The last day in London josh didn’t get much sleep and wasn’t
feeling up to riding 60 miles so we trained it to our ferry. We sat in their local Mc.Ds looking up things
on the internet to pass the time then decided to just go to the ferry terminal.
We took a nap, ate and read our books. The thought of being in France was
pretty exciting. France to me was the start of the trip I was really looking
forward to. The hot countries filled with passion for food and people with lots
of character. Right before we got on the ferry we found a group also doing a
bike tour. A mixed group of guys and girls doing a tour from London to Paris
with old looking panniers and bikes. They were about our age and were pretty
nice. Once on the ferry I had to build up courage to go sit with them and talk
to them about their route. Josh and I didn’t have one planned out so I thought
we could get some help. They told me about a couple paths and I decided to leave them
alone for the rest of the night.
some were in the shower.
The Ferry got into France around four Am. We stopped and talked to them after getting
off the ferry and asked if they knew about any camping nearby. They said they
have no idea so I told josh to look some up on the GPS. Josh and I left then
right outside the gate I stopped and said that we should probably help them
out. We turned around and asked them if they would like to use out GPS to find
some, then I figured they might as well just follow Josh and I. We rode for
about 20 minutes and then got to this huge hill that over looked the channel
with big waves crashing loudly onshore. The ride wasn’t easy and some of the
people in the British group had to walk their bikes up some of the hills, but
we finally got to camping. They seemed like us the first time we had to set up
our tents. I liked that group or maybe I just liked the fact that I was able to
talk to someone new. The next morning I told them that josh and I had 2 60 mile
days ahead of us, took their picture and said we should meet up in Paris if
they get there when we are.
The next 2 days Josh and I rode through the French
countryside with nothing, but happy good times. The sun was out and keeping us
warm and France had beautiful big fields mixed with huge hills. Hills can be a
killer on your knees, if you’re riding all day, but josh and I smashed those
hills and felt like men when we got to the top. Out of nowhere was this old
guard tower where u can walk inside and see where the stairs went up to the
hole in the ceiling and it just made my day. We stopped in small towns to find
out that they only have magazine/tobacco shops open in the middle of the day.
Out of 4 towns we only found one grocery store.
People in the small towns were nice. The way things work is when you
walk into a shop is like this.
“Hello (in their language)”.
“Hello do you speak English?”
“No. what can i do for you” Then you play this game of I don’t
know what you saying and you don’t know what I’m saying, but we are going to figure
out how you are going to give me a slice of that pie and Im going to give you
my money. Then we got to Paris and that all changed. Ask someone if they speak English
and you get attitude if they do and if they don’t they just kind of give you
some stare and go “now what?.” It’s not fun. It’s almost makes you not want to
talk to them because you think they are just going to be assholes. We spent
four days in Paris. I spent 2 looking around at the sights, 1 relaxing in the
hotel and then on the last day josh and I found out that the rave we were going
to in Portugal got canceled do to it being sketchy as hell. We looked over the
map and realized that we are WAY behind schedule. We sat down and planned it
out. We talk a train to catch up some time. Ride down the French coast. Get to
Madrid and Barcelona on the 13th. Ill spend a few days there alone.
When he takes a train to Switzerland I’ll chill with Chloe on the beach for a
week then take a ferry and meet him in Milan then ride through Italy and spend
4 days in Rome. Sounds fun, but we have deadlines again which means no more
days of just laying around hung over. Every day is about 60+ miles riding from
here on out except when we stop in major towns. Thanks for the read guys! Also the
group of Brits were cycling for a charity if you’d like to check it out its boomboompow!