outside Thionville, at a McDonalds, and then made our way through Thionville. We had made our way all the way through Thionville when we realised we might have gone too far. The road to Metz was the main highway, and cyclists are rarely allowed on those.

So we backtracked a little bit and then stopped to look at a map in a bus stop. Many bus stops do have maps on their walls and that information can be quite useful. However, this map left us still a little bit in the dark. I could see where we needed to go, but wasn't sure how to get there.

Just then a cyclist came along and asked us if we needed help. We told him where we wanted to go, and he took us to a trail by the Moselle River. I would never have found that by myself! There have be a lot of helpful cyclists along the way, and this was another. He wished us well, and we continued.

The path along the Moselle River was beautiful ... much better than anything we had encountered on the Rhine Cycle Route. There was a little bit of construction here and there, but there were long stretches of lovely wide, smooth path all along the river.

Just as we were approaching Metz, however, the path sort of deteriorated. First the signs to Metz disappeared, and we were following the route using signs pointing back to Thionville. Then there were a couple large signs indicating that the path would come to an end. And it did. We negotiated our way across some gravel, and then through an industrial area. But all of a sudden we noticed signs for a campground and youth hostel, and I had a vague idea where we were based on the Google maps I was studying last night.

We cycled all the way into town, and made our way up a tiny cobbled street toward the Information Centre. When we got to the end of the street, we discovered that the Information Centre had moved across a large square, so we walked across. When we got to the Information Centre and had parked the bicycles, we turned ..... and were awed by the huge church which had emerged on the other side of the square. We had walked along side it, and with our backs to it, without realising it was there!! And it was immense.

We got some hotel information from the Information Centre. We had passed a sign for one of the hotels on the way in, so we returned to it ... and got a room for a couple nights.

Then we took a little walk around to see what there was to see in our immediate area ... lots of interesting, old architecture.

(Cycled: 60 km)

Tuesday 28 August - A good day to check out the town we've found ourselves in, Metz.

We walked to the middle of town and determined that the tour we wanted left next at 3 pm, so then we walked all over the middle area of town ... all the way to the train station, where we picked up some information, and back again.

It's an interesting city full of different sorts of architecture and things to see. And the church (cathedral) in particular is quite something. They city is worth seeing just for that.

Our tour was on a little "train" which took us all over the same area we had walked, plus a bit, and explained quite a bit about the history of the city ... Roman, German, French, and much more. We are really enjoying these little tours. They tell us so much about the area where we are, but also leave us with a few questions which we can research later.

One of my questions is why hasn't more been made of a 25,000 seat stadium which once existed here, built by the Romans in about 50 AD. Its foundations and floor are still here ... somewhere. I would have found it absolutely fascinating to see a little bit of a building that old.

Another question is why there is a baker listed on Porte Serpenoise, a monument arch. Turns out Harelle the baker was working late at night, and became aware of a group of merchants entering the gates. Only they weren't merchants. They were soldiers of the Duke of Lorraine attempting to take over Metz. Harelle the baker sounded the alarm, and the soldiers were defeated.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

SWITZERLAND

Wednesday 29 August - Train day. We were up and out of the hotel fairly early (for us) to find out what we could arrange in the way of trains to Switzerland. Plan A was to get a train to Strasbourg today. Plan B materialised when we walked into the train station and noticed that we could go all the way to Basel, Switzerland.

So we went with Plan B.

It was all fairly straightforward. We got the bicycles onto the train as easily as can be expected, and settled down for a trip that took us to Sarrebourg, Saverne, Strasbourg (which was familiar from our 2007 trip there), and down to Mulhouse, and finally into Switzerland, to Basel.

The most significant thing I noticed was that although there were hills here and there, it was all relatively flat. Even once we got to Basel. Rowan noticed some hills in the distance, but I saw a whole lot of flatness. Somehow I expected that as we neared the border of Switzerland, it would become quite mountainous and that as we crossed into Switzerland, we'd be in the Alps. But the Alps are over on the other side of Switzerland. Good thing we weren't planning to visit only Basel!

The train route from Strasbourg to Basel also follows the Rhine. We couldn't quite see the Rhine, but it's not far away. And we were glad we left the Rhine when we did. Back when we were still on the Rhine, I had been thinking that perhaps we might take a train from Mainz to Strasbourg, and then ride from there to Basel, but it looked like much more of the same stuff we encountered around Duisburg and area ... very industrial.

First thing we did when we arrived in Basel was to visit the tourist information centre to inquire about hotels. There were lots of hotels within sight of the train station, but we like to have a general idea of how much they might cost before doing the rounds. We're not on an extremely tight budget, but do like to save money where we can.

I asked the lady in the tourist information centre if she had any maps of Switzerland. She asked if I wanted cycling maps. That would be nice ... and she pointed to a map on the lower shelf and told me it was a train map but would do for me. OK. Hmmm.

Then I asked if she had a book with a listing of hotels in the area. She looked me up and down, and said, "They are all too expensive for you." I asked about camping. The nearest camping was quite a way out of town. So I asked again about the hotels. She pulled up a list on her computer, and started reading out prices ... in Swiss Francs: 700, 600, 350, 500, and finally one for about 150. I asked where that one was and off we went. She was right that the ones for 700 and 500 etc. were too expensive for me, but why would she assume that? We might have won a lottery and be touring the world in a way that we enjoy.

At that time, I had no idea what the conversion rate was for Swiss Francs to Australian Dollers. Turned out we had to multiply a Swiss Franc by 1.12 to get an Australian Dollar. They are quite close. But I came out and told Rowan that I hoped the conversion was something like the Taiwanese Dollars or Japanese Yen to Australian Dollars!!

And that was our introduction to the fact that Switzerland is expensive. If you are planning to go to Switzerland ... Switzerland is expensive. Brace yourself.

The hotel was the same chain as the one where we had stayed in Metz, and our room was almost identical. Only the room was just over twice the price.

We had dinner at Burger King ... and paid 13 Francs each for a basic double cheese burger meal. I think that's the most I've ever paid for a basic double cheese burger meal. And it was about double what we would pay in France.

We did, however, drop by a sporting goods shop with outdoor gear. There were a few around, and we are tempted by such places. There I found Ex-ped pillows. We use Ex-ped mats and have been impressed. But what especially impressed us about these pillows is how small they scrunch down. Scrunched and in their little bag, they take up a fraction of the room of our OzTrail pillows. So we each bought one and will have to try it out. Fortunately they weren't too expensive.

Link to information about our new Exped pillows

Another link to information about our new Exped pillows

(Cycled: 2.8 km)

Thursday 30 August - Another train day.

Yesterday we booked a train from Basel to Martigny, and were floored by the fact that we had to pay 18 Francs for each bicycle. We are used to booking the bicycles onto the trains, and in some places we've paid 5 or 6 Euro ... but 18 Francs? His selling point was that our bicycles could travel by train all day for 18 Francs each. That's fine, but our trip was only about 3 hours. We weren't about to keep going round and round Switzerland all day. And it is 18 Francs if you are going from one end of Switzerland to the other, or to the next town ... 15 minute journey, or all day.

When we boarded the train between Basel and Lausanne, we were told by someone official-looking on the platform to load our bicycles into Car 7 despite the fact that our ticket said Car 1. Who are we to question these things ... from our experience, bicycles are usually loaded into the first or last cars (in this case Car 1 or Car 7) and it doesn't usually matter.

It didn't seem to matter to the first conductor all the way to Biel/Bienne, but then there was a conductor change, and it mattered to the next one. He came over to us and started in about how we had deliberately ignored what was on our ticket, and that in Switzerland there is a very precise booking system, blah, blah, blah ... and only stopped when I told him that I knew all that, but we had been told to load them in this car. That stopped him in his tracks and he told us he would have to make a phone call about it. Then he never returned.

There were no other bicycles on that train, so perhaps he was told it really didn't matter this time.

Lausanne train station was a bit of a shock. Dark and dirty. Rowan went to the toilet, and when he emerged he informed me that it was one of the worst toilets he had ever been in. I took a peek in the Ladies, and couldn't bring myself to use them. They were all stand-up toilets (but different from the ones in Asia), and none were in any way clean. The dark blue lighting didn't help either. The very-busy toilets in Taiwan train stations were significantly better than these!

Many of the train stations in Europe charge a small fee for people to use the toilets. There's a toilet room attendant, you pay your 50 cents or 1 Euro or whatever it is, and then you go in. It is a little bit of an inconvenience, but on the other hand, the toilets are bright and clean and well stocked. After seeing the toilets in the Lausanne train station, there is definitely something to be said for pay toilets.

So, after being told that Switzerland had a very precise booking system and that we had violated that system by putting our bicycles into the wrong car ... the doors to the next train opened, and there, in bicycle area, were several massive suitcases.

We didn't have much time, so we heaved both bicycles up the steep stairs of the train, and then started trying to move around in the very tiny area. The person with the suitcases came out to move them out of the way. We suggested he move them into the main seating area for the moment while we worked with the bicycles. He refused, and moved them just enough to really be in the way. And then, of course, a couple other people came out into that area and just stood there taking up space and getting in the way too.

Imagine a space about the size of a small ensuite bathroom, just big enough for a shower, sink, toilet, and a tiny bit of standing room. Now imagine that space filled with 5 people, 3 or 4 massive suitcases, and 2 bicycles loaded with panniers. And now imagine trying to move. It was a complete schmozzel of a situation!!

Rowan climbed over his bicycle, to grab mine and hang it up. I reached for his to steady it, when something happened (I think I tripped), and both the bicycle and I ended up falling out of the train just as it was about to set off. This, of course, caused train officials to come running and try to shove me and the bicycle back onto the train as quickly as possible and get the doors closed.

The two people who came out with the sole purpose of getting in the way just stood there, getting in the way. The man with the large suitcases gasped. When I stood up, I turned to him and told him, in no uncertain terms, to get his suitcases out of the way for now. He immediately moved them into the main seating area, and we were able to finish hanging the bicycles.

I have badly bruised and scraped knees, sore left wrist, and am generally feeling wrenched about.

I was very concerned about Rowan's bicycle ... considering I landed quite heavily on it as it, and I, slid off the train. But, although several things were, in Rowan's words, "disturbed", everything seems OK. Seems Rowan built a solid bicycle.

We arrived in The Alps, in Martigny, in a cold rain and howling wind, feeling rather battered and bruised.

We were planning to camp right away, but decided that a hotel might be a better choice. So we headed for the tourist information centre, and this time the lady who helped us was lovely and helpful. Things were brightening up a little bit.

The person running the hotel was also very helpful and friendly, even to the point of carrying some of our baggage upstairs.

And the first thing I did when I got in the room was to lie down with my legs in a relatively comfortable position, and sleep.

Then we went for a walk to explore the town a little bit, and to check out the campground in the town. We were a little bit less than impressed. It wasn't bad, but just didn't leave us with a really comfortable feeling. It was on a busy road and backed onto a parking lot for a couple large retail businesses. So we decided to check out another campground a little way out of town tomorrow.

Dinner was at a McDonalds for about 13 Francs per meal. kof kof

(Cycled: 3.6 km)

Friday 31 August - Rain day ... but at least it was not a train day!! I had no desire to ride a train for a while.

We had hoped it would clear today so we could camp, but if anything, today is worse. There's lots of fresh snow on the moutain tops.

I didn't realise quite how cold it was. The hotel room was warm and cozy, but as soon as I stepped outside, I felt like I was going to freeze. We stopped in a partially sheltered area to don rain pants, full fingered gloves, and other bad weather clothing we had with us. I had mixed feelings about the rain pants because of my knees (I didn't want anything touching them), but I was glad I had the rain pants on because they did help keep me warm.

And then we cycled out of town, attempting to follow a bicycle route along the Rhone River. As we were cycling along, I started to question whether we were heading the correct direction. None of the road signs or bicycle route signs said anything about the places I was expecting, and finally one of the signs informed us that we were indeed heading the wrong direction. I'm not sure where we got turned around.

Back to Martigny to attempt another direction. This time the signs looked better. So all up, we cycled 27 km in those conditions (with very sore knees) to find a place to stay.

When we arrived at the campground we wanted to check, I was feeling very cold and tired. We had coffees and discussed the situation, then asked the girl running reception what might be available in the way of dorm rooms in the hostel portion of the campground, and we were very fortunate to be the only occupants of a cozy 4-bed dorm room.

We booked for 3 nights, and I figured that would be enough of cold, wet, miserable Switzerland.

I slept a bit more, then we cycled into nearby Saillon to pick up a few groceries for dinner. One of the benefits of staying in the hostel was that we had a kitchen and could cook our own meals. Interestingly, groceries are not overly expensive. In fact, some items are less expensive than in Australia. One such item was the yogurt, and I discovered that the shop had mocha yogurt which was really good and full of flavour, and quite cheap.

(Cycled: 27 km)

Saturday 1 September - After a fairly comfortable night's sleep (the knees wake me up sometimes), and lazy morning browsing on the computers and doing laundry, we suited up and went for another ride. It was still rather cool and drizzly out there.

Saillon was reported to have Thermal Baths (similar to the hotsprings in the Canadian Rockies). So we followed the signs and found them. But as with many things in Switzerland, they were a little out of our price range at 24 Francs each.

So we continued on to Leyton to have a little look around another town.

One of the things we've found interesting are the little villages high in the mountains. Saillon is in the valley, Leyton is a little higher, but there are villages so high on the mountains one wonders how they managed to build them there.

Another thing we've found interesting ever since we cycled out of Martigny is the fruit. There is a relatively wide valley between the mountains here, and it is full of fruit orchards. There are vineyards growing halfway up the mountains, and lower down there are acres of apples, pears, raspberries, strawberries, and apricots. The vineyards are particularly amazing because some of them almost look like they are hanging off a vertical the side of the mountain. One wonders how they prune them and harvest them!

When we returned, we watched The Vuelta D'Espagne (Tour of Spain - cycling event) on TV, and I read a few chapters in an English novel I found here (woo-hoo!), and worked on photos. :) It's nice when I can find a book to read along the way. Last time was back in Arnhem, NL.

As I worked on photos, we noticed that in Switzerland, where English doesn't make the top three languages, we were listening to English songs on the radio - a 70s and 80s station. In fact, that station was played quite frequently during our whole stay. It was kind of nice to hear English, and understand what was being said.

By the way, the top three languages here are French, German, and Italian ... or German, French, and Italian, depending where you are in Switzerland.

