September 1, Saturday - We decided to spend the day in Strasbourg having a look around. We wanted to see a bit more of the city, to find the "Rhein Route", and to pop over to Germany.

Oh yes, I must mention that at this campground, like so many others, we were able to order "bread" for breakfast. It's great! Nothing like pain du chocolat and chocolat croissants to start the day.

Strasbourg is a very interesting place. It is the location of the European Parliament, which we had seen the day before, and which is very modern and cold. But it also has a very old area of town with a massive cathedral and market squares. And it has some rather odd elements too ... like the sculptures on one of the bridges, and the fact that the train station is in a bubble. The city tries very hard to be very French ... almost like a "Little Paris" ... but there are some distinct German influences. It's a city of contrasts.

We started our trek through an older part of town, near the train station, where we acquired tickets for the next day. In this area we spotted a sporting goods shop and decided to go in and have a look around. There, I found the folding dishes Rowan has, and I bought a set for myself. They are Orikaso dishes: http://www.orikaso.com/

We rounded the corner, took some photos of the bicycle taxis, dropped in at a "sweets" shop that looked a lot better than it tasted, walked up a road where someone was playing French music (just like in the old French movies), and then passed by the Gutenberg Square.

I was surprised to see a Gutenberg Square and a statue of Johannes Gutenberg in Strasbourg. For some reason, I had been under the impression that the printing press was invented in Germany, possibly in Mainz where Johannes Gutenberg grew up. It was, but Johannes Gutenberg spent several years in Strasbourg, and that's where he started working on it. I didn't get a photo of the statue, but there are several on the internet.

We passed by the cathedral to a bridge over the Ill River, stopping to take a picture of the cathedral, of course. I am curious about the sculptures on the bridges, but I've searched all over the internet and I can't find any information about them. Sculptures that big and that prominent should have a story.

However, speaking of a story ... we made our way from the bridge into the cathedral area and walked around the cathedral, pushing our bicycles. On one side of the cathedral was the tourism office, and we stood in line a while to ask about a map of the cycling paths. Interesting thing ... the driving maps cost money and the walking maps cost money, but the cycling maps were free. Rowan sat down to have a look over the map, and I wandered around looking at all the little tourist shops. I am always on the hunt for pins of the places I've cycled.

I walked into one little shop, and spotted the pins under the counter, but they were a little bit bigger than what I wanted, so I asked if she had any smaller pins (in French, she spoke no English). She pulled out a little box of pins, and spread them out for me to see. I nearly fainted from surprise. There in the box were three ALBERTA pins!! One was a Canadian flag and an Alberta flag together, identical to one I already have; one was an Alberta flag; and the third was the Alberta rose!!

Excitedly I dug deep into my French and told her, "J'habite la! J'habite au Canada! J'habite a l'Alberta!" (OK, so my French isn't that great) She looked at me like she had no idea what I had just said, and then asked me, in French, if I wanted to buy them. I bought a French pin to round out my European collection. But seeing three Alberta pins in a tiny shop in Strasbourg, France was the last thing I expected.

Armed with a map of the cycling routes in Strasbourg, we decided to move on to our second goal of the day ... finding the Rhein Route.

Pushing our way up a narrow side street full of people, I spotted a rack of leather bracelets with names on them. Everywhere I go, I'm compelled to look through racks of things with names on them, looking for my name. My name rarely appears anywhere. My search is usually futile. But this time ... there it was! A bracelet with my name on it!! Rowan bought it for me, and I've been wearing it since ... just in case I forget my name in the midst of all my stresses at University. :)

We fumbled our way through the city trying to follow the bicycle map and bicycle routes, and mainly succeeding in getting lost and turned around in our search for the Rhein Route. I have heard many cyclists talk about the Rhein Route, and some even told me that Strasbourg is the place to go to get to it, but let me tell you, it is not obvious or easy to find there! We had just about given up the hunt, when I glanced up at a tiny sign ... and shouted out to Rowan, "We're on the Rhein Route!!"

