2023 European adventure final day

Last day before the travel process starts to take us home! We'd given an extra day to spend relaxing in Frankfurt before the joys of 20+ hours sitting in aircraft and we've really appreciated the lack of time pressure. Late breakfast at a fantastic little Turkish restaurant nearby and then set out to go to the klinemarket on Wolfgangs recommendation. Got there no trouble and mystified to find it closed at 11 am! Friendly Geerman family explained that today is a national holiday to celebrate re-unification. Other plans for the day were to check out the old town and to go to sachenhausen for the obligatory porkknuckle and cider. We partly succeeded. When we first hit the streets this morning we were stunned with the litter - we've never seen anything like it. Packaging, paper, broken glass strewn across the streets. We were starting late - around 11 - and the cleaners were starting to use high pressure hoses to shift the rubbish to the centre of the road for the street cleaning trucks to pick up. When we got over the river to Sachenhausen we found the whole area deserted. Graffiti everywhere and lots of restaurants chained up. Had to go back to the old town square and found a restaurant with the required menu but not quite the same as the old Sachenhausen cider pubs. We had our first rain of the trip this afternoon. Timing was perfect though. We were just near the hotel and thinking about where to go next and a storm broke so straight into the room for rest time! Flight leaves 1:10 pm tomorrow. We'll get to have lunch with Be on and Lucius and his parents on Thursday and back to Brisbane on Friday for rest of family catch up.

2023 European adventure day 31 - 1 October

Travel day. Taxi through morning peak hour in Paris (mayhem) to Gare l'Est to catch the ICE train to Frankfurt. Grabbed some French bread rolls with meat, cheese etc to eat on the train as final tribute to French cuisine. strain left spot on time as expected and we were soon flying through French countryside at 300 + kph - until we got to Lorraine and we came to a halt. Words like "Problem technique" were being announced which didn't sound good. English announcement soon after - " Ladies and gentlemenlease do not open the train doors - we have enough problems already" followed by "if you see a man in a life jacket walking beside the train please do not panic- it is the driver looking to find the problem" About 50 minutes later the train began to move to General applause but proceeded to Frankfurt at only half speed. We've been offered a 25% refund because it was more than an hour late - imagine if QR had to do that finally got to our lovely and very central hotel - went two doors up to O'Reilly'# Irish Pub for Guinness and a stew meal. Todd end to the day actually

2023 European adventure day 30 (30 September)

Beautiful sunny (Bit hot actually) day in Honfluer for a day of looking around, taking it easy, enjoying coffees, crepes, bakery delights and their beautiful cider. Never ceased to be amazed by their medieval architecture and huge number of art shops. Had just the best day but had to back to the hotel at 3:30 to catch a cab to the bus station to connect with the Paris train at Trouville. Problem was that the connecting bus just never turned up, leaving about 30 people stranded and doomed to miss the 4:55 train! A local bus eventually turned up and luckily we had some dual linguists in the group who were able to get the driver to deliver those of us who stuck around to the station and then explain to the English speakers what was happening. We didn't get go Trouville until about 6 and then wait in a line to change tickets while the 6:20 train sat at the platform. Too detailed to explain here (story for Christmas or coffee or whenever) but we managed to get tickets for the 6:20 and raced down the platform to jump on while everyone else had to (a) pay for a new ticket and (b) were put on the 7:20 train! Sometimes things just work on the right way. Didn't get into Paris until about 8:45 so by the time we booked into the hotel we decided it was too late for dinner. Bed.

2023 European adventure day 29 - 29 September

Final day riding! Carbourģ to Hon Fluer the longest day's ride for Normandie and as it turned out probably the most challenging but also rewarding. We left Carbourģ by 9:30 and headed out along the coastline for a while and then quiet country roads through villages and farmland. What's really impressed us is the unique Normandie house archite - a lot of half timber thatched construction like England (stands to reason I suppose) and they are all in beautiful condition. They are all through the landscape. Just beautiful. a couple of serious climbs today. Up into the Saint-Gatien forest which was spectacular and great riding once we were up there.We stopped for lunch at Beaumont en Auge and head a new culinary experience when the waiter recommended their Italian raw beef presented with sundries tomatoes, olive oil etc. It was absolutely delicious! After another good climb we descended into the Seine estuary via a huge downhill with beautiful views and into Hon Fluer. H F is an old fishing village which we now discover is one of the most visited places in France. It is a beautiful town with an incredible timber church at the centre. We went to the waterfront for dinner and seeing Hon Fluer is famous for seafood we had oysters (HUGE) and baked sea bass for dinner. Very lucky because when we were outside loo,ing at the menu before the place opened one of the waiters was outside having a smoke, asked us if we were intending on coming and booked us into the last table! We have tomorrow here as the o my train to Paris on a Sunday is at 4 pm so looking forward to exploring further.

