Day 40- final day in Paris

This will be my final blog for this trip 

After breakfast at the hotel it was time to pack the bike bag and head out for a final walk around the area near the hotel 

The Avalon Hotel is located near Gard de Nord and the area is quite varied with some areas having homeless people on the streets and others being very upmarket 

The walk along the Paris canal was interesting... this is a canal that links with the Seine river 

I had a light lunch in what seemed to be a Jewish restaurant which had delightful hummus...

After a walk which included a look at Gare de Nord and Gare de Est I headed back to the hotel to watch the end of the first stage of Le Tour

As this is the last blog I did a few facts on the trip. They are as follows:

- distance travelled 3101 kms- Chris said it was 3400 kms so don’t know what the difference is???

- average kms per day 103 kms

- total metres climbed 13483 metres 

- total cost of trip excluding air fares- AUD 7500 or about $ 180 per day including account meals etc 

It has been a great trip and I have learned a lot about myself and the world

I have met some wonderful people and had some great times as well as some challenges 

Finally I want to thank my dear friend Chris for being my riding companion on the trip... your friendship means a lot to me and I hope we can do something like this again 

Now for the photos....

A view of the Paris canal

Some riders I saw near the Paris canal

They were wearing Le Tour yellow....

Day 39- Bucharest to Paris

It was an early morning again to catch the plane to Paris..

Up at 2.30 am was not a good time for me but I was unsure how long it would take to get to the Bucharest airport and all the cabs in Bucharest are small and I was unsure how the bike box would fit in the cab... having said that there was no plan B!!!

Anyway the box was able to be accommodated with some ties in the boot of the cab

To my surprise I arrived early at the airport and the check in counter was not open so had to wait for about half an hour before check in

The flight to Paris went over the French alps which was interesting.... several of the highest mountains still had snow on the peaks

I arrived at CDG Paris at about 8.00am and after clearing passport control etc was at the hotel at 9.30am and luckily the room was ready by 10.00 am

After a shower it was off to have a look nearby the hotel. It is located in a very nice area not far from Gare de Nord 

I walked to the Republic square and had a salad lunch then headed back to the hotel for a sleep... the weather is hot again in the low 30’s 

I arranged with Jerome Vidal to pick up my bike bag at 5.30 pm the hitch is about a half hour walk from the hotel 

Arriving early I was able to find a cafe to have a cool lemonade whilst waiting for Jérôme... in the meantime I received an email from Chris that he had made Costanta so I rang him to congratulate him on his achievements and wish him well for the rides to come...

Meeting Jérôme was great and we had a beer to chat about my adventures and his coming up in the Pyrenees..

After collecting the bike bag it was back to the hotel and off for dinner 

As I am doing this blog I am in a restaurant having had snails for an entree and looking forward to whiting for main course 

The street is very busy, the restaurant is a buzz being a Friday evening and Paris is alive!!!

The only issue is smokers !!!

It has been a good day but I am looking forward to being home

Now for the photos 

Republic square where I had lunch 

Jérôme after the hand over of the bike bag..

Wonderful guy...

My hotel for the night...my room is the balcony on the 4th floor 

Day 38-Clean bike, box bike and tour Bucharest

Today I woke at about 7.30 am ... A far cry from the 5.30am starts of recent weeks.Bit funny but I do miss the early morning wake-ups by Chris with his happy greetings in the morning.

After a good breakfast at the hotel it was off to clean the bike and bike bags. This is really important as the Australian customs folk are very particular about dirt and gravel on sporting equipment. So this took some time with the help of a fellow from the maintenance section of the hotel.

It was then off to the local bike shop to box the bike for the plane trip to Paris after which I will ditch the box for my bike carry bag which I will use for the trip home

I have been very lucky to have Jerome Vidal who looked after the bag in Paris.... Jérôme’s parents looked after Chris and I on our last bike ride in France as Warm Showers hosts...

Getting the bike in the box back to the hotel was interesting as I caught a local bus .... I am now an official “fare evader “ as the process of paying bus fares is so complex that advice I received was to simply hop on the bus and take my chances.

Anyway it worked...

After sorting out some tape to close the box I decided to take  a “ big bus” tour of Bucharest. It took about an hour and was very interesting and I was fairly impressed with the public buildings and the parks... the big issue here is the number of cars on the road and being parked everywhere and I mean everywhere!!!Seems parking on the footpath is legal which makes pedestrian progress difficult... this seems to be a real problem in most of the big cities in Europe. Something we need to think about back home 

After the big bus trip I decided to buy a new pair of sneakers as the sneakers I have been using on this trip have fallen apart and despite several cleans they stink something bad!

The shopping mall I visited was fairly basic so finding a suitable replacement pair was difficult and I normally have a 30 minute rule on shopping... not completing the expedition inside 30 minutes.... I just made it!

After finding my way back to the hotel I then sorted out my final packing with most of my gear going in the bike box 

As I do this blog I have the TV on listening to CNN who are talking about the the extreme heat in Europe over the past week. Seems global warming is here to stay...

