Bike Trip in Europe
Time 2021-10-19 10:02:56Web Name: Bike Trip in Europe
WebSite: http://biketripineurope.blogspot.com
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keywords: description:What agreat weekend I had in Mendocino. It was this Campovida Grand Fondo thatbrought me to the area. It was a 100 miles bike ride with a time trial for one7 miles of uphill section. The route started from Hopland and went throughYorkville, Boonville, Ukiah.
And if you're familiar with Mendocino it is a winecountry, (yes, it's not only known for the weed!) so we were basically ridingthrough the vineyards, apple farms, oak and redwood trees, and lake Mendocino.It was such a beautiful ride to remember.
Especially, I can't forget the ridein the morning surrounded by the fog with smell of sage and other herbs and wewere going through the hills of trees and vineyards. That was magical.
Threereasons why this ride was so great.
1. Manyfriendly people
I met alot of people before the ride and during the ride. The night before, my friend,Mike, and I were having dinner at this Mendocino Brewery, which had thisamazing collection of organic local brewed beers and food.
We met severalpeople at the bar counter and had very interesting conversation and someinsights of local people and culture. Also, during the ride, I met many otherbike enthusiasts and talked and rode together. The number of people who joinedthis 100 miles was probably between 50 to 75, so it was this small communitykind of vibe that made it easier for us to connect and share the good vibetogether. For this reason, I found myself liking this better than the othermega century events.
2.Beautiful route
I mentioned this above but again it was so charming and beautiful ride going through the mountains, hills, and the valley filled with vineyards, apple trees, redwood, etc.
3. TimeTrial for the 1700 feel and 7 miles climb
Theclimb itself was not that hard, it was not really steep, just another hill. Butit was the time trial that got me pushed harder than usual and made me feel abit tired at the top of the hill. I actually havent got my time yet, willupdate once their web site is updated with the result. But nevertheless, it waskind of cool to have something like this. First, it pushed my limit. Second, itactually connected people when they got to the finish line.
This istheir first year of the event. So there are some improvements needed, but overallit was well organized and it successfully created wonderful and enjoyable communityvibe with the beautiful route. And for that reason, I enjoyed so much! Thanks toCompovida crew!
After 10 hours of the flight we were at San francisco air port. After picked up our bike boxes and assembled our bikes and came out from the gate here they were, Leah's parents were picking us up. It was so sweet of them to pick us up in their busy schedule, and it was so great to see them again!
So here we are, we are back! That's it! Thanks for reading this blog and all your comments! We will update all the pictures soon, so stay tuned!2 comments: Back to Amsterdam!We finished all our bike trip and now back to our favorite town Amsterdam. We took a train yesterday from bruges that went to Antwerpen, and changed to another train from there to Amsterdam central station. From there we rode just 5 mins to our new hotel, which was unfortunately not as good as the last one when we stayed here a week ago. We didn't have any view from the window and the room was very small but at least we got a room in our favorite area, the west canal.
Our second stay in Amsterdam on this trip was another good time. We really get along with this city so well. It is a cosmopolitan city and has great diversity. We feel a lot of vibrant energy while we walk through the town. People are everywhere walking, riding bikes, or just hanging out, and always up to something. Every time we talk to people here they are in general nice and on top of the game. There are a lot of gallery and you see a lot of interesting art or performance happening everywhere. Food are generally good and many different kinds of restaurants. Sounds familiar? Yep, its like New York! And probably that's why we get along with city so well and really love it!
Tonight we got our dinner at this tapas restaurant where only these two spainards men cooked and served. There was no menu and not much English speaking. They dont come to you to get your orders so i had to go over to a main guy at the counter and point my finger to the food already prepared in a glass box. There are raw fish, calamari, shrimp, etc, too, in the glass box, like the one in the sushi restaurants, which they can cooke them up for us. I ordered 6 or 7 dishes but he didnt even write that down or anything while he was also getting other orders from other customers and at the same time cooking or preparing other dishes. I was worried about if all the dishes were coming but he nailed it down. Somehow he remembered how many glasses of wine and dishes of food we got when we had no idea, and the bill was cheap and no surprise. Its almost you need to get this rhythm and interact with these men, who were very serious and can be intimidating, yet very nice guys and on top of their game, to order and get what you want. But once we got that the food was good, music is cool latin groove, the vibe at the restaurant was so chill, what a unique but great restaurant? There were many locals and looked they all love this place even though it was hard even for them to order.