The bruising on my left knee ... if you cut a 10" diametre circle out of a piece of black and blue cloth, then laid it gently on my left knee, with my knee cap approx in the middle of the black and blue cloth ... there you'd have it. Black and blue above the knee, on either side, across the kneecap, and below the knee.

The right knee has about half as much bruising.

(Cycled: 17 km)

Sunday 2 September - Today we decided to go a bit further along the path beside the Rhone. We rode the path beside the Rhone on the way out here, and we have been riding the path beside the Rhone for parts of our rides to Saillon and Leyton. But this time we wanted to see what it was like further up the river toward Sion.

The path is lovely almost all the way to Sion. And then ... it deteriorates. At one point it almost vanishes, but we guessed that maybe it turned into the gravel track we saw. We opted to turn around then and return. According to a map, the gravel bit is approx. 1 km long, and then apparently it turns back into a smooth paved path again.

The sun came out and the mountains emerged from the clouds. The scenery is beautiful ... tall mountains, some with snow on top, the creamy blue/green of the Rhone, and right where we turned around was a deep blue/green lake. Only, unlike the Canadian mountain lakes, it didn't look quite natural. It looked somewhat man-made, and was fenced in. Even the Rhone looks like it has been adjusted to be a smooth canal rather than a natural flowing river. I suspect it is used for irrigation.

It was a good ride. This part of Switzerland is a good place to come for a variety of cycling. The valley is flat, and the path along the Rhone is nice, but you've also got the option of climbing up to some of the villages way up on the sides of the mountain too, if you so desire.

We've cycled almost 1500 km cycled on this trip so far! I'm at 1499.76 km, and Rowan is about 14 km more than that (he did go out and do a ride one day when I rested). We're 75 days into the trip, and we've cycled on 50 of those days.

We've also cycled several of the river routes here in Europe ... the Marne back in 2007, and this year, the Rhine, a bit of the Mosselle, and most recently, the Rhone. We are still thinking of tackling a bit of the Loire in a couple weeks.

By this point, I was feeling some fondness for Switzerland and we booked another 3 nights. :)

(Cycled: 35.12 km)

Monday 3 September - This time we thought we would cycle into Martigny to inquire about a train to Mont Blanc/Chamonix and to do a little bit of sightseeing. Specifically, we were curious about a Roman amphitheatre built around 50 AD.

We found our way into Martigny a different way than our route out, and discovered that Martigny contained a number of fairly large grocery stores and department stores. It's a bigger town than I originally thought.

We picked up a brochure for the train, and then went on a hunt for the amphitheatre, which wasn't too hard to find. It was right next to the St. Bernard Museum!

I found the amphitheatre fascinating, that it was built so long ago, was almost entirely buried over time, and fairly recently has been unearthed. But one does wonder ... what did they use it for? Especially in the middle of the Swiss Alps!

We stopped in at a town by the name of Fully on the way back. In Fully, there is a Megros. Megros is a fairly large grocery/department store. It sells a wide variety groceries and other things like some clothing, household goods, etc. Just about every decent-sized town had a Megros.

In the evening, I worked on more photos.

(Cycled: 26.45 km)

Tuesday 4 September - Today we travelled to Chamonix/Mont Blanc.

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in western Europe (highest in the Alps) with an elevation of approx. 4800 metres. As a comparison: Everest is 8848 metres and Mount Robson (highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies) is 3954 metres. We "climbed" (in two rather alarming cable cars) to 3800 metres to view Mont Blanc. When we reached the viewing platform, we were not far off the height of Mt Robson.

We were up very early in order to catch the bus into Martigny. At that sort of hour of the morning, I'm never sure that any plans are a good idea, so I wasn't convinced about this trip until a little bit later in the day.

We had inquired whether we could take bicycles all the way to Chamonix, and under normal circumstances that might be possible, but they were doing track works so the train stopped at a certain point, and we would be transferred to a bus. And the bicycles were not allowed on the bus. So we left them at the campground.

It really shouldn't have taken us by surprise, but the price for a 10 km one-way bus trip from our campground to Martigny was 7 Francs each. You can travel 10 km or more in a Canadian prairie city for something in the neighbourhood of $2 or less, but this is Switzerland.

The train ride and following bus ride were nice, through some stunning scenery ... except that my tummy wasn't feeling too happy, and the winding train track, and then road left me feeling a little queasy. I was glad when we arrived and could walk around a bit.

When we walked up to a point where I could take some photos, Rowan spotted the cable cars, and so we headed off to where the cables seemed to come down ... and decided to go up.

I did have to consult briefly with my stomach to determine whether I could handle the trip up or not. But we bought the tickets, got in line, and were herded onto a cable car with about 30 other people in no time at all.

The first leg of the journey up took about 10 minutes but passed 3 huge pillars. As we passed the first one, the cable car swayed, most of the passengers swayed, and the car started swinging. After that, everyone remained very, very still.

We just had a couple minutes on solid ground before going up the next leg of the journey. And that one was even more alarming for a different reason. The first 10 minutes or so the car went up at an angle most cable cars I've been in go up. The last 10 minutes or so, the car went almost straight up a cliff, looking like it could swing into the cliff if there were a bit of a breeze, and sounding like the cables were straining and groaning.

For the last few minutes, there was a silence among the passengers until the car was eased into the landing area, and one passenger announced, "Happiness is Arrival". Yep. I was pretty happy to have arrived safely.

But at 3800 metres, I felt like I had legs of iron. The simple act of climbing a small flight of stairs was an effort, and I felt quite dizzy. I had to go into one of the sheltered tunnels for a moment to put on my down jacket and to kind of orient myself. And both of us experienced some very odd physical sensations (heart palpatations and dizziness) at various times up there.

But fortunately, Rowan and I both brought our down jackets because it was quite cold at those elevations. In the down jackets we were quite comfortable.

We made our way onto one of the viewing platforms, and were awed by the the view on all sides. One side looked down at Chamonix, way down below, almost out of sight it was so far away. The other side looked up at Mont Blanc, still higher than we were. Ahead of us, was the glacier tongue descending from Mont Blanc. And behind was a little bridge connecting one spire of rock to another.

We had arrived in the cable car in one spire of rock, and could walk across to another spire of rock to view it all from a different angle. There were terraces/viewing platforms at various levels and in different places.

Beyond the little bridge was a large ridge of ice and snow, and small groups of climbers ascending the ridge at various times. We could also see the rock climbers climbing the spires of rock where the platforms were, and every now and then, one would climb over a terrace railing, finished the days climbing. At one point we saw paragliders near the top of Mont Blanc, one of whom looked like he was caught on a thermal as he rolled upside down, with the parachute below him, and then right way up again, then upside down ...

All up we were at the top for about 3 hours gazing at the views, and taking photos. It was a breathtaking experience!

Eventually we had to descend, and I was quite nervous about that. We had seen a car descending when we went up, and it seemed to be going very fast. That was, presumably, an illusion showing the difference in speed of us going up and the car coming down, but I wondered if it might be so fast that I would leave my errant tummy up on the mountain. Fortunately, it wasn't too fast, and I was actually able to peek out the window and look at a few things.

Chamonix is an interesting town. It is more like what I thought Martigny would be like ... full of character, outdoor shops, little cafes and restaurants. Martigny is almost devoid of character, full of modern boxy buildings (except the amphitheatre, of course). With the number of outdoor shops, we could have spent a whole day just browsing in Chamonix.

I felt better on the bus and train ride back to Martigny and was able to look out the window a few times, down the sheer drops into narrow valleys. From the perspective of the passenger, it looks like the train is just sort of dangling from the side of a cliff.

I think it was one of the best days we've had on this tour. Definitely the day with the most stunning, breathtaking scenery.

I have heaps of photos of Mont Blanc up on my Flickr site. I just couldn't stop taking photos of everything ... views of Mont Blanc, looking down at Chamonix, some of the climbers, shots of other mountains around ...

Round the World - Switzerland, France, and UK Photos

When we got back to the campground, a motorcycle touring group who arrived in the area a couple nights ago were having dinner, and all of a sudden we were treated to a couple songs in German, which ended with yodelling!

One of the things in the back of my mind was whether we would experience some of the music of the regions we pass through, and sure enough, we have ... bagpipes in Scotland, Oom-pah type music in Germany, yodelling in Switzerland ...

(Cycled: 0 km)

Wednesday 5 September - Today we travelled to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn.

We weren't sure if we were going to go or not, and were kind of slow getting going in the morning, but finally got out to the bus around 11 am.

Today's trip was a bus to Sion, which took us up to one of the little villages we had seen, high in the mountains. I can see why someone would want to build up there, it is quite a view. But it must get snowed in during the winter.

Then we had two trains to Zermatt. The first train to Visp was uneventful, but the train to Zermatt was more interesting with some great views. And more houses and villages perched precariously high in the mountains.

Rowan and I were nearly given a goat when we were living in the "Love Shack" high in the hills, out in the middle of nowhere in Australia, and Rowan was told that it is good to have something for the goat to climb on in the yard because goats like to climb up on things ... hills, roofs of sheds, etc. I figure that many of the Swiss are vaguely related to goats because of their desire to build houses as high as possible on the side of a mountain!!

And these houses were the Swiss-style architecture I've been wanting to see. There was some of it yesterday in the Chamonix area, but there was a lot of it on the way to Zermatt. And in Zermatt.

Zermatt is an interesting town, again much more like what I thought Martigny was going to be. It is full of Swiss-style character, full of hotels, full of little shops and ambling roads, with a creamy blue/green river running through the middle.

But something was missing. It took me just a few minutes to notice. There are no cars ... with a couple small exceptions in the form of farm vehicles, all the vehicles were electric. People are required to park their cars outside the town, and use little electric busses, or walk or cycle. It made for a quieter town, I think. And it was also a very clean town.

But towering over the town was what I had come to see ... The Matterhorn. I've known about The Matterhorn since I was a little girl, and have wanted to see it for years and years ... and there it was. I took heaps of photos.

Round the World - Switzerland, France, and UK Photos

Because we had set off so late, we couldn't do much other than walk around the town, and look at The Matterhorn from different perspectives there. In the future, I'd like to return to Zermatt, and maybe stay in Zermatt for a couple days and have a better look at the area.

We made it back to Sion just in time to catch the second-to-last bus from Sion back to our campground. And when we got there, we booked one more night. In the beginning we thought we'd stay 3 nights and then move on ... those 3 nights turned into a full week. This is a beautiful area.

And once again we were serenaded by motorcycle group.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Thursday 6 September - After rushing around the last couple days, we rested. Another lazy, relaxed morning.

This may be our last day in Switzerland. Funny to think that when we arrived we thought we might only stay 2-3 days ... and we've been here over a week now. I love the mountains. I feel very comfortable here. I could stay here another week ... but it is time to move on and see more. However, I would really like to return.

We took another little ride around this valley in Switzerland to Saxon on the other side of the Rhone for a total of 19.2 km. So far we've cycled 124.77 km in Switzerland. :)

It was hazy today, not sure if there is smoke in the area, or if it is just fog ... and it was very windy. The wind tends to howl up the valley in the afternoons, just for a bit of extra cycling challenge.

Something else we noticed in Switzerland ... the cows and sheep are belled. They wear bells around their necks. The cows have large leather straps and quite large bells, the sheep seem to have smaller higher-pitched bells. We could hear them as we cycled. There are occasional small pastures in among all the fruit. Evidently shepherds can identify the sheep by their bells, which is really handy if a sheep isn't readily visible, such as if one is on the other side of a rocky outcrop, or in a ravine or something.

(Cycled: 19.2 km)

Friday 7 September - And finally we packed up to leave this area. One of the things we've noticed on this trip is that whenever we spend more than about 3 days in an area, we develop an attachment to the place. I found myself calling this place "home" a couple times, and it was a bit sad to leave.

Our plan was to follow the Rhone to France ... and that's exactly what we did. It is quite an easy path to follow, and is in much better shape than the paths along the Rhine. It is also mostly flat which was helpful.

The day was somewhat hazy again, but we could still enjoy the scenery of the mountains and river and fruit trees.

So, back through Martigny and on toward Lausanne, but at a key point we veered to the left and arrived in St Gingolph in about the middle of the afternoon.

First we arrived on the shores of Lake Leman (Lake Geneva). That is a very pretty tourist area with docks full of sailboats, a couple campgrounds, a huge waterslide, and of course the lake surrounded by low mountains. We debated briefly about staying there and then decided to continue on a few km into St Gingolph.

We found a hotel just on the Switzerland side of the border, then walked across and had dinner on the French side of the border. St Gingolph sits right on the border.

Our room was lovely with a small balcony overlooking the lake. The haze gave the lake a bit of a ghostly feeling. Boats seemed to appear out of nowhere and seemed to be floating in mid air. Later, when the sun went down, the shore on the other side of the lake glistened brilliantly with the lights of Lausanne.

(Cycled: 60.3 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

FRANCE

Saturday 8 September - This morning we set off with high hopes of the cycling route continuing around Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), but shortly after entering France, the route disappeared and we were on quite a busy shoreline road ... narrow with no shoulders. We had thought about continuing on till we were quite close to Geneva, but by the time we reached Evian (yes, the place where the bottled water comes from), we had enough of the heavy traffic and decided to catch the train there.

Evian is the closest French station to where we were staying in Switzerland. We did not want to to catch a train in Switzerland because they charge 18 Francs for each bicycle, plus a huge amount for us. From Evian, however, the bicycles were free and all up we paid 26 Euro for us ... a fraction of the cost we would have paid in Switzerland!

If we were to return to Switzerland, I think we would take a train to Evian and cycle into Martigny. That would be a less expensive and possibly less stressful method of getting there than the one we opted for this time. But that's part of the reason we're on this tour ... to find these things out, and see for ourselves.

We are in Bellegarde now, in a very old hotel right across from the train station. Our room overlooks the platforms! And we can hear the announcements for departing and incoming trains. However, it was one of the few hotels we could find, and it is not expensive. The lady who ran the place was also very friendly and helpful.

The one remarkable thing about Bellegarde is that the Tour de France must have come through. There were signs everywhere, including a huge one that wallpapered the front of the Office de Tourisme.

There wasn't much in the way of open restaurants in Bellegarde, and after a while, we decided to see if we could find the McDonalds because they are usually open when nothing else is. There were signs everywhere pointing to a McDonalds, but do you think we could find it? Not a chance! Up this road, down that road, over here, over there. Signs pointing here, there, and everywhere, but no McDonalds. And not much of anything else either.

After a long walk, we ended up with a few things from a Carrefour which closed moments after we left, and pizzas from a takeaway place.

