On the Road

This is a very brief post because I am stealing WiFi from a random hotel here in Loon-Plage, and the connection is not very strong. There will be a more thorough post all about our days in Paris, and the first few days of our ride when we find more stable Internet. We are now beginning our third day on the road with bikes. We did about 10 miles the first day, and 40 the second day (because we keep waking up late!). We are expecting to do 50 each day from here on out. We have had two great camping spots, and haven't had any trouble with the bicycles yet (though the wind has been fierce at times). We are following the coast all the way up and expect to arrive in Amsterdam next Sunday (a week from today). The Belgian border is coming up very soon and we are debating whether or not to ride into Bruges. Perhaps the Internet will be better there. Until then....

Oops! Oui! Oui!

Bonjour! Greetings from Paris! We arrived early this morning after a long and cramped flight. It was fun to listen to the stewardesses switch between English and French. Of course, once we stepped off the tarmac everyone yammered at us in French, and we quickly put our two clutch phrases to good use. "Parlez-vous anglais?" (Do you speak English?) and "Je ne parl pas francais." (I don't speak French) The usual American in Paris hilarity has surrounded the whole process, beginning with the drive to the airport.

Being good travelers, we left home with plenty of time. About an hour into the drive, we landed in the traffic jam caused by a tragic (fatal) accident on route 80. After a good long while, we got fed up with sitting in the car and watching the smoke billow, so we climbed out and made friends with our fellow stuck drivers, including a beautiful, 14 year-old, trucking daschund named Molly Mae. Our previously plentiful lead time was quickly being eaten up, and so we executed a highly practical (and highly illegal!) 3-point turn about and drove the wrong way down the shoulder past all the stopped cars! (Many thanks to Meghan's Mom!)

We made it to O'hare without further incident, but with little time to spare. In our rush to check in and get through security, we left behind two valuable (but not vital) bags. One contained our lunches, and the other contained all the lights from our bicycles.

Speaking of bicycles... The last bit of excitement that has accompanied our arrival in Paris is that our bikes did not arrive with us. We made it through O'hare security in a flash (it puts Sea-Tac to shame!) and even had enough time during our connection in Minneapolis to grab a bite to eat. But our bikes were not so fortunate, and when we picked up our luggage, the bikes were nowhere to be found. Fortunately, Northwest Airlines contracts their baggage services in Paris through Air France, which has really good customer service. It was a bit complicated to file the claim, because we did not have any lodging arranged yet, and in order to deliver the bikes, the airline needed an address. We scrambled to find a hostel, and found a room with just the second place we tried, called the Oops! Hostel, where I am writing from. It is a friendly place, with really helpful staff, LOTS of American travellers, a beautiful curving staircase that goes up all 6 stories, and a boulangerie (bakery) just across the street. (And free wireless!)

We have had a bit of a rest and some food, and that makes it seem much more adventurous than it did in the moment. When it was all happening we were anxious, sleep deprived, frustrated and crabby. Now, we're much more relaxed, and just recieved word that our bikes should be delivered tonight. Yay!

Graduating, Packing, and Flying

Well, I am officially graduated from Seattle University. The commencement ceremony was held on Sunday the 15th at Qwest field and involved the reading of approximately 1,000 names, which doesn't warrant any further detail. My parents came to Seattle, following on the heels of cousin Randy's wedding in Salt Lake City. Despite our frantic errand running and packing, I think they managed to have a good time and see a bit more of Seattle.

Speaking of packing, I think I should make a brief note about the inner workings of a three month European bike trip, at least from my amateur perspective. Touring equipment falls into two basic categories: bikes and stuff. Because we are biking, stuff is minimal, all fitting into four Ortlieb bicycle panniers (two a piece), plus a few extras. We packed necessities like Chacos, rechargable batteries, a few changes of underwear and books to read. Items left behind include: 1 small raised bed garden chock full of lettuce, spinach and beets; 1 iPod (deemed too large & cumbersome to bring along), and 0 books (I managed to sqeeze every book I possibly could into our panniers). Both bags are chock full. In order to bring any mementos home with us, we will have to be very creative packers.

Bicycles themselves, it turns out, require a surprising amount of creativity to pack. Meghan and I purchased bicycles that are designed specifically for touring. Basically this means they are built with thick walled tubing, slack steering angles, and little bonuses like extra spoke holders, tire pump pegs, and extra long chainstays (to accommodate panniers). Specifically, we purchased the Sojourn bicycle made by Raleigh. Having put approximately 200 miles on my bike commuting from home to school in Seattle, I can say that these bikes are very solid and very stable. I have been careful to keep track of how difficult and expensive it is to transport bicycles on trans-Atlantic flights, in the interest of avoiding high costs and headaches in the future. There have been a few surprizes already. To preface this, I'll say that my days working at Scott's Ski and Sports had prepared me with the packing and unpacking of hundreds of bicycles. There is a particular puzzle-like configuration that manufacturers use to fit their bikes into shipping boxes. Because of it's great length the 59 cm Sojourn bike does not fit into the smaller (29"x52"x7") cardboard bike boxes, which we had scavanged from one of our many local bike shops, Recycled Cycles. So we tracked down a second box at another LBS, Greg's Greenlake Cycles, which we measured carefully before carting it home. It did indeed fit into this larger(29"x54"x7.5") box, with room to spare. So we managed to fit the bikes (including racks and fenders, plus U-locks, bottle cages, helmets, and a few other items).



