Aug 1 Cycled 104 Km to Chaumont, for two nights (rest day in between) in a Best Western. About half the group is totally camping, and the other half is so-called COMFORT which means staying in hotel 2 nights after 3 cycling days.
Aug 2 Our first REST day, a night in the hotel before; as welll as the night of the rest day ... Chaumont is a pretty small town, and a fairly cloudy cold day. although we hear about the hot weather in North America.Had diner with 6 guys in town ... passable, but not great.
Aug 3 to 6 Chaumont France, to Colmar France
Aug 3 Cycled to out to join the camping crowd at the camp site, had breakfast with them, and 89Km on to ? (whereever it was) spaggetti was excellent
Aug 4 Cycyled 85 to Sauluxure, had buritos in the camp shelter, and there was a one-person band who played one song
Aug 5 Cycled only 66 Km to Colmar, up to 1139 m and it was raining and cold,... very unpleasant. . they made arrangements so we could eat our lunch (brought sandwhichs) in a restaurant at the top of a ski-hill,...I was shaking so much from the cold I thought I would lose control of the bike. On the other hand cycled from Munster to Colmar 20K at close to 40 Kph on essentially flat land ..seemed like a breeze. bought a new bike lock at cycle store and a bottle of Hennessy at LeClerc
Aug 6 Rest day in Colmar, ...mostly rainy, but did the Unnterlider museum in the morning, a glass exposition, .... pretty good I suppose... but I find 90 minutes of a museum more tiring than 100 Km of cycling. Had a party with about 6 in Donnies room.... then went for pizza and a beer, group of 11.
Aug 7 -Aug 11 Colmar France, to Ulm Germany 317km over 4 days
Aug 7 Cycled into Germany, onto Friberg ...only a 50K ride. Friberg is a pretty big town and Im pretty sure Ive been here before (when I was doing SAP training for CIL
Aug 8 Cycled Donaushengen (source of the Danube) dinner: beef...very good
Aug 9 Cycled to Sign?___, dinner Chicken (Miles thought he was buying fish) Joe from Australia had a fall and broke the derailler hangar on his Canondale. He later found one (just by wild luck) at a shop in Ulm at 19 Euros
Aug 10 Cycled 114 Km Ulm, kind of crappy weather. So far the directions to find the lunch spot have not worked that well...today 14 out of 20 people couldn't find the lunch spot. Cycled back to the camp-group to have dinner with them, knowing that Miles camp dinners are usually pretty damned good, .... he does a great job. Staying at the Movenpick, a beautiful quasi-deluxe hotel
Aug 11 Rest day in Ulm. Bought a can of degreaser and brush at an impressive bike store ... so will clean my bike, ... which it is in bad need of after so many rainy days.
Aug 12 cycled to Donausworth, but made the biggest blunder of all the participants since the begining. I in all confidence ( I was following the cycle signs but on the wong bloody river) went 29 K in the wrong direction, so by the time I retraced to the begining in Ulm it was 12:30 and I still had 105 Km to do. When I finally got the destination there was a round of applause for the idot.
Aug 13 (Sunday) Cycled to Eichstatt, 70K a short day, and it started to rain as we putting up our tents, things were pretty boring but the fact we had a bonfire helped a lot. Have taken to drinking gin with a bit of vermouth, but the fact there generally isnt ice is a bummer. Dinner was fish, and a excellent vegetable dish. Walked to town with Peter, Gergu Jenn and Lili for a beer , ,.... not bad and least kept awake till 10 pm.
Being provocative (to Gergu) I told Peter and Gergu that in my humble opinion, that in terms of contributing to the "overall success" of the trip
....Miles, the cook, earned ...... 5 stars
....Shanny, director, earned ...3 stars
.... Peter, mechanic, earned ..... 2 stars
.....Gergu, photographer, is still preparing to earn stars (smile)
.....the following is text responding to David who kind of keeps an eye on my house till Sept 27, and said the flowers were dying:
"yes I turned off the water main at my house, ... so the auto-irrigation is not working. I realized the plants would die, ... but that was my decision. I gave Anton a schedule of about every 2 weeks for cutting the grass, ...and he seems conscientious, or more likely after the $30 per time.