By the way, we often set out on foot after we arrived at a place for the night because our bicycles were locked up somewhere that was not easily accessible. Sometimes the bicycles were in a conference room and someone at the front desk would have to unlock the room when they had a moment. Sometimes the bicycles were locked in another room either attached to the hotel, or possibly some distance away. In this case, the bicycles were locked in a garage some distance away from the hotel. So getting them out again in order to explore Bellegarde would have been rather inconvenient.

Tomorrow, our plan is to catch a train to Lyon. We might have to stay a night there, and then we hope to catch a train to Perpignan. From there we plan to cycle out of town a little ways and find a really nice campground where we can stay for a week or so.

That is what we hope will happen. We'll have to see if it does!!

And about that train platform out our window ... it wasn't a bother at all. The station shut at a reasonable hour, and our room had double windows and a fairly solid drop-down shade to block it all out.

(Cycled: 22 km)

Sunday 9 September - Off to Lyon. We caught the train to Lyon and arrived at a reasonable hour of the afternoon.

The train became busier as we went along with, we presume, university students returning to school. There seemed to be quite a number of families on the platforms all hugging one young person who boarded the train alone.

When we got to the Lyon station, Rowan went off to find out information about a train to Perpignan. I happened to be wearing my fluorescent yellow vest while waiting for Rowan and I didn't think much about it, until I had several people come up to me and start asking me questions and about directions etc. I kept saying "Je ne parle pas francais", but a couple people weren't too happy with that response. Eventually I took the vest off so I could stand there in peace.

We were able to find a room in an Ibis Hotel not far from the station. We have stayed in quite a few Ibis Hotels because they tend to be less expensive but reasonably nice. They are also often located quite close to train stations so are convenient for arrivals and departures.

Then we went for a walk around the train station area of Lyon. The train station is located in a business district ... lots of tall office buildings. On a Sunday evening, it was almost like a ghost town. Fortunately there were a few places around where we could get dinner.

One such place was Quick, similar to a McDonalds. One of the things which made the Quick fast food place a bit different from most McDonalds was the people could place their orders with a kiosk, and then join a specific line to pick them up. Evidently that was supposed to be quicker. I'm not convinced that it was. We opted for the traditional method of joining the queue and then placing our order, and I think we were through quicker than some of the kiosk orderers.

Later, I saw this kiosk ordering method available in a few other fast food places as well, including at least one McDonalds. But it didn't appear to be used very often.

(Cycled: 1.71 km)

Monday 10 September - Monday morning, and Lyon sprang into action. The almost dead streets were alive with people in business suits.

And we were off to Perpignan. We had a fairly uneventful trip (better than falling out of a train), but the view from the train windows was not what I expected. Not at all. Not even remotely. It was the furthest thing from my expectations. Somehow I had built up an entirely different idea in my head of what the Mediterranean area looked like.

Based on books I've read, what I've seen on TV, and pictures I used to have up in my bathroom, I had expected that the entire Mediterranean coastline would have hills. Perhaps even small mountains. Cliffs with houses perched precariously on top. I expected colour ... blue-green water, colourful sailboats, gleaming white houses with red roofs, lots of green tropical vegetation and palm trees, large brightly coloured flowers. I expected signs of tourism ... lots of hotels, lots of places renting sailboats and other watercraft, large beaches.

I expected something along the lines of an older European version of Queensland ... and got something along the lines of Death Valley.

All the way along the Mediterranean from Avignon, through Nimes to Montpellier, out to Sete and Agde, to Narbonne and down to Perpignan appears to be a delta for the Rhone, and perhaps other rivers. It's all flat as can be, and looks like it can't grow much. Both of us thought it was very much like some of the bush areas of Australia, or a flat Kamloops, or Sacramento, or even like that highway between Los Vegas and Los Angeles. Just as flat and brown and barren as can be.

The bit from Sete to Agde appears to be a sandbar and on the Sea side there was a beach, but no trees or flowers or anything, just a parking lot, this long, long fence, then sand, then Sea. And one lonely snack shop about halfway along.

The train took us out to Port-la-Nouvelle, just south of Narbonne and there was a sort of beach there, but it looked like someone had come in, dumped a lot of dark brown sand, and then drove over it all to flatten it out. And again, no trees, no flowers, no colour, no hills, no tropical feel. It was hard to tell the difference between the brown bush area on the right side of the track and the brown sand area on the left.

Evidently, what I was expecting is further east ... maybe also further south. It's very interesting how reality can differ so dramatically from what a person might imagine an area looks like based on some general impressions from various sources, and looking at a map.

Our first impressions of the area probably weren't helped by the thick haze over everything, and dark clouds. We started noticing this haze back in Switzerland, and upon doing a bit of research have discovered that it is quite likely forest fire smoke from fires in Croatia combined with the moist air over the Mediterranean. Hopefully it will start clearing soon.

We were going to go right out to a camping area Rowan found on the internet when we arrived today, but by the time we arrived and got ourselves sorted, it was almost 5 pm, and neither of us felt inclined to cycle at least 12 km toward the beach tonight in the hopes of some accommodation there. So as we stood there in front of the station, looking at some very suspect hotels and wondering what to do next, I looked back at the station and spotted the sign for a Comfort Inn. We made a bee-line for it, and have booked in for 2 nights. We'll get our bearings here and decide what we want to do next.

The hotel where we are staying is interesting ... well, it is somewhat unremarkable, but the room is interesting ... it's a space theme, right down to the alien desk lamp!!

As for Perpignan itself, we haven't been impressed so far by the area around the train station. In fact, we went out to seek dinner a litle while ago, and neither of us felt at all comfortable with going for a walk, especially after dark. In most places we've been on this trip, we go for a walk shortly after we get there to have a look at what's there. But here, we just didn't feel safe. So we headed back in and ate at a Subway right next door to the hotel.

Tuesday 11 September - We ventured out and about today ...

First we tried to cycle out of Perpignan, but got too frustrated by the heavy traffic, and traffic construction changes. Google tends to be behind the times. It suggested quite a straightforward route ... recent road construction made that route anything but. We cycled here and there, and back and forth, on busy roads and industrial roads and roads covered in debris, trying to find the roads we were looking for. Sometimes we'd glimpse a sign for them, but then lose them a few moments later.

Good thing we didn't try to cycle out of town to find the campground last night. I don't think we would have been successful.

In the end, we found our way back to the train station, and took the train (for 1 Euro each ... very inexpensive!) to the next town south, Elne. We were able to roll the bicycles right on for free, and while we waited for the train to go, Rowan fixed his flat tire, acquired from riding through all the debris on the roads.

Elne is better than Perpignan ... it is smaller for one thing, and quainter, cuter, and quieter. We felt quite a bit more comfortable there. Then we cycled from there to Palau-del-Vidre to look at one of our campground choices, and to cycle around the town.

Palau-del-Vidre was also quainter, cuter, and quieter, and the campground didn't look too bad. But we thought we would do a little bit more exploring around the area before committing ourselves. Also, oddly, the campground closed at 5 pm, and by the time we got there it was just after 5. Even in Australia, where I think campgrounds close very early, they rarely close as early as 5 pm. I'm not sure if the 5 pm closing was just today, or if that is normal.

One thing that concerned us about the area was that the traffic is quite heavy and more aggressive than in other parts of France. More aggressive than what we have been used to in Australia and Canada. The roads are also very narrow. If we were going to find a spot for a hub-and-spoke tour, we would prefer somewhat quieter cycling roads. So we began to debate about the possibility of going further south because we heard good things about the area just on the France side of the France/Spain border.

This part of France has a Spanish feel to it. It is very close to Spain, so that's quite natural ... but it doesn't really feel like France. I liked that difference for a bit of variety, and that did make the idea of heading further south attractive.

And today, we did see palm trees and a bit more colour in the villages ... white, pink, and orangey-reds of the walls of buildings, and red terra cotta tiling on the roofs, sometimes with a bright blue gate or door. There was a bit more greenery and we heard birds. It was a little bit more like what I was expecting.

Today was hot and humid, with the ongoing haze that has been over much of southern France and Switzerland for a while now.

(Cycled: 33.17 km)

Wednesday 12 September - When we returned to the hotel last night, we booked a third night so we could continue our exploration.

Today we decided to walk to the centre of town, and we covered quite a lot of ground walking, and looking for things.

The centre of town is nicer than the train station area, but still not brilliant. The best part was the palace, but the central square where the restaurants are wasn't too bad. And the restaurant we chose had a very nice, friendly waiter.

It took us a while to find it, but we visited the Palace of the Kings of Mallorca, and it is the most impressive thing we have seen in Perpignan. It is inexpensive to visit, interesting to look around, and the view from the tallest tower is really good. It is a bit of a climb, but there is a great 360 degree view of the area up there. And, as it happened, the air began to clear today so we were able to see some distance ... the Mediterranean to the Pyranees.

As confirmed by information provided in the palace, this area was part of Spain (more or less) at one time long, long ago. That would explain the architecture.

Palace of the Kings of Mallorca

One bit of tourist information on the internet claims that Perpignan has several kilometres of cycling infrastructure, and that there are plans in place for a lot more to come connecting the villages around the area. That would be really good. But meanwhile, we determined that the "several kilometres" of cycling infrastructure in Perpignan consisted of 200 metres of road with bicycles painted on the road surface here, 10 metres there, 50 metres here ... and perhaps if a person added it all up, there might be 3 or 4 km.

The next step would be to educate the drivers to pay attention to the road markings, and more importantly to any cyclists who happen to be cycling there. But there weren't many cyclists in Perpignan ... not like in other parts of France.

In the evening, we took a look at our options ... go south or north. We have been told that heading south is a good option, but one of the things we checked was the campground situation in the Bordeaux area, and we discovered that many of the campgrounds were closing soon, and if we wanted to visit that area, we thought we'd better get moving.

So, we are planning to travel to Bordeaux. Hopefully we'll be able to arrive there tomorrow.

Again, we are still hoping to find a spot we can stay for a week or so, and then do rides from there. The one difficulty with that is that many of the campgrounds close soon, so we are more limited in our options. However, we'll see what we can find.

Bordeaux is also supposed to be cooler ... in the low 20s, I think. Yesterday, in particular, was quite hot and humid, which Rowan finds challenging.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Thursday 13 September - We are in ... Bordeaux!

We spent a few days along the Mediterranean, in the most southerly part of France, but then decided that we'd better get a move-on northward because autumn is coming on, campgrounds won't be available much longer, and there is still lots to see. So we caught a train to Bordeaux.

The ticket agents in Perpignan were really good. Rowan had tried to book tickets at the ticket kiosk, but wasn't able to, so he joined the queue for in-person booking. The person monitoring the queue tried to speed things up by attempting to assist people with kiosk booking where possible. He and Rowan tried a kiosk booking again, but were unsuccessful again. So he escorted Rowan to an agent, and they were able to sort things out. But while Rowan and the agent were sorting things out, the person monitoring the queue came out to me, waiting with the bicycles, and told me that everything was going to be OK. :) Then a few moments later he came over and told me that our platform was right next to the station which would make everything more convenient for us with the bicycles. He was very reassuring.

The haze in the air has cleared and we were able to see a lot more of the area as we travelled through it again to Narbonne. On the way down, I thought the Narbonne area was flat too, like much of the rest of the way from Avignon to Narbonne, but with clear skies, we could see small mountains, and the area didn't look as dismal and brown as it did on the way there.

The route turned inland at Narbonne toward Carcassonne and Toulouse. One of the down sides of taking the train, and trying to get somewhere quickly is missing out on stuff. Carcassonne is apparently a great example of an ancient walled city, and Toulouse looked interesting from the little bit we saw of it during our wait there for the next train. It would be interesting to return to that area and have a closer look. So much to see ... so little time!

Nevertheless, we were whisked on to Bordeaux.

And now we'd like to be finished with trains for a little while. The train system here is really good, but can be challenging sometimes. You just never know what you are going to be faced with. Most train stations have lifts so we can transport our bicycles down to the main walkways and the up to the platforms, but some don't. And we found one that did not in Toulouse. In that case everything has to be carried up and down stairs, or an escalator if that is available.

And as for the trains, with some, we can roll the bicycles in from the platform with panniers on, and lean them up against the train wall. With some we can roll the bicycles on, but we have to remove the panniers and hang the bicycles. And some have really tall, steep, narrow stairs we have to lift the bicycle up before we can hang the bicycles (that was the kind I fell out of). We do not know what we're going to be faced with until the train pulls up.

And then, just to add to the challenge, it often seems that everyone wants to board the bicycle car. The bicycle car usually has less sitting room than all the other cars because the bicycles take up room, and because that's also often the car with the toilet. So it baffles me why so many people want to get into that car instead of the next one down, and they usually walk through to the next car eventually anyway.

So it would be nice to be finished with trains for a little while, and to get back on the bicycles again to do some exploring in this area, and to gradually move northward.

The train station area of Bordeaux isn't bad, and we were able to find a hotel quite easily. We felt comfortable enough in the area to walk all the way to central Bordeaux for dinner at a Mexican style restaurant. We were also able to pick up some tourist information to help us decide what we wanted to do next. Central Bordeaux is very pretty, day and night.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Friday 14 September - We had been told that there was a campground north of Bordeaux, so we decided to cycle out there and check it out.

But our first order of business was to find a Decathlon and pick up a few things. We were directed to a choice of two in Bordeaux. One was back in the centre of town where we had been last night, so that's where we went first. There we found a Go Sport and a different version of a Decathlon than where we've shopped before. Nevertheless, between the two shops we were able to get the things we needed, including some new clothes for me.

The next order of business was to find the campground, and maybe the second Decathlon along the way. The first part of the ride was lovely, along La Garonne river. Bordeaux has a beautiful waterfront area with a wide space for cyclists and pedestrians.

However, all good things come to an end, and we had to make a turn toward the campground. We lost any sort of cycling infrastructure for a while, but fortunately were able to pick it up again a few blocks later. The first bit of signage on the cycling route seemed to be directing us toward the campground, but then it disappeared, and the signage became a little bit confusing. Before we knew it, we were into an area of town where I felt very uncomfortable. We turned around and hastened away. Fortunately we were able to find more signage that made sense from that direction.

We found ourselves in the exhibition area of Bordeaux, and also an area full of hotels. That was OK. At least we had some options for a night's stay. But the parking lot in the exhibition area was what really attracted our attention. It had a roof protecting cars from sun and rain, and that roof was entirely solar panels.