We crused around this city with our bikes this afternoon and later hanging out at the canals with coffee or beers, looking back all the experience we had and many people we met in the last 7 weeks of this bike trip. It was kind of sad to think that our bike trip has come to an end, but at the same time we are excited to go back home and get back to our life in San Francisco to have the last piece of summer.
This trip has taught us so many things and expanded our boundary a lot. The way we see and the way we think definitely have been influenced a lot from these experience, people we talked, and things we observed throughout the trip.
And most importantly, our relationship got much deeper and stronger. Our understanding for each other got way better. We had many ups and downs on this trip but we went though all of them, and here we are, we are still together! We are looking forward to going through more ups and down ahead!No comments: Saturday, August 7, 2010 GhentWe had two things to do this morning before we left Antwerpen. We had to sort out our hotel situation in the next town, Ghent, for tonight and the next destination, Bruges for tomorrow night to prevent the last night's stressful situation. Also we wanted to find a cycling map for belgium . Unfortunately we couldn't find a good map that showed the national bike routes and camp site together, but managed to get three different maps that showed the bike sign post numbers and covers the area through just before bruges. Also at the same bookstore Leah managed to written down a handful hotel contact information before she got yelled at by a guy at the shop. After she quickly called and booked a hotel for each city, we were good to go with relief. It was around 1pm we left Antwerpen and started following the LF 2 sign posts again. Our plan was to follow the LF2, which goes all way down to Brussels, and switched to LF 5 to go west, instead of south to Brussels, to a Bruges direction. One thing we didn't know was if the LF 5 were going through Ghent or not. So instead of following the LF long distance national routes we started using the number system and figure out our own routes, and this turned out to be an easy and great way to bike around this country.
Raining
Its been bad weather since we came to belgium. We had a storm and drizzling raining here and there. And today was also the same. On the way we had one hour or so heavy raining that we had to stop under a roof of this big cycling parking lot for a hospital and later under the trees on the road.
Different view with Belgium cycling
The scenery in belgium is very different from the one in netherland. The country side has a lot of farm lands like netherland but there was a lot of untouched spaces where wild flowers, trees, and weeds were having their parties. If this was in netherland it was used through all the corners. I wonder if this is because of the difference between the sea country which is more entrepreneurial and progressive and the land country which tends to be more romantic and conservative. The sea countries are surrounded by ocean, so countries like UK, Denmark, netherland, USA, Japan, etc. And the land countries don't have much ocean exposure and tend to have their capitol cities inside and far from ocean, like france, germany, sweden, russia, etc. Belgium's capitol city is Brussels which is deep inside the country and it has huge influence of france with its history. Maybe belgians left these lands to make it more romantic scenery instead of capitalizing it. And yes, we really loved the most of the bike roads in belgium, which were surrounded by all the trees, wild flowers, and sometimes crop fields, surprisingly mostly corns, and cattles. Oh and there are a lot of different kind of birds. We got used to the charming and small canals in netherland but now in Belgium there is this big river or canal where there were many big ships that look like tankers carrying something inside that we have no idea. Unfortunately due to these massive amount of mud piled up on the side of the river the whole scenery of the river didn't look pretty, but once we got into a bunch of trees area, it was like the ones in Sweden, so beautiful and charming, yet no Mosquitos or giant Slags, and designated bike roads where two of us could ride next together and enjoy the conversation while riding.
