Levanto continued

After hiking through the five towns of Cinque-Terre, we decided to spend the next day doing some hiking around Levanto, as there are many trails that loop up into the mountains around the town. After about an hour of fruitlessly searching for the trailhead, we gave up and decided to spend some time in the town instead. Jodie bought a new bathing suit and decided to test it out on the beach, and I decided to do some riding up in the hills surrounding the town. It was really fantastic riding - incredible climbing on a narrow but deserted road. In nearly no time I was way up above Levanto and able to get some great views of the area. The picture to the left shows the road snaking up among the olive trees:

There were many small towns in the area and I entered a few of them, but did not stay too long. I was only a few km out of the main tourist town but nonetheless I felt very out of place. In one case I rode into the town squareto find everyone go silent and look curiously at me... Not unfriendly, just surprised, kind of like the time I forgot I was in Tim Hortons and accidently ordered a venti half-caf skinny frapacino.
















Anyway, the riding was great. This is what Jodie saw which I guess is not too bad either.



We had planned to move onto Florence the next day to start riding in Tuscany, but Italy's train workers had other plans, starting a two-day strike that morning. This was quite a tough blow for us as it meant we would have to spend two days in Levanto with nothing to do except determine which area of the beach was the sandiest and which cafe had the best banana gelato (Fashion Cafe, right on the water, in case you are interested). Somehow we pulled through this challenge. I went riding again, this time heading up up up over the mountains towards the cinque-terre region. The cycling was even better this time with great views (although a bit cloudy).

Levanto and Cinque-Terre

We were both very interested in staying on the Mediteranean for as long as possible, so from Nice we moved down the coast to a small town called Levanto. The town is just north of a region called Cinque Terre, a group of five coastal fishing villages that are quite isolated and mostly accessible by boat or on foot. They are located in a very hilly, steep coastal region and over the centuries the inhabitants have built terraces all along the coast to allow agriculture that would otherwise be impossible. There is no camping in the five villages, so we camped at Levanto.

Levanto itself was a wonderful town. Very good beaches, pretty scenery around the town and very friendly locals. See pictures below.




The day after we arrived we did the famous hike between all of the villages, starting in Riomaggiore and ending in Monterrosso. For centuries, this narrow, winding, rocky trail was the only was (overland) to communicate between the villages - today, this level, paved, smooth path is the only way to get from one town to the next without spilling your gelato. Actually, it was only the first two legs of the trip (to Manola and Corniglia) that were quite easy. The trail really gets interesting from Corniglia to Monterrosso, as it winds up and down the side of a cliff face, through fields of olive trees etc. Very lovely, and the number of tourists decreased significantly since the hiking was a lot tougher.

To get from Levanto to Riomaggiore, we took a ferry - one of the nice things about this is that you get to see some of the villages from the water. Some pictures below:

French Riviera

After a great visit with family in Pontivy, we took a long journey south to the French Riviera.

We had originally planned to bike to Vannes and stay overnight, catching a train at 8:30am the next morning, but my (Jodie) back tire had other plans - we ended up having to stay over an extra night in Pontivy in order to replace my tire, which chose that moment to show its complete lack of interest in riding another 60 km. We tried valiantly to make it to the train the next morning, getting up at 5:20am and leaving on our bikes at 6, but sadly just missed the train - that said, we managed 60 km by 9:20am, not a small feat! Because we missed the train, we couldn't make it to Avignon with our bikes, so we decided to go to Nice instead since it was a good place to enter into Italy.

Nice is very much like LA in some ways - flashy, lots of money, and lots of palm trees. In other places, the old town is very quaint and charming.

The beaches are great too, although in Nice they are very rocky.



The Cote D'Azur is a tough place to leave, and we have spent the past few days enjoying some great cycling and some time on the beach. Nice is a city I've stayed in before, so I've enjoyed being somewhere that's familiar.

I've also enjoyed the chance to again experience the most delicious sandwich that has ever been invented (a Pan Bagnat, which involves a tuna, lettuce, anchovies, olives, peppers, onions, radishes, and a healthy splash of olive oil - see left).