Now for the photos

Christian packing my bike carefully... he forgot to pack the back wheel and had to bring it to me at the hotel...

Bike packed in box ( minus back wheel as I found out later)

This bike shop in Bucharest is great!!

Big bus tour.. photo of parliament building 

(Temporary Backup) Day 37- Zimnicea to Giurgiu- 62 . 2 kms

Today was a really early start to the day with us awake at 5.00am todo most of the ride before the heat set in

Breakfast was a bowl of muesli being some leftovers from an earlier breakfast in the ride that Chris carried with him...

We were on the road by 6.00am and we made really great time on reasonable roads for the journey to Giurgiu.

Along the way we saw the farm workers coming out on the roads from the towns to start their day of work.

The farming here is very much manually based with very little mechanisation. The tractors we saw are very old but most of the hard lifting is done with horse drawn carts 

The other interesting thing is the animals such as sheep,goats and cattle are largely tendered by shepherd type labor.

Several times on the ride we had to watch the road for farm birds like hens chickens and the like who were on the roads.... all very interesting 

Arriving at Giurgiu I was able to book on the train to Bucharest in the afternoon so I have a 5 hour wait...

Based on this Chris and I found a cafe where we had a coffee and lemonade ( home made with honey to sweeten the taste)

At about 10.15 Chris and I said our goodbyes and Chris continued his journey for the day to Rousse on the other side of the river.

It was sad to say goodbye to Chris after being riding companions for 5 weeks. We had a lot of fun and faced a few challenges along the way which were met with the usual ANZAC spirit. 

I finish my journey here after traveling over 3400 kms ( distance from Melbourne to Perth) with a wonderful friend and for the most part untroubled riding 

I am a lot fitter for the travel than at the start of the ride and a lot wiser on traveling in Eastern Europe.... to be frank the lack of riding infrastructure including good roads and bike paths together with a lack of the creature comforts that we experienced in France,Germany Switzerland and Austria made the trip harder

Having said that I am glad to have done the trip with Chris...

I am sorry I am missing the final leg of about 350 kms to Costanta but appreciate that circumstances prevented this with my passport issues 

On the other hand I will be kind of glad to get home to see the family. The only issue for me will be adjusting to the cold Melbourne weather

I should say a word or 2 about my bike....

It held up very well over the trip however I really underestimated the road conditions and changing tyres for the latter part of the journey was a good decision. The fact is that ordinary road tyres do not like ruts and potholes which was the problem I had with punctures. Also some of the EuroVelo 6 route was in very poor surfaces which often meant losing grip and control.

The other lesson learned from the trip is to regularly service the chain.... most days daily as the crap from riding really plays havoc with the chain and gears on the bike.

Other than this ,which was largely my fault for not doing proper research ahead of the trip, I cannot complain about my “faithful steed”!!!

The train trip from Giurgiu to Bucharest was pretty uneventful with a change of trains involved at some town I cannot pronounce... the train stopped at a siding and I and others had to climb off the train cross train tracks and get on another platform to board the train to Bucharest...

Managing with the bike seemed relatively easy 

On the way on the train I took a decision to upgrade my stay in Bucharest to the Sheraton hotel which had cheap rates on booking.com so I am now sitting in the main restaurant with some fine food and a beer.... I have had only 1 beer in 3 weeks!!!!!

Having a shower with fresh soft towels is something to savour when you have been staying in cheap hotels and hostels

Been a great last day but sad in a way to say goodbye to my travelling buddy Chris 

FYI my weight in the shower was 71.5 kgs .....

I hope I can keep some of the weight loss as I go back to normal life...

FYI I included a photo of the trip I have made

Now for the photos.....

Chris and I at the end of the ride as we go our separate ways 

Safe riding Chris!!!!

Today’s ride.... my last one for this trip....

The whole route for the ride is shown below..... courtesy of Chris....

Day 36- Oryahovo to Zimnicea- 137.5kms

Today was hot and I mean HOT!!!

You will see in the photos a shot of the Garmin in the middle of the day where the temperature was over 40 degrees.... you might say we were silly to do the ride in the heat but we need to be at at place called Giurgiu tomorrow so abcan catch the train back to Bucharest to then fly back to Paris to meet the connection with Etihad home 

The day started early again with breakfast at the hotel which was “gobbled down “ as we thought we had to caythe 7.00 am ferry across the Danube to Romania.... so we rushed down to the ferry terminal and cleared the border only to be told the ferry was going at 8.00am ..... bugger!!! 

We knew that the day was going to get hot so waiting for an hour was a real blow 

The ferry crossing was good and it gives a real chance to see the river from a different angle . Here the river is wide and the flow is significantly slower than further upstream.

After the crossing we had to clear Romanian customs which was simple and it seems that the temporary passport is not causing any problems 

As we rode on the day was starting to heat up so we opted to take regular rests and either eat an ice cream or other food and drink water or other drinks.... the amount of water I drank today was staggering.... I reckon I was drinking a water bottle every 20 kms!!!!