Ghent
Around 7pm or so we made it to Ghent. Our hotel was super cool and modern inside. The owner and people works at the hotel were super low key and nice and sweet. Their hospitality was so generous and pleasing. And later we noticed how friendly people were in this town at different occasions. After a quick shower we headed to a downtown area which had this one canal going through the middle of the town and surrounded by these beautiful and huge gigantic cathedral, tower, church, and a castle, with old merchant buildings and houses look a bit like the ones in netherland. Those cathedral, tower, castle were built around 11th century, amazingly old and had this European continent romantic aura. Ghent is a small town with an old and great history. It is now a college town with a lot of young people. But it is really an underrated city today. I never heard of the city until we found this city on the way to Bruges, it is located at a half way between Antwerpen and Bruges. This city once, almost a thousand years ago, was the second largest city in Europe only after Paris. One of the king in the roman empire at the time, charles something was from this city and governed the whole empire.
After glasses of a belgian beers at a cafe at the canal we came to this brasserry which was converted from an old warehouse. I got three things I wanted to do in belgium and was looking forward once after we decided to come to this country. First is of course drink good Belgian beers. Second, eat Belgium waffles. And third, eat Belgian mussels. And I made the third one come true at this restaurant. There were three different sources that were used to steam the mussels. I got this sour beer based source that was the locals favorite. Our super nice gentleman waiter gave me a warning because some people like it but some don't,but this one turned out to be super good. It was so juicy and the little bit of sourness completely killed the fishy taste and the beer flavor enhanced the mussels original flavor with mixed of herbs. Leah got this salad with green beans, scampi, and onions with this super delicious source. We both really loved the food but also we loved their service. It was a big restaurant with packed of people, all the waiters and waitress were running around, but they were always super nice and helpful with great smiles on their faces. This was another great night in belgium and we were already hooked on this country.No comments: Antwerpen!We left at the camp site around 1pm after talking with Han and started riding towards to Antwerpen in Belgium. The camp site we stayed last night was right before the bergium border so after 10 or 20 mins of the ride we were crossing the border that was hardly noticed. We were taking this small country road looking over farm fields with cows and there was a small sign said 'Belgie' or something, then we realized it was this easy to cross the borders in Europe.
Belgium bike routes
We were still folioing the same bike route LF2 that connects between Amsterdam and Brussels via Antwerpen, and it works exactly the same way as did in netherland. Bergium too, there are many bike routes almost everywhere in this country. Until we came to this country we didn't know anything about their biking culture. But soon we found that people in this country love biking. We see many old couples or big groups riding their bikes following their bike networks. And young people were riding on the road bikes in super fast speed wearing jersey and they are everywhere. The bike lanes are not so great inside the cities, mostly cobble stones, and no bike lanes. But once you get out the cities there many many bike only roads or lanes, like Netherlands, and such bike only roads take us to everywhere like farm lands, canals, river, residential area, etc.
There are about 10 long distance bike routes, like the ones in Netherlands, and some of them directly connect to the bike routes in netherland so that you can bike through the two countries like us. And there are sign posts that show which route number and which way should go to follow the route like the ones in sweden and denmark. Also, there are bunch of local bike friendly roads and lanes through out the country. Each intersection of such roads are assigned to a number. So once you get one of the bike road maps, which you can find at book shops and shows the bike roads and a number on each intersection, you can plan which points to follow to get to your destination and write all the numbers down on a paper. These numbers are also sign posted everywhere with arrows that show which way to go to get to another number. So you just need to follow the sign posts following the numbers you have written down on the paper while you are riding on your bike. And the great thing about this is that if you have a map while you are riding you know exactly where you are because those numbers are assigned to every distance less than a half mile, sometimes a quarter mile. We really liked this system because we can plan our trip very flexibly. We mostly followed LF2 to get to Antwerpen and LF5 to Ghent and Bruges, but sometimes went off the track to make some short cuts or stop by camp sites, some shopping, etc. When that happened we just looked at the map and figured out which numbers to follow to get back to the LF2 or get to the destination, wrote the numbers down and followed with the sign posts. It was no brainer, its that simple, and didn't even need any help of the GPS.
This combination of long distance routes that covers the whole country and the local routes with the intersection numbers in netherland and Belgium are the best bike road system among all the countries we rode so far. They are easy and simple, and very flexible that we can create our own bike trip routes based on our need. Brilliant! I somehow want to bring this back to US or Japan.
