This is a journal of a 3,000 km bicycle trip I undertook between April and May of 2007. I started out near Mainz, followed the Rhein and Mosel into France, took the Loire River Valley to the Atlantic, followed the coast South to Bordeaux, then took canals through Toulouse to meet the Mediterranean at Narbonne, skirted the sea till Provence, meeting the Rhône and heading north to Lyon, the second city of France and my terminus. Check out the map.
I spent about $2000 or $50 a day for the 40 days on the road. The biggest chunk of change went to dining, with camping fees number two. Entry fees to museums or other attractions would be expenditure number three. Some areas were attraction dense and I cycled closer to 50 km a day. In other, attraction/tourist sparse areas I cycled over 100 km a day. I cut down on costs by camping in campgrounds for the most part. This was also convenient because there are so many and they are well marked at most major intersections and entering/leaving cities.
I am now an experienced French grocery shopper, patisserie customer, direction asker, spelunker, food orderer and French cuisine appreciator. This was so fun. If you have ever even considered doing something like this - just do it.
Following each entry is an itemized list of expenses in Euro.
April 11 - "extremely lucky breakdown location" - Flörsheim to Oberwesel
Fast going all the way, past Mainz, Bingen, Bacharach... there, while along the main promenade I noticed that something was impeding my rear wheel's movement... it was the metal support for my pack b/c 2 screws had fallen out... I stopped the bike and back tracked, searching for the tiny nut that had gotten loose. No luck. EXTREME good luck that this happened in a town that had a bike shop half a mile from where the incident took place.
Pitched tent in campground in Oberwesel. Very clean facilities - the campsite is along Rhein just behind a gas station.
Went for a walk to scale the "mountain". Talked with a German walking his dog as I ascended. He complained about poor health as a result of inhaling toxins from his welding/metal part fabrication job. Schönburg, a big castle up on the hill, is awesome... could see the yellow of my tent far below next to the well-let stadium, along the west bank of the Rhein. I sat in an outside courtyard within the castle for an hour or so, as it got dark, drinking a large Radler, a half-beer half-fanta concoction that means "cyclist". Some plaque on the wall mentioned how Charlemagne or some other king used to stay here on his journeys. I envisioned a courtly retinue eating chicken like pigs. Then I went inside the castle to view some of the artifacts. Whole place reeked of smoke from a fireplace. Must be a screwed up chimney system, but it did make it seem more authentically medieval.
COLD at night. Cold feet kept me awake to some extent.
Bread 1.75
Maps 12.40
Brat & Beer 3.40
Campsite 6.50
Food 4
Radler (Schönburg) 4.60
April 12 - "castles and vineyards - but no time to go inside" - Oberwesel to Cochem
Used the internet in the morning - it is inside of a camper by the main office. Woke up and went to the grocery store for breakfast - pastries, yogurt, brötchen. Rolling up tent in the morning got my biking gloves soaking wet and froze my fingers. Won't make that mistake again. In the future, I would always move tent into sunny location upon waking and wait for it to fully dry before packing it up.
Went through Koblenz, stopping briefly at Deutsches Eck where the Rhein meets the Mosel, which I would thence follow into France. In the photo below, the Rhein is going S-N horizontally and the Mosel is flowing W-E above the monument. I rode around it counter-clockwise during the day.
Most English translations use the French spelling of Moselle, but I think that since the Mosel was scenic in Germany and sucked in France, it makes more sense to use the German spelling. Made it to Cochem, the biggest city inbetween Cochem and Trier and therefore a natural stopping point. Many castles and wine-laden hillsides - though did not stop in any of them except to rest a few moments.
Nice campground, refreshing pool. Less train traffic on opposite bank than in Oberwesel (on Mosel River now), but potentially enough to wake me. Amazing vineyard hills today. Contemplated wine-tasting but chose against it, fearing it might exhaust my momentum.
pastries 1.50
yogurt 0.40
2 Brötchen 1
Pea soup, potato salad 5
Campground 10.50
2 showers 1.80
swimming 6.40
food 6.31 [2 bananas, 150g energy bars, turkey (100g), buttermilk (500g), cheese (140g), peanuts (200g)]
April 13 - "arduous" - Cochem to Trier
Beautiful countryside, most vineyards ever, even on both sides. So winding, went over 140 Mosel km - nearing desparation towards the end of it because I expected it to only be 90 or so km. Saw rocky cliffs overhang the Moselle for first time. Splurged in Trier w/ hotel (Jugendherberge was full) and nice dinner. The owner could speak English quite well. I had asked him if I could pay to pitch a tent on his property - he compromised and gave me a smaller room at a reduced fare. When I told him of how tiring the day's journey had been, he replied to me that only "die Freaks" attempt to cycle all the way from Cochem to Trier in one day. As the crow flies, it looks deceptively short, but the snaking around the Rhein makes it arduously long. Asked attractive movie theater clerk if she was doing anything later, but she was busy. There was some sort of Erotik-Messe (Erotic Fair) going on but I thought it would be a pain in the ass to figure out how to get to it and I needed my rest for the next day's journey.
Internet 1
Ice Cream 0.70
Tram 6
Internet 1
quince, Schweinrücken 40
Hotel am Ufer 43
April 14 - "the first Frenchman" - Trier to Metz
Started out strong, good speed all the way through Remich. HOT DAY... talked with my first Frenchman (on this trip) in _______ for at least 15 minutes about his theories on who will be elected, who is too droigt/gauche (right/left), Euro is bad for French economy.... 600 Euro per month for rent... they should get rid of it, then talked about wages in America and he asked me if I was married.... I said "no" then he said good, then something about a bordello. I found out later that bordelle (sp?) means hell in French. When I told him I had cycled from Trier that day, he asked me if I was taking any marijuana. I had had 3 semesters of college French but not the opportunity to practice. I was good at it and could use the words I knew fluently back then, but at this stage, I could not readily access the vocabulary necessary to form the sentences quickly enough for a conversation. It was very difficult. Though I could understand much of what he was saying.
In Thionville, had a short scare... ended up taking a road on to a peninsula because I thought it might lead to the Mosel Chemin on the other side... luckily there was a bridge after 2 km or so and I asked some boys who were swimming if the other side, which looked like a gravel factory or refinery wasteland, was legit. So I had to carry my fully laden bike up the narrow metal staircase that spanned the river. It luckily worked out and I ended up on the Rue de Metz.... cycling through the towns on the way to Metz was nice. Easy going, I just stayed to the right of the local traffic, which was not that intense.
Camping in the city was not possible because the Camping Municipale was not going to open until May 1, so I had to stay at a hostel. Was a nice place, nobody else was in my room, and I got to chat a bit with a well-endowed girl who worked there, getting up to speed in French again. She could speak English or German so was no problem. I told her I wanted to buy a French-English pocket dictionary and she gave me some directions, I'd have to go in the morning because it was already closed.
At dinner, though, I found I was totally screwed, communications-wise. The waitress could not speak German or English, or any of the other languages I beherrsche (beherrschen comes from Herr - "lord, master" and means "to master, dominate" and is used in the context of controlling people or mastery of a language). She would only speak French and very quickly, at that. So while I could get a pretty good handle on what I was ordering by the menu, any communication with her was very difficult. She made no effort to slow down or use less complex vocabulary. Perhaps if I had encountered her on day 20 of the trip, after having spent two weeks immersed in French, I would not have had these problems.
groceries - 4
hostel - 21.20
mexican flat-bread wrap - 3.50
dinner - 32 (escargot, creme brulee, porcelets, wine)