Mark and Jordan Bike thru Europe

Jordan in Chambord

2009-08-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

2009-08-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Munchen and the End

2009-08-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

August 25, 2009 (Connor's 22nd Birthday!)
Just woke up in Orleans. We arrived here around 1PM yesterday. The ride from Tours on Sunday was probably the best weather we have had all trip. It felt like a crisp, fall day in the morning, and then Indian summer in the afternoon. About 20 clicks into the ride, I started seeing signs for the chateau at Cheverny. This is where the famous water lilly paintings were done by Degas. Having plenty of time to get to Orleans we took a detour. Once we got off the main road along the Loire River, the countryside got a lot more interesting. We got to Cheverny around 2PM and toured the chateau and the grounds. I would say the hilight for both of us was visiting the dog kennel. They keep about 50 French hounds for fox hunting. The smell was a little strong, but we are both missing our dogs at home, so we go nuts whenever we see any. It is kind of interesting that the chateau is privately owned. The family lives in the upper part of the right side of the chateau. The husband and wife were married there in 1994 and they have three children. I cannot believe the tourist money does any more than defray some of the operating costs of the place. I would say he is more than "nuvoue riche"!
We biked on to just south of Chambord and camped. The next day we biked into Chambord. I imagine this is where they make Chambord liquor, which tastes like an alcoholic berry pancake syrup. The chateau there is beautiful, too. We took pictures of the outside but did not stop. Continued biking to Orleans and arrived around 1PM. It is a beautiful city. I am not sure how big it is, but it has an interesting tram system. Very few cars in the city. The statue of Joan of Arc is right in the middle of the city.
We hop on our train to Paris in an hour and then catch the TGV to Munchen, where we will arrive at around 9PM. I found a place called Tent City about 6 clicks from the train station where we can camp. It looks like a huge outdoor hostel. It should be interesting.
This brings the biking portion of the trip to an end. I just broke another spoke yesterday for a grand total of 5 broken spokes, two flats, one destroyed rear derailleur, and one destroyed chain. Jordan had no flats and no broken spokes. The only work I had to do on her bike was minor adjustments after she would crash. It is ironic that the only serioius bike mechanic problems (derailleur) happened on the very first day of biking. One other bike maintenance task I did on the Italian Riviera was rotate my front and back tires. The back was getting pretty worn, which is normal since most of the weight is on it. All in all, pretty lucky in this regard.
Some pratical tips... Three pieces of equipment were crucial. The GPS (Garmin with Europe chip) was fantastic once I got the hang of it. About the only time it had serious problems was when you were in cities that had confusing roads. It would sometimes lead you in circles. In those cases, I would hit the out button to see a wider area on the screen, and then just bike in the general direction I wanted to go. The GPS came in very handy when choosing campgrounds. We used it to see where the closest restaurants or grocery stores were in relation to available campsites. I am looking forward to future versions which access the web and let you actually see more information about the sites in question. We would often use the GPS in conjunction with the next crucial piece of equipment to make our choices...
The netbook computer, although we could have done the trip without it, was a great piece of equipment to have. As mentioned previously, we would use it to check on ratings of hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, train schedules. But one of the best aspects of having it was the ability to communicate with people back home. We met a lot of interesting people on this trip, but there were some lonely points, too. It was always a high point of the day to find free WiFi (usually at McDonalds) and get on-line. It obviously was necessary to keep the blog updated in pretty much real time. I ended up getting the Dell Mini, refurbished, for about $260 (based on a recommendation by Chuck Shull, who really researches his purchases!). I also purchased a "sleeve" for it and a plastic case designed for bathing supplies (from The Container Store) to insure that I kept it dry. It was always in my handlebar bag.
The last crucial piece of equipment was our lowly cargo net begs from LL Bean. I originally decided to get these because we were only allowed two pieces of checked luggage per person on the plane. Our bikes were one of these, so I needed something strong and light-weight to carry our bike bags, tent, sleeping bag, etc. The cargo net bags were perfect. What I did not count on was how handy they were when we started travelling by train or checking into hotels. Most of the trains make you remove all panniers from the bike and then hang it vertically from the front tire. Since the amount of time you have to board a train is very short in most cases, unloading all our gear from our bikes and putting it in our cargo bags made entry and exit from trains much easier.
Another thing I highly recommend is hooking up with any friends you can while travelling. The second day of the trip, we had dinner with Ben Gifford and his mom, Klaudia Shaw. We had a great time seeing familiar faces in England. Next, we spent several great days in Paris at Paul and Danielle Zilk's home. It was great being joined there by Rob and Cheryl Crim and their kids, Haley and Jack. Lastly, we rolled into Lugano, Switzerland after rough biking in the Bavarian Alps and squatted for a full week with Vic Rush and his boys, Jordy and Keenan.
But the big thing we learned is the same thing Dorothy learned in the Wizard of Oz... There is no place like home! Barb, Connor, and Donna Madlener are meeting us in Munchen in a few days for a tour of eastern Europe. I wish Ian could have made it, too, but he is going to spend this time on Hilton Head watching Aslan, Wrigley, and Hallie. We are really excited to see them. Then it is back to the good old US of A! I may post some more on this blog of the eastern bloc portion of the trip, or I may not. Au Revoir, Arrevederchi, Auf Wiedersehen, So 'long, Good Bye!
Jordan and Mark

Chambord, Mark reading at night, Cheverny

2009-08-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

Munchen and the End

2009-08-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

August 25, 2009 (Connor's 22nd Birthday!)

Just woke up in Orleans. We arrived here around 1PM yesterday. The ride from Tours on Sunday was probably the best weather we have had all trip. It felt like a crisp, fall day in the morning, and then Indian summer in the afternoon. About 20 clicks into the ride, I started seeing signs for the chateau at Cheverny. This is where the famous water lilly paintings were done by Degas. Having plenty of time to get to Orleans we took a detour. Once we got off the main road along the Loire River, the countryside got a lot more interesting. We got to Cheverny around 2PM and toured the chateau and the grounds. I would say the hilight for both of us was visiting the dog kennel. They keep about 50 French hounds for fox hunting. The smell was a little strong, but we are both missing our dogs at home, so we go nuts whenever we see any. It is kind of interesting that the chateau is privately owned. The family lives in the upper part of the right side of the chateau. The husband and wife were married there in 1994 and they have three children. I cannot believe the tourist money does any more than defray some of the operating costs of the place. I would say he is more than "nuvoue riche"!
We biked on to just south of Chambord and camped. The next day we biked into Chambord. I imagine this is where they make Chambord liquor, which tastes like an alcoholic berry pancake syrup. The chateau there is beautiful, too. We took pictures of the outside but did not stop. Continued biking to Orleans and arrived around 1PM. It is a beautiful city. I am not sure how big it is, but it has an interesting tram system. Very few cars in the city. The statue of Joan of Arc is right in the middle of the city.
We hop on our train to Paris in an hour and then catch the TGV to Munchen, where we will arrive at around 9PM. I found a place called Tent City about 6 clicks from the train station where we can camp. It looks like a huge outdoor hostel. It should be interesting.

This brings the biking portion of the trip to an end. Biked over 2,000 clicks. I just broke another spoke yesterday for a grand total of 5 broken spokes, two flats, one destroyed rear derailleur, and one destroyed chain. Jordan had no flats and no broken spokes. The only work I had to do on her bike was minor adjustments after she would crash. It is ironic that the only serioius bike mechanic problems (derailleur) happened on the very first day of biking. One other bike maintenance task I did on the Italian Riviera was rotate my front and back tires. The back was getting pretty worn, which is normal since most of the weight is on it. All in all, pretty lucky in this regard.

Some pratical tips... Three pieces of equipment were crucial. The GPS (Garmin with Europe chip) was fantastic once I got the hang of it. About the only time it had serious problems was when you were in cities that had confusing roads. It would sometimes lead you in circles. In those cases, I would hit the out button to see a wider area on the screen, and then just bike in the general direction I wanted to go. The GPS came in very handy when choosing campgrounds. We used it to see where the closest restaurants or grocery stores were in relation to available campsites. I am looking forward to future versions which access the web and let you actually see more information about the sites in question. We would often use the GPS in conjunction with the next crucial piece of equipment to make our choices...
The netbook computer, although we could have done the trip without it, was a great piece of equipment to have. As mentioned previously, we would use it to check on ratings of hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, train schedules. But one of the best aspects of having it was the ability to communicate with people back home. We met a lot of interesting people on this trip, but there were some lonely points, too. It was always a high point of the day to find free WiFi (usually at McDonalds) and get on-line. It obviously was necessary to keep the blog updated in pretty much real time. I ended up getting the Dell Mini, refurbished, for about $260 (based on a recommendation by Chuck Shull, who really researches his purchases!). I also purchased a "sleeve" for it and a plastic case designed for bathing supplies (from The Container Store) to insure that I kept it dry. It was always in my handlebar bag.
The last crucial piece of equipment was our lowly cargo net begs from LL Bean. I originally decided to get these because we were only allowed two pieces of checked luggage per person on the plane. Our bikes were one of these, so I needed something strong and light-weight to carry our bike bags, tent, sleeping bag, etc. The cargo net bags were perfect. What I did not count on was how handy they were when we started travelling by train or checking into hotels. Most of the trains make you remove all panniers from the bike and then hang it vertically from the front tire. Since the amount of time you have to board a train is very short in most cases, unloading all our gear from our bikes and putting it in our cargo bags made entry and exit from trains much easier.

Another thing I highly recommend is hooking up with any friends you can while travelling. The second day of the trip, we had dinner with Ben Gifford and his mom, Klaudia Shaw. We had a great time seeing familiar faces in England. Next, we spent several great days in Paris at Paul and Danielle Zilk's home. It was great being joined there by Rob and Cheryl Crim and their kids, Haley and Jack. Lastly, we rolled into Lugano, Switzerland after rough biking in the Bavarian Alps and squatted for a full week with Vic Rush and his boys, Jordy and Keenan.
But the big thing we learned is the same thing Dorothy learned in the Wizard of Oz... There is no place like home! Barb, Connor, and Donna Madlener are meeting us in Munchen in a few days for a tour of eastern Europe. I wish Ian could have made it, too, but he is going to spend this time on Hilton Head watching Aslan, Wrigley, and Hallie. We are really excited to see them. Then it is back to the good old US of A! I may post some more on this blog of the eastern bloc portion of the trip, or I may not.

Au Revoir, Arrevederchi, Auf Wiedersehen, So 'long, Good Bye!
Jordan and Mark

Musings on the Metric System

2009-08-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

August 24th, 2009
Musings on the Metric System

Jordan and I just completed a very enjoyable ride from Tours to Orleans, via Cheverny and Chambord. As the clicks melted away on a beautiful Sunday (yesterday) under an azure sky and perfect temperature, I began to think about the kilometer versus the mile. The first thing that hit me was how much easier it is to bike a kilometer versus a mile, since there are 1.6 of them to each mile. One of the benchmarks of an accomplished rider is doing a CENTURY... 100 miles. I have to confess that it has been many years since I have done a century. No matter what kind of shape you are in, they are draining. Now, a METRIC century is something else entirely. I can set out on a Saturday morning, put in a metric century (i.e. 62 miles), and be back home for the second half of a Buckeye game with my feet propped up and a cold PBR in my hand!
Next, look at the silly components of a mile... 1,760 yards, 5,280 feet. Now the kilometer... 1,000 meters, 100,000 centimeters and you can keep on going to millimeters if you want to. Don't even get me started on the English system of land measurement, namely acres and even hectares. What the hell is a hectare?

There is a sweet rhythm to the metric system. Since I am from Irish/Scottish stock, maybe our non-rhythmic system explains my inability to dance.

There is only one unit of measure that I respect in our system. When you go to get beer in America, we sell it by the case. How many beers in a case? 24. How many hours in a day? 24. Coincedence? I think not!

Can you tell we are getting to the end of the trip?