Antwerpen
After 3 or 4 hrs ride we came to Antwerpen without a hotel reservation expecting we can stop by the tourist office who will be able to find a hotel for us or just knock the doors of any hotel.We were riding along a big canal that went into the city and started seeing this huge plants and ships and ports, that looked so ugly and didn't look like the antwerpen that we expected at all. I have visited the city before and remembered as a charming town with its trendy fashion industry. It was more than 10 years ago. At that time I arrived to the city by a train and took a taxi to the downtown area or something. But this time we came into the city from the backside of the city and slowly getting into the city with our bikes. This is one of the reasons we love this bike trip because we can see the whole picture of each city, town, and country as whole. After the manufacturing plants area we rode into a typical European poor towns with immigrant communities. We saw a big northern African immigration just outside the city where some projects kind of buildings were standing and the typical graffiti on the walls were everywhere.
Just when we started wondering if this was really the Antwerpen that we knew, we finally got to the central station which was another typical european city central station where bunch of all kinds of people walking to every direction and a lot of immigrants types are just wondering around. We immediately picked this not so safe you got to watch out pick pocketing kind of vibe. We managed to have found the tourist information office inside the station but only to find that it was closed at just 5 mins ago, which was 5:45pm. There were still people inside the office just talking but they refused to help us. Yes, this is the continent Europe with this European continent attitude, their train never be on time, they don't open the office on time, and have a big lunch, but only thing they do on time is to close the office. And once it's closed it's always non non non even though there are people just outside needing a help! I always wonder if they understand where their money is coming from. Tourism is one of the main income for the cities like this old city, however, they cant help the tourists when they need. Anyway, after we got disappointed, we started riding into the downtown, which was super charming and we already stared liking the city even after the tourist office's no so welcoming attitude. However, soon we realized there was no hotel sign where we were riding around and started nervous. Finally we found a B
When we started seeing the camp site in Sweden we were pretty disappointed because they were so big and bunch of camping cars that some of them looked like the RV park in US. There was no privacy and people were everywhere we go. We were more expecting the camp sites in northern california, which was more basic, in mountain trees, more privacy and space between the camp sites, and really feel like we are in nature, but soon we realized we were too naive about that. this is Europe, everything was pretty systemized, developed, and commercialized. But then after we came to Denmark the camp sites in Sweden were actually not that bad. The camp sites in Denmark were even more crowded with more camping cars and more developed. They had morning bread delivery, Internet wifi, and they charge for a shower per 3 or 5 mins. And then we came to Germany, which made us thought that oh wait, Denmark was not that bad! The camp sites in Germany was worse than the American rv park, there were so many tents and camping cars on top of each other. They are German so of course there is a schedule. They close kitchen and bathrooms at a certain time, I mean at German time, so 5 mins before precisely. It is the opposite of the feeling you can get from the Californian camping experience. And then we realize how lucky we are to have such great camping places where we can feel a freedom in the amazing huge scale of nature.
Anyway, so we were wondering how the camp site look like in this country. Just outside of a town called Breda where we had our lunch, first we came to this camp site, which was something called natural camp site, that means there are not RV cars allowed, just for tents. However, there were no space left other than in front of the kitchen building so we moved on. After 20 mins of ride we came to this camp site and found ourselves shocked and overwhelmed. This is the Disneyland of camp site. It had a big water slide, big restaurant where people were drinking beers big time, so many kids were biking and running around everywhere like the one you could see in shopping malls or amusement parks. Then there were these tent area right next to a massive RV car camping area where every tents are circled around so that their kiss can play at the center space. It was perfect camp site for those with kids and no money and nowhere else to go. So we moved on hoping we can find something a little better, after 10 mins of ride we came to this camp site which was more like the ones in Denmark. It was big but not so crowded thanks to drizzling weather. And the owner of the camp site was very low key and friendly. There were a lot of spaces for tents and we could find our own private camp spot where we don't need to see anybody. There was a shower and it was free! We haven't seen any camp site with free shower since Sweden! And there was an internet wifi around the reception area which was also free! I can't believe anything is free in this country. People here are very entrepreneurial and business savvy and find any chance to make money. They legalized marijuana and prostitutions so that they can tax on the suppliers to collect money. At the tourist information office they sell the city map by 3.50 euro instead of giving away like other cities. One hostel charged the internet access by minutes. Now at this camp site, shower is free, internet wifi is free. Amazing!
