November 17, 2023
Summing Up
When the kids were little, there used to be community chocolate easter egg hunts in a big field. Reflecting their youth, once released to go after the eggs, the kids would run hither and yon, finding an egg here, and then one over there. Older and more savy easter egg collectors would have methodically advanced over the field, doing the least running for the most egg collecting.
In this tour we somewhat resembled the younger collectors. Ooo, ooo, we said, lets pick up Brussels, and Ghent and Bruges, and oh, Lille, Arras, Amiens, Reims, and Rouen, and etc. These spots were not necessarily in an efficient progression to our supposed destination of Valencia, but efficiency was not the goal.
I was a little concerned that our crooked route was not developed with a view to where the established bike routes are, increasing the likelihood of being on road. But very often we found ourselves on an established bike route anyway, and even if not, decent cycle ways were enough available that the whole tour did not feel overly stressful. Belgium, in fact, was a bit of a revelation with Netherlands quality attention to cycles often in evidence. France in its absent minded way was hit and miss, and Spain - where we anticipated the least recognition of the needs of cyclists - often surprised us. Valencia, for example, has cycle lanes basically everywhere.
Somewhere along the way we ran into a website and app called GPSMyCity. There was a bit of a learning curve with this, but once you get the hang of it (and for some not so necessary features - buy a subscription) you have travel articles and proposed thematic walks for about 1500 cities worldwide. The best part is a city map with green and red blobs on it, showing the location of "must see" (red) and other sights. Click on a blob and you get a rather good thumbnail sketch of what the sight is about. The sights can also be filtered by whether they are landmark, museum, food, religious, shopping, etc. related. The app allows you to select places to go and then plots a route; or as you walk about, it shows where you are and you could click on a nearby blob to see what it is and maybe stroll over its way. This turned out to be way better than the city tourist maps that are often available at the hotel or at tourist information, something we did not expect.
As I think back on the trip now, spanning about 80 days ago to 10 days ago, it is naturally beginning to blur out. That's the advantage of having this blog! But I do have the overall impression. It's firstly one of just fun. That is the basic fun of cycling, the fun of seeing interesting and beautiful sights, the fun of much better food than we are used to at home, and the fun of seeing different people and cultures. Underlying all this is the fun (after just 56 years married) of doing this with Dodie. I'd better check with her if she feels the same, but when I'm with her, every day for me is a play day.
Now that we are back on Vancouver Island, we are struggling to remember how much we love the place. To a limited extent, there are Fall colours to look at, we do have the sea nearby, and we watched an eagle overhead and a (rather rare) black bear checking out the apples in our orchard.
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Today I rather desperately bought a "box" of "Happy Planet" "Valencia Orange Juice" - yecch, engineered too sweet taste. Dodie may add it to sauce made from apples we grabbed before the bear got there. There is nothing for it but to get back to Spain!
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We are looking hard at options in Norway as I have deep roots there, but have never visited. It's apparently expensive there to eat and stay, but we're doing some research nevertheless.
5 months ago
We have swung back and forth over time between just booking one day ahead, the idea of not booking at all but looking for a place on arrival, and booking the whole trip. We have found it very comforting to know we have a place to go to at the end of a day, so we have never really done the just look for a place. On several trips now we have booked the whole thing. That removes the need to look for something the night before, when Dodie (our booking agent) may be very tired. On the other hand, on two occasions an unforeseen event has forced us to go and try to cancel 30 or maybe 70 bookings. Now that is a real pain, especially because the unforeseen event is by definition stressful by itself! I think our next two trips (Yucatan - come right up, and Valencia to Nantes - starting in February) may follow the book a week or two in advance model.
For air flights, we will first look at something like Expedia, to see which airlines are sort of going our way. Then we will go to the website of a specific airline to actually book. The airline website is much clearer about the special options and bundles, and especially bicycle bookings. It seems Expedia et al do not offer any different base prices anyway.
The last time we used a travel agent was maybe in 1975. We remember then you told them where you wanted to go and when, and they figured it all out, even printing airline tickets on site. But that was 1975. It seems nowadays they just sell tours and package travel deals?
Norway brings to mind what was the world wide cycling duo of Matilda and Peyman, from Finland. One time they cycled through Norway in winter to the arctic circle! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAhAhRPik98&t=780s
Matilda since got a chronic illness and dropped out of cycling, plus they broke up, bummer. Still they were a treat to watch.
5 months ago
5 months ago
We were up in Lone Butte to see the grandkids, so this thanks is overdue. The amount of wisdom and tips you share in your journals is much appreciated.
5 months ago