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

Friday 2nd June
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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 very rural campsite in Champagne country, only the village doesn't seem to have any booze for sale at all. The campsite has no shop, no food and no bar - no wonder it was only €8. Asked the reception lady where the nearest shop was, she gave me directions and said it was 1km away. After walking about 4km I couldn't find it so walked back and asked the lady to order me a pizza as apparently this is what this shop also does. I assumed that it would get delivered only no, I still had to find this place and collect my pizza...

Annoyingly the intense heat turned into yet another thunder storm so like the dip-shit I am I chose to ride to the shop in my shorts, t-shirt and sandles. All this stuff needed a wash anyway.

At the pizza place I also found beer so it wasn't a wasted effort. That said, I don't think I have a future as a pizza delivery boy (see photo). Also decided to try the French equivalents of Special Brew. Still gurning my way through them, but my favourite is 'Amsterdam Maximator' - Maxi Intense. Doesn't sound like a beer to me, but whose complaining when it has 11.6 volts!

Tomorrow somewhere near Calais and then home, as planned, on Sunday.


Mileage: 3691
Country count: 14 (GB, F, D, A, SLO, HR, BiH, MNE, AL, MK, RKS, SRB, FL, CH)
Beers: 42 + 0.5l of red + Blueberry Schnapps + 3 Raki + 4 Pokojnice shots + 1 bottle of Croatian home-made white.
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0 (but 1 passport switching scam)
Ass pain: 2/10
Mechanical issues: 1 (headlight bulb & fuse)
Accidents: 1 (witnessed) + 1 guy reversing into me + 1 crash in Kosovo petrol station
Coldness: 1/10

Comments

  1. Pizza doesn't look very appetising. Homeward bound. See you soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looked a lot better before if rammed it into my top-box and all the topping slid-off.

      Delete

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