On to the Loire Valley

2009-08-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

August 21, 2009 Train from Cassis to Aix-en-Provence via Marseilles
Yesterday was a total beach day. The beach was just like the one in Rhodes, Greece that I was at three years ago. Instead of sand, there are round pebbles. Our feet have toughened up pretty well, so it was no problem dealing with it. The water was surprisingly cold. It was actually very refreshing. There was a nice shower between the beach and the town of Cassis, so we could get the salty brine off of us.
We walked back to the campground, which was a two click climb up a steep hill, and got back around 6:30. After showers and a couple beers at the campground pub, we started thinking about what we should do for dinner. The pub was not putting on a meal like they did the previous night, and we really did not feel like walking back to Cassis, and then back up the two click hill. We noticed people with pizza boxes, so we figured there had to be a pizza place in the other direction. So, about 8:30PM we started walking that way, following the scent of garlic and pizza crust. We had gone about half a click and did not see any promising signs. Then I spotted what looked like an RV on the side of the road with a bunch of cars around it. Jordan could read the sign on the side and it said PIZZA! We walked up to the RV and it was a mobile pizza shop. The oven was right behind the cab of the RV. It was a husband and wife team. They spoke no English, but we we able to communicate to them that we wanted two pizzas, a SUPREME and a ROYAL, whatever the heck they were! She said something that made me think it would be a while. Then she held up all 10 fingers. I figured 10 minutes was no big deal, so I said "Oui' Oui, madamoselle (sp?)". We waiting about half an hour when Jordan said, " Do you think she meant 10 o'clock?" Damn! She was right again. I said we did not have many choices at this point. Jordan walked back to camp and I waited until the pies were done, around 9:45. They were worth the wait... Delicious!
We just transferred trains in Marseilles. I am glad we did not ride into this city. It really does not look that attractive, and I have heard that there are seedy areas. I have already called a campground near Aix that has a pool.
August 22, 2009
When we got off the train in Aix, we decided to purchase tickets for Angers right away. The spots for bikes often fill up quickly, so we did not want to be left stranded. Our tickets got us there by way of the TGV to Lyon. The TGV is the bullet train, but it has a special station that was about a 20 click bike ride from Aix. The ticket guy said it was a pretty hilly ride. Since our train left at 8:30, we decided to look for a place to stay close to the TGV station. We found a little hotel (Auberge?) just a couple clicks from the train station. Before riding to it, we decided to have lunch in Aix. It is really a neat town that I have been to before with Barb. Additionally, Heather Campanelli, who I used to work with, spent some time studying here. She loved it here.
Lunch was fantastic... Jordan got a big salad and I got a rump steak, which we then went halvesie on, followed by gelato. I would have liked to have spent some more time strolling around Aix, but it was still hot as hell. We hopped on our bikes about 4PM and rode to the Auberge. It ended up being a fairly easy ride, which surprised Jordan since the ticket guy had warned us about a lot of up and down. It kind of reminded me of when we biked across the USA. In the Tetons we ran into a group of guys going from East to West. They told us that the Appalachian mountains were much tougher than the Rockies. A few weeks later when we got to the Appalachians, we could not believe how easy they were. We flew up them. The point is that whatever terrain you hit first on a long bike ride seems like the toughest, because you are not "road-hardened" yet. I still remember the Oregon Coast and the Cascades being the toughest. They really were not tougher than the Rockies. We just encountered them first.
The Auberge was rated two stars, but it was much better than that. It had 12 rooms, and I think they only had a few vacancies. The dinner we had there was fantastic, with all sorts of little niceties... foi gras sample, sorbet, and a little mini dessert after the main dessert, which was poached nectarine with ice cream and whipped cream. Oh, the main course was dorado (sp?) with rissoto.
We got up early today and rode to the TGV station. If you have never ridden the TGV, it is an interesting experience. I think the train travels around 200 MPH, but I am not sure. The only time you get the feeling that you are moving fast is when you go into a turn. To keep the train on the track, the turns are banked fairly steeply. You can really feel the centrifugal force when you go into one of them. We got to Lyon in about two hours. Our layover was supposed to be 5 hours, which really started to weigh on my mind. I went up to the ticket office and started asking about different options. I considered going to Nantes, but that would have taken even longer. Then I looked at going to Tours. We decided to take a train there which left at 12:39PM. We should get there by about 5:15. There is a campsite abvout 6 clicks from the train station, right on the Loire River, which is exactly where we want to go. I am a little sorry that we are not going to bike the section from Angers to Tours, but I did not want to waste half the day in the Lyon train station. We will continue biking past Orleans if we have time, or we will just go to Munich from there.

Mark and Jordan in Cassis, BEST almond croissant!

2009-08-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

Cassis

2009-08-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Casiss, France

2009-08-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

Remember the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam"? Robin Williams says "Today's weather is hot and moist. That is good in a woman, but bad in a jungle!" Well, it has been hot as hell here. The climate is dry, but we are sweating are butts off. We had some really good climbs yesterday as we approached Cassis, France. Since we have some days to burn and this is such a cool town, we decided to hit the beach today. The town reminds me of the club that George Constanza (Seinfeld) went to that only let in beautiful people. This is a very popular resort, maybe because it is so close to Marseilles.

Jordan and I are really getting tired of each other... In a good way! We are both looking forward to having Barb, Connor, and Donna Madlener join us. Despite getting on each other's nevers, I have definitive proof that we are bonding. She just popped three big zits that were on my neck. I don't know how a father and daughter could get any closer!

Tomorrow we are going to hop on the train to Aix-en-Provence. I kind of wanted to bike there, but Jordan asked me what I am trying to prove? That I am not getting old? Once again, she is right.

Mole going to Mole, NERD after sunscreen application

2009-08-18T02:53:00.000-07:00

Sunrise at campsite, Western French Riviera, Jordan packing up

2009-08-18T02:47:00.000-07:00

Le Lavandou, French Riviera

2009-08-18T02:01:00.000-07:00

August 17. 2009
Sitting in m tent sweating my ass off about 100 clicks east of Marseilles. The weather has been unbearably hot the last few days. We have decided to make another course correction. We are going to take a train from Marseilles to Nantes and finish the biking portion of the trip by biking up the Loire Valley to Orleans. From there we will take a train to Munich to meeeet Barb, Connor, and Donna. I am not sure if it will be much cooler, but the biking will be easier. We are dealing with a lot of hills on the Med coast.
My cousin Jim just emailed me to let me know that his dad, Uncle Dick, has been diagnosed with B-cell Lymphoma. Uncle Dick has been one of the biggest fans of this blog. I hear from him every couple days. This news has hit me pretty hard. Uncle Dick is one of those "larger than life" figures who seem almost indestructible. One of my strongest memories of Uncle Dick is cutting firewood at boy scout campouts. He would lift a 3 foot blade chain saw straight upover his head with his left hand and pull the cord with his right hand. That sucker would roar to life with Uncle Dick holding it with one hand.
He has accomplished an incredible amount in his 80 years and now he has decided it is time to KICK CANCER'S ASS! I want all of you blog readers to send some prayers' positive brain waves, whatever towards Uncle Dick. It is said that Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer, but no one knows for sure since Chuck has never cried. Well, if he ran into Uncle Dick, he would be making lemonade in his pants and crying bucket loads!

I don't want to paint a one-sided picture of Uncle Dick. As imposing a figure as he is, he is also the biggest Teddy Bear in the world. Since my dad's death in 1986, he has been a surrogate father fror me. He also has made a special connection with Jordan. She calls him "the nicest older man in the world." She never knew her grandfathers, so he gets elected to that role as well.

August 18th, 2009
Got biking early today to try to avoid the heat. Have 21 clicks in by 11AM and doing fine.
It's still hot as hell here, but I am going to try and get some shut-eye...

Cannes to Frejus

2009-08-16T03:16:00.001-07:00

August 16, 2009 Cannes to Frejus
Since our room in Cannes had AC, we took advantage and stayed their until about 10:30. After packing up, we stepped out into the heat. The one saving grace is that it is getting less humid. The landscape, except for the Med. Sea, almost looks like Arizona. It is all scrubby firs, cedar, and very little grass. The rocks have taken on a very reddish hue. Ever since Monaco, we have seen cruise ships in most of the cities along the Cote d'Azur. Since we got started so late, we lowered our mileage sites and headed for Saint-Raphael. After aboujt two or three hours of fairly hard biking, we stopped at a cute road-side restaurant. Their specialty was salads and omelettes. Jordan had the former and I had the latter. We were even able to get ice (glace) with our water! I don't know if I have mentioned before how hard it has been to get ice in Europe. I have yet to see it in the grocery stores. When we buy wine at the store, we always have to scrounge to get ice. One time I got it dry ice that the grocery store was using to keep their fish cold.
Just after lunch, I heard the familiar PING of a broken spoke..l. another one on my cassette side of my rear wheel. We kept on riding to Saint-Raphael where I was hoping to find an open bike store. Upon arriving, we discovered that August 15th was some big holiday in France and none of the stores would be open, other than restaurants and bars. We checked with the local tourist office to see if their were any rooms available and there were not. This is the height of holiday season and a Saturday. She was able to give me a list of local campgrounds and it looked like there was a nice one outside of Frejus, about 9 clicks away. By this time we were broiling and Jordan had a pounding headache.
Frejus is located a little inland from the beach. Spotting a good-looking fruit stand, we pulled over for some refreshments. There is something about biking that makes me crave fruit. Jordan feels the same way. We bought nectarines, a pear, a cantolope, and some huge grapes. We ate the grapes immediately, since they would be hard to pack. Each one exploded in our mouths.
We took off from the fruit stand and were only about half a click from the campsite. The road had no bike path at that point, but just ahead was a three foot high stone wall that separated the road from a biking/walking path. Jordan was 20 yards behind me so I thought she would see it without me mentioning anything. I turned slightly to the right upon approaching the dividing wall to get on the bike path. About two or three seconds later I heard a huge crash. I whipped around to see that Jordan had run right into the dividing wall and got thrown to the ground. I got off my bike and ran back to help her. She seemed like she was in shock. I grabbed her arm and led her off the road and onto the bike path, then I grabbed her bike. Instead of comforting her, I started screaming at her... "What the hell are you doing? You are going to kill yourself!" I then brought up all the clumsy moves she has been making of late, and she snapped! She called me every name in the book, and I deserved it. I am not sure why I reacted like I did. I was so scared when I heard the crash. I should have hugged her instead of screaming at her.
The lesson I am learning is that I can not push her as hard as I have been. It seems that the afternoons after a hard morning of riding, are really tough on her. She lost her concentration for just a second and it was almost disasterous. As Sergeant Barnes said in "Platoon"... "If you don't keep your sh!t wired tight, I goddamn guarantee you a trip out of the bush... IN A BODY BAG!" As my brother Jeff has shown me, everything you need to know about life is in the movie "Platoon".
We arrived at the campground without further mishap and set up the tent. We decided to go our separate ways for an hour or two to cool down. I swam, showered, then got a half liter of horrible white wine at the campground restaurant. Jordan came by and we had a nice dinner. The food ended up being much better than the wine. We have decided to spend another day here since the pool is nice and the bike shops are closed. I don't want to risk breaking another spoke. We may ride the short distance back to Saint Raphael to get on the Internet and buy food at a grocery store. I could also use another book, since I just finished "Quite Ugly One Morning". Excellent book! Very Carl Hiassen-like.
I have talked with Jordan about altering our itinerary a bit, not like we haven't altered it already! I suggested to her that once we get to Aixe-on-Provence, we take a train up to somewhere in the Loire Valley. My sister, Jane, said it was her favorite part of her trip biking through Europe. It may be a little cooler up that way, and we will be closer to Munchen (Munich) when we finish riding. She agrees as long as there are no mountains!

