We've headed west ...

The view from the deck of our cabin on the Atlantic ocean, here in France ... a pine forest. It would be nice if we could see the ocean from here, but the forest is nice too. Much nicer than a city. We've seen birds and a squirrel out there. I'm a country girl at heart. Give me oceans, mountains, forests, and lakes ... :)

We spent much of the afternoon walking along the beach, sitting in the sand and watching the waves, and wading in the water. It is overcast and a bit rainy, but that's OK.

We stopped in a shop in the town just down the beach, and picked up a couple postcards. Both are black and white photos ... one is of the Tour de France from way back when, the other is of a child on his/her first "cycling tour", pulling a trailer with a teddy bear on it. :)

We're on the Velodyssey Trail, and will follow it northward as far as we feel like going. I have heard very little about this part of France, but so far it is one of my favourite areas! We'll see what the trail is like as we move northward.


http://www.velodyssey.com/

And an update to our story ...
http://www.machka.net/RTW_2012/RTW_Europe_Main_2012.htm

We cycled out from Bordeaux to Lacanau-Ocean the other day. That's not part of the Velodyssey Trail, but if you end up in Bordeaux (accessible by train), it's a good way to get onto the Velodyssey Trail. And Lacanau-Ocean is a nice place to stop for a few days, which is exactly what we did. A person could ride a century (100 miles) from the train station in Bordeaux all the way to Lacanau-Ocean and back again, mostly on beautifully paved bicycle paths. There are a couple sections (just setting off from the train station, and at the end of the waterfront area along the river in Bordeaux) where the cycling route gets a little sketchy, but the rest is clear sailing.

Today we got onto the Velodyssey Trail and headed northward. There is more of the trail to the south, and I think a person could follow it all the way to Spain, and there is more further north than we want to go, all the way to the UK, but we just wanted to check out this bit in the middle. So far, it's a good trail. A long part of it is on a paved forestry road where there were very few vehicles, and a speed limit of 50 km/h for those vehicles. Today we cycled through sanddunes and forest. Nice and relaxing.

On Monday we'll continue and see what a bit more of the trail is like.



Photos from the trail between Bordeaux and Lacanau-Ocean


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8041/8...f03e0a08_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8036/8...c901bde5_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8308/8...3a078d1d_z.jpg

We're on a beach on the Atlantic Ocean in France. And we've been caught in a 48-hour storm, with the promise that it is going to continue for another 48 hours or so. Fortunately, we've been caught in a relatively inexpensive caravan park, in quite a decent little cabin. So while the storm rages and ocean roars outside, we're reasonably comfortable inside.


I've taken the opportunity to update my website, and load more photos, with more to come ...

The story ... http://www.machka.net/RTW_2012/RTW_Europe_Main_2012.htm

The Netherlands and Germany Photos ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7630913118566/

Luxembourg, Switzerland and France Photos (still working on this one) ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7631598534353/



We are hoping to be in Paris about October 1, and then in London (tackling Heathrow) mid-October.

So Cool! You're a step ahead of us!

Taken today ...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8459/8...eb68f6dc_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8032/8...1898684a_z.jpg


And a very important sign on the beach ...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8182/8...a978bb32_z.jpg

:lol: You can't possibly have posted that sign, without expecting some jokes about it.

Was it cold on that beach ? :D

Seriously, that looks like a really nice paved path to ride. That's like the ones around here. Nice photos.

It was freezing!! :D

:):)

You seem to be able to find wifi easily? Or is it difficult?

It's not difficult at all here in Europe. I think every place we've been (campgrounds, hotels, etc.) have all had wifi except for two campgrounds in Germany. We were going to try to get a USB stick and internet plan like we did in the UK, but so many places have had wifi, and it is often free, that we haven't needed to do that.

In addition to our accommodations, there are many internet cafes ... even McDonalds. We stayed 4 days at one of the campgrounds without wifi, and went to McDonalds in the next town to hook up on one of those 4 days.

Camping in a tent with WiFi?

I hear computers are getting access in very poor places in Africa, etc. McDonald's here has had it for a year or two.

What about recharging, is that difficult?

Yep ... camping in a tent with wifi. :D It's everywhere here in Europe. We also had wifi in the hotel in Hong Kong, our start/finish hotel in Taiwan (but not the one in Hualian .... there was a library across the street from it with internet access), and in all but our first campground in Japan.

Sometimes we have to go to a central area to get a connection. Other times we can indeed get a connection in our tent. And with the hotels, B&Bs, etc., we can usually get a connection in our room, but not always. Sometimes we have had to go to a central area for that as well.

It's good! But I have to say, I have been a little bit surprised ... pleasantly surprised. When we were here in 2007, many campgrounds and hotels had several computers for people to use, and you often had to pay by the 15 minute block to access the internet. Those are mostly gone now, although a few places will still have a token one for the person who doesn't carry a laptop or whatever. Instead it is expected that you'll want wifi.