According to some information I read about it, there are 60,000 solar panels covering space for 7000 cars, and the energy generated can power 5000 homes each year. What a great idea ... use a parking lot for two purposes, to contain cars when there are exhibitions on, and to produce energy.

Not far from there, we started seeing more signs for the campground, and soon came to it. We opted to take a small cabin because the price was pretty good. Shoulder season rates are in effect now, which is good for us. And with these small caravan park cabins, we can roll our bicycles inside with us if we want.

The place reminded me very much of Australia. Turn the trees into eucalypts and we could be somewhere in Victoria ... not far from where we lived. In a way it is comforting and in a way it is making me homesick. I feel like we could be "home" in a few hours.

The campground shop was closed for the season, so we had a very nice dinner at the restaurant, entertained by the ducks waddling about the area.

And we got some laundry done ... clean clothes again!!

We cycled 16.33 km today. For some reason, it felt further than that. Anyway, Rowan tells me we're at 1000 miles of cycling on this tour now. Hopefully we can log quite a bit more before we leave Europe.

(Cycled: 16.33 km)

Saturday 15 September - Today we did a bus tour of Bordeaux. We had walked and cycled through much of it over the last couple days, but it was nice to get a bit of an explanation. Bordeaux is a really pretty city with some interesting architecture (in the centre area), and worth a look.

On the way back to the campground, we attempted to find a grocery store ... first in the central area of Bordeaux, and then in the commerical area where our tram dropped us off. No luck. One of the difficulties of big box store commercial areas is that they aren't conducive to pedestrian traffic. The only thing we could access was a Decathlon store, so we decided to pick up a couple of those packages of camping food. And, believe it or not, they weren't bad at all.

We also did a bit of a shop at the Decathlon store in the central area of Bordeaux again. After all, that's the main reason we come to France (hehehe). In all, I picked up a couple T-shirts, a fleece top, and a pair of shorts. Rowan picked up a fleece jacket, and a T-shirt. The T-shirts, in particular, are beautiful ... an extremely lightweight, silky smooth polyester technical fabric.

While on the topic of clothing, just thought I'd post a list of the clothing I opted to bring (and buy) on this tour so far ...

Outerwear

- GroundEffects rain jacket

- Route 7 hivis wind jacket

- Route 7 hivis vest

- Rain pants (bought about 2 months ago in Scotland)

- Down jacket

Tops

- Fleece jacket

- Fleece pullover (bought yesterday)

- Merino wool long sleeve

- Polypro long sleeve

- 4 polyester short sleeve tops (bought one yesterday, and one today)

- 1 sleeveless jersey

Bottoms

- 3 pair of cycling shorts

- 1 pair of leg warmers

- 1 pair of convertible pants

- 2 pair of stretchy capri pants (bought 1 pair about a month ago in Germany)

- Tights

- Basketball shorts (purchased today)

Swimwear

- Bathing suit

- Swimming shorts

Under Things

- 2 sports bras

- 3 undies

- 2 pair heavier wool socks

- 1 pair light wool socks

- 1 pair cotton/nylon socks

- 1 pair compression stockings

Footwear

- Cycling shoes

- Sandals

Accessories

- Short finger gloves

- Full finger gloves

- Helmet cover

- Neck gaiter

- Headband

I think that's it. And I have used it all, except the neck gaiter and headband. But the weather is getting cooler so they may be employed soon too. The only thing I think I'd change would be the cycling shorts. I'd probably bring 2 pair rather than 3.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Sunday 16 September - Heading toward the ocean.

There is a bicycle path right outside the campground where we stayed, and it leads right to the ocean, some distance away. How convenient! We rolled out of the campground, and stuck with the path all the way to Lacanau.

With one small exception. Lunch.

When we set off, we did not have anything for breakfast, and we had nothing with us. We were out of food. So the first 10 km were on empty stomachs, and we began keeping an eye out for any place where we might be able to get something.

We spotted a grocery store, but they closed just as we got there. Standing there in the emptying parking lot, we looked around to see if there was anything else around ... and I spotted a McDonalds. That'll do! Maybe not ideal, but when there's nothing else in sight ...

The path is long, and mostly straight, through forest. It could be a bit boring, but I found it relaxing. It was one of those routes where I didn't have to focus too much on everything around me and could just relax and ride.

I liked the colours of the forest. The pine trees are still green, of course, but the leaves of the other trees have begun to change.

We thought we might be able to reach Lacanau-Ocean today, but when we rolled into Lacanau, we were finished for the day, and we took the first campground we could find. I suspect it was the only one open in the area anyway.

It was a small, rather rustic campground, full of cats of various ages. :) But the manager was very friendly and we were able to pitch wherever we wanted. We found a little shop that sold a few items of food for dinner, and had a quiet night.

(Cycled: 54.4 km)

Monday 17 September - Arriving at the ocean.

The first thing we wanted to do was to stop at a supermarket we had discovered yesterday (it was closed yesterday) and stock up on a few groceries. That's a bit better! But as Rowan was packing a bottle of Pepsi, he dropped it, one of the bumps on the bottom of the bottle hit the ground, burst, and the bottle shot across the sidewalk like a rocket ... spraying everything for some distance around. I've never seen a bottle of pop do that before!

For several km, Rowan's brakes squealed every time he slowed or stopped because of the sugar of the Pepsi all over his tires.

Just outside Lacanau is quite a large lake. We stopped there for a few minutes to make an adjustment to my bicycle and to have a look at the lake. Then we continued on our way.

There were more cyclists on the path today, and in particular were a line of 20 or 30 cyclists on chopper-style cruiser bicycles, all dressed in Harley-type outfits. It was quite a sight to see!! At first glance, from a distance, it flashed through our minds that they were on Harleys, but there was no motor sound, just the sound of wide tires on path! Most of them were trying to look really serious, but a couple flashed us big grins.

We got into Lacanau-Ocean and found our way to the Office de Tourisme. While I was asking about accommodations, I heard Rowan conversing in English outside.

In the last two days we have met 2 other cycling duos ... one was a uncle/nephew team from the UK heading south who we met at the campground last night. The other, who Rowan was talking to now, was a New Zealand couple heading north (but at a faster pace than we're heading north). We've encountered lots of other cyclists along the way, but the really nice thing about these 4 was the fact that they spoke English!

It was the first time in a long time that we've been able to have a conversation in complete sentences, expressing somewhat more complex ideas, with someone other than each other.

We and the New Zealand couple went to the same campground, only Rowan and I took a little detour to have some ice cream at a little shop along the way. When we arrived at the campground, we decided to take a cabin for several nights so we can spend a bit of time in this area. It helps that the this is the last week this campground will be open and things are relatively inexpensive. Even the campground supermarket has everything on sale for 50% off.

As soon as we were settled in the cabin, we headed for the ocean and spent a bit of time splashing in the water. On our way back some time later, we met the New Zealand couple on their way back. They had the same idea ... get in the ocean!

And then we settled in for a comfortable evening in our cabin, listening to the sound of the roaring ocean.

We've been on the road 90 days! 59 days of cycling, and 1753 km in that time. In many ways it is hard to believe it has been that long. My longest previous tour was 87 or 88 days all up.

(Cycled: 19.69 km)

Tuesday 18 September - The view from the deck of our cabin on the Atlantic ocean, here in France ... a pine forest. It would be nice if we could see the ocean from here, but the forest is nice too. Much nicer than a city. We've seen birds and a squirrel out there. I'm a country girl at heart. Give me oceans, mountains, forests, and lakes ... :)

We had a very lazy morning, and then spent much of the afternoon walking along the beach, sitting in the sand and watching the waves, and wading in the water. It is overcast and a bit rainy, but that's OK. One of the things I like about oceans is how they looks different every time you see them. A slight change in the weather makes them change. The tides make them change. Yesterday was a bright, sunny, warm day and the ocean looked bright and warm. Today the ocean looked colder and fiercer with bigger grey waves.

We stopped in a shop in the town just down the beach, and picked up a couple postcards. Both are black and white photos ... one is of the Tour de France from way back when, the other is of a child on his/her first "cycling tour", pulling a trailer with a teddy bear on it. :)

And then it was back to our cozy cabin while the rain drizzled and ocean roared outside. A nice relaxing evening listening to music and updating this journal.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Wednesday 19 September - I don't recall if anyone has ever told me to "Go fly a kite" ... but today, we did. Yesterday, Rowan bought a kite from a little shop in town, and today we headed to the beach and flew the kite for quite some time. It was great fun. Neither of us has flown a kite in years!

In addition to kite-flying, we waded and splashed in the ocean for a while, then spent some time in the "lagoon", a swimming pool about 3 feet deep built like a series of streams and pools with jets of water that provide current and rapids in place. That was a blast!

Then we relaxed on our deck reading english novels we found in the camp library, and later took a walk along the beach watching the kite-surfers before stopping at a restaurant to have pizza for dinner. A good day!

I'd like to stay here a lot longer. I love the ocean and the beach. Fortunately, even though we do have to leave this area soon, Australia has a similarly great beaches along the ocean, and we'll be back there in January, just in time for summer!

(Cycled: 0 km)

Thursday 20 September - Today ... lots of time at the beach! We bought a frisbee yesterday so we tossed that around for quite a while (my right arm might be sore tomorrow ... I haven't tossed a frisbee in years!), and then there was quite a bit of time splashing in the waves. I did miss my wetsuit and boogie board.

After a relaxing couple hours, reading on the deck, we took a walk around the grounds here, and then wandered back down to the beach to enjoy the sunset. I've got about 101 sunset photos now. :)

Well ... we decided to spend one more day here. Another day to fly a kite, toss a frisbee, splash in the ocean, swim in the man-made lagoon, or whatever grabs our fancy. :)

It was 90 days on the road just a few days ago, now it's 3 months since we flew to Hong Kong. The first month flew by ... the second month seemed to drag a bit ... and this third month was gone in a flash.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Friday 21 September - The French seem to like a game involving oversized table tennis paddles and a hard ball - hitting it back and forth. And so we bought the game (the paddles and ball) and played it on the beach, just like several other people were doing. It's a lot harder than it looks!! It took us a while to get into a rhythm.

Between it and frisbee tossing, which we did again today, I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

We also walked up and down the beach watching the paragliders. At one point, the sky was full of them.

Today was hotter than previous days, but sort of overcast and humid. We suspect we'll have rain tomorrow. But even though it was overcast and humid, it was still a good day to get out on the beach.

I suspect that Lacanau-Ocean would be busier during the season, but these are the last few days this campground is open, and several places in town have already closed. We figure September is probably a good time of year to come here because there are fewer people around, and things are on sale. We're already talking about coming back to this area of France again.

Of all the places we have travelled, we're flagging Hokkaido, Scotland, The Alps, and this part of France as places we might like to visit again. They've all been beautiful, and a common part of their beauty has been their remoteness and lack of people.

Hard to believe we left Germany a month ago today!! The last month has flown by ... Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, France ...

(Cycled: 0 km)

Saturday 22 September - Here in Lacanau-Ocean, we're on the Velodyssey Trail, and will follow it northward as far as we feel like going. I have heard very little about this part of France, and had never heard of the Velodyssey Trail before, but so far it is one of my favourite areas! We'll see what the trail is like as we move northward.

Velodyssey Trail

It's not part of the Velodyssey Trail, but once in Bordeaux (a few days ago), we found our way to the campground north of the city, and on the way there started picking up signs directing us out to Lacanau. Then we found out that the path in front of the campground is the path we needed to take all the way to Lacanau-Ocean. It's a very good path, paved all the way, and mostly out of the way of traffic. This time of year, the pine forests on either side of the path are their usual dark green, but the undergrowth is turning all colours, and it's a very pretty contrast.

So in addition to the north/south Velodessey route running along the west coast from Plymouth UK to the border of Spain, there is the option of cycling to and from Bordeaux. And if the path between here and Bordeaux is any indication, the rest of the route should be good too. We are looking forward to seeing more.

In fact, if a person were to start from the Bordeaux train station and ride all the way to Lacanau-Ocean and back to the train station in a day, a person would have ridden a century (100 miles), almost all of which would have been on good cycling infrastructure.

Whether you're tempted to ride it as a century or as a tour, here are a few tips ...

There would be a couple kilometres from the train station to the river (off to the right when you exit the train station) which would be on and off the road. Then there's a beautiful, wide cycling/pedestrian area all along the waterfront. It gets a little sketchy at the north end of the waterfront, but look for the Lacanau signs (small white signs with green trim and lettering). In a couple kilometres, you'll be on a wide, 2-lane cycle path which would take you through the Commercial Centre and the Exhibition area.

When you cycle through the Exhibition area, there are lots of hotels, but keep an eye out for the solar panels. Bordeaux has installed something like 60,000 solar panels over the Exhibition parking lot providing a roof over a possible 7000 vehicles, and producing enough energy to power 5000 homes each year. It's incredible!!

From there, you're almost at the campground. It's a decent place to stay ... lots of cabins and some tent camping as well. But if you're planning to stay, arrive there prepared with groceries. The nearest grocery store is some distance away back in the Commercial Centre.

Then it's about 50 km, on a lovely paved path, to Lacanau which is situated on a pretty lake. It's a small town, but has a small campground and decent grocery store. And there is a place on the way out there where you might be able to get some supplies ... just not on Sunday afternoon.

Then it's another approx. 15 km to Lacanau-Ocean, which is right on the ocean. Lacanau-Ocean is a beach town ... surfers, lots of restaurants, grocery store, several sorts of accommodation including the massive and beautiful campground we stayed in. There is tenting here, but we stayed in a cabin.

And if you were doing a century, you'd have a bite to eat here and then turn around and cycle back to Bordeaux. :)

Today we got onto the Velodyssey Trail and headed northward. There is more of the trail to the south, and I think a person could follow it all the way to Spain, and there is more further north than we want to go, all the way to the UK, but we just wanted to check out this bit in the middle.

We opted to take an alternate path out of Lacanau-Ocean because I had read it that the Velodyssey route in that area was hilly, and the tourist information people confirmed that. The alternate route was flatter and had us closer to the ocean (although we still couldn't see it).

There was one rather interesting section where the path narrowed to about 18" wide ... basically a sidewalk through the sanddunes and forest. That went on for a couple kilometres and took a lot of concentration to ride a straight line. But other than that, the alternate route was fine.

Shortly after the sidewalk section we joined the Velodyssey route and it was lovely. Most of it was a paved forest road with hardly any traffic. There might have been half a dozen cars. And the speed limit was 50 km/h, so the cars were moving slowly as well. As we came into the area where we are now, there is a wide path that runs right beside the road.