From the bottom... Monaco, Nice, Cannes on the French Riviera

2009-08-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

Cote d Azur, Cannes, France

2009-08-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

August 14th, Nice France
We had a relaxing and hot day off yesterday. I took my bike to a bike shop just West of San Remo. The owner said he could not fix my spoke until about 4PM. Since I had nothing else going on, I said that would be fine. I went to a hotel across the street and used their wireless Internet to catch up on stuff and update the blog. Jordan texted me about two hours later and then rode down to join me. We had a late lunch and then picked up my bike. After returning to the campground, we took a quick dip in the Med. Sea and then showered. We walked towards San Remo and found a great little restaurant. The grilled squid was a big winner!
Got up early today because I had made a hotel reservation for Cannes, about 90 clicks away. Soon into the ride, we began to realize that maybe we had bitten off more than we could chew. Once we hit France, the riding got a lot tougher. By the time we hit Monaco, we were exhausted. Just before Nice I realized that we had left the Med. Sea road and we on the harder road that is a bit inland. After a quick course correction, we got back on the coast where the riding was much easier, although still pretty tough. The heat is starting to take its toll, too.
We grabbed lunch and then made it to Nice about an hour later. Jordan said there was no way she was going to ride all the way to Cannes. Our hotel was non-refundable, so we opted for plan B... THE TRAIN! We are sitting on one of the local trains headed towards Cannes. As much as I like riding on the Cote d Azure, this is pretty damn good!.
A few notes on the two Rivieras... The Italian Riviera to the French Riveria is sort of like Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head. I liked the Italian Riviera, but it is a little seedy. As soon as we crossed into France there was a definite upgrade in roads, buildings, cars (a cool Ferrari zoomed past us... kind of ironic that it is an Italian car!). I am really looking forward to getting my almond croissant addiction attended to. I have been hungering for some since leaving France and entering Belgium several weeks ago. No other country can bake like the French!
I forgot to mention an interesting conversation between Vic and his oldest son, Jordy, as we were going to play tennis the other day in Lugano. Vic was bitching him out for buying a pair of tennis shoes last year and then never using them. Jordy first protested that he did wear them frequently. Vic then asked why they have been in the back of his car for the last 6 months. Jordy moved to excuse number two: mom bought them so why do you care, Dad. Vic told him that mom got the money from Vic. Excuse number 3 soon followed, and it was a good one: Jordy professed he was going through a style change! That finally shut Dad up. Vic and I were both too busy laughing at the "style change" comment. Kids are not much different despite being from Switzerland or the USA!

Train arrived in Cannes and we just found our hotel and showered. Off to explore.

Swimming on the Italian Riviera, Jordan and Charlize

2009-08-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Big Vic's Sunday Feast

2009-08-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Switzerland to Italy

2009-08-13T04:53:00.000-07:00

August 13th, San Remo, Italy
It has been a while since we have had Internet access. I broke another spoke yesterday (only two so far) and this one is on my rear wheel, cassette side. I rode another 30 clicks with no problem. We are staying in a great campground right on the Mediterrean Sea, Italian Riviera. We have been biking pretty hard since we took the train from Lugano to Genoa. I rode to a bike shop this morning, and the guy says he cannot fix it for a few hours. We have decided to spend two nights here, so I said no problem. I am in the hotel Firenza, across the street from the bike shop. Now let me get back to the happenings since the last post.
Vic picked us up from the train station on Friday night. We went out for pizza with a bunch of his friends. Afterwards we all went to Vic's place for wine and song. Ended up going to bed around 3PM. Spent Saturday running errands with Vic. He always cooks a big meal on Sundays for his family, ex-wife (Monica) and her two year old daughter, Charlise. Around 9PM we went to the film festival. We did not watch any of the movies, since it was more fun to just got to the parties. We ended up at a cool place. It was almost like being in the Hocking Hills and somebody putting a night club in Rock House or Cedar Falls! It was another late night.
The next day we got up late and started cooking. I made a banana cream pie for dessert. Vic's meal was amazing... Pasta, mussels, fish. Jordan made a great tomato/avocado/feta salad. We ate around noon, cleaned up, swam in Lake Lugano and relaxed. A little later, Giordano wanted to play tennis. He really has the bug, so Vic, he, and I went and played. Vic has an excellent game, but Jordy is catching up to him. After tennis, we stopped by the basketball court, where Keeno was playing a little 3 on 3. Vic, Jordy, and I formed a team and played one game. The Italians really got a kick out of playing basketball against Americans. We almost beat them, but sadly, our advanced age was too much, despite our more skilled play!
We went back home and barbecued pork ribs and chicken. It was another late night (3AM). We got up early and said our goodbyes. This was a very relaxing week, but I am antsy to get back on the bike. We had to take local trains to Genoa because of our bikes. We ended up having to switch trains 3 times. We ended up almost missing connections because we both fell asleep. We arrived in Genova (Italian spelling) around 4PM and rode to a campground on the western edge of town. Genova is a big port city, pretty industrial. The campsite was up on a big hill overlooking the city. We set up camp and then rode back down to the city. The only decent restaurant that we saw open was a Chinese place. It was actually really good!
The next day we did some serious riding, about 60 clicks after getting up really late. We stopped at lunchtime to swim in the Med. Sea then we bike to another campground that was again on a hill overlooking the city we were in. This time we camped in an olive grove. We walked down to the Med Sea for a swim and then had a nice Italian dinner, gnocchi with gargonzola and some sort of fresh baked fish. The town was really lively with a festival. A lot of magicians and games for all the kids.
We got up fairly early yesterday and started biking for San Remo. On the way I stopped at a little book shop looking for a map of the Riviera. The old woman in the store spoke English well. I told I was looking for a map of France, in my typical Ohio accent with a very hard "a". She looked at me and said, we say "Fronce". I then said "You say tomato, I say tomoto". She then smiles at me and says, "Let's call the whole thing off!" I started cracking up.
Arrived at our campsite around 4PM. We set up our tent which is right on the Med Sea. What a picturesque setting! After swimming in the ocean and then the pool, we showered and went back to the tent. I guy about my age was setting his tent up next to us. I said hello, and he replied in English. Turned out he was from Australia and his name was Boyd. We exchanged the usual info... How long you been on the road, where you going, etc. He had just come from Paris and asked me if I needed some maps. I did, and gladly accepted a great map of the French Riviera. I then invited him for a beer. The three of us went to the local restaurant and had a great time. Boyd is between jobs, too. He decided to take a 6 month bike trip. None of his "mates" could make it, so he is doing it alone. His bike was kind of old, but it had interesting gearing. His granny gear had 34 teeth and the small gear on the front was the smallest I have ever seen. He said that when he is going uphill in the low gear, cockroaches can pass him. It is really cool to see another old coot our there "living the dream". Taking a day off today and tomorrow we push on to Cannes, France.

2009-08-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Glass blowing in Murano

2009-08-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Venice... Gondola, Venetian Couple, San Marco

2009-08-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Gotthard Pass, Switzerland

2009-08-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

Venice

2009-08-07T14:30:00.001-07:00

August 7th, 2009
Leaving Venice
We are sitting in front of the Venice train station waiting for the train back to Lugano. Yesterday, Jordan was complaining that I had only booked one night, but now she is not singing that tune. She agreed that 24 hours is just about right. It is an amazing city, but it exists entirely on tourism. There are hundreds of the same pizzarias, gelaterias, paper machie mask stores, etc. Plus, in the summer, there are a few more fragrancies than you have to deal with in other times of the year. That being said, you can get GREAT food here. I got on WWW.Fodors.com and searched for some recommendations in the "$$" range (medium expensive). Both places ended up being more than a mile walk from Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square). That was a good sign, since they would tend not to be the tourist trap places. We ate at Osteria La Zucca last night, splitting lasagna and a lamb dish. We had gorgonzola pasta as an appetizer. We topped it all off with panna cotta with chocolate sauce. Just now, we had lunch at L'anice Stellata. Their specialty is fish. After insalata mista, we both had a seafood rissotto. All I can say is "graci" and "prego"... they are about the only Italian words I know!
We get back into Lugano around 9PM. I am not sure if Vic will be around to pick us up. He may be going to a film festival tonight. We will figure out a way back to his place if that is the case.

On the Way to Venice

2009-08-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

August 6, 2009 Train from Lugano to Venice
I have been derelict in my blog duties the last few days while getting completely pickled in Lugano. We have imbibed way too much wine the last couple of nights. The train from Stuttgart arrived in Lugano on Monday evening, about 9PM. Jordy and I loaded up our bikes, turned on the GPS, and made our way through Lugano to Vic Rush's bachelor pad. Garmin got us within 50 yards of his place, and I gave him a call. He sent his youngest son, Keenan (pronounced "Keeno"), to fetch us. I was surprised how much bigger he is than his dad! We walked into Vic's place and met Giordono, Vic's oldest son. He resembles Vic quite a bit. We proceeded to start drinking wine, which happens to be a common theme on this trip! Vic maded a wonderful dinner of barbecued chicken.
The setting of Vic's apartment is incredible. When you walk out his door, Lake Lugano is literally right in front of you. In two steps you can jump into the beautiful, blue water. We met several of the neighbors in the apartment building. They all get along great and there is a real community spirit. We told stories, sang songs, and generally had a good time until well after midnight. The next day, Jordy and I walked a couple miles along Lake Lugano towards the Italian border. There are apartments and small hotels most of the way. If you had problems walking, these would be tough places to get to. You cannot drive a car very close to most of them, and you have to navigate a lot of stairs; however, it would be well worth the effort.
When we got back to Vic's, we took our first swim in Lake Lugano. The water was refreshingly cool, but not too cold. We then ate a late lunch, and idled away the rest of the afternoon. Later on we went shopping in Lugano, since Jordan wanted to get another pair of shorts to bike in. We both decided not to use traditional biking shorts anymore. They are such a bacteria trap! One story I forgot to tell was a brief conversation I had with a Brit on the first night of camping in England. He asked me what I was doing, and when I told him, he exclaimed, "My God! You are going to have a back-side of steel by the time you are done!". Well, our butts feel like steel now, and we no longer have need of the padded bike shorts. We bought a box at the post office and sent the shorts, plus several other items back home.=
That evening, Vic made a cold pasta dish. Just before dinner, we were standing outside his door by the lake talking when a woman came up and said, "Oh, you speak English!". Her name was Vivian and she was taking a brief holiday, using one of Vic's neighbor's apartment whom she knew. She did not have dinner plans, so we invited her to join us. It was another late night of wine, talk, and song.
The next day, Vic let Jordy and me use his car to drive up the Gottard (sp?) Pass. We had planned on using our Swiss Passes to got to Jungfrau or the Matterhorn, but it would have taken 6 or 7 hours one way to either of those places. I will have to see them on the next visit. Gottard Pass was incredible. The Swiss have built an incredibly long tunnel (I think about 20 kilometers) through the mountains to by-pass the pass. We decided to drive over the pass going north in order to take in the view. I will post one of the pictures from the top. I am not sure how the Alps compare to the Rockies in height, but they sure are steep. I was surprised by the number of people I saw biking the pass, many of them on heavier mountain bikes. I don't think I would have enjoyed that ride much, particularly being fully loaded with gear. The road is an engineering marvel. You just wonder at the effort to build something like this.
On the return trip, we went through the tunnel. As we approached the half-way point in the tunnel, we both noticed how hot it was getting. The temperature must have increased about 10 degrees. I kept on thinking what a mess it would be if one car broke down while going through. Fortunately, that did not happen, and we finally got back out in the open. Once we are back at Vic's we took another swim and started popping open champagne that Jordy and I purcased on our return trip. We decided to have dinner at one of the traditional "grottoes" that the locals go to. These are small, rustic restaurants that specialize in grilled meats, particularly pork ribs and horse (That's right, Wilbur!). Almost everyone ordered the mixed grill, which included a little of all the meats. I stuck with just the pork, and Jordan had polenta with gorganzola cheese. The meats were seasoned with a lot of rosemary, which I love. Vivian joined us again for dinner, and I ended up being the beneficiary of her light appetite! I also sampled Jordan's polenta, which was excellent.
We returned to Vic's for more wine, songs, and stories. Now, we are a few miles from Milano, where we will switch trains for Venice. We are only going to spend about 24 hours there, but that should give Jordan a good sampling of the city. We will return tomorrow night to attend a film festival near Lugano. I hope my backside of steel doesn't turn into a backside of mush from this time off the bike!
Ciao Ciao!