As for recharging, when we stay in a hotel, B&B, cabin in a caravan park (campground), etc., they've got power. We've got an international adapter for the various plugs we've encountered. When we stay in a campground in our tent, it can be a little bit more difficult, but we've recharged in toilet blocks, in the library/recreation areas, or sometimes we've paid a few extra Euro to use the power from the powered sites.

Our computers can run for about 8 hours on battery alone.

This was the sign outside the hotel we stayed in last night (a really nice place to stay if you're ever in Le Verdon-sur-Mer) ...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8038/8...4a17b6ed7a.jpg


The campground we checked up the road (which also looked quite nice, but no one was around ... the campgrounds are closing up now), also had a big sign out front advertising Wifi.

Tourist information offices are often another choice for wifi hotspots. The one here in Royan had a sign on the door indicating free wifi.

Even many of the trains have wifi access, and wall sockets so we could recharge our laptops if we wanted.



I am hoping that we'll have as much luck with this sort of internet access in North America.

I had also noticed on our recent travels in Europe, more and more towns offering wifi. Split in Croatia, and parts of Rome are two such places I can remember. We were able to get by with wifi the entire time, which is very handy when travelling.

I don't follow new computer things unless I need something. My laptop will only go about 2 hours. I can see how 8 hours is a big help on any kind of trip.
Most of the USA will give you good WiFi.

Good to hear! :)

Now that 8 hours ... that's if I'm not doing anything too power intensive. Right now I'm processing photos and uploading them onto Flickr. I've got 93% power and it's telling me I've got 5 hours. If I were just working with a text document, I'd have more. I wouldn't have thought that sort of thing would make a difference to power, but it seems to.

Campgrounds and hotels are closing up for the winter in the area where we're travelling (west coast of France). It's getting a bit harder to find accommodations. A number of campgrounds closed in mid-September, and several more close this weekend. It's down to the odd one here and there which is open, and even then there are reduced reception hours.

In two towns now, several of the hotels have also been shuttered and boarded up for the winter.

We're in this area probably another 1-2 nights, and then it's off to Paris.

We've been on the road 104 days now. Somehow I missed the fact that we had reached 100 days.

And we've cycled 65 of those 104 days. :)

Very handy! I was a little bit sceptical about bringing our laptops with us because I wondered how much use they would be. Turns out it was a good idea. :)

I do hope you managed to visit the Market in Rohan as it's a marvel. This is one of my favourite spots in France and I spent 10 days there in June. The food is good too with the accent on sea-food and game.

We are in Paris for a few days and then will be on our way to Caen to cross over to the UK.

We were going to go to South America on this trip ... and in fact, according to our original plan, we should be in Uruguay right now. But after a lot of thought and debate, and for several reasons, we decided to skip the South America bit for now and instead, to stay in Europe a little longer, and then head straight for Canada.

The plan is to buy a vehicle of some sort in Canada, and then slowly drive from Vancouver to Louisiana (where my brother is) to be there in time for American Thanksgiving. And then ... we'll plan to head west and the drive up the coast.

Mixed in with all this driving will be as much cycling as possible. I'd like to drive to a nice location, stop for a couple days, cycle around the area (hub-and-spoke tour stuff), and then drive on to another nice location, etc. I'm hoping we can see things like the maybe Logan's Pass, if it isn't too snowy, Grand Canyon, some of the red rock desert country, some of the old west stuff (which I've seen years ago), the Redwoods, and so on along the way. Once in the Louisiana, we may be able to do a little loop eastward and visit some of the states I have not been to as well.



[HR][/HR]
Meanwhile ... I've been posting more photos in my Luxembourg, Switzerland, France set ... I'm up to Switzerland now, with a few of France too. Lots of photos of great Switzerland scenery. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7631598534353/

Near where we stayed in Switzerland ...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8456/8...5e57bc1b_z.jpg

Little village nestled near the top of the mountain ...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8457/8...264c89b3_z.jpg

Cycling along a bicycle path in Switzerland ...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8034/8...c8ee93ca_z.jpg

We're back in the UK again!

Of the 3.5 months we've been travelling, only 3 weeks have been in English speaking countries. And the last time we were in an English speaking country was a little over 2 months ago. We know a little bit of German and can manage in French, but it is nice to be able to use a broader vocabulary now and to be able to negotiate, converse, and understand detailed directions.

Last night we were able to watch TV without listening intently to try to understand the language being spoken. Today I was able to ask for a variation to my lunch which I wouldn't have tried to do over the past couple months because it would have been too complex.

But it's funny ... we picked up the bowing habit in Japan, and bowed our way through Scotland before it started to wear off a bit. And we picked up the very polite way of asking for something in France (Je voudrais ... s'il vous plait), and proceed to do the same thing here now (May I have ... please), instead of a more casual approach. So now we still bow a little bit and are very polite when we order things. :D