Most of the route today was through forest and sanddunes ... not too much to see if you're looking for vistas, but relaxing and quiet.

We did 57.98 km today, of which all but the first 15 km or so was on the Velodyssey route.

When we got to Montalivet, we headed straight for the ocean where we splashed and played frisbee. Oh, by "headed straight for the ocean" I mean that we stopped for ice cream first, then went to the ocean. France does have ice creams much like Germany did, just not quite as many places.

(Cycled: 57.98 km)

Sunday 23 September - The wind is really picking up today and we were debating what beach sports we could do.

In the end, we opted to fly a kite today because we figured we would just be chasing the ball or frisbee as they were carried by the wind. It took a while for the kite to get off the ground because of the wind (a bit too windy), but then Rowan attached his shoe to the tail, and away it went. I wished I had my camera with me then so you could see Rowan's shoe flying over the beach! :)

I suspect the shoe startled a few people. There was a couple lying on the sand, out of the wind, next to a groyne, and when the shoe flew over them, they both sat up suddenly and watched it for a while.

Rowan is trying to encourage me to try surfing. He's never surfed either, but we've been watching heaps of people out there doing it. I'm not convinced yet, but if we can find a place that rents body boards or boogie boards, I might go for that.

Meanwhile we did quite a bit of walking along the beach and through the town.

Shortly after we returned to our cabin in the afternoon, one of the people who runs the campground came over and assisted us to "batten down the hatches" ... putting everything away and out of the wind. She informed us that a storm system was moving in with strong winds.

We went out for pizza later in the evening, and already the winds were increasing from what they were earlier in the day. By about midnight they were even stronger. And about 2 am we were wakened by what sounded like a freight train roaring past just outside our cabin. We were awake for much of the rest of the night with all the noise of the wind and of the cabin creaking, groaning and shuddering, while being blasted first by sand then by rain, all night long. We didn't get much sleep.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Monday 24 September - We're still in Montalivet, waiting out the storm with plans to work our way up to La Rochelle, and maybe further north depending on how fast we move. We'd like to be in Paris right around the end of September, and that's only about a week away now.

We were going to move on today, but the wind is still howling combined with wave after wave of rain. So, rather than cycle in that, we opted to stay put another day. We may also stay tomorrow depending on what this weather system does.

At some point in the middle of the afternoon we made a dash for it and got in a fairly lengthy walk along the beach, to the grocery store, and for ice cream. Amazingly, we made it all the way without any rain, but moments after we got back it started to rain again.

The ocean has been whipped up into a frenzy and no one is out there surfing or swimming or anything. No doubt a warning has been issued.

I've mentioned the ice cream served in Germany, and occasionally here in France as well. It's great ... and I'm going to miss it when we leave this part of the world. But a small word of caution. When they list the flavouring, chances are it won't be artificial. So the rum ice cream dish I ordered yesterday had rum and raisin ice cream and chocolate, etc. ... and rum. The chocolate mint ice cream dish I had today was flavoured with Get 27, a mint liqueur. Very nice, but kind of catches you off guard.

End of the day update: 24 hours of howling, freight train roaring wind. If you've ever lived or stayed next to a railway track, when the trains come by, that's what this wind sounds like. I could swear it was a train engine running out there. And it gets louder and louder like the train is coming closer and then all of a sudden the cabin is just rocking and being blasted with sand.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Tuesday 25 September - I didn't venture out today. Rowan went for a short walk this morning, but then the weather settled in to be a cold, pouring rain and howling wind.

So ... I updated this story, and worked on photos. Indoor stuff.

End of the day update: We're on a beach on the Atlantic Ocean in France. And we've been caught in a 48-hour storm, with the promise that it is going to continue for another 48 hours or so. Fortunately, we've been caught in a relatively inexpensive caravan park, in quite a decent little cabin. So while the storm rages and ocean roars outside, we're reasonably comfortable inside.

And fortunately we got a great deal on the cabin we're staying in ... off season rates + extended stay rates. :)

(Cycled: 0 km)

Wednesday 26 September - We're still here ... and IT is still out there. Our plan now is to make our escape on Friday.

They have issued gale and small craft warnings all along the coast from the tip of the UK to Spain ... so it's not just us. But apparently it is supposed to start to clear tomorrow.

We managed to get out for a walk to the grocery store this afternoon. Got all the way there and halfway back in wind and light rain before the next wave of howling wind and pounding rain hit. We're a bit wet now, but at least we have supplies.

Toilet paper has been an interesting experience on our trip ... or perhaps I should say, the lack of toilet paper.

Hong Kong public toilets were often without toilet paper. In Taiwan, they'd have a large roll out where everyone (men and women) washed their hands, and you'd take as much as you figured you were going to need. Several places in Germany did the central large roll of toilet paper thing too. And some parts of France (particularly along the west where we are now) are like Hong Kong - they don't provide toilet paper at all.

If you're travelling, it's a good idea to bring your own roll!

End of the day update: We've been through 72 hours of an Atlantic storm, and it is still going. We did head northward on the Velodyssey Trail, which was quite nice, as I mentioned in a post a few days ago. We stopped at a campground here and took a cabin for 2 nights, then spent some time on the beach and sitting out on the deck. The next day was a bit blustery but we got out and flew a kite on the beach, and did some wading and splashing etc.

That evening one of the campground managers came by and told us to batten down the hatches because we were in for a storm. Originally it was only supposed to be the night and was supposed to move on by morning. 72 hours later, we're still here and the storm is still raging outside.

Some reports say it is supposed to keep going for another 24 hours ... some say it is supposed to start moving on during the day tomorrow.

You should hear it ... for 72 hours it has been like a train has been going right past the cabin ... a constant deep rumble that comes from the ocean, which is just wild, and the wind. Sometimes the train rumble gets louder and sounds like it is coming right for the cabin (like right now, as a matter of fact), and then the cabin is blasted with either sand or rain. And when the rain gets heavy, which is does in waves, it's like the cabin is going through a carwash. It's unrelenting.

So we've been stuck inside, and I've worked on my story and on photos.

We're hoping to be able to keep riding again on Friday. We do have to get going soonish ... we'd like to be in Paris on Oct 1 if possible.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Thursday 27 September - What is that brilliant, blinding orb in the sky? I haven't seen anything like that in days!

Much nicer today. :) The sky is mostly blue, the sun is out, the waves and wind aren't as strong. We've been out for a walk along the beach and are talking about a short ride up the road.

For the dog lovers in the crowd ... today we were walking on the beach and were joined by a friendly dog. As we watched the dog and the ocean waves, he did something interesting.

When the waves came in, he ran in them and splashed about as we might have expected. Then the moment the waves started to go out, he laid down as flat as can be in the sand. These waves were still strong from the storm so even lying flat, they still tugged at him a bit, but for the most part he stayed put.

And he did it every time. If he was in the water, as soon as the waves went out, he laid down.

So ... is that a natural behaviour, or did someone teach him that?

After we got in from our walk, we did indeed go for a ride, a loop around Montalivet on cycling paths. One of the paths we were on is part of the Velodyssey Route which we will be cycling again tomorrow. It was good to get out today as a warm up for our rides over the next few days.

(Cycled: 15.2 km)

Friday 28 September - Today we departed Montalivet, and started heading northward. Again, we're a little bit sad to be leaving the place that has been our home for almost a week.

As we cycled up the Velodyssey Trail along the west coast of France, we saw some storm damage from the recent storm, but none quite as bad as in Soulac. There it looks like half the beach was picked up and deposited in the city streets, along with a stray roof or two.

Soulac looks like quite a nice little town. We stopped for lunch there, and ended up chatting to a couple who are from the UK, but have a holiday home in the Soulac area. He cycles and was interested in touring. It was very nice to chat to someone who spoke English and who had a common interest.

The route up the coast was good. Very nice, quiet paved paths. Unfortunately, just outside Soulac, Rowan had a flat tire, but it gave me an opportunity to take photos of the path. I also discovered that there was a little train which took people from Soulac to the point where they can catch a ferry across to Royan. I think it was a little tourist train, and was only running on weekends at this time of year, but during the summer it apparently runs quite frequently.

We got to the point, where the ferry will take us across to Royan, and then rounded the point to a place called Le Verdon-sur-Mer. There we had a little bit of trouble finding a place to stay ... lots of places are closed now.

First we stopped by the Tourist Information office, and were given two campgrounds to check. Both campgrounds were just out of town so we cycled out to the closest, only to discover that they had just closed for the winter. We continued, following the directions we had been given, and ended up at a place which looked like it might have been a campground ... a very old, decrepit campground that looked a little spooky. After standing there a little while wondering what to do, we determined that perhaps this wasn't a campground at all, but rather a "graveyard" of old campervans. So we cycled around to another place where we thought there might be a campground, and it was much nicer. But no one was there. The closed office was manned by a collection of dogs and cats. We waited and waited and finally decided we couldn't wait any longer and returned to the town to cycle around and see what there was in the way of hotels.

We spotted a couple closed hotels, and one that might be open, but no one was there. There was a phone number on the door, but that was one difficulty we had ... several places we've encountered have phone numbers on the door, with the intent that customers should call the number and the managers will then come over and open the place, but we don't have a phone.

So we returned to the Tourist Information Office and with the help of a friendly tourism office person and hotel manager, we arranged to get a room. But only after 7 pm. We were at loose ends for about 2 hours during which time we cycled around town and sat at the beach. And then, finally, we were able to get into the hotel, into a nice, inexpensive room.

We also had a bit of trouble finding a place to eat for dinner. We walked and walked, but all the possibilities were either closed entirely or close early. We finally found a tiny little pizza place and squeezed ourselves in. The small room had about 4 or 5 tables in it, all closely packed together, and 3 of the tables had customers who all seemed to know each other and the lady running the place. It had a very family atmosphere. We were warmly welcomed, and were served delicious pizzas, with thin crusts.

(Cycled: 46.46 km)

Saturday 29 September - Today was a short cycling day because we crossed over to Royan by ferry. We cycled to the ferry crossing, boarded, and off we went. The trip was about half an hour long, on almost glassy smooth water. A bit different from a few days ago!

Royan is lovely ... at least the bit we saw. We cycled along the waterfront to the Office du Tourisme, and discovered it was closed. So we went round the corner and got something to eat, including another huge ice cream. By the time we finished all that, the Tourism Office was open and we were able to get maps for the next part of our route.

One thing about the Velodyssey Route is that it appears to be divided into sections and we had to get maps for each section as we entered it. Tourism Offices did not have maps for the whole route or for the adjoining sections.

Then we cycled to Saint Palais-sur-Mer, next to or part of Royan, where we found a hotel overlooking the ocean. Very nice! Possibly one of the nicest rooms we've had, and we had a view of the ocean from our room.

We were a bit concerned, when moments after we got into the room, a band started setting up in a closed miniature golf course just below our window. Were we in for a night of loud music? But the band was quite good, and played some decent music while they were warming up. And then people started arriving and we quickly figured out it was a wedding. But still ... were we in for a night of loud music?

In the early evening, we went for a stroll along the edge of the beach, and further up the road, looking for food. But we didn't find a place where we really wanted to stop. One of the problems with a tour is that we get tired of restaurant food or settling for whatever food happens to be available. In Germany, the restaurants served a lot of food, with a lot of meat. In the beginning that was great ... a novelty. But after a while, all I wanted was a bowl of veggies. We're experiencing a bit of that again because there seems to be a plethora of pizza places in this area. I like pizza, but not every day. And again, a bowl of veggies would be lovely.

So we settled for sandwiches and some treats from the bakery. I don't get tired of the treats from the bakery!

We stayed next to the ocean until night fell, watching the sun go down, and when we walked back to the hotel, the wedding party and guests were gone, and the band was packing up to go. So the night was very quiet.

When we returned to the hotel, we had a nice chat with my parents on Skype this evening. I don't think we've done that since Rowan and I left the UK. Very good to "see" them again. :)

A comment about wifi here in Europe ... it's available just about everywhere. We've been in 3 campgrounds (6 nights) which did not have wifi, and 1 hotel (Martigny). The rest of the time we've been in Europe (2 months), staying in hotels, B&Bs, and campgrounds (cabin and tent), we've had wifi access. Sometimes we have it right in our room or tent, sometimes we have to go to a central area in order to connect, but the majority of the time it is available.

And it is also available in McDonalds, internet cafes, tourism offices, and on trains.

Along the way, we also had wifi in the hotel in Hong Kong, our start/finish hotel in Taiwan (but not the hotel in Hualian .... there was a library across the street from it with internet access), and in all but our first campground in Japan.

I been a little bit surprised ... pleasantly surprised. When we were here in 2007, many campgrounds and hotels had several computers for people to use, and you often had to pay by the 15 minute block to access the internet. Those are mostly gone now, although a few places will still have a token one for the person who doesn't carry a laptop or whatever. Instead it is expected that you'll want wifi.

I am hoping that we'll have as much luck with this sort of internet access in North America.

As for recharging our computers, when we stay in a hotel, B&B, cabin in a caravan park (campground), etc., they've got power. We've got an international adapter for the various plugs we've encountered. When we stay in a campground in our tent, it can be a little bit more difficult, but we've recharged in toilet blocks, in the library/recreation areas, or sometimes we've paid a few extra Euro to use the power from the powered sites.

Our computers can run for up to 8 hours on battery alone, depending what we are using the computers for.

(Cycled: 9.8 km)

Sunday 30 September - Today we rode from Royan to Marennes. Much of the route ran along the ocean. The first part of the route was lovely because we could see the ocean, then the route tucked in behind the sand dunes where we could hear the ocean, but not see it.

The path was paved, as it has been along the way so far, which was good, but it was a little challenging in places with a few tall rollers over the dunes. However, that's a bit of variety from the usual flat trails. The path was also easy to follow and very quiet.

After about 30 km or so, I was ready for a break so we took a little side road toward the beach, and ate lunch sitting on the sand overlooking the ocean. If we had more time, I would have loved to stop and splash in the ocean, but we had to keep moving.

As we got closer to Marennes, the route passes through a beach town, with many closed campgrounds at this time of year, then across the long bridge to Marennes.

Marennes claim to fame are oysters. Apparently it is one of the best oyster areas in Europe.

Marennes seemed almost deserted, and a couple of the hotels we located were closed. But we kept following signs hoping they would eventually lead us to one that was open, and they did.