Because of rising airline costs, we will end up paying anywhere from $50 to $150 per bike to have them checked onto the plane. As it turns out, the Seattle to Chicago flight (on Frontier air) cost us $50 per bike, which is cheaper than shipping UPS. Even if the cost for Chicago to Paris is $150, this is in the best case only marginally more expensive than the cost of shipping the bike DHL worldwide ($130-$200). One recommendation: buy a few rolls of reinforced packing tape and plaster the bare cardboard box with it, especially the corners and the handles.

The flight from Seattle to Chicago (with a brief layover in Denver) went well, and we arrived in Chicago with bikes and luggage intact. Meghan's dad was there to pick us up at midnight. The ride home was enlivened by a late night stop at "R Place" a 24-hour family diner. Eating Denver omelettes in the middle of the night was strikingly reminiscent of the college life I am leaving behind. We made it to Tiskilwa at about 3:00 am. We are still waiting to find someone to stay with in Paris, but we aren't worried, since there are dozens of hostels in the event that no one can host us for our four days in the city.

Seeing a bit of the world

On Wednesday, June 18, 2008 I will be headed out on a post-graduation, pre-employment summer trip. My girlfriend Meghan and I will be riding our bikes (and a few trains) from France to Norway and back over the course of the next three months.

Our rough itinerary is as follows:

We will depart Seattle on Wednesday, June 18, arriving in Chicago a few hours later. We'll be helping to set up for and attend the P.A.P.A. Festival in Tiskilwa, IL (Meghan's hometown). The festival is being hosted this year by the farm that Meghan grew up on, Plow Creek.

On Monday, June 23, we will leave Chicago, arriving in Paris early in the morning on Tuesday the 24th. We will spend about three days in Paris, checking out the sights and gathering food and supplies for the next leg of the trip. We have found a host in Paris (as well as the other cities we will stay in) by way of couchsurfing, which is essentially a network of individuals who meet travelers by allowing them to sleep on their couch or in their backyard free of charge.

From Paris, we will bike north toward Brussels, Belgium. There are a number of canal roads throughout the region that have been converted to greenways, so we will try to make use of those, opting for quiet rural roads and bike-friendly throughfares when necessary.

After a short stay in Brussels, we will head West to the Belgian coast, where a nice road traverses the numerous sea walls and beaches. Going northward along the coast, we will make our way to Amsterdam, where our third couchsurfing host is located. A few days cycling around the Best Biking City in the World will get us ready to bike through the corner of Germany into Denmark (or take a train, depending on our riding pace).

For the first pass through Denmark, we'll be aiming for Copenhagen (also among the best bike cities), where we will meet up with our fourth couchsurfing host.

From Copenhagen, we'll be taking a train through Sweden to Oslo, Norway. This, we expect, will be approximately the end of the first week in July.

We will stay with a fifth couchsurfer in Oslo for a few days, during which I hope to make a day trip to Drammen in order to visit Cato, my grandfather's brother (my great uncle, I suppose).

The next month (mid-July to mid-August) will be spent working.

Yes.

Working.

On an organic farm near Hauggrend in central Norway. We have arranged for this through an organization called WWOOF . Basically we will help out with the cows, chickens and vegetables on a small farm in exchange for food and housing. It's a great way to avoid typical shallow and expensive tourist activities, meet local people in a meaningful way, and learn a few new things about organic farming while we're at it.

After the farm stint, we will say goodbye to our hosts and (hopefully) head toward the fjords of the west coast. If time doesn't allow, or the train fares are too expensive, we will go directly to Kristiansand, where a ferry will take us to Hirtshals, Denmark.

A short ride from Hirtshals, in Aalborg, we are going to meet up with a friend of mine, Asbjørn. He and his parents have planned a small trip to the coast while we are there. After visiting, we'll direct ourselves southward, through the center of Denmark. I hope to swing through Legoland in Billund.

Next, we'll make our way into Germany, where we have a few more people to visit. We'll meet up with these people in Wupperthal (where we will see the hanging monorail... the schwebebahn!), then Stuttgart.

Whew!

The final leg of the trip will be another mini-tour, this time through the Loire Valley in France, where we'll be chateau spotting. By this time, we will have about a week until departure. Depending on how we feel about Paris, we might spend a few more days in the city.

We fly back to the states on September 18th, and after a few days of decompression back at Meghan's hometown, we'll leave Chicago again, arriving finally in Seattle on the 22nd.