Lake Lugano, Switzerland at Vic Rush's

2009-08-04T11:23:00.001-07:00

Cool river between Nurtigen and Stuttgart

2009-08-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

Stuttgart to Lugano

2009-08-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2009 Stuttgart Train Station
I just purchased tickets to Basel, Switzerland and four-day Swiss passes. The Swiss passes will get us on to Lugano, plus we can use them to travel to all the mountain sites over the next four days. We are pretty excited about getting off our bikes and doing some hiking. We will take day trips from Lugano and then get back in time to have dinner with Vic Rush. At least, that is the plan.
Yesterday afternoon while we were waiting out the rain, Jordan went into the cafe to use the bathroom. I was engrossed in my book so I did not notice that she had been gone for about an hour. I asked the waitress if she had seen my Tochter (German for daughter). She said she had seen her talking to a gentleman inside. I went in to see if all was OK. Jordan was engaged in conversation with a genial man, who looked about 60 years old. I introduced myself and he told me his name was Fritz Kurz. He had a notebook open and seemed to be working on something. He told us it was his memoirs. He then began to tell us a tale that reminded me of Forest Gump, in that he happened to rub elbows with several historical and theatrical figures, sometimes at crucial periods. His was a theatrical producer, and was the first producer to bring "Cats" to Germany. (Jordan verified this on Google later that evening.) That afternoon he was working on the part of his book where Robert Redford stole his long-time girlfriend. There was then some kind of litigation between him and Redford. Obviously, they are no longer on friendly terms.
We discussed a range of subjects, including the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes. Fritz said he was on the scene doing some sort of film work. He just happened to be in the same room when Willy Brandt, the chancellor of Germany at that time, asked him for his advice on what to do. Fritz said he advised Willy to let the terrorists leave Germany so it would be another country's problem. That did not happen. Security forces attacked and I think all the Israeli athletes were killed. By my calculation, Fritz would have been around 22 years old at the time. He had another story about advising Helmut Kohl later. Maybe it is all true, but I was more than a little incredulous.
Politically, Fritz was very conservative. He loved Ronald Reagan, liked Bush, thinks Obama is wet behind the ears foreign-policy wise, and thinks we should never waiver in our support of Israel. He thinks Islam is a morally bankrupt religion, and fears for Europe's future because of the growth of the Islamic population. I tend to agree with him on that point, although I think many religions have morally corrupt offshoots. It just seems that more peoploe are killing for Allah right now, than for God, Yahweh, or whatever. The growth of the Islamic population is a fact. Through immigration and reproduction, their numbers are increasing rapidly. We first noticed it with all the "Kebob" restaurants we started seeing in France. We continued to see them throughout Germany.
Finally, around 6:30PM, we said goodbye to Fritz and started riding towards Esslingen. It was getting a bit late, but I thought we had time to make it. Then it started pouring again. Jordan disagreed with going to Esslingen at this late hour, anyway. When I decided to turn around and return to Nurtigen, she asked me how it felt to always be wrong! We got under an overhang that happened to be right by a Subway sandwich shop. We ate dinner there and waited out the rain. After about 45 minutes and two rainbows, it stopped enough to bike three clicks to a hotel that I found compliments of the Garmin.
This morning we got up and had a great Fruestuck (breakfast) at the hotel. We went out to the garage to assemble our bikes and a German postman came past us on the way from dropping mail off at the hotel. The postal workers have very interesting-looking bikes. He stopped and we talked for a little bit. He said that Germany was getting better for bicycles because of environmental and economic concerns. I mentioned to him that he must get in pretty good shape riding the bike all day. He laughed and then showed me an ingenious electric motor that assisted his pedalling. The battery was just under the seat, attached to the top tube. It did not look very big, but as he said goodbye and gave a couple pedals, the power kicked in and away he went. Pretty amazing!
Our ride to Stuttgart was beautiful. We took a bike path most of the way along a very pretty river. In size and cleanliness, it reminded me of the Youghighenney. There were even a couple class three rapids. I took a video of the best one and will post it on the blog. We reached the Bahnhoff (train station) in Stuttgard around noon. We just boarded the train and are headed first for Basel, Switzerland and then on to Lugano. Should get there by 8PM.

Biking Towards Stuttgart

2009-08-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

August 2, 2009
Jordan and I are sitting at a little outdoor cafe, trying to warm ourselves up with a cappacino. We are in Nurtingen, about 30 clicks southeast of Stuttgart. For the last half hour, we have been riding in a light rain that was refreshing at first, but downright cold as it increased. Now that we are under cover, it is really coming down. We are going to try to wait it out so we can get some more clicks in today.
The last few days have been beautiful, but tiring. We just had a 1.6 click climb at 16% grade. After reviewing our progress since Nurenberg, we decided that we had better bike to a major city and then take the train to Zurich and Lugano. That is why we are headed towards Stuttgart. I hoped to get there tonight, but the rain may interfere with those plans.
This morning's ride took us through similar terrain as yesterday's. We descended into a steep valley that had thick forests on both sides. It reminded me very much of the area around Ohio Pyle, Pennsylvania. One difference is that I could see what looked like marble out-croppings in the valley walls. I could just imagine Hitler's Eagles Nest hideout being in this area!
Jordan is starting to accept the fact that there are hills and that they are out of control, although she did threaten to call Barb and tell her I am trying to kill her little girl.
Note on German Biking: I would rate Germany's bicycle efforts somewhere between France and Belgium. We see more bike trails than we did in France, but they are very haphazard. Not very Germanic at all. Instead of bike lines, there is sometimes a path (about the size of the Olentangy River Trail) on either or both sides of the road. Sometimes there are signs announcing it, and sometimes there are not. Sometimes it is one-way, sometimes both ways. Often it will just stop, and you must get off your bike and wheel it back onto the road. Another confusing item is that many farmers build similar trails between their fields and the roads. These will sometimes turn 90 degrees away from your intended direction before you realize what is going on. Because of all this, we often do not get on what may be good bike paths. A few drivers have yelled at us, probably something along the lines of why the hell aren't you using the bike trail that my taxes have paid for. Overall, it is better biking than the USA, but a far cry from Holland or Belgium.

Bavarian church, Jordan in front of Campsite, Mark

2009-08-02T00:52:00.000-07:00

Dinkelsbuhl, Rhine-Danube Divide, Like France there are many crucifixes in Bavaria

2009-08-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

Jordan after mega downhill in Bavaria

2009-08-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

More Bavaria

2009-08-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

What an unbelievable part of Germany! The scenery is incredible, although it is the toughest riding we have had yet. It reminds me of crossing the Appalachian mountains as far as the grades and lengths of the climbs. We have lowered our daily mileage to about 60 clicks the last two days because we have gotten so tired by mid-day. Last night we camped on top of a mountain and today we are hotelling it in Heraldstadt. We will probably bike about two more days and then get on a train to Lugano to visit Vic Rush, aka Big Vic.

Note on the Germans in this region: In general, an extremely friendly people. They really get a kick out of my attempts to speak German. I am sure I am really butchering it, but they smile and answer in German. There have been many instances in these small towns we are travelling through that it has come in handy, since some of the locals speak little or no English.

On a trip of this length, it is pretty easy to piss off your travelling companion. My latest aggravating thing I am doing to Jordan is answering all her questions in German. Sometimes I just make up words that sound like German to keep it going. She says we need to go to Spain so she can aggravate me in similar fashion. I replied, "Nein, danke!"

Bavaria

2009-07-30T13:39:00.001-07:00

Dinkelsbuhl, Bavaria, Germany
Jordan and I just biked into a picturesque Bavarian town by the strange name of Dinkelsbuhl. We decided to get a hotel, since our batteries, both physical and mental, needed recharging. Also, the hotel has Internet access, which is a large plus in our book. It is amazing how important that is to us. I love posting to the blog and reading the replies that come back.
Near the end of our train ride to Nuremburg, I used the toilet in the train. Since almost all the toilets in Europe cost cold, hard cash to use, cheap bastards like myself learn to train their bladders and colons to wait for the free bathrooms. The bathrooms on trains are free. I did some "heavy business" early on the ride, but then waited until the end of the ride to do one last number 1. Jordan and I were sitting in the bicycle car with one other guy who looked exactly like a good-looking Elliot Spitzer (no huge lantern jaw). He was a great guy who spoke English pretty well. The toilet in this car was amazing. It had a door that would have made most "panic room" doors jealous. Mr. Spitzer explained the workings of the door to me. I had to step inside and then hit a button to close the door. I followed his instructions, closed the door, unleashed the big fella, and started a vary satisfying micturation. About 10 seconds into it, I realized that I had no locked the door. That meant anyone outside could hit the open button, and there I would be in all my glory. I leaned over to the lock on the door, while continuing to relieve myself. There was a lock on the door, and I tried to turn it. To my surprise, turnig the lock OPENED the door. Jordan and Elliot started laughing their butts off at me! I reshut the door and started over. The same thing happened again! I finally decided to shut the door without locking it and hope nobody from outside opened it. I finished my business and came out. Jordan and Elliot were still laughing their asses off. Elliot explained to me that there was another button that locks the door. Oh well, another good bathroom humor story!
We arrived in Nuremberg about 3:20. After buying a map, we took off for a campground about 10 clicks away. The bike paths in Nuremberg were definitely a step down from the Netherlands, or Belgium, for that matter. They would start and stop rather indiscrimanately. I am sure there are good parts of this city, but going from the train station est, we did not see any. About 7 clicks outside the city we rode by a decent looking bike shop. I stopped and explained to one of the mechanics the problems I have been having with my rear derailleur. He asked if a could leave my bike until tomorrow, but I explained that I was just travelling through. He dropped everything and fixed the derailleur. The English guy who put it on, was not a good mechanic. I could tell that it was never in-line. The GERMANS fixed me up just fine! I ended up buying a new helmet and water bottle from them. They did not even charge me for the mechanical work.
We continued biking to a campground about 10 clicks from Nuremberg. We set up camp and then went to the campground restaurant. We ordered beers first and we just relaxing when a gregarious looking fellow walked by. I hit him with a "Wie geht es Ihnen?" which means "How are you?" I must have really shocked him, because his face screwed up and he asked "Was sagen Sie?" which means "What did you say?" After this initial blunder, we started communicating well. I asked him if I could buy him a drink, and he invited Jordan and me to eat dinner with his wife, mother, and step-father. We said sure! What a cool evening! His name was Juergen and his wife was Ursula. I never did get his parents's names, but they were really funny. Yuergen was extremely friendly and had a funny way of making strange expressions as he talked. We ate and drank until about 11PM and then parted company. What a great spontaneous experience!
Got up today around 8:30 and had breakfast of rolls and jam we bought last night, followed by a banana. Started biking by 9:30. We had an incredible head-wind and we were biking steadily up-hill all morning. Jordan asked if it was going to be like this all day and I said I hope not. After lunch, it leveled out considerably. Plus we changed from going due West to due South. The wind was coming out of the West so it was not affecting us as much now.
The Bavarian scenery is beautiful! Rolling landscape and beautiful bucolic farms. We rolled into Dinskelsbuhl around 4:30PM. It is the proto-typical Bavarian town. Since we are hotelling it, we bought food at a grocery store. After eating, we went out for dessert. Sehr gut!

Berlin wall, Jordan eating great Thai soup, Working Girl

2009-07-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Plaque at site of Nazi book burning: Those that burn books will also burn men (Pretty prophetic!)

2009-07-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Berlin Train Station, Church, Brandenberg Gate

2009-07-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

Mark using a "Butch Weaver" knot to fix broken rack.

2009-07-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

Canal, Sexy 7 dwarves, Bikes everywhere!

2009-07-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

More Amsterdam hotel pictures... This place was a hoot!