This hotel was just like one you'd find in Canada ... like a Super 8 or something similar. It almost felt like we'd been transported over to Canada.

I wasn't feeling particularly well when we got there for some reason, so I rested while Rowan went out to seek dinner. McDonalds it was!

Campgrounds, hotels, and restaurants are closing up for the winter in the area where we're travelling (west coast of France). It's getting a bit harder to find accommodations or food. A number of campgrounds closed in mid-September, and several more close this weekend. It's down to the odd one here and there which is open, and even then there are reduced reception hours. In two towns now, several of the hotels have also been shuttered and boarded up for the winter, as have some of the restaurants.

Just a few more days till Paris ... Tuesday or Wednesday, and it's looking like Wednesday because our trek northward has been slower going than I expected.

I will miss this part of France. We'd really like to return here and rent a house for 6 weeks or so to explore the area a lot more. In fact, it would be nice to buy a house in this area ... but I don't think our budget allows for that ... yet.

(Cycled: 51 km)

Monday 01 October - We got in 56 km today. The storm finally let up a few days ago, and we started cycling northward ... 46 km (Friday), 10 km (Saturday), 51 km (Sunday), and today 56 km. All on the Velodyssey Trail.

Today we rode from Marennes to Rochefort. The route wasn't quite as nice as the rest has been. It was mainly gravel, but fortunately the gravel was reasonably hard packed so it wasn't too difficult to ride. The terrain is also very flat, which helps. And we passed through some beautiful autumn foliage.

Fairly early in the ride, we got lost and found ourselves in an oyster farm. That was kind of interesting. I've never seen one before. We backtracked and found our way again. But a little futher on, we lost our way again briefly, when we thought the signs directed us to a path around a pretty little lake. In this area, we did have to pay close attention to the signs.

The last bit of the route coming into Rochefort was also a bit difficult because there were sections where the route almost seemed to disappear and we were riding on the road with all the traffic. And we happened to arrive in Rochefort at the end of the day, during rush-hour traffic. Finally we ended up at the train station, and were able to locate some hotels on a map outside the station. Fortunately, there are lots of signs for important things like train stations.

As usual, we went for a walk in the evening and were presented with two choices for dinner ... pizza (again) or crepes. We opted for crepes. We've encountered these crepes twice now in France ... they're square and savoury rather than sweet. I'm not quite sure about them ... I do think I prefer the sweet ones.

We've been on the road 104 days now. Somehow I missed the fact that we had reached 100 days.

And we've cycled 65 of those 104 days ... almost 2000 km.

(Cycled: 56.42 km)

Tuesday 02 October - Today we cycled from Rochefort to La Rochelle.

The first part of the route was listed as "intermediate" rather than "family", indicating some difficulty in the riding, but we didn't find it difficult at all. There was some challege for a little while keeping track of the route (turn here, turn there, turn again), and the route did vary between gravel and paved, but it was generally quite good.

We arrived in La Rochelle fairly early and were able to find a hotel near the train station and marina right away.

Then we had a lovely afternoon/evening walking around the marina where the yachts are moored here in La Rochelle, including a nice chat with an Australian who will be participating in a sailing race soon. Rowan used to sail, and race, and he misses it. He'd love to get out there too. Then an excellent dinner in a little restaurant.

We've enjoyed the Velodyssey route and might like to do the route from the UK to Spain one day. It's a little bit sad to leave this area already.

Velodyssey Trail

We finally broke the 2000 km point reaching 2032.75 today.

(Cycled: 42.88 km)

Wednesday 03 October - In Paris ... visiting Claire! :)

Today we had a nice brunch in La Rochelle, and then caught a train out of La Rochelle to Paris ... a good, uneventful trip.

When we got to the Montparnasse station, we discovered that getting down to the main entrance was a bit of a challenge. We couldn't find a lift down to the level we needed, and the escalators were blocked so we couldn't move the bicycles, with panniers, through.

In the end, we took the lift down to the parking garage level and walked out of the parking garage. There's got to be another way out, but the parking garage way worked.

As usual, when we arrive somewhere it was pouring rain, and rained for the rest of the evening and night.

We didn't have too long to wait, and then Claire appeared to lead us to where she and Stephane live. It was a quick ride through Paris after-work traffic in the rain, and a bit of effort to keep up, but we arrived all right.

Our evening was spent exchanging stories of our travels. Claire has just returned from a cycling trip around Europe where she covered 13,000 km and 19 countries. Stephane accompanied her for some of the trip as well. Very nice to see Claire again.

(Cycled: 6.47 km)

Thursday 04 October - The rain cleared up, and we spent the day walking around Paris, and covered quite a distance. Starting from the east ... to the Decathlon, of course, and up the Seine to the Notre Dame cathedral and back, with a brief stop in one of the multitude of cafes along the way for lunch.

Sadly, Decathlon did not have as much as we would have liked. Well, that's not quite true ... Decathlon had lots of stuff we liked, but we do have a weight limit. So we limited ourselves to a few small purchases. Australia's Anaconda needs to become just a bit more Decathlon-like!!

We had a quick dinner, and then set off for an Irish pub in the vicinity of the Louvre with Claire and Stephane. The ride there and back was really quite good, especially since the traffic in Paris is relatively light in both the evening and middle of the night.

And it wasn't only the riding that was good, we really enjoyed the evening in the pub listening to Irish music, including some Canadian Maritimes tunes, played by Claire, Stephane and friends. Although, it did strike us a bit funny that we were in the middle of Paris, France at an Irish pub.

(Cycled: 11.59 km)

Friday 05 October - Today we did a bus tour of Paris.

These bus tours have been a sort of "theme" for us on our travels, a good way to get a general overview of a city. We've seen London, Edinburgh, Luxembourg City, Metz, and Bordeaux, so far, by bus or mini-train. And today we saw quite a bit of Paris I haven't seen before. We purchased a 2-day tour pass, so we're planning to do the second half tomorrow. :)

Paris L'Open Tours

Paris L'Open Tours Routes

The first loop we did today was the Bastille-Bercy loop (their blue loop), including the area of the Bastille and Notre Dame. The second we did was the Montparnasse-Saint Germain loop (their red loop), including the Montparnasse tower and Hotel des Invalides.

The bus picked us up at the Bibliothèque Nationale, four L-shaped buildings representing four open books, and took us to the Parc de Bercy, a sports and entertainment stadium. Then we did a cirle around the Place de la Bastille. We travelled down Rue St. Antoine past the Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church, past the Tour Saint-Jacques, across the Seine and by the Palais de Justice, to the Latin Quarter. There we disembarked and boarded the Montparnasse-Saint Germain tour.

The Montparnasse-Saint Germain tour took us near The Panthéon, along beside the Jardin du Luxembourg and near the Observatoire (Port-Royal). We rounded a corner and La Tour Montparnasse came into view. La Tour Montparnasse is at the Montparnasse train station which is where we arrived in Paris this time.

From there the route took us up the Boulevard des Invalides where we saw L'Église Saint-François-Xavier,and L'Hôtel des Invalides, with a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. The route curved around onto Boulevard Saint Germain, which is one of the longest streets of the left Seine riverbank. The Boulevard goes by L'Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (an old Abbey, built 990-1014) and Les Deux Magots, a cafe which was a popular meeting place for writers and artists of various sorts.

A few years ago, I took an Art History class, during which time we learned about various artists, their haunts, and the movements they started or were involved in. One of the more interesting aspects of the tour was the commentary which told us which artists favoured which places. Seeing the places first hand kind of brought to life that Art History class.

We disembarked in the vicinity of Notre Dame and walked back to Claire and Stephane's place.

It was a nice warm, sunny day so the tour was particularly pleasant. It was very comfortable sitting on the upper deck of the bus, a good place to get photos and to see lots of attractions.

In the evening the four of us went out to dinner to a lovely little restaurant. Then Claire got ready for a quick weekend cycling tour she had previously planned in order to meet friends cycling from the UK to China. Lots of people on the move!

(Cycled: 0 km)

Saturday 06 October - Today was another rainy day, but still, we did the Paris Grand Tour loop (green loop), including the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe; and most of the Montmartre-Grands-Boulevards loop (yellow loop), including La Madeleine, Place de la Republique, and Moulin Rouge. We started by catching the Bastille-Bercy loop to Notre Dame. We saw lots of Notre Dame on this trip! Then we caught the Paris Grand Tour loop from there.

From Notre Dame, the route took us along the Seine past the Musee d'Orsay, and around the Place de la Concorde. In fact, I think we circled it a couple times to give us the opportunity to take more photos. Unfortunately it was quite dark and rainy, but we stuck it out on the top deck during this portion of the trip.

Then we travelled up the Champs Elysees to L'Arc de Triomphe, and circled it. In 2003, a friend and I took a train to L'Arc de Triomphe and spent some time walking around it, and through it. From there, the bus tour took us to Trocadero Square where the Museum of Man and National Navy Museum are located. I've only seen them from a distance and have never visited them ... maybe next time.

Then, of course, we crossed over the Seine and did a slow circle around the Eiffel Tower. I got several photos even though the weather was not conducive to taking photos. We had considered hopping off and walking around, maybe even going to the top of the Tower, but with the pouring rain and more to see, we decided to stay in the bus.

We moved down to the main floor of the bus because it was getting quite chilly and wet, and because the tour took us to the Hotel des Invalides again, which we had seen yesterday. We also passed back through Place de la Concorde again.

The bus stopped at La Madeleine, and we got off there to find a place to eat. There are cafes everywhere, and we finally settled on a little sandwich shop.

Here we decided to join the Montmartre-Grands-Boulevards tour, rather than continuing on to La Musee du Louvre. I had been to the Louvre in 2003 - just quickly inside the door moments before it closed, and we were in that area at the Irish Pub a couple days below. On our next visit, I would like to go into more museums, rather than just visiting them from the outside. :)

The Montmartre-Grands-Boulevards tour circled the The Palais Garnier the original opera house for the Paris Opera, and then took us up to Boulevard de Clichy, the Moulin Rouge district.

From there we curved around to Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est. The first time I arrived in Paris, it was in through Gare du Nord. And that time, I found my way, rather blindly having never been to Paris before, to the Eiffel Tower to meet friends. Just as I arrived at the base of the Eiffel Tower, dusk settled and the tower lit up. It was stunning!

When the bus tour got to Place de la Republique, we opted to disembark and walk back to Claire and Stephane's from there. We were in a thick traffic jam, not going anywhere, and figured our best bet would be to walk from Place de la Republique to Notre Dame and back from there.

We enjoyed the tour, but it would have been a bit nicer if it weren't raining. We had been thinking about walking around some of the famous places, but decided to stay with the tour bus instead.

We have both visited some of these places before, and we cycled up the Champs Elysees back in 2007, so the tour took us through some familiar territory.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Sunday 07 October - Another long walk around Paris today ... and today's focus was on gardens. We wandered around Jardin des Plantes and Le Parc de Bercy. It was really nice to spend some time in nature, but in a city. Lots of other people seemed to feel the same way because both parks were quite crowded.

We've never strolled through parks in Paris before, so this was a new experience for us ... getting to know Paris little by little.

We've done a lot of walking lately, Rowan figures we've probably walked about 6 km/day for the past 4 days. It's not cycling, but it's better than no exercise at all.

In the evening we and Stephane went to a Chinese food restaurant that was quite good. Some of the best Chinese food we've had since Hong Kong.

Change of plans ...

We were going to go to South America on this trip ... and in fact, according to our original plan, we should be in Uruguay right now. But after a lot of thought and debate, and for several reasons, we decided to skip the South America bit for now and instead, to stay in Europe a little longer, and then head straight for Canada.

The plan is to buy a vehicle of some sort in Canada, and then meander from Vancouver to Louisiana (where my brother is) to be there in time for American Thanksgiving. And then ... we'll plan to head west and the drive up the coast.

Mixed in with all this driving will be as much cycling as possible. I'd like to drive to a nice location, stop for a couple days, cycle around the area (hub-and-spoke tour stuff), and then drive on to another nice location, etc. I'm hoping we can see things like the maybe Logan's Pass, if it isn't too snowy, Grand Canyon, some of the red rock desert country, some of the old west stuff (which I've seen years ago), the Redwoods, and so on along the way. Once in the Louisiana, we may be able to do a little loop eastward and visit some of the states I have not been to, as well.

That's the new plan and we'll have to see how it pans out.

Anyone need some rain? Maybe I can make a special visit and see if I can bring the rain with me.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Monday 08 October - Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! Looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner with my family ..... soon. :)

Secret confession of a world traveller ... I always get nervous when I have to travel to a schedule, when I've booked things and have to get there at a particular time. And today is one of those days. Winging it is so much less stressful.

Step 1 - Cycle to Gare St Lazare to catch train in early afternoon. We bid farewell to Stephane, packed up our things and set off. It was drizzly and overcast in Paris, but the ride was quite straightforward.

Step 2 - Take train to Caen (pronounced Khan, like the Wrath of ...). Everything went quite smoothly, the bicycles were loaded, and off we went.

Step 3 - Cycle to Ouistreham. When we disembarked in Caen, I only vaguely recognised the area. I had been here before in 2003 and had cycled out to Ouistreham, but couldn't remember how I found the bicycle path. I think some things have changed in the 9 years since I had been there.

Note: the path is more or less behind the train station. We turned right out of the train station, then right across an inlet or canal ... and then a lady stopped to help us and was very informative. A right turn to follow the canal, a left turn on the second roundabout, and then a right turn onto the trail.

The trail is lovely. Again, when I cycled it in 2003, I remember it as varied ... nice and wide, then narrow, then gravel, then nice and wide again, etc. Now it is nice and wide all the way. Really quite a pleasant ride, especially with the autumn colours.

Step 4 - Board ferry. When we got to Ouistreham, we booked in and then spent the evening waiting in the ferry terminal. We weren't set to board till 10 pm, so we had quite a bit of spare time. I worked on photos. Then we joined the queue and were ushered aboard the ferry.

We wandered around the ferry a little bit, and then retired to our cozy little cabin in preparation for an early morning start.

(Cycled: 31.56 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

ENGLAND

Tuesday 09 October - The crossing was, fortunately, uneventful. It got a little wavy toward morning, but not too bad. We docked in Portsmouth about 6:30 am and found ourselves in the UK.

Continuing on from the schedule from yesterday ...

Step 5 - Get train to Bridgwater. First we had to find the train station. I had also been to Portsmouth 9 years ago, and my impression was that we cycled off the ferry, turned right, found a little place to eat ... and then got a train to Reading. Simple. My impression was also that Portsmouth was very, very quiet. Either I forgot a lot of what happened then, or things have changed. Finding our way to the station wasn't quite that simple, and there was a busy highway right in front of the ferry terminal. However, we did eventually find the station.