I also found later in the day I was getting very drowsy and having a Coca Cola really pepped me up... normally I am not a Coke drinker but this seemed to work for me... Phil Eager one of my riding pals back home got me on to this.... well done Phil!!!

I think the locals along today’s route also thought we were mad riding in the heat as on many occasions we received claps and welcomes from the locals sitting on the side of the road. On several occasions we were high 5’d by local children on the road... all very friendly really. 

Over the past couple of days we really noticed how 3rd world parts of Bulgaria and Romania are... there was a lot of horse drawn wagons which are used for farm work and the people seemed to be doing a lot a manual work with sickle and synth. The other thing is that in many towns there are vacant buildings like factories which have been deserted many years ago and the supporting infrastructure like housing has been left to rot...

Many of the towns have older people living in them and we saw some of the younger generations dotted in the towns. Seems to me that the young want to live in the bright lights of the big cities.

Getting back to today’s ride.... we had a day of over 12 hours riding and recovering and were glad to arrive at our Airbnb home which is air conditioned..... yeh what a relief 

Having the home to ourselves was great and the owner had stocked the pantry with eggs and tomatoes and Chris made a delightful omelette for us both... going out for dinner in the heat would have been too much 

I must say that the day was a hard one for me and I found the heat really drained my energy... I am glad it is over and am looking forward to bed

Tomorrow is the last day of riding for me as I leave Chris at Giurgiu  .... be sad not to go all the way with Chris to Costanta but the muck up with my passport prevents me from doing this.

Be sad to leave but in a way I am glad to be going home to see the family 

Now for the photos 

Border crossing from Bulgaria 

Trucks stacked on the ferry 

The ferry crossing the Danube 

The Garmin tells it all....40.8 degrees!!!

Home for the night.... with AC!!!

Today’s ride... hot and long 

Day 35- Calafat to Orayahovo -150.6 kms

Today’s ride could be summarised with 2 words....hot and long

Let me deal with the HOT part first.... 

The day started with clear skies and cool temperatures in the mid teens. But as the day wore on the temperatures were in the mid 30’s and as we were in the saddle.... so to speak for about 11 hours with stops for coffee, lunch and afternoon drinks we wore the brunt of the hot weather 

The LONG part relates to the 150 kms we traveled during the day. As I said earlier we were in the saddle for over 11 hours. This is our longest ride on this tour and the second longest on the Chris/Peter bike trips 

The day was supposed to start early but the room we had for the night had no natural light so we could not see the sunrise as we have done on most mornings on this ride. So we were up and about at 6.30 am and all packed to leave at 7.00 am. 

Finding a bakery at Calafat proved to be a real difficulty so we settled for a stall selling some sort of local bakery delights .... they were edible but not what we had in mind!!

After breakfast we were on our way and the first challenge was to cross the border between Romania and Bulgaria which was not a problem... not so for the many trucks which were lined up to get clearance.... 

The good news is that my temporary passport seems to work well thank goodness!

After crossing the border it was a short hop to Vidin where we stopped for coffee. 

As the day was heating up we decided to head to the halfway town of Lom ( 75 kms) doing our usual 5 km alternative leads. There was one big climb in the morning of about 300 metres over 2 kms which cleared the cobwebs 

By the time we reached Lom the temperatures were in the mid 30’s and we were parched and in need of s drink and light lunch. We found a nice cafe that served salads and bitter lemon drinks.... I have become a real fan of bitter lemon and lemonade on this ride!!!

The lunch break was almost an hour and with the heat we needed to get our energy back for the ride ahead 

The ride for the next 50 kms was on variable roads some good surfaces but some really bad roads as well 

We had one 2 km climb of about 300 metres on a cobblestone stone road!!!

At the 120 km mark we found a town large enough to have a cafe and I had to Coke’s and a Fanta in short order... I am finding that Coke provides a short hit of caffeine on hot days which helps to maintain energy on the longer rides

After drinks it was on to Oryahovo where we arrived at the hotel shortly after 7.00 pm. To say we were glad to arrive would be an understatement.... 2 bitter lemons a shower certainly mad a big difference to how I felt 

We ordered dinner which were titled “meat balls “ but were in fact meat patties 

It is interesting that today we ran across a couple doing the EuroVelo 6 ride ... they were fro Germany. We had a good chat 

At the hotel we ran across 2 young girls doing the ride from Holland ... we first met them out of Belgrade on the EuroVelo 6 route just before I had my bag/ passport mishap 

It was great to catch up and have a chat about our respective adventures 

The hotel we are Stuart tonight is excellent and it is air conditioned and has good food and we can wash our gear... something that is really needed now 

It is now 9.15 and I will be in bed after a long day in the heat 

Now for the photos.....

A delightful drink of homemade lemonade....

The border crossing in to Bulgaria 

Early morning on the the days we crossed in to Bulgaria 

A view from the top of the hill hill on one of our climbs 

Home for the night 

The 2 girls in the photo are the ones we first met outside Belgrade 

Today’s ride