2009-07-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Pathy along North Sea, Cheese Shop, Room in Amsterdam

2009-07-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

Berlin

2009-07-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

July 29th On the Train to Nurenberg
The train ride to Berlin was relaxing and uneventful. We arrived about 9:30PM on Monday night, loaded our gear on our bikes and started biking east from the train station. The Garmin indicated a lot of hotels that way, and we found a decent one in five minutes. They wanted over 100 Euros per night to which I said "zu teuer" (too expensive). The clerk did his own little PriceLine negotiation right there in the lobby and we agreed on 85 Euros per night.
Got up the next day and decided to do the walking tour of Berlin that was recommended by Lonely Planet. The guide, Johanna, was an interesting young women who absolutely loved Berlin and its history. The entire tour was in the old East Berlin, which used to be controlled by the Soviets and East Germans. That surprised me until our guide told us that at the end of WWII, the Soviets had grabbed the important locations of Berlin, which were mostly in the East Berlin Sector. Many of the old important buildings and churches that were damaged in the war have been rebuilt, a lot of them since the fall of the wall in 1989. It is interesting that when rebuilding some of them, the architects left much of the old building facades that had pock marks from gunfire and shrapnel. I guess they wanted to keep a reminder of the war.
After WWII the subway system was administered by the allies. Several of its stations stopped in East Berlin. To prevent people from escaping to West Berlin, the East Germans closed these stations. They are still referred to as "the ghost stations" even though they are now open. Many people had daring escapes from East to West, but over 100 people were also killed trying to cross over.
The night life was quite interesting. We walked to Alexander Platz last night and had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. There are many Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants here. The soup was excellent, but the rest of the meal was just average. It was about 9PM when we were eating, and Jordan noticed some oddly dressed young women walking to what looked like assigned positions on the street. I asked if she thought they were "working girls". At first she did not think so, but after dinner we took a walk and got a closer look. They were definitely hookers. They all had similar "unifroms"... very tight corset that propped the boobs up and tightly squeezed their butts, and knee-high leather boots with 2 to 3 inch heels. With boots, many of them were close to six feet tall. There was very much a dominatrix look to them. They would approach any man who was not accompanied by a woman. Being with Jordan kept me safe, Danke Gott!
General Impressions of Berlin... I was a little surprised by the amount of construction going on, but I really should not have been. It has only been 20 years since the wall fell. There are zoning laws which prevent tall buildings, so there did not appear to be any buildings over 10 stories tall. I guess I was expecting more of a modern city. Everything was much less expensive here than in Holland. I hope that continues in southern Germany. I thought the people were very friendly. I attempted to talk to them in my halting German, and unlike the French, they would respond to me in German. If it got too complicated I would ask "Auf English, bitte". A couple times, I was gl;ad that I spoke some German. When I bought the train tickets to Nuremberg, the woman knew very little English. It took a lot of searching to get a train that could handle us and our bikes. I told Jordan we need to buy our exiting train tickets as soon as we arrive in a town so we can get exactly what we want.
Our train left Berlin around 8:40AM and should arrive in Nuremberg around 3:20. We are going to try to bike a few clicks and find a camping site for tonight.

2009-07-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

07/27/2009 On the Train to Berlin
We got up around 9AM, had breakfast in our little hotel and then headed out to do a few shopping errands. I HAD to get a new pair of polypropolene underwear. I mistakenly got the "tighty whity" kind, and on a bike trip all those kind do is trap every odor you emanate and magnify 1000X. Imagine all that sweat and heat... A perfect petri dish for bacteria! I bought some boxers... much better. Jordan needed conditioner and skin creams. She is developing a rash that hurts when she bikes. After shopping, we picked up the bikes from the MacBikes rental and storage facility. It cost us one whole euro to store the bikes for two days. I was going to try to find a bike store to replace my rack that broke, but I had a brainstorm. I brought a piece of rope with me to use as a clothes line if needed. I lashed the broken spar of the rack to the two good ones on the same side. Jordan took a picture to record it. I am sure that even the renowned knots-man, Butch Weaver, would be proud of this. I think it will hold until I get home and then I will see if Iain Grant can work his magic on it.
I forgot to mention our sight-seeing in Amsterdam yesterday. We started out by going to the Van Gogh Museum. I am not much of an art afficianando, but his work is beautfiul. Many of his originals are housed there, but unfortunately "Starry Night" (I think that is the name) is not one of them. Next we went to Anne Frank's house. Most of you probably know her story, but I learned a few interesting things while there. Otto Frank, Anne's father was the only survivor from the Frank family, even though he had been sent to Auschwitz. It was amazing how positive his outlook seemed to be after such a horrifying event. It reminded me of a book had to read in high school at St. John's by Victor Frankl called "Man's Search for Meaning", which tried to explain how even in a concentration camp you could find the will to live.
Another interesting tid-bit was that Shelley Winters, in the movie, played one of the workers in the house where the Franks were hiding. She was nominated for an academy award. She wrote Otto Frank prior to the Academy Awards show and promised to give the Oscar to the Anne Frank House if she won. She did win and she kept her promise. The Oscar is proudly displayed there.
Next, we walked through the seedy areas where ANYTHING is for sale. The Dutch have an interesting attitude about drugs and prostitution. It does not seem that religion plays a large part in the life of average people here. The attitude seems more pragmatic... "These things are going to happen, so why don't we make them as safe as possible and profit from them" seems to be how they see it. The sweet smell of marijuana was everywhere. I did notice that most of the shops that sell weed are labeled "Coffee Shops". They do sell coffee, too, but the main business is weed. Everyone who I saw buying it was checked for ID to make sure they were of legal age. Of course, the legal age is 6! Just kidding.
We wanted to take a noon train to Berlin today, but although they had seats for us, there was no room for the bikes until the 2:36 train. We are on the train right now. We put the bikes in car 8 and our seats are in car 4. When I got on, they said I did not have to remove my gear from the bike, but after the train started moving, an announcement came on the PA asking the people with gear on their bikes to please remove it. I had to make three trips getting all of our stuff off the bikes and back to car 4... And I thought this was going to be a day off!
We do not have a hotel reservation and we get into Berlin around 9PM. Jordan is getting a little more used to what, to the casual observer, seems to be a lack of planning on my part. However, it really just gives us ultimate flexibility. If we decide we want to sleep in the street tonight, we now have that option!

Made it to Amsterdam

2009-07-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Before I forget, there was something interesting at the Bastille Day parade that I forgot to mention. The entire time that the French were showcasing their military might, they were playing the song that TBDBINTL (Buckeye Band) plays when they do "Script Ohio". Is there any hidden meaning in this?

Since my last post a few hours ago, we continued biking north along the North Sea Bike Route. We stopped for a great lunch in a town called Zandvoort. Very cool place right on the North Sea. I had crab salad and Jordan had curried chicken. That is her second curry dish this trip. Maybe I should send her to India?

Haarlem was a short bike ride from here. Pretty fair sized town about 20 clicks from Amsterdam. Quite a bit different from Harlem, NYC, although my last time there I had awesome ribs at Dinosaur Barbecue with Pat and Barb McGahan. We decided to hop a train into central Amsterdam rather than ride into the city. I had the address of a relatively cheap hotel called Hotel Winston that was recommended in "The Lonely Planet" book. As we were winding thru the crowded streets with our fully-loaded bikes I happened to lead us into an alley where on each side of us were scantily-clad women in picture windows. The alley was pretty dark, but you could get a good idea on what was being sold there! It is amazing that after several thousand miles flying to London and about 1,000 kilometers biking, I, like a homing pigeon, end up smack dab in the middle of the red-light district!

The Hotel Winston was booked and the girl at the front desk suggested I walk south for a half hour to get something cheaper out of the central district. I thought this was good advice, so we took off and found a SMALL, but decent place near the museums. The stairs are incredibly steep and I am on the top floor (4th floor). I carried all of our gear to our room while Jordan guarded the bikes. The proprietor said he could not keep the bikes in the hotel, but showed us where a place called MacBikes was where we could store them for 1/2 Euro per day. Pretty good deal, if they are still there when we get them on Monday or Tuesday!

Had dinner at a nice local place, walked around, found restaurant row near the museums, and had dessert. It was about midnight by this time so we headed back to the room. Sunday will be our sight-seeing day.

Further mechanical issues... One of my nuts holding my rack came loose and fell off the other day. I noticed a was getting a lot of sway, when I discovered it. Took an extra nut from when of the water bottle braze-ons and fixed it. Yesterday, I noticed a clicking of my spokes in the rear wheel. When we unloaded our stuff for the train to Amsterdam, I noticed that one of the welds on the Braeburn back rack had failed! I have never seen this happen before. That rack was only about 16 months old! If I had my neighbor and friend, Iain Grant, here, I am sure he could fix it in a jiffy. He has his own metal shop in his garage. Looks like I will have to buy a new rack.

General notes on Holland... This is an unbelievable tidy country. Hardly any litter, public restrooms very clean. Everything in its place. I like it very much.

North thru Holland

2009-07-25T02:57:00.001-07:00

July 24th Blog
The Garmin let us down today. We got a relatively early start for us... 10:30 after a quick breakfast of apple struedal and some sort of ham and cheese croissant. Jordan and I always get different things and them split them. We are really eating relatively little for the amount of calories we are expending. We set our sites on Rozenburg for lunch. That is where Garmin started screwing up. I think it routed us in a semi-circle for no apparent reason. We finally stopped several clicks from Rozenburg for lunch. While eating, there was about a 20 minute downpour. Thank God for small favors! We finally got to Rozenburg where we took a short ferry ride across the small waterway.
The ride out of Rozenburg was just as confusing as the ride in. I don't think my Garmin is clued into the bikeways here. I think the trick is knowing when to ignore it... Kind of like your spouse! We are spending the night in a campground about 15 clicks from The Hague. It is kind of a combination of campground and trailer park. There is a little restaurant here where we ate a greasy dinner. A local camper came up to us an chatted us up. He seemed like a Dutch version of George Gans!
It is about 100 clicks biking to Amsterdam, if we don't get lost. We are going to try to make it there tomorrow.
One beautiful thing we saw today as we crossed over a dike was about 100 wind surfers. These guys were using the rectangular parachutes instead of a sail attached to the surfboard. Some of these guys were really catching some serious air. I will post a picture if it turned out well.
Saturday' July 25th
Set a record for getting up early... 8AM! We were on the road by 9:30 and stopped 5 clicks later fror a great breakfast in Monster, Holland. We bought fresh fruit (cherries, bannan, apple) at a market and croissants at a bakery. We are biking on what is called the North Sea Bikeway. It is a national bike path that goes along the coast. The wind is probably about 30MPH at our backs and we are flying. We will take this north to Haarlem and then go east to Amsterdam. Weather is nice... Around 60 degrees and partly sunny. It has never gotten really hot since our first couple days in England.

New Windmalls and Dike on the right

2009-07-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

First Windmill in Holland

2009-07-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

Brugges and Entering Holland

2009-07-23T23:32:00.000-07:00

From Ghent we bicycled to Brugges, Belgium. We decided to camp and found a crowded campside about 2 clicks from Brugges. I left Jordan to set up the tent and rode to a bicycle shop. I broke a spoke on my front wheel, which is probably a first for me. They usually break on the back wheel, often on the cassette side. I had not brought any spokes with me and figured I could just adjust the tension on the other spokes until I found a bike shop. I rode thru Brugges, which is an interesting old town. The inner town is surrounded by a canal... Belgium's version of Venice. I got the spoke and repaired my wheel.

Jordan and I got food at the local grocery store and made our usual meal of huge subs, chips, cheese, and champagne. It started raining while we were at the grocery store, so we ate in the tent. The crumbs we left were really bugging Jordan. I had no problem with them. The rain increased in intensity and lasted all night. The tent took on some water and much of our stuff was wet by morning. I forgot to tell Jordan to make sure she tucked the ground cloth underneath the tent.

Waited in our tent until 11AM for the rain to stop. It finally did and we took off by noon. We stopped 1 click later at McDonald's for food and internet access. I also found a detailed map of Holland and we decided to go up the coast along the dikes. I Dutchman who camped next to us told us we should do that since we were biking from the south. Their is always an intense wind from the south. I told him I really liked biking in Belgium. He told me I would enjoy Holland even more. I told him there is nothing like this in most of the US. He said that even though the Dutch system is good, there are vocal groups that are trying to make it even better... Continuous Process Improvement at work!

By 1PM our biking day finally started. We made up for lost time with completely flat terrain and a strong wind at our backs. Ended up doing about 80 clicks. We first road to Breskens and took a ferry to Vlissingen. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes and cost the two of us with bikes 7 euros. This put us in an area they call Zeeland. The towns are unbelievably quaint. The houses are small by US standards, but impeccably kept. Our ride took us over two very long dikes. What an engineering marvel! The water inside the dike is noticably lower than the North Sea side. It looks like pumps are constantly taking water from the inner side to the North Sea side because the water on the North Sea side is roiling! There are whirlpools and riptides for about two hundred yards from the dike. I don't think you could swim out of this water if you fell into it. We made it to a town called Burgh-Haamstede and found a small hotel where we could spread out all our stuff to dry it out. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant across the street, followed by an ice cream cone and sleep. It is amazing how I crave pasta after a day like this. This was probably our nicest day of biking so far, which we certainly did not expect at the start of the day.