It was freezing in Portsmouth!! Raining and cold ... and the weather didn't improve along the way.

We were able to get our tickets and after a bit of a wait, we were on our way to Bridgwater.

We had to change trains along the way, with a fairly tight connection ... a sprint to the right coach, load the bicycles in, sprint to the next car back and we were off. But we did notice that there were quite a few more people than we had expected on board, and we soon found out that there had been an accident on the track and one of the trains had ceased service, so people were being rerouted.

This caused us some concern with our next transfer which was also very tight, but when we got there, figuring we had missed the train ... there it was, and we were on our way again. In no time we were in Bridgwater.

The plan was to visit St John Street Cycles. We were under the impression that they would have not only their online business, but also a retail show room. However, all that's there is a small office with a large warehouse behind. It was a bit disappointing. Fortunately, Rowan was able to get a part he needed for our tandem.

It was raining lightly when we arrived in Bridgwater. By the time we left SJS Cycles, it was pouring. So we tried to find the Information Centre. About 1.5 hours later (and Bridgwater isn't that big), we had tried here and tried there and couldn't find it. People directed us down this street and down that street. All in the pouring rain. Finally, one place told us that the Information Centre was there, but that it was on greatly reduced hours and was closed just then. However, we were given a brochure with information about a B&B ... and that's where we are now. We were absolutely soaked through when we rolled up the B&B.

Fortunately, we were able to find a lovely B&B ... warm and dry, out of the rain. We haven't stayed in a B&B since we left The Netherlands a little over 2 months ago. And we had a good, inexpensive pub meal for dinner. I've missed good, inexpensive pub meals. :)

The UK is well into the autumn foliage now - looks a bit different from when we left.

It is good to be back in an English speaking area again, although I am finding myself thinking what to say in French, and then suddenly realising I don't need to do that anymore. It's nice to be able to read menus and signs without having to concentrate and think about it. We've been on this trip a little over 3.5 months and so far, only 3 weeks of that have been in an English speaking area. It's a lot of work being in parts of the world where we don't really know the language very well.

And English television!! Not CNN or BBC World!! It's been almost 2.5 months since we've cast an eye on English television. Of course, we went something like 8 months without TV when we lived in the shack in the hills, but it is nice to turn the TV on and understand what's being said. :)

I was reading in a newspaper in Portsmouth that a very large, cold rain storm is supposed to descend on England and Wales tomorrow and the next day. So today's rain and cold wasn't even included in that. With that prospect, our plans to go to Wales may change.

We've been travelling for 16 weeks now. Sometimes it seems like a long time ... sometimes it seems like we just got started.

(Cycled: 6.2 km)

Wednesday 10 October - We did change our plans and decided go to Plymouth instead. Plymouth is where the Mayflower set off from, and appears to be a big sailing area. It is also where the UK portion of the Velodyssey Trail connects to the France portion. And neither of us have ever been to this part of the UK before.

Fortunately we were able to get a train right from Bridgwater to Plymouth with no changes. The fewer changes the better when it comes to train travel with the bicycles.

When we arrived in Plymouth, we made our way to the water's edge (the English Channel), to an area called Barbican, and found the Tourist Information Centre where we got a list of the B&Bs in the area. Then we found a cafe to have lunch and started checking the B&Bs on the list against information we found on the internet, and made a short list of ones to check out.

At the cafe, I had one of my favourite lunch meals, which I had not had since we left the UK ... a baked potato topped with tuna, cheese and salad. Mmmmm!!

We walked and cycled through the most likely areas, and sure enough there are heaps of B&Bs there. In the end, we chose one which we hadn't even noticed in our lunchtime process, but it worked out. We were even able to keep our bicycles in the room, which was rather unusual.

Once settled, we went for a walk through a nearby park and along the foreshore, exploring the area, and having a look at the statue of Francis Drake. It is a nice area and reminds us of parts of Hobart.

(Cycled: 8.1 km)

Thursday 11 October - It was a relaxing day in Plymouth. We wandered around town, checked out the Plymouth/Mayflower exhibit, and had ice cream in a nice little shop.

For the Americans in the crowd, if the name Mayflower sounds familiar ... yes, it is the same one you're thinking of. It set off from here back in 1620 with a few Puritans and lots of "Strangers" on board.

While the Mayflower is the famous American connection to Plymouth, there is a Canadian connection too. John Cabot, an Italian sailor who was working for King Henry VII of England, set sail in 1497 from Bristol and stumbled across Canada, specifically Newfoundland. He discovered that there was good fishing in that area, and after that, fishing vessels from Plymouth regularly made voyages over to Newfoundland to fish. Those voyages were being made ~120 years before the Mayflower set sail.

The Plymouth/Mayflower exhibit was quite interesting and informative.

And then, as I said, we had ice cream in a nice little shop. There are heaps of fudge and ice cream shops in the Barbican area of Plymouth, but the one we chose looked interesting to us and we discovered that they make their own ice cream in the back, and will experiment with different flavours.

What made the place even more interesting was the owner, who we had a nice chat with. He is from Cornwall, and recommended lots of cycling routes there. Next time we come to this part of the UK, we'll have to check some of them out.

Later in the evening we had dinner in a Mexican restaurant which I was a bit surprised to see in that area. I love Mexican food, and this was good.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Friday 12 October - Today's adventure was a boat tour of the harbour area of Plymouth. It was quite interesting and gave us an idea of both the past and present of Plymouth. Quite a large part of the tour was the military area, but it included a quick glimpse of Cornwall as well.

And then we returned to the ice cream shop and I tried Pumpkin Pie ice cream ... very nice! I combined it with one they called "Canadian Summer" which was maple and hazelnut, also a good combination.

So ... in about 3 weeks time, we are planning to begin a drive from Calgary area down to Louisiana and then back to Vancouver. It may be a direct route, or it may meander here and there.

On the US portion of our travels, there's a good chance we could travel through the following states: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington, and possibly also Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Maybe some others, but those are the most likely candidates.

We'd like to take in some attractions ... maybe Logan's Pass if it isn't too snowy, maybe Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Parks, Grand Canyon (or maybe we'll see that one the way back north later) ...

And if possible, we'd like to see some people along the way too. :)

(Cycled: 0 km)

Saturday 13 October - Today we did a bus tour of Plymouth.

This was a little different from our previous bus tours. For one thing, it was not an open top bus. It was a very old bus with the intent in mind to transport us back to the war years and earlier. The presentation was interesting and showed us some of the things which were pointed out on the harbour cruise yesterday from a different perspective. The harbour cruise, bus tour, and Plymouth/Mayflower exhibit were a good combination.

Later, we visited a very busy and popular pasta place we had spotted during our walks ... and discovered why it was a busy and popular place. Very nice!

It's cold out there! It's probably about 10C, but there's a very cold wind blowing off the ocean (channel). I'm not prepared for this yet ... tempting to return to Australia just in time for spring!

(Cycled: 0 km)

Sunday 14 October - Today we went further into Plymouth to see about train tickets to London.

On our walk to the train station, we passed a man-made park feature pond where a group of men were sailing remote control boats. Fascinating to watch, and of course Rowan was particularly fascinated because of his love of sailing. If anyone is looking for a Christmas present for Rowan ... ;) :)

We booked our tickets, and as we have had to do on previous occasions, we had to book our bicycles on the train. We have found it is a very good idea to go to the train station the day before a trip in order to ensure that our bicycles can do the journey, and also to ensure that we get a better price than if we booked the day of the trip.

When we walked back, we noticed that quite a few of the restaurants were having Sunday Roast Dinner as their special, so we decided that sounded appealing and chose one of the many for lunch. I had one of the other options on the menu, but Rowan had roast beef, roast potatoes and veggies, and yorkshire pudding. He gave me a bite of yorkshire pudding. I haven't had that in years and years ... I could eat a whole meal of yorkshire pudding, gravy, potatoes and veggies!! (not so keen on the roast beef).

After lunch, we walked a bit of it off along the foreshore of the Plymouth Harbour. We also spent some time sitting and watching the ships and yachts in the harbour.

And then, we picked up a few snacks on the way back for dinner, including the first mince pies of the season!

We are London bound tomorrow! Or, more specifically ... we're off to Heathrow.

(Cycled: 0 km)

Monday 15 October - Today we took a train to Heathrow, straight through to Reading, and then a change at our leisure to Hayes and Harrington. The Hayes and Harrington station is about 3 km from the row of hotels on Bath Road next to Heathrow. It's quite a straightforward ride all the way down High Street (A437) to Bath Road, which is within sight of the airport.

After checking into the hotel, we decided to take a walk with the intention of walking to Terminal 3, and seeing if we could arrange bicycle boxes.

But ... do you think we could walk there? Well, after quite a trek we could not figure out how to get there on foot. There does, however, appear to be a way to cycle there, through a tunnel, and we'll have to check that tomorrow.

We returned to the hotel, and checked some possible routes online. It appears to be possible to both walk and cycle to Terminals 4 and 5. And it appears to be possible to take a train between the terminals with the bicycles. So we'll check that tomorrow as well.

Charlene the Klutz ... not sure what I did, but shortly after we arrived in Plymouth, my left thumb was in a lot of pain, and all swollen and blue. It's back to its normal size, but is a deep burgundy colour now. Odd. Very odd. I don't remember doing anything to cause this. Maybe something went wrong hoisting panniers on and off the train???

Coca-Cola. So after finally getting used to ordering Coca-Cola with no calories in Europe by saying "Coca Light" or "Coca Zero", we're back in a part of the world where it is called "Diet Coke". So there we are ... stumbling over the English description for our beverage of choice!

I have to say, I like the sound of "Coca Zero" better than "Diet Coke". Maybe I'll try calling it that in Canada and see what kind of response I get.

I'm working on my Switzerland photos ... I can't post any more than I already have at the moment because my internet connection is that bad ... but looking at them, and getting them ready for posting next time I've got a decent connection is making me wish I could go back to Switzerland soon.

However, we'll soon be in the mountains of BC. :)

(Cycled: 5.9 km)

Tuesday 16 October - Today we hunted for bicycle boxes.

Stressful day. It is not easy to find bicycle boxes at Heathrow ... we tried everywhere, and covered a lot of kilometres of walking, cycling, and using Express Trains back and forth and back and forth.

We checked several airlines ... Air Canada, British Airways, American, United, KLM ... and none of them had boxes. KLM told us that if we were flying out of Amsterdam, we could get boxes there. United thought they might have boxes, but when they checked, they couldn't find any. And British Airways was the most helpful by offering us bags.

All of them pointed us in the direction of the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shop. In the Departures area of the terminals, the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shops just sent us directly to the Arrivals area. Now does that make sense to you? Here we are trying to depart Heathrow, but we have to go to Arrivals to get boxes so we can depart with our bicycles. Go figure.

And so we went to the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shops in arrivals only to be told that they did not have boxes either. In fact, the one in Terminal 4 just gave us a flat "No". Not "One moment, I'll have a look" ... not "No, but we can order them" ... not "No, but I'll call the other 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shops and see if they have any" ... just "No" and he went on with what he was doing. OK.

The 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shop in Terminal 3 told us to come back at 2 pm and maybe, just maybe, some might come in on a shipment then. We returned, and no boxes appeared on that shipment, but there was a shift change, and someone new was working there, so we asked about the boxes again, and were told that yes, there was one available after all! And after some discussion she decided to order a shipment of 10 to be delivered first thing in the morning, in time for us to get one.

So hopefully there will be a second one available when we get there tomorrow.

And here's hoping all goes well tomorrow. Up early, make our way to airport, acquire boxes (I hope!!), pack ... yes, we'll have to pack everything at the airport ... and make it onto the plane on time.

Stress level = high

119 days on tour including 73 days where we cycled. That's about 61% of the time. We have cycled 2127 km so far, but will have a little bit more before we leave the UK tomorrow.

And hopefully when we get to North America, there will be lots more cycling! :)

(Cycled: 24.61 km)

Wednesday 17 October - Today we flew to North America.

We were up early and cycled through the tunnel to Terminal 3. I had been a bit concerned about the tunnel because the bicycle lane is a painted pink lane right down the middle of the taxi lane. I wasn't sure how taxis and bicycles would interact, but it turned out quite well. There was a line of vehicles behind us, but they kept their distance and we cycled through just fine.

The painted pink lane takes cyclists to Terminal 1, and from there, we walked down a ramp and through a tunnel to Terminal 3. There may be a way to cycle all the way to Terminal 3, and we may have missed it, but we got there in the end.

Fortunately, the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shop, in Arrivals, had the box they set aside for me, and their shipment of 10 bicycle boxes came in. Thanks to our persistance, Terminal 3 Arrivals 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shop now has 9 bicycle boxes in stock for the next 9 cyclists who decide to cycle to the airport to catch their flight out. Enjoy!! :)

We had allowed 2 hours to pack up the bicycles and pack our other stuff, but it ended up taking just 1 hour. That was good. It meant that we could get to the check-in desk quite early.

When we approached the check-in desk, we were met by one of the assistants, and escorted directly to a check-in person. Always nice to be first in line.

For this flight, we were allowed one piece of checked luggage each. The way we had packed, we had 2 bicycle boxes, which filled our 'one piece of checked luggage' limit. And then we had each packed one additional piece of luggage, and would be charged for both. However, we suddenly remembered something from our treks back and forth between the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shops ... they wrapped packages. We asked if we could wrap our two bags together and have them counted as one. That would be acceptable, so Rowan dashed off to have our bags wrapped. Meanwhile our bicycle boxes had been taken away to be weighed.

When everything returned, we were charged a flat fee for the bicycles and a fee for one extra bag (rather than 2), and we were ready to go. We could possibly have been charged a lot more, so we felt fortunate that it had all worked out as it did.

We had aisle seats across the aisle from each other, and the flight was supposed to be full, but there were two empty seats next to Rowan so I moved over, and the flight was reasonably comfortable.

We landed in Calgary and made it through customs and immigration in about an hour ... and then had about 3 hours to wait for the next flight. I had arranged for a connection with quite a bit of time just in case there were some difficulties. I don't like tight connections.

And then it was a quick hop to Vancouver where we were met by my parents and whisked off to Chilliwack.

By the time we arrived, we had been awake for 25 hours and were feeling quite tired.

120 days on tour, 74 days where we cycled, 2131.33 km in total so far!! Onward ho in North America!