"Background on water turn off :.... On June 16 weekend when I went to Ottawa the toilet cover was off and the valve mechanism failed and flooded water for as much as 3 days with 2 inches in the basement .... no lasting damage ..... but that's why I turn off the water main.
Maybe I give the wrong impression, but the dinner meals are really quite good, and the breakfast and lunches are rather basic but good enough. I notice there´s a lot of wine consumed maybe 20 bottles amongst 20 people. The last couple nights (for 1 rest day) have been at the Movenpick, which is pretty classy, and the buffet really quite good, ...rest days are at our own expense dinner 15.90E at the Moovenpick plus wine"
Aug 14 (Monday) cycled to Kelheim, 85 Km, and rather uneventful, except that Lili had four flats and ended up walking her bike 6-8 km or so to the campsite, and thats despite Peter´s help in solving the flat problem. For the Comfort tour it was a reasonable hotel. That afternoon there was German folk dancing in the central square. That night Joe, Shar, Donald and I had dinner in a typical German restaurant.... lamb shanks , excellent, .... and we all agreed.
Aug 15 (Tues) rest day in Kelheim, not exactly a great place to have a rest day, kind of a boring town even if the stores were open ( today is a catholic holiday and all the stores are closed). Fortunately there was a beer festival with a midway, German umpah band etc,..... so no too bad. 7 of us (Angis Devona Edie Sharon Shar Donald and I went to a beargarden and had dinner (Deer and Pork Ragout excellent). Big fuss witht he waitress who felt one of the particiapnts hadnt paid in the divied-up bill. Donald paid the 13.6 euros just to settle the matter, not sure that´s fair.
Aug 16 (Wed) cycledto Straubing 90Km, a city which has the second largest beer festival in Germany. The downtown core is quite impressive, and the campground is very good, ... not crowded.
Aug 17 (Thurs) had a fairly bad fall after lunch, skinned my knee, elbow, wrist-hand, back,....looked awful,... but once the blood was washed off, it didnt look so bad. Joanne had anti-bacterial wipes, Donald had some spray liquid bandage ... I´ll have to get some. The wounds are all kind of superficial, except the hand, which still hurts!!! so that I cant change gears without getting off my bike. I was with 5 others when it happened, ...a 90 degree sharp left turn on paved bike path, with some yellow sand right on the corner and my bike slipped out from under me, the first serious fall I´ve had EVER. I tried to slow down when I saw the sand, but not successful. Have switched to voka and bitter lemon, since gin is hard to find. Took 2 tylenol ultra and slept well enough, considering the pain in my hand. Finished reading Bill Bryson´s "Neither Here nor There" in audiobook format,....like all his books very good,.... and in this case very topical.
The destination instructions were sketchy (as is common) and had to cycle extra 18k after a 90k day,... quite a piss-off. The poor maps-instructions are my only real complaint with Tour d´Afrique. Shanny is just reading last year´s directors notes, and doing the best he can, but it´s inadequate.
On the other hand :....It was warm 33C and sunny, ..so cycled without a shirt, ... as is my wont.
Aug 18(Fri) cycled 100 km into Austria to Linz ... a big city, for a rest day tomorrow, staying in the Ibis hotel. Somehow I missed lunch, my mistake, and not appreciated by the guides, ... since they like to check you off.
Aug 19 (Sat) rest day in Linz, much bigger than I remembered.
Aug 20 (Sun) cycled to Griel, good camp site (but close to traffic, ....but I sleep in all conditions), sunny, ate 3 scoops of ice cream since thats all there is to do in a town this size on a Sunday. I´ve come to realize that a rest day on a Sunday is bad .... everything is closed.
Aug 21 (Mon) cycled to Krems to a kind of "Ma and Pa" campsite, about 100K with my return to Krems, because too much time at any campsite is just plain boring. Krems was quite charming, and I relize my german accent is non existent, but Im surprised that when I say a simple word like danau( equals Danube), or Rhodensdorf (the town) they look at me like I´m crazy. Or they dont know the direction to the Danube, .... what else have they got to keep track of?