It seems that most of the route, or the best part of the route, is on the German side, and in fact, while we followed the signs, they pretty much lead us across the river to the German side. I would very much like to return to that part of the world, find the Rhein Route again, and cycle as much of it as possible. A goal for next time! :)

And we reached our third goal as well, crossing over into Germany. We stopped on the bridge to take a photo of the Rhein, with France and Germany on either side, but hurried off because the bridge was vibrating and bouncing in a very peculiar way as the traffic drove across. Our stay in Germany was short, and we crossed back over on a non-vehicle bridge (seen in the background of the photos above) into a park area on the French side.

Finding something to eat became the next priority, and we were fortunate to find a grocery store as we meandered back toward the campground. Not far from the grocery store was a Veloparc structure, which I had to take a picture of. It's a great bicycle parking idea!

I waited outside the grocery store with the bicycles while Rowan shopped inside. While out there I was struck by two things. One was the fact that in Europe, sidewalks make good places to park. Everywhere we go, cars just pull right up on the sidewalk and people hop out to dash into the shop down the road. The roads are generally fairly narrow, so I suppose that in order to accommodate both driving and parked vehicles sidewalk have to be used for the parked ones.

The other thing was the utility nature of the bicycle. Several people parked their bicycles outside the store, shopped, and came out carrying all sorts of groceries and household supplies. They dropped them into the baskets on their bicycles and rode off. One rode off carrying a utensil tray and a broom, among other things. In North America cyclists discuss the pros and cons of commuting, and of using our bicycles for things like grocery shopping at great length. We debate the best way to carry our goods if we were to shop, and how to lock our bicycles, and what to wear while carrying out our grocery shopping, and so on. In Europe, it seems like half the people own a utility bicycle with a basket and a big lock, and they use their bicycles in much the same way that North Americans use their cars ... as a matter of course.

My first impression of Strasbourg the day before wasn't too favorable, but the city really grew on me. It was intriguing ... and it is one place I would really like to visit again.

September 2, Sunday - We packed up and caught the TGV train to Lille. The ticket for the two of us and our two bicycles cost 192 Euro which was quite expensive, but it was a good and relaxing ride. Our bicycles were able to sit in the train with us, not on hooks like they were from Lille to Paris, and not mashed in with a whole heap of other bicycles like they were back from Loudeac.

We travelled to the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris, and then out to Lille. Since it was a TGV train, we got up to some good speeds, leaving automobiles on the Autoroutes, who were probably doing 100-130 km/h in the dust. We have heard that the TGVs will reach speeds as high as 300 km/h. It felt a bit odd whisking back to Paris in no time at all, when it had taken us several days to cover the distance by bicycle and slower trains.

We arrived in Lille in the middle of a fair ... the annual braderie fair. The Braderie de Lille claims to be the world's largest flea market, and dates back to the Middle Ages. As many as 2 million people will attend this fair each year. The whole area around the station was absolutely thick with tables set up with things for sale, street performances, and of course a HUGE crowd of people.

Apparently one of the competitions in the fair is to see how many mussels you can eat, and when you are finished eating you leave your shells outside the restaurant. The restaurant with the biggest pile of shells "wins". And let me tell you, there were several restaurants well on their way to winning!! The entire area smelled of mussels.

There was no way we could ride through the crowd, so we walked for quite a distance until the density of people thinned enough so we could start to ride.

It took some doing to find our way out of Lille. We had no city map of Lille, and were basing our directional decisions upon my compass and our memory of landmarks. We got onto the right road, but then kept going straight when we should have turned, and ended up in Menen, Belgium. Then we got lost in Menen.

Remember the tip I gave about finding your way through towns in France and Belgium ... about using the maps on the walls of the tram and bus stations to find your way around? Well, we used those maps again in Menen, and eventually found ourselves on the road to Ieper.

We had to make it to the campground in Ieper by 8:00 or it would be closed ... and time was getting on. We picked up the pace, and roared into the Ieper campground with 5 minutes to spare. We were back to where we started our adventures in France.

That was an emotional moment for me. I felt like we had only left for a few days ... or maybe that we hadn't left at all yet, but that it was all a dream, and that we were about to embark on the real adventure in the coming days. It was a very odd feeling. So much had happened, and it only felt like a few days had passed. And in the distance we could hear the faint sounds of the Last Post at the Menen Gate.