(Cycled: 4.15 km)

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos

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TRAVELLING BY TRAIN IN EUROPE

Some tips and suggestions, based on our experiences with train travel in The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, and the UK:

On the day before you travel ...

• Go to the train station the day before you plan to travel.
• Pick up the little train timetable brochure(s) that correspond with your planned travel from a stand that will be somewhere in the ticketing area.
• Note the trains that take bicycles. Not all do, but the brochures should tell you which do and which don't.
• Pay attention to the restrictions mentioned in small print on the brochure. Some services only run on certain days or at certain times.
• Go to the self-serve kiosk to try out a few options so you have an idea of price. Certain times might be less expensive than others.
• Using the brochure and self-serve kiosk, decide on your first choice of time to travel, and second choice, and a back-up third choice.
• Go to the ticket purchasing desk, and buy tickets for both you and the bicycle. You may get your first choice, but sometimes the bicycle spots are all booked, so you'll have to go with your second choice.
• Note that you may have to pay anywhere from nothing at all for the bicycle up to about $20. 18 Swiss Francs was the most expensive we encountered, in Switzerland.

The day of travel ...

Get to the station early, so you can locate your platform. The electronic boards throughout the station should tell you which platform your train will be departing from, and if you are really fortunate, it will be one you can easily roll your bicycle onto.

However, if the platform is not right outside the door, most likely you'll have to access it by going down a level and walking through a tunnel, or going up a level to an overhead sidewalk. You may have a lift available, or you may need to pack everything up and down stairs or an escalator. From our experience, most stations have lifts, but every so often they don't, or the lift is out of order. Again, it is good to arrive early in case you need to walk some distance or carry things up and down stairs.

Once you get to the platform, there may be station attendents on the platform, who may come over and give you information, like where the bicycle car might be located. Or you can try asking them. But note that they don't always know because the trains arrive with cars in various orders. It is, however, a good idea to make contact with the station attendents because they can offer assistance, and will keep an eye out for you, to ensure you and your bicycle are all aboard. They may even help you get your bicycle and everything onto the train. We found the station attendents to be quite friendly and helpful.

When the train rolls into the station, quickly look for the car with the bicycle on the door or beside the door. The train will still be moving at a fairly good speed when it comes in, so you'll have to be alert in order to spot the symbol. Sometimes the symbol is quite large, but other times it is tiny and in rather obscure places. As soon as you spot that car, hasten over there. Depending on how much time you have, you may need to run!

If you don't see a bicycle on any of the doors, you can occasionally use the handicapped car, but only as a last resort. It is better to find the bicycle car.

Some trains have nice wide doors and low floors so you can easily roll your bicycle on, with panniers still on the bicycle. Some trains have narrow doors and steep stairs to shove your bicycle up, and you'll have to remove your panniers to get the bicycle in. Or there might be some combination of the two. You won't know till the train gets there. Be ready to remove your panniers quickly at the door.

Once in, if your panniers are still on you'll likely have to take them off (you may have had to take them off in order to get the bicycle in the door), and then you'll likely have to hang the bicycle up by a wheel. The panniers can go on the floor and can be used to stabilise the bicycle. There are some variations on this, but I think that was the most common situation.

One variation we encountered was that it was occasionally possible to lean the bicycles, with panniers on, in an area for bicycles. That area is usually designed to take 3 or 4 bicycles so yours, with panniers, will take up all or most of the space. If other cyclists arrive, you may have to remove your panniers to give them room to place their bicycles.

Another variation was that our bicycles were placed or hung in one car designated for things like that, but with no connecting doors to the other cars. We had to hang our bicycles, tuck our panniers around them, then sprint to the door of the next car to get on and find our seat.

After getting the bicycle settled, go sit down in your designated seat. One thing about booking the day before is that much of the time we got a comfortable designated seat.

About 10 minutes before you get to your station, go back to the bicycle (if you can), and make preparations to get off the train. If the bicycle is hanging, take it down. Attach the panniers if the bicycle will be able to fit through the door with them.

A few other tips ...

-- If you need to change trains, allow yourself a minimum of 15 minutes between trains, so that you can get from one platform to the next, especially if there are no lifts. It is better to have to wait 45 minutes at a station than to have 5 minutes to try to dash from one train to another.

-- Bring something you can wrap around your handlebar and brake lever to squeeze the brake closed. Some people use a bit of bicycle tube or large rubber bands. When you have your bicycle in place, attach your band device so that the wheels don't spin, if the bicycle is hanging, or so that the bicycle doesn't rock, if the bicycle is sitting. The band is also helpful if you have to stand with your bicycle.

-- The number of people in your group can make a difference.

• If you're alone, the process may be simpler because you've got an increased chance you'll be able to get your bicycle onto a train at the last minute - it is possible you may not need to book a ticket in some situations. And you may be able to leave your panniers on the bicycle when you get it in the train. But if you do have to take them off when you're on the platform, in order to get the bicycle into the train, that can be a bit risky and a bit of a hassle. Same with hauling everything up and down stairs.
• If there are two or more of you, you will likely need to book tickets for your bicycles. The more there are, the greater the need to book tickets for your bicycles. Trains don't have a large number of places for bicycles. Sometimes there might only be 2-4 places, so if you've got 4 or 6 in your group, you may not be able to get everyone on the same train.
• However, if there are two or more of you, the physical act of getting onto the train can be easier and safer, especially if panniers need to be removed. One person can load the bicycles while the other takes care of the panniers.

-- Put your panniers close to where your bicycles are. There will often be a luggage rack somewhere in the vicinity of the bicycle storage area, or you might be able to tuck the panniers on the floor around the bicycles. Doing this is easier than trying to carry the panniers through the train to wherever your seat is located, and then back to the bicycles again when you approach your stop.

Bracing the bicycle with panniers can also help prevent excess rocking and swaying of the bicycle.

-- Regarding security, we have heard of situations on overnight train rides where bicycles have been stolen. We haven't heard of it happening on day trips, but we did take the following precautions:

• Try to get a seat near the bicycle(s).
• Slip a lock around the bicycle(s) as a basic deterrent. In some cases you might not be allowed to do this.
• Use the straps and belts the train provides to hold your bicycle in place. These will also slow down someone with the idea of just stepping off the train with your bicycle.
• Use bands around your handlebar and brake lever to hold the brakes in place against the rim, as mentioned earlier. These will stop the wheels from spinning if the bicycle is hanging, they will stop the bicycle from rocking back and forth, and may slow down someone with the idea of making off with the bicycle.
• Take valuables with you to your seat. I kept my passport, camera, etc. in my handlebar bag, and removed it and took it to my seat with me.
• Watch the platform at each stop to monitor the comings and goings.

Travel by train in Europe was good in that trains go everywhere, are quick, and are relatively inexpensive ... and they do accept bicycles. But could be a bit of a challenge. If a future trip includes lots of train travel, we'd consider folding bicycles and less luggage in general.

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CYCLING TO HEATHROW -- 2012

Heathrow Airport, Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect, Transport for London, and National Rail have pages with information about getting to and from Heathrow by bicycle, and cycling around London and elsewhere. The following links are a good place to start your own research. It is a good idea to check the links for updated information, as the information I have is from 2012 and may change in years to come:

Heathrow Airport - Cycling to Heathrow

Heathrow Airport - Bicycles on Public Transportation

Heathrow Express Train

Heathrow Connect Train

First Great Western Train Line

Transport for London - Home Page

Transport for London - Bikes on Public Transport

Transport for London - Cycling Information

UK National Rail - Cyclist Information

UK National Rail - Cycling By Train PDF Brochure

Bike-Rail Travel Guides and Restrictions

Bike-Europe Travel Guides and Restrictions

Maps

PDF Heathrow Cycle Route Map

PDF London Rail and Tube Service Map

PDF Transport for London - Bicycles on the Underground Map

PDF Travel Options to London

Getting to Heathrow -- 2012 -- There are several options available to a cycletourist, with varying degrees of difficulty and a range of prices.

The Hayes and Harlington Option:

• Take a train to Hayes and Harlington (in our case, it was from Reading, but it could be done from London Paddington). See the "First Great Western Train Line" link above.
• Cycle 3 km down High Street (A437) to Bath Road (A4). Bath Road is the main road running along the north side of Heathrow, and there are several hotels conveniently located along this road.
• Cycle along Bath Road to what looks like J4 or J4a on the "Heathrow Cycle Route Map" linked above. You can also get there on the Northern Perimeter Road.
• Turn toward Heathrow on J4 or J4a, and cycle through the tunnel. There is a painted pink bicycle lane, which you will share with taxis, but from my experience, they are pretty good. It is, after all, a bicycle lane too.
• You will end up at Terminal 1. From there, you walk down a ramp and through the underground hallways to Terminal 3. There may also be a way to cycle around Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, but we did not see that option. Evidently there is a path from Terminal 3 back to the tunnel.
• From Terminal 3, you can use the Heathrow Express to travel between Terminals. See Heathrow Express Option below.

Cyclists can also cycle to and from Terminal 5 (and, we presume, to and from Terminal 4), and pedestrians can walk to those Terminals as well, using the cyclepath along Bath Road (A4)or the Northern Perimeter. Cycling can be a bit hair raising in places, and the cyclepath comes and goes, but it is doable. From there, cyclists can use the free Heathrow Express between Terminals.

According to the "Heathrow Cycle Route Map" linked above, more cyclepaths have been proposed which may make cycling to Terminals 5 and 4 a little bit easier, but there is no indication when those paths may be built.

The Heathrow Express Option:

The Heathrow Express travels between all Heathrow Terminals, and London Paddington.

Between Heathrow's Terminals, the Heathrow Express is free and will carry bicycles free of charge. Note that there is a sign at the gate to the Heathrow Express trains telling everyone that bicycles are not allowed. However, I went upstairs in Terminal 5, and asked if they were. There, I was told that they were allowed on the Heathrow Express between Terminals, but not on the underground tube. So cyclists can be transported between terminals free of charge. And there are heaps of large lifts available for additional convenience.

It is quite possible that bicycles may be allowed on Heathrow Express to London Paddington too, but there will be a charge for the cyclist, and may be a charge for the bicycle as well. This could be a more expensive option. Check the "Heathrow Express Train" link above for fare prices, and note the luggage restrictions in the Conditions of Carriage, linked below.

"Bicycles are carried subject to these conditions of carriage [see link below for details]. They are not carried on trains leaving Heathrow between 7.30 and 10.00 or Paddington between 16.30 and 19.00 except on Saturdays and Sundays." So bicycles are not allowed during peak hours.

Heathrow Express - Conditions of Carriage

There may also be a restriction on the number of bicycles which can travel by Heathrow Express. The "Cycling by Train" brochure, linked above, indicates that there is only one space per train.

If this is an option you would like to pursue, you would have to contact Heathrow Express either online or at Heathrow Airport to confirm their policies. I believe there is an information centre for Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect on the main floor of Terminal 5.

See the "London Rail and Tube Service Map" for route description.

The Heathrow Connect Option:

Heathrow Connect is a slower train than Heathrow Express and stops at more places. It will stop at Hayes and Harlington, London Paddington and others. It is also significantly less expensive than Heathrow Express. Check the "Heathrow Connect Train" link above for fare prices.

It would appear that bicycles are allowed onto this train under the same rules and regulations as other trains in the UK. (See "UK National Rail" links above)

There may also be a restriction on the number of bicycles which can travel by Heathrow Connect. The "Cycling by Train" brochure, linked above, indicates that there is only one space per train.

If this is an option you would like to pursue, you would have to contact Heathrow Connect either online or at Heathrow Airport to confirm their policies. I believe there is an information centre for Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect on the main floor of Terminal 5.

See the "London Rail and Tube Service Map" for route description.

The Underground Option:

You can take a folded bike anywhere and anytime on the underground, but there are limitations on non-folding bikes. As you can see from the "Transport for London - Bicycles on the Underground Map" linked above, you cannot take your non-folding bicycle into and out of Heathrow on the underground. The closest you can get is Hounslow West. Between Hounslow West and Heathrow, you can, however, take your bicycle in a box, but that can be very inconvenient if your bicycle box does not have wheels.

This is the option we have used till now. Fly into Heathrow, use the airport trolleys to transport our bicycle boxes and additional bags to the Underground station below Terminal 3. Then set the trolley aside and drag the bicycle boxes and additional bags onto the tube, and travel to the Earl's Court station. Then put the bicycles together at the Earl's Court station. It's a lot of work, and the underground is often crowded.

This option might work better if your bicycle box has wheels, and if you don't have a lot of additional luggage.

The "Transport for London - Bikes on Public Transport" website provides information regarding bicycles on all public transportation. See all three "Transport for London" links above.

The Cycling Option:

If you can get ahold of the free cycle guides offered in the link below, you may be able to cycle out of Heathrow. Look for cycle guides #6 and #9. Unfortunately, they are only mailed to UK addresses, but may be available elsewhere too. You can check at the Heathrow Travel Information Centre located in the Underground area of Terminals 1 and 3: Heathrow 123 Underground station, Heathrow Airport Information about acquiring the Free London Cycle Guide https://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11682.aspx At this point, Sustran does not have routes in the Heathrow area.

As for getting bicycle boxes at the airport ... that's not easy!!

Most airlines do not stock boxes anymore. British Airways did have bags, and United Airlines indicated that they occasionally have a bicycle box or two available, but there is no guarantee. All the airlines directed us to the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shops.

There are 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shops in all terminals, in both the arrivals and departures areas. However, the departures ones did not have any boxes at all, nor did they seem inclined to get any. The arrivals ones indicated that they do occasionally carry bicycle boxes.

If you need boxes for your bicycles, our best advice is, get to the airport a day or two early, and be persistent ... keep asking.

Fortunately, the 'Left Baggage/Excess Baggage' shop in the arrivals area of Terminal 3 had one box in stock, and ordered a shipment of 10 bicycle boxes when we were there. Thanks to our persistance, Terminal 3 Arrivals 'Left Luggage/Excess Baggage' now has 9 bicycle boxes in stock for the next 9 cyclists who decide to cycle to the airport to catch their flight out.

Asia Story

Europe - UK Story

Europe - Mainland Story

North America Story

Australia Story

Round the World - Asia Photos

Round the World - UK Photos

Round the World - The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg Photos

Round the World - Switzerland & France

Round the World - West Coast of France, Paris, and UK Photos

Round the World - North America Photos

Round the World - North America Photos Part 2

Round the World - Australia Photos