Aug 22 (Tues) cycled to Vienna for a double rest day, then a single ride day for another rest day in Brataslava, in Slovaki
Aug 23 (Wed) rest day, took a city bus tour incl schonnbrun, much like I remember in 1961, pretty impressive. Went with 14 others to a Mozart concert, very good but very touisty
Aug 24 (Thurs) went and saw the Lippenzanner horse practice in the Spanish Riding School..... not bad. This evening we have a group dinner at the Ibis hotel for Rick who is leaving as planned, but wife is staying. Bought 2 new Coontiinentals 700 x 25c at ľč euros each, first store in 6 that even acknowledged that the size existed. I suspect I wont even need them, but like the security of knowing I have them.
Aug 25 Fri Rainy again ... for most of the day... for a riding day to Bratislava.... Bratislava is indeed different, too soon to form an opinion, fair bit of english by young people. 7new riders have joined. Crossing the Austrian Slovakia border was a breeze, and for me the begining of the interesting part of the trip. Changed 30 euros for about 1150 SK, called ...crowns... I think. Finding the hotel wasnt easy at the time, but afterwards didnt seem so bad. Almost at the end of the riding I understand that Donald, from San Francisco, was hit by a car coming out of a driveway, at slow speed, and hit to the ground, ... no cuts scrapes etc but Donald seems maybe slightly dazed, .... but seems generally alright. His bike has some damage, Im told its a bent fork and the rear wheel wont rotate well.
Aug 26 rest day in Bratislava, sunny warm beautiful day. Unfortunately there was thiervery at the camp site, jackets and such, and Michael, a friend of LiLi had his bike stolen from in front of Tesco ... a big supermarket. The bike was locked too.
Aug 27 Sunday ninety km to Gyro (or something like that) ....nice day. Donald took the train to Budapest, and was intending to have bike shop owner in San Francisco send a new fork by UPS to Budapest since we couldnt find one in Brataslava. The campground was a bit primitive,.... and for me showed the communist influence, maybe when first built, the showers toilets were OK , but twenty forty years later are in bad shape, no shower heads for example.
Aug 28 Monday, cycled one hundred ten km to Ksy???gom, nice day, good campground. Tomorrow on to Budapest for a two day rest day.
Aug 29 Tuesday woke up to the sound of rain on my tent at 4 am, so it was a discouraging start taking down the tent in the rain, but wet or not,.... into the tent bag it goes. Had trouble finding the camp site, Romai, ... but locals were anxious to point me to the bridge name where the hotel was. Hotel is a Mercur Metropole, four star, for 3 nights .... so got into the hotel 3 hours before the others, ... big deal. Met Donald on the street waiting for his bike ( he had taken the train after the crash in Brataslava, and is going to have it repaired in Budapest rather than ship fork frőm USA.
Budapest is pretty ipressive, especially as you cycle in along the Danube.
Aug 30 Wednesday, a rest day in Budapest, ...took a 3 hour city tour, ... good for an overview I suppose, but too much promotion of their other trips. Kind of a cold blustery day, so hoping things warm up. Get the impression that the communists for 40 years (or whatever) did nothing for Hungarian architecture, ... the old stuff is great, the new stuff is grim. English is fairly commonlly spoken by young people, seems more common than say German..
August 31 Thurs, a second rest day in Budapest. Not very nice weather, but on Sat it is supposed to get quite a bit warmer. Went to the Gelbert Hotel swimming pools and baths, ... supposed to be a famous place, ... spent a grand amount of 65 minutes, ... a cant imagine spending three hours, which is the point where you get no refund. Afterwards had lunch and went on a half hour tour of the opera house (just passing by), also supposed to be famous. I took the french language tour because the Englishh group was so big. Bought a pair of worn-looking jeans at C&A ( a Dutch-owned store I think) because its so bloody cold. Cindi was caught by the subway police, and had to pay fine, said she was "innocent", ... just like all the people in jail all say they are innocent. Dinner at Mokka with Shar and Eddie, Tapas ... not that good and very pricey, 10,000 Florint, about 50USD.
No comments:
Post a Comment