Four intrepid cyclists met at the airport on a Friday morning in May and embarked on a trip of a lifetime for some of them. We were met by Mary and Alan at the airport so that we had a group of 6 cyclists who were all on folding bikes. These proved to be extremely satisfactory for touring, as well as travelling on the plane. We were given better luggage allowance for these bikes. We landed in Frankfurt, in Germany, assembled the bikes, and loaded our luggage onto them and away we cycled through a Beech forest and eventually made our way 30km to Mainz.
We had a beautiful camp ground to stay at, so put up the tent and left our gear, and shopped for the food for the next few days and settled in. We were allowing 4 days here to look around and get all that we needed. By the time we took off to start the "real trip" we were well accustomed to the bikes and cycling on the right hand side of the road.
We had a very well planned tour, in that we started off beside the Rhine River, on canal paths, and bike ways, for several days, and gradually we wound our way up the hills into the hillside villages and started to experience real countryside. The language had changed for starters; - not German now but French, in the morning its "Morgen" in Germany but "Bon Jour" in French, so out came the language phrase books!
We enjoyed shopping at the local super marche and there were loads of different ones, and the people who recognised that we weren't local, tried to help and were very friendly. The different experiences made us really appreciate our own group dynamics and we looked out for each other all the time.
We visited historic places as we rode along and met up with another couple for a week and enjoyed their skills with language and bike riding very much, - I am hoping that they will come to Australia and we can cycle together again.
As we approached the Alps we realised that we had ridden into some fitness and this would help us when we needed it. Several of the hills made Australia look flat! We were now prepared for Alp D'Huez, the big hill that the Tour de France riders do most every year, - except this one! Alp d’Huez is 1,860m, 14 kilometres long and has 21 corners (where you can catch your breath) as the degree of climb is 10% for almost all the climb!
I very much enjoyed the scenery and the opportunity to meet new people. We rode the whole distance from Frankfurt to Bourg D'Oisons (south of Grenoble) and our total distance was 1,465km. In 5 weeks away, that isn't a big average, but it is not easy to ride a loaded bike in that terrain all day long. We were trying to be into camp by 3-30pm so that we had the tents up before the rain came at 4pm. It is so beautiful and green in Europe even in summer and we had no wind to speak of, and it wasn't cold. I would love to go back again next year!
I have loads of photos to remind me about the trip away though so that may have to do the job!
Cheers Raelene
Editors "I will get some photos from Raelene to add to this story"
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