We've also been able to enjoy some amazing scenery. Yesterday we biked along the coast from St. Raphael to Cannes, and experienced some of the best sights yet. The cliffs along the coast in that area are a striking red, and the ocean is a very deep blue. Needless to say, it was really a breathtaking ride.









A bit of ambiguity exists as to our next step - we will either be heading west to Avignon and Barcelona, or east into Italy. Stay tuned!

Pointe de Raz

Annie and Guy were kind enough to lend us a car the next day, and they suggested we visit Pointe de Raz, the most western point of France. Looking at the map, we realized it was about 300 km away and expressed our uncertainty at being able to make it that far. After a few moements, we remembered that it is in fact possible to travel faster than 20 km/h, and we were on our way (it took a few more minutes of the car lurching forward and slamming to a stop before I remembered that not all vehicles work by alternating pressure on the pedals - after that, we were ready to go).

Once again, we fell victim to poor weather and we didn't see anything that night. The fog was thick enough that visibility was reduced to about 20 m (so much for our hopes of seeing Canada). Because of the poor, damp weather we decided to stay at a hotel which was very cheap given its nice location. The hotel, being quite a way back from the point, had better weather and we had a good view of the ocean a little fishing village.
















The weather was a bit better the next day and we were able to see some of the point. Very rugged, craggy scenery and worth the visit.

Pontivy

I (David) have family, four-generations removed, that live near the city of Pontivy, in the heart of Brittany. We have kept in touch with these relatives over the years and we were excited to visit them for the first time.

After a full day of riding from Dinan, we arrived at the home of Annie and Guy, parents or Sophie, Helene, and Claire, who are our age (the older two had visited us in Edmonton about ten years ago). We had a very warm welcome from Annie and her parent's (Guy was at a work function and arrived later) and also from Helene, who drove up for the weekend from a town called Angers. It was really wonderful to see Helene after so many years and to meet up with all of the other family members.

The next morning, Helene took us for a whirl-wind tour of South Britanny. We started off at a very beautiful beach with crystalline water.



















After swimming for a while and having a picnic lunch, we moved on to an interesting sand-dune region (no pictures) and then to neat a old town.




Next, we went to Vannes, a major city in Britanny with well preserved historic areas. One of the highlights were the beautiful gardens planted just outside the walls of the old city.

Dinan

From the bay of Mont St. Michel, we moved inland towards a town called Dinan. Entering Dinan was a jaw-dropping experiencing. After riding through the normal big box and industrial areas that mark the entrance to a city, we suddenly found ourselves crossing a massive stone bridge overlooking the cities scenic harbour, and passing through the city wall into vieux Dinan. The view from the bridge was literally breathtaking.











Biking in the old city was impossible - the winding cobblestone streets were too steep and narrow, so we got off and walked, enjoying the architecture and lively pedestrian traffic.





Our hostel (at left) was in a forested area near the port, where we walked for one of our best meals on the trip. The next day we took a bit more time in the morning to explore the old city. It is really a unique and beautiful place with many small shops and cafes lining to streets, which are so narrow that the passage of a big commercial truck causes all of the shopkeepers to come outside to offer advice and assistance. A truly worthwhile experience.

Crepes

The French have invented an amazing high energy, low fat, high protein food - they are perfect for cycling. They have been given the scientific name of crepe. Because there are many cyclists in France, there are many crepe restaurants throughout the country. At left, we are stopped at a very colourful and quaint crepe bar for a morning power-up.

Mont St. Michel

Our next day of riding took us into the Bay of Mont St Michel - a bay containing famous village and castle built on a rocky island that is surrounded by water at high tide but accessible by land at low tide. For some details, see here.

The scenery was pretty, but the weather wasn't really co-operating and we couldn't see the castle very well at all. Here is what we had hoped to see:






Here is what we saw:


















Oh well. Nonetheless, the scenery was still pretty good.

Riding in Normandy

We arrived too late in Cherbourg to find a campsite, so we stayed at a very nice hostel instead. The next morning, we began our ride along the beaches of Normandy towards Pontivy where we were to visit my family.