September 3, Monday - We were on our way fairly early to Dunkerque. I thought the distance would be about 50 kms, and estimated 4 hours maximum, even if there were a headwind as there had often been. It ended up being 67 kms, once we got through Dunkerque, and yes, there definitely was a headwind ... a very strong headwind. The trip ended up taking us 6 hours.

We wanted to stop at the Decathlon store in Dunkerque (Grande Synthe), where we had purchased our tent, but couldn't find it again, so we decided not to bother. Besides, I for one, did not need to carry even more stuff with me!

Getting out to the actual port to catch the ferry is a rather long journey. The road goes on and on through basically nothingness until it finally brings you to the Norfolkline ferry office. Incidentally, if you find yourself in Dunkerque wondering where the Norfolkline ferry office might be, it is out at the Terminal Roulier du Port Ouest.

We were fortunate to get on for the 6 pm departure and I think we managed to get that time because we had bicycles instead of a car. Several car passengers booking at the same time of us were put onto the 8 pm crossing. We were treated very well by the staff ... we were even given our own plank to walk up to board the ship rather than going up with all the motorized vehicles.

I felt fine on this voyage. The water was a bit choppy as we left Dunkerque, but then it flattened out and was relatively calm the rest of the way. I worked on a Sudoku, and then watched the other boats crossing. Rowan napped a while. He had caught my cold/flu and was not feeling very well.

Just before we disembarked, we had a lovely conversation with an English couple who had seen us board the ferry with our bicycles. They wanted to know all about our trip.

We disembarked without incident, and then started to make our way through Dover to the hostel. But right in the middle of a market square we were accosted by a gang of street urchins on bicycles! Not one of them would have been older than about 12, but they started pushing and shoving us, and shouting at us. They rode into our panniers and nearly knocked us off our bicycles. What a welcome! At first, none of the adults in the area did anything, but eventually one older girl (late teens/early twenties) came over and started screaming at the kids ... then some men came over and kind of herded the kids away. They checked to see if we were OK, then helped us on our way with some directions to the hostel.

Nevertheless, we did get to and into the hostel without any further incident. We were relieved to see that the hostel was still open. When we had come through almost a month ago, we had been told that the hostel had been sold, and would be closed soon. This time we were told it would be open for only a couple more weeks. There is a possibility it may reopen in a new location, but if you are planning to stay at the hostel in Dover in the near future, you might want to make double check to see if there is one or not.

We had spent 18 nights in a row in our tent! That's a record for me! In the past, I've managed about 5 days in a tent before I feel like I need to spend a night in a hostel or motel in a real bed. One of the things that made a huge difference for me was that I finally figured out how to sleep comfortably in a tent. In the past, after a couple nights my back starts hurting and by about night #5 it is screaming in pain. I can hardly move in the mornings.

After much experimentation with the sleeping equipment I carry with me, I devised my most comfortable setup. First, my thermarest is more comfortable than sleeping with no mattress (I did that on my tour of Wales), or sleeping with one of those thin foam mattresses (I did that on my tour of Australia). Next, the most comfortable pillow setup for me is to use my clothing pannier as the base of my pillow structure, with my inflatable neck pillow on top to support my neck, and my inflatable Decathlon pillow propped against that pannier to support my back. Then my old faithful red inflatable pillow goes under my knees.

I was able to sleep like a log and wake up without pain with that setup. Unfortunately the setup does take 3 pillows which is a lot to carry on a tour, but they are all small inflatable pillows.

But it felt odd to be back inside a room again. I felt like I should run down to the backyard and set up the tent there!

Oh yes, on a financial note ... in total we spent 22 nights in the tent. We bought the tent for about 100 Euro (approx. $150 Canadian) which works out to about $7 per night. Add the price of the campsites, which averaged about 10 Euro ($15) per night ... and that comes to about $22/night for the two of us, or $11/night each for accommodations. Not bad!

September 4, Tuesday - We were up relatively early, had the complimentary full cooked breakfast, and then packed up.

We were thinking of going to see Dover Castle, and we would have really liked to do that, but decided instead to catch a train to London and try to get there early. A friend had taken me through Dover Castle in 2003 ... it is quite the place with so much history. A person could easily spend most of a day there. Rowan and I would both like to return to Dover and take the time to spend a day at the Dover Castle.