5 ft wide bike lanes on both sides of road! Why can't US do this?

2009-07-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Special bike lane traffic lights in Belgium

2009-07-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Jordan's buddies, Oscar and Tina, at the Gent Festival

2009-07-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Dining in Brussels and public toilet at Gent Festival

2009-07-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

Gent, Belgium

2009-07-22T00:21:00.000-07:00

We left Brussels pretty early yesterday with the intention of biking to Brugges. We ended up taking a very circuitous route and at one point were on a grass road (Wimbeldon?) that ran through a farmer's property. There must be some sort of holiday because almost everything is closed. We had lunch in a small town, where I started playing with the GPS. I finally discovered that I could tell it that we are on bicycles. I had also had it programmed to avoid all highways, which is why we have ended up on gravel and grass roads. Many of the highways here are not like our interstates and are great to bike on. After making these changes, the Garmin is now using more direct routes. It only took me 3 frigging weeks to figure it out!

Note on biking in Belgium... These people are really into biking. Most of the roads have dedicated bicycle lanes. It is usually about 3 to four feet wide and colored either red or very clear stripes that demarcate it from the road. There are none of the goofy raised curbs like the ones they tried on High Street through campus many years ago. Another really cool thing is the traffic lights. When bikes have the right of way, the traffic light shows a green bicyclist. I will take a picture and post it later. Also, the terrain is starting to flatten out, which we like very much after the Ardenne Forest.

Starting to run into more bikers. Met a nice young guy from New York City yesterday named Justin. He was an architect but now he designs furniture. The economy is doing a number on his business so he decided to take a month long tour in Europe to visit his brother in Germany and visit various furniture makers to drum up business. This is his second major trip, and he is a true minimalist. His bike looked about 15 years old. He had no biking gloves and sneakers with no clips of any kind. His maps were google print outs. Despite his lack of equipment, he has the spirit of adventure, which is the most important component to have on a trip like this.

After sharing a cold drink with him in Gent, he took off to the local youth hostel. Jordan and I were going to push on to Brugges, but it started raining really hard. There was also a huge local festival going on, the annual 10 day Gent Festival. These people know how to party! We quickly made a change of plans and stayed here. After showers, we walked around the festival. We stopped and had a beer at one of the taverns. We were immediately befriended by a 57 year old woman named Tina from Brazil. She kind of looked like Tina Turner, and she was NUTS! She introduced us to her husband, Oscar, who is from Spain. He had to be 20 years younger. She said they have been together for 18 years but just got married yesterday. She know about 10 languages and became our "best friend". We continued to keep a tight hold on our wallets, though. We took a few pictures and then headed back for the evening.

Eric and Lise's Farmhouse

2009-07-20T01:09:00.000-07:00

Remains of US bunker in Ardenne near Bastogne

2009-07-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

Bastogne Memorial to US Allies

2009-07-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

101st Airborne Memorial (Screaming Eagles) in Bastogne

2009-07-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

Touring Belgium with Lise and Eric

2009-07-20T00:59:00.000-07:00

Train from Reim to Sedan

2009-07-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Andersons, France Division

2009-07-20T00:54:00.000-07:00

WWI British Cemetary near Reim

2009-07-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

Paul Zilk showing wine cellar to Haley and Jake Crim

2009-07-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

Leaving France and Going to Belgium

2009-07-20T00:45:00.001-07:00

July 19, 2009
First, Freu Geburtstag fur meinem Bruder, Grax! (Happy birthday for my brother, Grax).
We have had an amazing few days. We have not had Internet access, so I have not updated the blog in a while. We had a couple days of tough riding our of Paris. It took us two days to get to Reims, the capital of the Champagne region of France. We got in the spirit by buying a couple bottles of "bubbly". We stayed in a cheap hotel and bought food at a huge grocery store, the biggest I have seen in Europe. It reminded me of Whole Foods. Which reminds me, the previous night I bought our food in an Aldi. Including a bottle of champagne, it cost me about 12 euros. I don't know how they sell things so cheaply.
With the riding being a little difficult, and my cousin Paul's (Linzo) cousin, Lise, expecting us that evening, Jordan and I hopped on a train from Reims to Sedan. It was incredibly easy and pretty cheap. Taking this "short-cut" reminded me of something my cousin, Jim (Rhubes), used to do on our bicycle trip across the United States. If we had a particularly rough day of biking and he did not feel like camping, he would shout "HOTEL". We would find the cheapest place around, and squeeze 5 people into one room. It was great to get out of the heat. Now, when Jordan and I want a break I will shout "TRAIN".
The ride from Sedan to Neufchateau was easy at first, but as soon as we headed North into Belgium it got very hilly. We were in entering the heart of the Ardenne Forest. I was expecting mainly conifers, but it was primarily decidious trees at first. We ended up biking about 65 clicks to get into Neufchateau. From there we biked another 5 tough clicks to Lise and Eric's (nickname is Ballou from the Jungle Book) house. They welcomed us like we were long-lost family. Jordan and I took a walk in the countryside, while Lise and Ballou finished making dinner.
Eric has an interesting background. He was a psychologist for some time, but now he has a solar panel business. His panels heat water, rather than make electricity. He has installed several of them in the old farmhouse we are staying in and is in the process of running plastic tubing underneath all the floors. Hot water running through the tubes will heat the place. The house was built in the 1890's. He figures he will be totally done in about four years. I would love to see it when he is done.
Lise came to Brussels from Quebec several years ago to visit a friend and met Eric. They fell in love, and after many trans-Atlantic flights, she decided to move to Belgium. I hope we can repay their hospitality by having the two of them come to the USA.
They prepared a traditional Belgian meal which was fantastic. We drank several kinds of wine, followed by Remy Martin. We talked until two in the morning. In the morning we had petit dijeunier of bread, cheese, meat, and Lise's home-made jams from her local fruit trees. We then took off for a full day of touring Belgium. Ballou took us to some of his favorite little towns on a beautiful, meandering river. We went into a 1,000 year old castle in one town. He had been there many times and probably knew as much as a tour guide. We then ate lunch at another town and made our way to Bastogne.
This was the site of the pivotal stand in the Battle of the Bulge. The memorial to the U.S. allies was impressive. The Belgian people were and still are extremely grateful for the sacrifices America made to liberate them from the Germans in WWII. Over 70,000 people were killed or wounded in Bastogne during the seige. Ballou took us into the woods just outside of Bastogne where the 101st Screaming Eagles had set up one of their defensive perimeters. We found large holes in the ground which were the foxholes that the GI's had dug. They probably constructed roofs from small trees and had their machine guns aimed at the German lines. The show "Band of Brothers" has a couple excellent episodes of this battle. What an incredible day this was! Very emotional to think about what happened here 65 years ago this coming winter.
We drove back to Neufchateau where Lise and Ballou made another culinary masterpiece... pasta carbonara with peppers and zuchini from their own garden... salad, too! We again drank impressive amounts of wine and stayed up talking until 2:30 in the morning. Today we got up, had breakfast, then Ballou and Lise drove us about 15 clicks to Libramont, which has a train station. We decided to take the train from their to Brussells. We have been busting our butts on this trip and not spending enough time site-seeing. This will allow us to spend more time in Brussells and Brugges. Also, the biking should be very easy from Brussells to Amsterdam. I will post pictures soon.
A note about beer: Eric is very proud of Belgian beer. One of his favorites is Orval, which he served us on Friday night. It was unbelievable! I am going to find more in Brussells, but I think it may be fairly local to the part of Belgium we are in. There are quite a few different kinds of beer here. We will attempt to taste many of them!
Jordan and I hopped on a train to Brussels and arrived around 3PM. We are staying in a cheap hotel pretty close to the center of town. We will stay here for two nights a and then ride to Gent. This is a cool town. We will do all the touristy stuff tomorrow.

Reims, France

2009-07-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

We have had two tough days since Paris. The champagne region is very hilly... great for growing grapes, but tiring if biking. We have not done near the mileage I expected to so in about two hours we are going to try to hop a train to Sedan, and then ride to my cousin Paul's cousin, Lise. She is at her summer place in the Ardenne forest in Belgium. Her friend, Eric, is going to take us around to Bastogne and other WW II sites.

Yesterday we passed by several WWI cemetaries. I don't know much about that conflict except that we are riding through the infamous "Western Front". A lot of boys cut down at a very young age. I will post pictures later.

Grapes at last! Champagne Region

2009-07-16T00:40:00.000-07:00

More Fireworks

2009-07-16T00:38:00.000-07:00

Bastille Day Fireworks

2009-07-16T00:37:00.000-07:00

Portrait artist at Monmarte, Paris

2009-07-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

Rob Crim and me hoisting a brew!

2009-07-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

Jordan and Eiffel Tower

2009-07-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

Choking the Chicken?

2009-07-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

Venus de Milo in Louvre

2009-07-16T00:31:00.000-07:00

Leaving Paris

2009-07-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

It is early Wednesday morning and we will be leaving Paul and Danielle's apartment soon. Yesterday was Bastille Day, France's equivalent of July 4th. Paul and I got to see the parade from a special vantage point. He had landed two tickets in the VIP section. All the different divisions of the French military marched by, followed by a lot of cool hardware. I heard a good joke about a French veteran selling a French military rifle. His ad read ¨Rifle in good condition. Never been fired and only dropped twice¨.

Last night we watched the fireworks from Paul's. They fire them off from various levels of the Eiffel Tower. Best I have ever seen. We will post pictures later.

Au Revoir!

Eiffel Tower Video

2009-07-13T01:13:00.000-07:00

More Paris Pics

2009-07-13T01:08:00.001-07:00

Pictures of Paris

2009-07-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

City of Light

2009-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we biked from the South through the Paris suburbs to Paul and Danielle Zilk's place near the Eiffel Tower. They have the 5th floor of a building here. If you have ever seen the movie ¨TAKEN¨, it reminds you of the place where the girls were kidnapped. Paul told me that scenes from the movie ¨Bourne Identity¨ were filmed in his building.

Danielle prepared an unbelievable meal. We started out with champagne, then foie gras with sauterne. The main course was roast lamb, which was excellent. Paul served a great bordeaux with it. The meal was topped off with two desserts accompanied by champagne.

Rob and Cheryl Crim and their two kids, Haley and Jake, joined us. The three of us former college roommates have not been together since my wedding in 1986. It was great getting back together and getting the opportunity to know their kids and for them to get to know Jordan.

Today, Jordan and I met the Crims at The Louve. After touring the museum for several hours, we had lunch at a neqrby cafe. I then hailed a cab for Jordan so she could get back and get ready to go to the U2 concert with Paul. He had an extra ticket and I thought she would enjoy it more than me. She just got back and said it was incredible. I will post some cool pics tomorrow.

By the way, I found out that Wrigley and Aslan made the Columbus Dispatch on Saturday!

Push to Paris

2009-07-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

We got up pretty late today and walked into the local market in Dreux. The amount of fresh fish and produce were amazing! I wish my camera worked... maybe I am not quite over that. We bought cafe au lait and pastries. I am really stuck on their almond croissants... delicious.

We finally got packed up and left town around 11:30. We had a heckuva time navigating our of their. I though this was going to be a fairly short day, but it did not end up that way. One of the "N" highways went directly to Versailles and Paris, but they were too busy for bikers. We detoured south. All was going well until we stopped for lunch. After lunch, I took a wrong turn. Our 40-50 km day turned into another metric century. I have got to pay closer attention. I really pushed Jordan hard today, and she was not expecting it.

We missed Versailles and it would have been a real pain to get back to it. I decided to re-route directly to Paul Zilk's place, which was 50 clicks away at that point. We are staying in a little hotel about 40 clicks from Paul's. We should get to his place by early afternoon. A little R&R! We can take the train back out to Versailles on one of our days off. It has been a rough week of riding. Hope to have my camera replaced soon so I can get some more pics on the blog.

Norman castle on the way to Caen

2009-07-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

Pictures in France - Omaha Beach and Cemetary

2009-07-10T00:25:00.000-07:00

2009-07-08T01:17:00.000-07:00

Frank Mouque landed on Sword Beach on June 6, 1944 at age 19. This man literally helped save the world! On June 7th he was at Pegasus Bridge removing German demolitions and installing British demolitions. That was just in case the invasion failed and they had to blow the bridge to prevent the Germans from getting across the Orn River canal.