2023 European adventure day 28 (28 September)

Back on the bikes today! One rider is still not 100% but slowly improving so we took things fairly steady. Got away from Bayeaux (A place we'd thoroughly recommend for a visit) circa 8:30 and headed north to the coast and then ran along the coastline for quite a lo g way - beautiful of course. Constant memorials to mostly British and Canadian soldiers and airmen. The ride then took us inland through more lovely farming country - had to watch out for speedy French tractors helping with the grain harvest - and some beautiful forest areas and into the Suelles River valley where we enjoyed some treats purchased earlier at a village bakery. Yum. The ride today constantly changed from farmland to villages to forest to streams - all very French of course but you must never tire of it. It is certainly a beautiful country. Every village - and there is one every couple of Kilometres has a sizable church so that would be a challenge for church authorities I suspect - none of them appear to be sold or co vertex into other purposes. We got to Caen in reasonable time and found the hotel easily. Had a coffee and snacks downtown and did a brief look around the main town centre. There was a 6 week siege of Caen after D Day and most of it was destroyed so not as much historic architecture as Bayeaux.Still quite beautiful though and buildings such as the Cathedral have been restored - that took until 1962 apparently. Bit tired so went to the Hotel restaurant for dinner but it was beautiful. Long French menu Description of our choices was repeated by the waitress as "one chicken and one fisn" Debating whether to do the local museum before the ride in the morning but you'll find out to borrow which way we go.

2023 European adventure - day 27 (27 September)

Bit of a slip up today but a fortuitous one really. Realised that today was Wednesday not Tuesday as we'd thought so we had an extra day based in Bayeaux. Elizabeth is still not 100% and so we decided it was an opportunity to rest up a bit and the planned ride covered much of yesterday's territory anyway. Fortunately I had gone through the bookings for the next week and when I looked closely at the train ticket to go back to Paris it had us leaving from here not Hon fleur where we finish the ride. Must have been my booking error so with the extra time up our sleeve we went down to be rail station (Gare) and spoke with the ticket officer who turned out to be a very helpful and competent young lady and after spending a very patient 25 minutes on her computer she not only handed me a new ticket but a 7Euro50 credit! Try that in Paris. I left Elizabeth to rest up a bit and went on a photography tour of Bayeaux. It has beautiful homes and civic buildings and reminds us very much of Bruge but I think it is probably more impressive. I wandered into the Cathedral for a second look as it was preparing for a service when we were there on Sunday and while I was there the organist came in for a practice. He was brilliant so I spent the next hour just sitting and listening! Just when you think you've had the best, along comes the next level - we found a .little restaurant in a side street near our hotel tonight and it was just beautiful - best we've had. Must be a local favourite as it was packed and whenever a table was vacated and cleaned it was quickly occupied. Better check the ride for tomorrow make sure I've got the correct day!

2023 European adventure - day 26 (26 September)

Elizabeth's cold is very slowly showing signs of improvement but this morning she wasn't feeling too bright at all so we delayed leaving u til after 11. Once we got moving the paper-based navigation notes proved pretty good so we didn't have much trouble at all finding our way. At about14 k we found the ld by German gun batteries overlooking Omaha Beach mostly in tact apart from one which had a massive internal explosion. They were taken out by British navy guns on D Day. Next stop was Arrowmanches on Gold Beach - famous newsreel photos of the soldiers disembarking with the little French cottages right in front of them. They appear to have been restored and still there. This was also the site of the massive artificial harbour built by sinking huge steel stŕuctures around the beach, Quite moving to see pictures of British army war heroes mounted on all the lamp posts com I g into town with the words "never forget" beautiful tide in the Normandie countryside today. Just beautiful. Treated ourselves to the first full on French meal tonight - the first in a out 5 gears!