Final Days.

September 5, 2016 to September 7, 2016

We find our bike boxes, find a perfect cycle path, pack our bikes, and enjoy a final day in Nice.

September 5 Monday

Final Days

September 6 Tuesday

September 7 Wednesday

14kms

We find our bike boxes, find a perfect cycle path, pack our bikes, and enjoy a final day in Nice.

Although only early morning, Nice is already ferociously hot. Our route to the cycle shop is a little complicated at first but once we have negotiated railway lines and roadworks we reach a whole new road with a wide cycle path on both sides which leads all the way to our destination. Neway are accommodating without being effusively helpful. When they hear our discussion of how we might transport the large boxes back to the hotel they eventually point out that most people fold them. And so it comes about that in the fullness of time, we take the cycle path and find that it delivers us virtually to our hotel door.

Neway Cycles - bike boxes for €9 each- neither a bargain nor a rort, but convenient and easy to access.

The new cycle path- took us directly back to the coast and hotel. Unfortunately we didn’t know about it going to Neway.

The receptionist is most accommodating about our using their lecture room for dismantling and packing our bikes and we soon have two large packages taped, addressed and ready to fly. We celebrate by walking to the beach for another swim.

Tuesday is our final day in Nice. Our cycle ride, begun in Manchester, has covered 3,500 kilometres, 7 countries (England, Wales, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy). We have stayed in 40 campgrounds, 1 Zimmer, 4 hostels, 3 apartments, and 16 hotel/guest houses; consumed countless baguettes and croissants, been revived by numerous cups of coffee and relaxed by a number of glasses of wine.

We have discovered that cycling in Europe is a way of life for all ages and that a landscape viewed from a bike gives an immediacy and closeness like no other- you smell the dung, feel the sting of the nettles that brush your legs, you can view a mountain range for days before reaching it and rivers have moods and personalities all of their own.

We witnessed human interaction with rivers- for fishing, cruising, swimming and transporting and we saw what could be grown along their banks. While the beginnings of our cycling are rather distant memories, certain aspects remain firmly fixed in our mind: the small but challenging Welsh cols, the after effects of flooding along the Loire, the wonderful weekend in Bern and the jubilation at crossing the alps into Italy. Most of all, we have achieved a dream that sat at the back of our minds for years and finally came to fruition.

We pass a pleasant last day exploring Nice- once an Italian city, now crowded with tourists and finally arrived at leaving day.

Early in the morning I walk the kilometre or so to the airport and pick up a trolley which I push back to the hotel along the cycle path.

When time comes to leave, with many mercis and au revoirs, we load our bikes onto the trolley and push them back to the airport terminal. Emirates accept our bags and boxes without demur and we begin to relax.

It is at this point that I notice a man dropping his case to the floor at the end of our seat and disappearing. When he hasn’t returned after 10 minutes, I mention it to one of the desk workers, who calls over the patrolling soldiers. They walk around the case, prodding it several times and then put tape around it. At this point it is decided to evacuate this end of the airport- not a popular move with the queuing Norwegians next to Emirates who are going to lose their places. After the queues have been dispersed and the area cleared, the owner of the case nonchalantly saunters back to claim his offending luggage.

And so the time comes to lift off and as the continent drops away beneath us and the horizon fills with the blue of the Mediterranean, I turn my attention to Casablanca- the inflight film on offer on the screen in front of me.

Short walk with trolley and velos from airport to hotel and back.

Today's ride: 14 km (9 miles)
Total: 3,493 km (2,169 miles)

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Rich FrasierGreat journal! I read every page and enjoyed it thoroughly. Good mix of pictures and text, and I loved the occasional wordplay. Thanks for creating this!
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3 years ago

Michael HutchingTo Rich FrasierThanks Rich- we still have fond memories of that trip. Let’s hope we can get back to La Belle France before too long!
Cheers, Michael
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3 years ago