However, we were very glad we made the decision to get into London early instead. We had quite a good train ride - about 2 hours - but just as we were approaching London, we were informed that the Underground was on strike.

We had been planning to take a train from Victoria Station to Earl's Court Station, but no such luck. Nothing was running out of Victoria Station. So we consulted my pocket map and cycled to Earl's Court. It was a relatively easy trip, despite the heavy traffic and a few navigational errors. We were getting mixed messages about the line from Earl's Court Station to Heathrow, so we were not sure if we would be able to take the train to the airport in the morning, or if we would have to come up with an alternate form of transportation.

Do you remember what we had done just before we left Earl's Court a month earlier? We had put the bicycle boxes in the back of the shed, complete with all the bubble wrap, etc ...... and hoped they would still be there when we returned in a month's time. Well ... they were! We wouldn't have to spend the afternoon hunting for boxes.

We got a lovely room, with inexpensive laundry facilities just down the hall, so we were able to go home with clean clothes. We spent the afternoon relaxing, doing laundry, and repacking our stuff so that it would meet Heathrow's expectations. Heathrow has a rule that passengers are allowed only one piece of carry-on luggage, and I arrived with two, so I had to do a bit of creative packing.

We went out for a final supper and found an inexpensive Italian restaurant. The food wasn't bad, but we were amused to see the staff returning from the local grocery store periodically with bags of groceries. We were both still hungry after the meal, so a coffee and marzipan chocolate in the hostel garden rounded out the evening.

Oh yes, on our walk back to the hostel, we saw something which kind of took me aback. A man walked past a restaurant which had some small patio tables next to the sidewalk. With one quick move, he snatched half a pizza which had been left by a customer, and proceeded to eat it while walking down the street!! I guess that's one way to get a meal!

September 5, Wednesday - We were up at 6 am, showered, breakfasted, and did our final packing. Then we set off to the station with our bicycles laden with our panniers, etc., and with the two bicycle boxes in tow. That was a much easier way to get our stuff to the station than carrying it all in the bicycle box!

When we got to the station, we were relieved to discover that most of the striking workers had gone back on, and that the Picadily line to Heathrow was still running. We were, however, informed that our bicycles had to be in boxes for the journey.

So, right there in Earl's Court Station, we took apart and packed up our bicycles. We packed in a bit of a hurry, so I hoped that everything would be all right through the flight.

Then we hauled and dragged everything to the platform, and mashed ourselves onto the next train through. People strike me funny sometimes. If you saw two people with huge boxes and other luggage standing there waiting for a train ..... and if you had large suitcases too ..... would you stand right next to the people with the huge boxes and luggage, and try to get on the same car with them? If it were me, I would move down the platform and get into the next car, but no, this couple decided to get on the same car as us ... and then were upset when we all practically had to stand on each other to fit. I just don't get it!

I am convinced that bicycles have some sort of cloaking device installed. People can't seem to see them when they are in boxes - I've had any number of people walk into my bicycle box. And people can't seem to see them when they have panniers on them. I've also had numerous people walk into my panniers when I'm walking my bicycle or when my bicycle is leaned against a building, and the day before a cyclist rode into my panniers when I was stopped at a light.

When we got to the airport, it was just a short drag until we had trolleys, and then a long hike to the Departures area.

We both departed from the same zone, so that was convenient. My line was much longer than Rowan's, I had to pay more for Machak than when I came over, and I wasn't entirely happy with where I had to leave my bicycle ... I hoped that Machak made the flight ... but other than that, everything went smoothly. And Rowan's check-in went very well.

We were able to go through Security together, and Rowan even walked me to my gate. And then we said good-bye. I hate that part of these trips ....

I had a good flight back to Canada. I felt well the entire way. When we passed over Greenland, the sky cleared, and I got some great shots of Greenland from the air!

Machak, and the rest of my luggage, arrived just fine in Edmonton. My father picked me up, and drove me home.

September 6, Thursday - 4:30 am ... Up and at 'em to drive the 300 km round-trip commute to the University for the classes in my 3rd year of a Bachelor of Education. A whole new phase of my life ........................................