Done Like Dinner: Bodies and Bikes are Safely Back Home

October 23, 2018

In my book, the bike trip is not over until the bikes are safely back in the garage. That means 8 am Tuesday morning. Our bodies were back Sunday at 5 pm, and notwithstanding the 'bikes are guaranteed in the cargo hold' written on our new trip manifest, they decided to spend a little more time in Frankfurt.

No big deal, it actually made our trip a little easier as Air Canada (eventually) delivered the bikes to our door and we didn't have to lug them through the airport. However, it's always a bit disconcerting when you hear your name being paged in the baggage claim area! At least they knew our bikes weren't on the plane and let us know right away, rather than having that dreadful experience of standing in a deserted baggage area watching the carousel grind to a halt with one very sad looking black duffle bag left behind. And it's not yours.

Aside from the waylaid bikes, the trip was smooth and we even got lounge access in Geneva through our credit cards. Very quiet on Sunday morning and great coffee and breakfast. Transfers in Frankfurt went well and it was a smooth flight back with clear skies over Greenland .... we've flown over here countless times but on a clear day it continues to impress!

The clear skies continued all the way back to Canmore, and although clearly fall weather (crisp and cool), all the snow in the valley was gone with the mountain tops still white! Time to break out the skis soon.

Immediate impressions of the trip ... all good. It's an interesting route, easy riding for the most part with a few challenging sections to keep you honest. Great scenery and wonderful historic towns and cities along the way. Fantastic food and wine, although you are largely limited to the regional cuisine. Not a bad thing in southern France, but over the long term I think I like the cultural mosaic food we get in (most) of Canada. Hard to find a great Pho, Bao or Papri Chaat in small town France.

I keep being drawn back to food ... enough of that. In a nutshell, a great trip and I would recommend this route to anyone looking for a 2-3 week tour. You can do it in two weeks (total) but your exploration time would be limited. Three weeks (total) like we did is a good balance, but if you are a history or wine buff, you could extend the time indefinitely!

October was a great time of year to do the trip too. Some mornings were cool, but there were no days that were uncomfortably hot to ride in. I don't think that would be the case in July or August. The tourist crowds (and that includes us) were very manageable at this time too.

Although we chose to hotel it exclusively on this trip, most of the campgrounds appeared to be open and reasonably well used, so that would be an option for future trips.

Gear wise, all good. Two sets of cycling clothes and one set of cold weather gear. Hoteling made it so we could have gotten away with one set .... but no margin for wet and crappy weather. Two 'off bike' set of cloths ( 2 jeans, one a 'little dressier' than the other and two shirts, one with a collar!) European places have become more casual over the years and we didn't look or feel out of place in any of the (some very nice) restaurants or hotels we were in.

Bikes, trouble free. We ran with Schwalbe Marathon Extreme tires (26x2) since we thought we would be on more gravel, unpaved and some mtb trails (and we were) but these could be avoided if you were on a lighter road set up, and it goes without saying .... no flats.

We rented a WiFi hotspot device from Travel WiFi (French company). Overall we were very impressed. It's more expensive than getting a sim card with lots of data, but far less hassle, particularly for a short trip. There were a few loss of service glitch's, but the company very quickly sorted them out ... very impressed with their customer service. Given we were hoteling, reliable WiFi while on the road was a real benefit. Need a room, fire up the WiFi at the side of the road, search and book. Done.

So that's it till next tour (looking like Denmark to Puglia next fall at this point)

Au plus tard mes amis.

SOTD

Big Jet Plane by Angus & Julia Stone

A little cliché ... but at least a bit more contemporary than that other Jet Plane song made famous by the Mama's & Papa's

WiFi hotspot being mailed back - worked great and will do this again for shorter duration trips

A relaxing start to the trip - lounge at Geneva for a few hours. We were almost the only folks in here early in the morning. Great coffee and breakfast with real newspapers too.

Cool shot of Greenland ice sheets - filtered through the darkened window of a 787

We got home on Sunday ... our bikes on Tuesday ... but they made it unscathed

... and here they are waiting to be put back together and get their tires changed for the winter studs!

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