Assembling the bikes....at last: "I'm not sure that we are on the right train" - A tour of France, and Portugal - CycleBlaze

August 23, 2014

Assembling the bikes....at last: "I'm not sure that we are on the right train"

Ron woke up and said he had decided to put the bikes together at the hotel, and then call a taxi van to get us to the train station, rather than the original plan of doing it at the train station. It should only take about one hour. Three hours later, we were on our way to the train station, with the second van. The first one couldn't accommodate our gear.

"I only have a couple of extra screws and bolts left over"
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We made it to the Gare St Lazare station with time to spare for a delicious French lunch baguette. Ron purchased our tickets for the 2:45 to Caen, and the ticket agent wrote 20 on the back of the ticket, so we waited at platform 20, and hauled our 100b each bikes up into the train. After about 2 hours into our 2 1/2 hour ride, I told Ron that I didn't see Caen listed on the stops. Oops....we are on the wrong train, going in the opposite direction! Off we get with all our gear, and then back on, on our way back to Paris, for another 2 hours. Apparently, there was a language issue, and the agent was meaning that they announce the platform number 20 minutes before it departs, NOT platform 20. We get on the right train at 7:10, arriving into Caen at 9:00 with no accommodation booked. We then found out that there was a huge equestrian competition going on there, and the hotels are completely sold out. The day just keeps getting better... One of the train staff tells us that we would be better off going on to the next town, Bayeux, where we would have a better chance of getting a room. we arrived just before 10:00, and snaged the last room in the town. It was a minus 5 star, but hey, it was a bed. I won't even begin to describe it! Hopefully, we will finally get peddling tomorrow.

Mr. & Mrs. Long Haul Surley Truckers are ready for their train ride. Or, should I say "rides?!
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All stored away for the ride
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This young guy was playing the piano and singing in the train station. He was amazing!
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