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Showing posts from June, 2017

Day 16 - Calais (F) to Swindon (GB)

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Sunday 4th June ------------------------ Had a very slow start as the temperature in the tent was so pleasant that I didn't want to get up. Had a shower and ate the rest of my bread / ham / cheese for breakfast. My planned ferry wasn't until around 8pm and I bought a cheapo 'non-amendable' ticket so figured I'd need to buy a new ticket if I wanted to return early. Getting to the ferry port was interesting as the village I was in decided to close off the road to hold some sort of fete. Only spotted a handful of refugees / migrants now trying to get themselves into the UK from the port. Perhaps it's no longer as appealing economically or with 'The Jungle' levelled and everything fenced-off, there are probably easier places to smuggle yourself in from. My plan was to check at the ferry port to see how much an early ticket would be and if cheap then I would return early, of not then I'd go explore. The P&O lady was very nice and kindly changed my

Day 15 - Reims (F) to Calais (F)

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Saturday 3rd June ------------------------ Woke-up with bad guts, didn't have to break the Immodium tablets out, but obviously that beer had it's effect. In any case, I was back on the road by 09:30. I realise, being in rural France where nobody speaks much English, that my French is pretty terrible. I can ask for most things but people struggle to understand me and when they do respond in French I can't understand anything they say - especially numbers.... and they have so many different words for bread. In a bakery I spotted a small baguette thing that I fancied - so I asked for a small baguette. The lady started pulling-out all these full size ones and I said again, no I want one of those small ones. It has some other wierd name and only once I repeated that word she knew what I wanted.... On the road I fancied a coffee and saw a decent place to pull over and enjoy a coffee outside. Saw a sign saying Petit-Dejuner (spelt wrong I know) €5.  Sounded good but when I aske

Day 14 - Kehl (D) to Reims (F)

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Friday 2nd June ------------------------ Said goodbye to Joachim, 67 year old cyclist Max who was cycling the Rhine from his hometown of Hamburg and the Canadian cyclists. It was another hot day from the outset and progress was good. Today's roads took me through wine country. First the Vinyards of the Alsace-Lorraine region and later the Champagne route. It was all very nice but a lot of the landscape is flat and all looks the same. After about 50 miles ominous clouds appeared on the horizon and the next minute it was chucking it down. Pushed through the rain and 5 minutes later it was sunny again and I was drying myself. 15 minutes later a bigger cloud appeared, this one looked bad so I stopped at a nearby petrol station just as the heavens opened. It was a really intense storm with strong winds, heavy rain and lots of thunder and lightening. Chose to sit it out and also put my waterproofs on. After 30 minutes it was all over until I got to tonight's stop. Arrived at a v

Day 13 - Vaduz (FL / CH) to Kehl (D)

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Thursday 1st June ------------------------ Was originally woken up at 4am by the church bell just behind the campsite. I rings (loudly) every 30 minutes, even at night! Managed to get back to sleep but was then awoken by the heavy rain which continued until about 09:30. Packed all my gear-up and was on the road by 10:15. I decided to make my way across Switzerland on the small roads and get to Strasbourg again. The initial views were stunning despite it being over-cast. The roads soon became amongst the most enjoyable that I have ever ridden (if you ignore the speed limits). Couldn't have just been me judging by the number of bikes on the road. Eventually the road dropped down back into small town after small town.  All very nice but it was impossible to make good progress. I'm sure you could plan an amazing route through Switzerland, given time and a good map. Once on the German-side the road opened-up, the nice views ended but the speeds increased. Out of nowhere I hit an