Normandy

2009-07-08T00:33:00.000-07:00

Continuation of last day in England (7/4/2009)
Anyway, Daniel picked us up and carted us off to Portsmouth. I think it is pretty safe to say that if he had seen just me standing by the side of the road instead of Jordan, we would be cycling into Portsmouth. I think he took quite a shine to my little girl... and vica versa. After exchanging blog and email addresses we said goodbye and boarded the ferry. Jordan immediately met two boys from Ireland (about 16 and 12) who asked her to play 21 and poker with them. The ferry crossing to Cherbourg took about 3 hours. When we arrived we immediately began biking out of town and found a campground. We pitched the tent, showered and started walking back towards Cherbourg to find a restaurant. It was looking pretty bleak and then we found a creperie that was open. The food was excellent.
It rained that night and my new tent performed beautifully. We slept in until about 9AM so the tent could dry off. After a breakfast of fiber bars we took off. The Norman countryside is spectacular. We had the wind at our backs most of the day and a partially sunny day. We found a restaurant for lunch that had free WiFi. We set up shop there, charging batteries and checking email. We finally took off around 3PM. Our original goal was Omaha Beach, but that was not realistic at this poing. We stopped in the city of Carentan, which was the site of a famous WW II action led by Lt. Dick Winters from "Band of Brothers" fame. We camped again (3rd night in a row!), showered, and went looking for a place to eat. By this time it was 8:30PM and it looked like they had rolled up the sidewalks. We were just resigning ourselves to a dinner of a Payday candy bar, when we discovered a place that was open. Food was good, and not too expensive. Jordan ate crepes again, and she is "creped" out. I had the equivalent of the "Blue Plate Special" which was a hell of a deal... big salad, bread, and a chicken cutlet with fries and mashed potatoes. I am definitely getting my carbs. At the end of the meal I ordered a glass of calvados, which is the local apple liqour. It has a bit of a Gran Marnier feel to it, only apple instead of orange. Jordan could not handle it.
July 7, 2009
It rained like hell last night, and the tent held up again. We stayed in bed until about 10AM waiting for it to stop. We finally got up and walked into Carentan to buy fruit and pastries for breakfast. Every town in Normandy has at least one bakery, if not two or three. The pastries and bread are incredible. Jordan and I are stopping at these at least twice a day. We broke camp and finally left town around 11:30. It immediately started pouring ran, which was fitting since we were headed to Omaha Beach. For all of you naysayers who said Jordan would pack it in within a week, she really held her own. She did not complain once, even though we were both soaked and cold.
We arrived at Point du Hoc at the west end of Omaha Beach first. As we were locking up the bikes, a car pulled up near us and an old British gent stepped out with two younger people. We exchanged greetings and started talking. I asked him if he had come ashore here 65 years ago. He said no, but he came ashore close by at Sword Beach. That was one of the beaches where the Brits came ashore. Jordan and I said goodbye to them and started walking toward Point du Hoc. I mentioned to Jordan that we ought to get our pictures taken with him. We saw them again a little later, and talked a little more about his experiences on D-Day. One of the things he had to do on June 7th, 1944 was remove the German charges from Pegasus Bridge and put there own charges on the bridge, in case the invasion did not succeed and they had to blow the bridge themselves. Stephen Ambrose wrote a great book about this key action called "Pegasus Bridge".
Jordan asked him if she could get a picture with him. He looked at me and asked if I wanted in, too, and I said sure. I will post the picture when I get on line. He gave us his email address and said he would email his personal account of WW II if we sent him our email addresses. We will be sure to do that and post the account for any WW II buffs who want to read it. This is the kind of history lesson that you cannot get just sitting in a classroom. I am really pleased how inquisitive Jordan has been during our journey. We are really building memories.
Next stop was Omaha Beach and the U.S. Cemetary. I had been here 10 years ago, but it was still just as impressive this time. There are row after row of crosses and Stars of David for all the men buried there. It is not just D-Day dead that are buried there. I saw some dates from 1943 and some as later as April, 1945.
We left Omaha Beach around 3:30 with a good 25 miles to get to Caen. We made another pastry stop about 6 miles from Caen and then finished at about 6:30. With hills, wind, rain, and wieght of gear, we our making about 10 miles per hour. I think I am going to have scale back on the mileage until we either start getting up earlier, or are stronger riders.
We checked into a cheap hotel. We dropped our stuff and walked to a grocery store next door. Lucky we did that first, because they closed at 7:30PM. Tonight will be a good night for cleaning our gear, updating blog, and drinking a few beers. Tomorrow we start pushing for Paris.
Generlizations on the British and the French
Britain was not a great cycling country. Many of the roads are narrow. There are no berms. Traffic moves very quickly. On the other hand, the French roads are wider and the cars slow down for you as they pass. As we approached Caen, which is a fairly large city, there was a bike path along the side of the road.
This being said, I never met a friendly people than the British. They were quick to offer help and had great senses of humor. They loved to talk and were very interested in our journey. The French seem rather indifferent to us. At first I thought it was just the language barrier, but I think it is more than that. They are much more reserved. Another thing that I think is interesting is the number of French who know no English. I know it is embarassing that most Americans do not have language skills, but we are not really forced to since English is really a world language. Many of the French we are meeting are very dependant on tourism (restaurants and hotels). You would think that more of them would know a little English. There are some restaurants that advertise that their menus are in English as well as French, but very few. My Francophile friends will claim that this more French-bashing by "moir", but I really do think that the French still think they are a world power and are the center of the known world.

Fourth of July in England

2009-07-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July in England
I forgot to mention that just before we got to Salisbury, we made a quick side trip to Stonehenge. They were charging an outrageous amount to walk around it, so we just admired it from a little greater distance.
Salisbury is a really cool town. Whatever river runs through it is incredibly clean. I saw pretty big trout hanging out underneath a bridge. There was long, very green grass growing from the bottom of the river. The river looked about 5 feet deep and was very clear. We left Salisbury and began biking the last stretch of the day to a campground about 12 miles east. My Garmin screwed up for the first time. It tried to take us on a small gravel road. I should have suspected something was wrong, but we started riding down it. Both of us fell. I cut my right arm and a good amount of blood was flowing, but it did not need stitches. Jordan got a couple sharp rocks jammed into her backside. At that point, I said screw the Garmin and we went back to the main road. Luckily, I had written out the directions, too. We did not get to the campsite until about 8PM because the terrain was extremely hilly. We were both at the end of our ropes. I set up the tent quickly and then we rode about a mile to a pub. The food was incredible! We both had lasagna, beer, and dessert. It is amazing how food picks up your spirits. We rode back to the campsite, where I showered and fell quicly to sleep. I discovered that my Big Agnes pillow was missing. I stuffed some clothes into my sleeping bag sack and used that. I am going to have to get something better or I will end up with a stiff neck.
Today (July 5, 2009) we got up pretty early, around 7:45. We were on the road about 9AM. We had to get 50 KM by 2:30PM to catch the Brittany Ferry to Cherbourg. Everything was going smoothly until we got to Southhampton. It is a pretty large city, and the Garmin was directing me on roads that looked way to busy to ride safely, so I kept on detouring onto less busy roads. Jordan was getting upset with me, but I told her that this is what we had to do. We were sitting by the side of a busy rode when a young man drove up to offer Jordan help (I had gone ahead to scout out the road). He drove up to me and told me to get in and he would tell me how to bike to Portsmouth. We drove back to Jordan. He explained how to bike to Portsmouth and then took off. He then reappeared in a minute and asked if we were dead set on biking to Portsmouth or did we want a ride. We said we would certainly take a ride. We threw the bikes into his van and took off. His name was Daniel and he drove us write to the Ferry. We bought tickets and I then offered to buy him lunch. He took us to a great place where he used to work.... Running out of battery... will continue later...

First 3 days of biking in England

2009-07-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

We had no problems catching the train to Oxford. We had to cram our bikes into the entryway of the last car. The English trains are a bit cramped and don't do anything special to accomodate bikes. Got to Oxford around 11AM and immediately started biking. The weather and countryside were beautiful. All was going fine until about 4PM and my rear derailleur starting acting up. I thought maybe it had just gotten bent. I tried to bend it back into alignment. I got back on my bike and almost immediately, the chain caught and as I pedaled, I broke the rear derailleur in two. That was a real show stopper, but fortunately we were right by the Cotswold Water Park. I went into a store and made numerous phone calls to local bike shops. They all acted surprised that I had a 10-speed cassette. I thought it was a lot more common. Luckily, there was a very nice hotel in the water park, and we stayed there. It had internet access, so I got a hold of several people (my cousin Paul and Dave Baer). Dave advised me on what to tell the bike shop guys I needed.

The next morning, I got a cab into Cirenshire (sp?) and went to a bike store that was recommended by the hotel. The guy fixed me up as best as he could, but it turned at that my hangar was extremely bent and the large ring in front had bent teeth. I don't know how that happened. He got it into the best alignment that he could, but it still isn't hitting on all cylinders. I biked back to the Cotswold Water Park hotel and Jordan and I hit the road by 1PM.

We had an extremely hard day of biking. Scenery was beautiful, but very hilly. We finally made it to a campground around 7:30, but they said they were full. What total BS. We could have easily pitched a tent in numerous spots there. I used my Garmin to find a little hotel called Hollie's in Westbury. They had a room for 45 pounds and it was only a few clicks away (that's kilometers). By the way, the Garmin has been fantastic! I would be hopelessly lost without it.

We got up kind of late this morning and took off from Westbury. Jordan was following me a little too closely and I hit my brakes as I approached an intersection. Jordan ran into me and fell off her bike. The intersections in England are tricky and I could not tell who had the right of way, so I stopped suddenly. Several women got out of their cars and came to Jordan's aid. She kept a "stiff upper lip", although she was pretty shook up. We continued without mishap and are now in Salisbury. What a cool town! I am in a hug pub drinking a brew and letting all of you know we are OK and on schedule. I will get more pictures on the site later when I have more time. We still have an hour to bike to get to our campsite.

Pictures in London

2009-07-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

Touring London

2009-07-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

Started off with a good English breakfast. Jordon did not care for it so I had two! She then took another nap and then we did an afternoon tour of London. Saw St.Paul's and Tower of London in detail. We then took a boat down the Thames past Big Ben and Westminister.

Met Ben Gifford and his mom, Klaudia for dinner at a Thai restaurant in Picadilly Circus. They went to a play while Jordan and I walked to Buckingham Palace. We then took the tube to Kings Cross, had dessert, and went to our new hotel, The Princess.

Heathrow Airport

2009-06-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

We flew from Columbus to Chicago then to Heathrow in London. Flight was smooth and I splept for about half of it. Bikes arrived along with all other equipment. I took them outside and assembled them. We thought we would be able to take the "tube" into London, but some Eastern European hardass babe would not let us. We t ook the Heathrow Express tO Paddington Station and then walked two miles to our little hotel. Room is small, but nice. We took a three hour nap and then took a walk. We had sheperds pie and a BLT in a pub. Excellent beer. We then walked about 3 miles around town and then took the tube back. I am using my Garmin to navigate. I got a little confused tonight, but starting to get the hang of it. Tomorrow we plan on doing some site-seeing after a traditional English breakfast.

I threw in a picture of the "boys", Aslan and Wrigley. We wish we could have taken them on the trip.

2009-06-29T06:34:00.001-07:00

The big day is finally here. We are scrambling around to get everything ready. Bikes are boxed. Going to go over gear one more time. Heading to the airport around 12:30. Fly to Chicago at 3:45 and then on to London.

2009-06-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

DougStock
Yesterday, about 70 of us rode from Progressive Health to Doug Morgan's farm near Mount Vernon. It was dubbed the first "DougStock", although a smaller group of us did the trip last year. What a beautiful day. We had a gentle Northeast breeze in our faces. Although it slowed us down slightly, it brought temperature relief. The ride was a little less than 50 miles, with some pretty good hills. A good last training ride before HEADING TO ENGLAND TOMORROW!