We found a very pleasant scenic highway along the water for the first part of our day, which made for great riding.





The highway took us through small, pretty towns, many of them on the water.

We had hopes to make it to Juno Beach, where Canadian troops landed during D-Day, but it was simply too far. We made it to Utah Beach, one of two beaches where American troops landed. I was a bit surprised by the monuments there - quite understated in comparison to the Menin Gate we had just seen.




Nonetheless, there are small memorials scattered all over the region, and it was very common to come across US, British, and Canadian flags.

From Utah beach, we cut across the Normandy peninsula, aiming to get to the other coast to camp. Although the scenery wasn't as impressive as the coast, the weather cleared up and we shot across with a decent wind at our backs. We made it to the other coast with time to spare and enjoyed the sunset on the beach.

Bikes on a train

From Ypres, we rode across the border into France, stopping at Lille to camp. We didn't do much in Lille other than plan our train journey to Cherbourg. The trip from Lille to Cherbourg was our first time moving our bikes and panniers a long distance by train, and it proved to be an interesting experience. The bike ride into Lille was less stressful than expected given the city's size, but once into the train station the fun got started quickly. First of all, no one had the same story about when and how bikes could go on the train, leading to a great deal of confusion. The person making the reservation assured us that our bikes would be fine on the TGV (she booked us a spot on one with a bike car), but upon double checking with a station attendent David ran into some trouble. The attendent was surly, combative and rude, and told David that there was no guarantee that there would be space on the train for our bikes, and that he had the right to refuse us entry to the train if he wanted to. He also made fun of David's french language abilities (which are actually very good!). This put David in an understandably bad mood (his comments at the time were, "I hate that man, and I don't hate very many people"). He had two more heated conversations with the attendant, one based on his misinformation and another after we discovered there was absolutely no problem getting our bikes on the assigned train. (David speaking here: I did my best to chew him out for being wrong as well as exceptionally rude, but since he denied speaking English, I had to do my best in French. And we didn't learn a lot of combative words back in school, so I think it came out sounding something like, "You, good sir, are not as nice as would be expected under the circumstances. Please oblige me by being nicer. Why aren't you nice? Pardon me, do you have any grey poupon?"

Even with all that, things REALLY got started when we reached Paris. In order to connect for our train to Cherbourg, we had to move from the Gare de Nord to the St. Lazare station in about 45 minutes. Normally this could be easily accomplished by a short trip on the Metro, but because of our bikes this wasn't possible. The only option was to ride the (we thought short) distance from one station to the other. However, nothing is as easy as it seems when it comes to bikes and trains. First of all, the directions given by the station information did not match what we'd planned as the best route on the map. We took the directions given by the info woman, assuming that we could use the GPS (global positioning system - it marks our position overlayed on a detailed street map anywhere in Europe - very cool!) as a supplement. However, once we became slightly lost, David realized the the GPS would not reveal the site of the train station we were heading to (the only time it has failed us). Through comparing various maps I figured out the right general direction, and we spent the next 20 frantic minutes biking/walking/running through the busy sidestreets and sidewalks of Paris, to the terror of the many pedestrians and cafe-clientele. Once we finally arrived at the station we discovered it was under construction and had no elevator, so we had to haul our bikes (bags still attached) up about 30 stairs to the platform (David admittedly had to help me, thanks David). Once we arrived at the platform the attendents told us the train we needed to get on did not take bikes. Our sweaty faces and frantic expressions must have been persuasive, because the caved and told us to put our bikes on the last car of the forty-car train. We ran down the platform, threw our bags into the car, hauled our bikes in, and the train departed. We afterwards realized that we had arrived at the station about 3 minutes before the train was set to depart. Needless to say, our arrival in Cherbourg felt like quite an accomplishment.

Day trip to Brussels

We had a day to kill at one point so we hopped a TGV (high-speed train) for a day trip to Brussels. Some pictures of the central square are posted below. According to our guide book, Victor Hugo called this the most beautiful place in the world. I guess he'd never been to West Edmonton Mall!