Beating the Retreat: Day 16 - Training back to Geneva - Hey Buddy, You're Going the Rhone Way - Rhone Source to Sea 2018

October 19, 2018

Beating the Retreat: Day 16 - Training back to Geneva

A slow day of training it back to Geneva. About 5 hours with only 1 train change in Valence at the half way mark... 13 minutes to get bags and bikes off a train, down stairs through an underpass and then back up to another platform .... while competing for the limited train door space with about 6 other cyclists doing the same thing.

Amazingly, it all got done, and then it was another relaxing couple of hours into Geneva.

We had a nice lazy morning at the Volver hotel. Slow breakfast, uploaded some pictures, picked up a few small gifts, and then made it to the train station which was all of about 5 minutes from our hotel.

Interestingly though, in those 5 minutes we met and had chats about our trip with three couples. Even better, while we were waiting for the train to arrive, we struck up a conversation with a Swiss couple Chris and Beatrice, who had just finished a one week ride from Geneva to Arles. We ended up riding and chatting with them all the way to Geneva. Hopefully our paths cross again in either Canmore or Zug.

Tomorrow is logistics day ... find bike boxes, figure out how to get boxes and bikes to airport, and then relax in Geneva.

We like ending our trips like this. We are fortunate that we don't have to rush back to work, and taking our time to go through things that actually are a bit of a hassle, doesn't detract from the overall calm and satisfied feeling you have at the end of a bike trip like this.

We both really enjoyed this trip ... just long enough to feel like a real bike tour ... an interesting area that we had not been to before .... great cycling weather .... great food and wine along the way .... and wonderful people that we met and engaged with.

All good ... just hope that the next 48 hours work out as well as the last three weeks have.

SOTD

Let the Good Times Roll by Louis Jordan - we'll have to make do with this cover by BB

Hey everybody!
Let's have some fun
You only live but once
And when you're dead you're done
So let the good times roll

...so get out on your bike!

our last hit of Roman antiquities ... the baths in Arles ... once again, we were the first, and only, people there

Our home for the last two nights, the serene Hotel Volver

K, Beatrice and Chris ... lovely traveling companions we met on the platform in Arles .... Beatrice had an beautiful Rohloff equipped Titanium Van Nicholas bike ... much lighter than ours ... hmmmmmm

The bike racked up on the train ... they really have bike transport worked out in France and Switzerland

.... and back at Osteria della Bottega ... same place we at on the way through 13 days ago ... we are creatures of (good) habit! a refreshing cabbage and beetroot salad

and my risotto with sage, apple and thinly shaved pork belly

... and of course , a nice light Italian red to accompany

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