Riding Fully Loaded

2009-06-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

This week we packed up our gear and road fully loaded for the first time. The first trip was a little 15 miler up the Olentangy bike path. I had WAY TOO MUCH STUFF! I was really dragging ass. I decided to s-can my ultra-termarest for a Big Agnes air mattress (non-insulated). This saved several pounds right away and it is much more compact. I also got rid of tools that I most likely will not need... Big crescent wrench, free-wheel tool. If I break a spoke, we will just limp along until I can get to a bike shop to fix it.

We went on a 30 miler fully loaded on Thursday in 90+ heat. My weight was much better. The heat was a killer, but Jordan did fine. I also decided to bring a half-gallon igloo type water container. I did this when I went cross-country in 1980 and it was a good move. I removed one of my water bottles and cage.

"Doug-Stock" is today. Riding 50 miles from Westerville to Doug Morgan's farm near Mount Vernon. I worked most of the day yesterday with Doug and others setting things up. We expect about 75 riders.

2009-06-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

Jordan and I at the halfway point (Delaware, OH) of our FIRST 50 mile ride. Picture taken by Jerry Kurtz. He and his wife, Marie, joined us for breakfast. My little girl is a "toughie". She is going to do just fine!

Getting in Shape

2009-06-20T05:28:00.000-07:00

Starting a week ago last Thursday, Jordan and I have been training. The first day was about 15 miles in a steady rain, which went just fine. We rode up to the north end of the Olentangy River Bike Trail. The next day we increased the mileage to 20. Last Sunday we rode out to Rick Fredecker's house in Muirfield. That was a 36 mile round trip. A couple days later we did 25 miles, took a four hour break, and then did 25 more. After that ride, I pronounced that Jordan will be able to handle the trip. The hills will be difficult, particularly with a full load, but she can do it.

A couple days ago we rode from my place through downtown to Town Street. We took Town east past Nelson where it becomes Bryden Road. Bryden runs right into the Alum Creek bike path. We took that south all the way to the end. It meanders through several parks (3 Creeks) and finally dead ends. The round trip was 40 miles and it was about 90 degrees. I had to take my hybrid because my touring bike was in the shop. The right pedal would NOT come off. Dave Baer is working on it. I ended up having a flat on the Alum Creek trail, but repaired it without too much trouble. We took yesterday off so we could move Jordan's stuff out of her house and into mine. Today we plan on riding up to Delaware. Should be a 50 mile round trip.

I have been getting more familiar with my Garmin GPS. I am logging in WayPoints for each of our stops. There seems to be several standards for lattitude and longitude coordinates. I had it wrong at first and had us camping in the middle of the English Channel! I finally found a web site that converted the coordinates to the format that Garmin understands. The amount of technology I have on this trip just astounds me!

Training

2009-06-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Jordan just finished school on Wednesday. We started training on Thursday after a rough night of celebrating the completion of her sophomore year. We started biking around 3PM and did about 22 miles... mostly in the rain. I think this kind of weather will be good prep for England. She was very sore, but all is looking good. We followed it up on Friday with about a 15 mile ride. She does not trust my estimation of mileage, so I bought her a Cat's Eye computer which I will install on her bike tomorrow.

I am going to Toledo for my 2nd (or is it 3rd?) cousin's wedding... Carol, who is my first cousin, Dan's, daughter. No ride for me today, but Jordan says she is getting out.

Rough Trip Itinerary

2009-06-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have finished my first draft of our itinerary. This is subject to change at any time due to any reason. The reason these notes say "WALKING DIRECTIONS" is because I used the walking option on Google maps so that it would keep me on smaller roads. Since we do not meet Barb and Donna (Madlener) in Munich until August 28th, I have left plenty of wiggle room.

European Bike Trip Notes

Flight Info
Orbitz Record Locator: AP1101012273IDBD
Mon, Jun 29, 2009Departs 3:45pm, Arrives 9:20am (American Eagle on behalf of British Airways... Embraer jet - AA # 800-433-7300)British Airways 5502 / 294Columbus, OH to London, United Kingdom

Mon, Sep 7, 2009
Orbitz Record Locator: AP1101012273IDBD

Departs 11:55am, Arrives 9:50pmBritish Airways 949 / 297 / 5367Munich, Germany to Columbus, OH

Paddington station
July 2, 2009
Train Ticket to Oxford

Biking directions from Oxford to Malmesbury, Wiltshire 49 Miles

Camp at Burton Hill Caravan Park in Malmesbury http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=1023&map=on
Leave the M4 at junction 17 and take the A429 toward Cirencester, about 1/4 mile south of Malmesbury off A429 Chippenham road, turn into Arches Lane opposite Malmesbury hospital. The site is very well signposted. Recommended restaurants... Summer Cafe, Dog and Gun Pub

July 3, 2009
Walking directions to Glastonbury, Somerset, UK
46.1 mi –

Camp at Old Oaks Turing Park http://www.theoldoaks.co.uk/tariff.htm phone 01458 831437
From Wells: Take A39 towards Glastonbury. Follow signs for West Mendip Hospital. Just past hospital turn left at sign for Wick and Brindham. The park is on right in 1 = miles.

July 4, 2009

Walking directions to Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
48.3 mi – about 15 hours 55 mins

CAMPING IN SALISBURY
SalisburySalisbury Camping and Caravanning Club SiteHudson’s FieldCastle RoadSalisburyWiltshireSP1 3RR
01722 320713Stay on A30 past Wilton to A345 (Castle Road)
Go left to Hudson's Field Road and go left. Camping will be on left.

July 5, 2009
Walking directions to Portsmouth, UK
43.1 mi
Ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg
https://priclub.directferries.com/ferry/secure/1_booking_details.aspx?stdc=DF10&orid=65-12&rrid=12-65&psgr=2&micr=0&midu=0
Should cost about 35 pounds per person and take 3 hours on the Brittany Ferries
Ferry leave at 2:45 PM on Friday - Sunday, 8AM on all other days...

Hostel in Cherbourg
http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-Cherbourg-Octeville-020044.en.htm
55 Rue de l'Abbaye50100 Cherbourg (Manche)FranceTel. +33-2-33-78-1515

Camping in Cherbourg
http://www.anse-du-brick.com/gb/camping_normandie_anse-du-brick.htm
L'Anse du Brick
18, Anse du Brick
50330 Maupertus / mer, France
02 33 54 33 57
Left on Rue du 8 Mai which becomes D116 towards Barfleur. Go 6 miles past Le Brecquet and Bretteville. Camp on the right of the road.
Cherbourg
France
.
July 6, 2009
Cherbourg to Omaha Beach 82.6 KM
France

Camping Omaha Beach
rte Grandcamp14710 VIERVILLE SUR MERTél:02 31 22 41 73

July 7, 2009
Bike to Pegasus Bridge 55 KM
Pegasus Bridge
Place du Commandant Kieffer, 14970 Bénouville, France

July 8, 2009 110 KM (wed)
Caen, France to Ancinnes, France Caen, France

Stay at B&B La Basse Cour, Ancinnes, Pays de la Loire 59E
http://www.normandie-chambres.co.uk/reserve.html
0844 562 1726
Mobiles and others:+33 (0)2 33 82 01 19

or camping
http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/en/europe/france/basse-normandie/orne/campsite-mun.-de-guerame-103606/#07
+33 (0)2-33263495
GPS: N 48.42637° E 0.07368°

July 9, 2009 114 KM (Thursday)
Alençon, France to Chartres

Camping http://www.auxbordsdeleure.com/indexgb.html
23, Avenue Neigre
28000 CHARTRES
TEL: +33.2.37.34.27.64

July 10, 2009 (Friday)

70 KM to Versailles
Camping at Huttopia 33 4 37 64 22 33

July 11 or 12th, 2009 Versailles to Paris
14 KM

July 11th - 14th at Paul Zilk's place

July 15th Take RER to Disneyland and bike to Epernay 103 KM

Camping Municipal d' Epernay
Allées de Cumières
51200 Épernay, France

July 16th, 2009 to le Chesne 91 KM
Camping Website - http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/en/europe/france/champagne-ardenne/ardennes/campsite-dept.-du-lac-de-bairon-104086/
+33 (0)3-24301166

July 17, 2009 82 km to Lise Pelletier, Linzo's cousin in Neufchâteau, Belgium
Stay the 18th with Lise

July 19, 2009 101 KM to Namur, Belgium 91 KM

Stay at Auberge de Jeunesse hostel

July 20, 2009 to Brussels 64 KM
Sleep Well Hostel 0032-2.218.50.50
http://www.sleepwell.be/EN/contact.html

July 21, 2009 to Bruges (99 KM)

Stay at St Christophers or
http://www.bauhaus.be/hotel.html is their hotel alternative (at 133 Langestraat) (40 Euros total)
Outside Belgium: +32 50 34 10 93Inside Belgium: 050 34 10 93

July 22, 2009 (to Renesee, 82 KM)
Camping De Wijde Blick BV
Lagezoom 23
4325 CP Renesse, Netherlands

July 23, 2009 (102 KM to Uylenburg)

Look for campgrounds in Uylenburg

July 24, 2009 (62 KM to Amsterdam) - Staying 2 nights

July 26th Take train to Berlin and stay there two nights.
Get on Priceline several days before to reserve hotel in Amsterdam. Also, get Berlin hotel for two nights.

July 28th take train from Berlin to Nuremberg and bike to Donauworth (102 KM)
Campingweg 1
86698 Eggelstetten
Phone: +49 (0) 90 90 / 40 46 (Would probably need to eat in town or get food from there)

July 29th to camping area East of Ulm, 97 KM
Machtolsheim
Laichingen, Germany
Heidehof Camping
http://www.camping-heidehof.de/
+49 7333/6408I may want to stay at New ULM instead of going here. We we would have to go through mountains the next day.

July 30th to Sigmaringen 75KM

July 31st
Walking directions to Am Riedsee 11, 78166 Donaueschingen, Germany
64.6 km

August 1st
Walking directions to Zurich, Switzerland
80.4 km
Zurich
Switzerland
Use Priceline to get a hotel. Book recommends City BackPacker 044 251 90 15
Take train to Lugano the next day (2.5 hours)

August 2nd Stay with Vic Rush for a few nights. Consider taking train to Zermatt or Jungfrau.

August 4th
Walking directions to Bellagio CO, Italy
36.4 km
August 5th
Walking directions to Bergamo BG, Italy
54.1 km

Aug 6th
Bergamo BG to Verona (128 KM)

Aug 7th to Tronchetto, Venice... Take the ferry to Lido and get a hotel
Walking directions to Tronchetto, Venice, Italy
119 km Cannot use Priceline for Lido. Use http://www.booking.com/ I saw some for about 60 E per night

Aug 9th Train from Venice to Genoa takes about 3.5 hours... Arrives at 8:25PM
Price of train tickets is $106 total
Get hotel in Genoa... Lonely Planet recommends hotel carola
pensionecarola.com +39 010 839 1340 via gropallo, 4/12, 16122 genova (GE), Italy

Aug 10th
Walking directions to Finale Ligure SV, Italy
Campgrounds here...
Aug 11th
Walking directions to San Remo IM, Italy
72.0 km
Aug 12th
Walking directions to Nice, France
53.4 km

Aug 13th
Walking directions to St Raphaël, France
67.5 km Campgrounds are between Agay and Saint Raphael. Or use PriceLine

Aug 14th
Walking directions to Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, France
85.9 km
Aug 15th
Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume to Aix-en-Provence 48 KM
Aug 16th
Walking directions to Arles, France
73.8 km

Aug 17th
Walking directions to Aigues-Mortes, France via Nimes
67.6 km

Aug 18th
Walking directions to Narbonne, France
123 km
Aug 19th
Walking directions to Carcassonne, France
83.2 km
At this point, take a train to someplace like Frankfurt and then bike to Munich. Need to arrive in Munich on Aug 27 to get Barb and Donna on August 28th.

First Blog Posting

2009-05-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Back in 1980, I bicycled across the USA with four friends from high school. That trip has never been too far from my conscious mind. I have been scheming for most of my adult life to do another major bike trip. About three years ago, when our company was purchased, my opportunity came knocking. The new company wanted to keep me around to transfer our data to their system. Now that the project is just about over, I am going to bicycle through Europe with my daughter, Jordan. We plan on being gone about two months.

Ever since I found out that my job is ending on June 4th, I have been in hyper-planning mode for this trip. I will give more details on all of that in later posts... Mark