Thai food at camping
They didn't have a kitchen at this camp site but that was not a problem for tonight for us. When we stopped by Breda, which was a mid size city with bunch of students, for lunch this afternoon, we realized that today was Sunday and that mean all the shops other than restaurants were closed. There was no grocery shop opened! So as a plan B we found this Thai restaurant that could do a take away and get some food from them. So at the camp site all we needed to do was to heat them up. Well, the first stove we brought from San Francisco was stolen in the first day, and the second one we got in Stockholm was so weak that it took 39 mins to boile water and made a huge noise. So we got this new stove in Berlin, and this one works super great. We used that stove to heat our Thai food and eat in front of our tent. I know its kind of gettho but it worked.
62 years old Dutch hippie
We met this super interesting guy, Han, at the camp site. He left his home when he was 12yrs old and since then he's been traveling around the world and lived in India for 25 yrs. He's now 62 and just came back from a bike ride to turkey, which he and his buddy were actually trying to get all the way to India but couldn't get visas for Pakistan so they had to come back and prepare for another trip. They were meanwhile camping at this camp site until the next trip. He is one of the original hippies traveling around and lived in India. When he was back in nether land he typically live or 'squat' at abandoned apartments. Very interesting guy with a lot of interesting funky and sometimes wild stories. Though he had only one tooth he was totally in a good shape and active. It's amazing to see people traveling around with their bikes even wih such age, hope we can be like that in 30 years!No comments: Friday, August 6, 2010 DordrechtAfter we tasted and bought a few good cheese in gauda this morning it was a time to start our 2nd day ride in netherland. We continued on following the LF2 route and heading to dedricht. The ride was great, as you imagine its all flat, kind of like the ones in Denmark. There are a lot of farms mainly cattle farms, so many cows, sheeps, and goats. We saw many crop fields in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, but not so much here.
Since there are many canals and rivers in this country there are many times we needed to take a boat to cross the rivers or canals. Usually it takes 50 cents to 1 euro per person. Depends on the boat but they come pretty often so we didn't have to wait for long to catch the boats. There are always cafes at the boat waiting places and looks people are often enjoying their tea time at such cafe before they catch their boats. It was mostly cloudy but sometimes raining today, so we had to escape to those cafes a few times. We didn't see much bike traveling folks around here so every time we came to these cafes with wet hair from the raining and with our full bike outfits I felt we were collecting more than necessary attention.
There were supposed to be a few camp sites around Dordrecht according to the map we had hut like yesterday they don't exist at the locations on the map! Finally we found this youth hostel 20 minutes bike ride outside the city. It was big and kind of walmart feeling hostel that they charge for everything including towels. Its super cheesy room and breakfast but it was 75 euro per night with private bathroom.
After a quick shower we came to the center of Dordrecht to get a dinner, which came as a disappointment. It was a tapas restaurant with super cheesy dishes. The food was ok, not horribly bad, but their service was the worst in the world. As you imagine each tapas dish is so small and most of the times simple, that is the great thing about the tapas. However, it took 30 mins to get mozzarella and tomato salad, which we couldn't find any taste that should have taken 30 mins. And another 30 mins to get the rest of our orders of 5 dishes. And the meantime our waitress was just pretending like everything was ok and no single word of apology. Well, she was a young girl and probably there are a lot to learn to grow, but this kind od experience really teaches me this, if shit happens don't try to cover up or ignore. Just accept it and think or suggest how to fix it or to make it better, and then move on. Its such a simple thing but often we forget this when we are in her kind of situation. I'm glad that at least we can learn something from it.
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