Day 30 - A treasure iceburg

We finally made good on our promise of getting a phone today. We went to the city center where we picked up our (or more accurately Victor’s) phone and bought a new Belgian SIM card. We also took some time to see a few things that we had missed seeing on previous journeys like Mannequin Pis and a really awesome outdoor flea market that happens everyday in a large square. The flea market was really a proper flea market with a large amount of wares that, to anyone but a skilled treasure hunter, resembled junk, and were laid on rugs or simply left them in boxes to be rummaged through. We didn’t happen to have any cash which prohibited us from purchasing anything, so we just browsed a bit a left. Around 4:00 we returned to Sarah and Stephan’s place where we had promised to help Sarah take a bunch of clothes to a charity shop(thrift store). Until this point we had not had much luck with what the Europeans call charity shops. We’ve only encountered overpriced quasi-retro stores or small stores heaped with unsorted junk that’s been mixed with what can literally be called trash. Here, mixed into used household items, empty appliance boxes and bits of broken bric-a-brac are commonly displayed in these shams. Anyway, Sarah had an entire compact car’s worth of clothes to take to the charity shop which left very little room for it’s three passengers. Once we arrived we visited the retro shop first, a similar deal to Rag-o, and then went to the charity shop; both places being in the same block and part of the same organization. The clothes section was pretty mediocre in comparison to American thrift shops, but the rest was a three store deal that was crammed full of treasures. Unfortunately the place was closing, but we vowed to return the next day. That night we decided to make Mexican food for Sarah, Stephan, and some of their friends. They were very excited about the prospect of spicy food, and the burritos that we made turned out really well and were hailed by all as a success. The night was finished out with the left over beer from the night before and more great discussions about music, movies, and culture.

Day 29 -

Today we left one host’s place for another's. Actually, it was the host that we missed staying with when we arrived due to the fact that we didn’t have a cell phone. We of course got a very late - early afternoon start - to travel what we thought, due to us getting so lost trying to find the place, would be a rather long journey back towards the city center. It turned out to be less than four miles and three turns away…we laughed a little at how silly we had been for getting lost so terribly. After doing some sightseeing on the way, we arrived to meet Sarah and Stephan. They offered us dinner and took us to get some famous Belgian beers for dinner and Belgian fries for a snack. We of course almost immediately asked about thrift stores, and it turned our that Sarah also has a passion for thrift stores and promised to take us to a really good one. The beer store that she took us to while Stephan made a Rockfort cheese cream sauce for pasta (which was delicious!) had over 400 different beers from Belgium to choose from. Needless to say we took a while deciding and ended up being rushed by the owner who wanted to close his shop for the night. Armed with a deadly arsenal of strong Belgian beers, we returned to eat dinner. Sarah and Stephan were fascinated to hear about our backward society and how mass ignorance has created resistance in America to improving our lives with ideas that viewed as simply humanity in their country. This topic has been a common theme among all our hosts, and it is somewhat embarrassing to have to try to explain how and why some people oppose ensuring that everyone is afforded basic human rights, but it seems to be a duty while traveling to ensure the rightfully confused onlookers that not everyone thinks that way and that we want it to change. We also talked about movies and music and exchanged a long list of movies with each other that we thought we should see; also the beers were really good. In short we had a great time.

Day 28 - A second Day of Rest...or Sort Of

Today we decided to venture into the city to see the Margritte Museum. Margritte was a Belgian surrealist and this museum boasted the largest collection of his work. Also it was brand new, only two months old, and we were informed by the Canadian traveler that we met on our first day in Brussels that it was pretty exceptional. We contemplated how we would get to the city while watching the morning drizzle and while still feeling pretty tired and after being warned by our hosts about the distance to the city center and with the long confusing ride out to our hosts place still fresh on our minds. We soon decided to checkout the city’s train system that day. We required a lot of help from a girl who spoke a little English but was able to explain to the ticket counter in French that we wanted two round-trip tickets. In all actuality we could have figured out the system ourselves but were just lacking the confidence to do so. The trains are uncannily similar to the trains in any American city. Our only regret is that after buying our tickets, we found out that the whole network runs on the honor system and we easily could have walked onto the train just as easy with or without a ticket. After our legitimate ride on the train, we had some time so we walked around the city, through a nice park which was having a concert and where a carnival had just ended, and we saw the Royal Palace. The Margritte museum was very interesting and fun. There was a lot of work with supplemental quotes by the artist and guides that were showing people around who we joined briefly but who only seemed to by intentionally creating mystery about Margritte and his work. It was very interesting to piece together a personality, whether accurate or not, for Margritte through his quotes, his work, and some videos that were displayed. After Margritte we went in search of some other land marks that were marked on a map that we obtained from the hostel where our Canadian acquaintance was staying that had a bunch of both touristy and locally acclaimed landmarks. Our first stop was a postcard shop that had a lot of very old and very interesting postcards. The selection turned out to be a little too big, and because there was so much, no purchases were made. We then went on a hunt for Bulgian fries since we were hungry. We bought a few beers and found a fry shop - also on the map. They were pretty good; definitely different from the fries in America. We didn’t know it yet, but we later discovered that French fries was a misnomer and much to the annoyance of some Belgians for it was in Belgium from where fries originate. The other difference is that they have many, many different sauces, and yes, mayonnaise is one of them. After fries, we decided to make our search for a store to unlock our cell phone so that we could get a Belgian SIM card our main priority. Throughout the day it had been passively sought as we walked around the city, but with it beginning to become dinner time and because we hadn’t left a note at Alex and Katarzyna’s expressing our intentions for dinner, we wanted to make sure were back at a decent time to dine with them since we had decided to move closer to the city center and stay with the hosts that we had tried to stay with on Sunday. We also didn’t want to wear out our welcome and had discovered that we were actually the first people that Katarzyna and Alex had hosted. After just about giving up and heading back to the station, we finally found a shady enough cellphone purveyor to unlock our phone! It would cost 10 Euro, and we had to leave it over night, but since we couldn’t use it as it was that was not a problem. After offering to make dinner and settling on just providing the salad since we had to buy a new tube at the store anyway, we had another nice dinner with our hosts. It turns out that both of our all our extra tubes had slow leaks since we‘ve had to patch them all at this point in order to repair the four flat tires that Alyssa has had up until now, and as a form of rather blunt foreshadowing, let me tell you that she is not finished with those poor tubes yet either! After eating and drinking more of the vodka for which our hosts could not help but noticing our fondness, we - yes, a little drunkenly(sorry Mom) - went to bed.

Day 27-A Day of Rest

Today we lounged around because of the trip we had the last two days. I was very tired and sore and didn’t feel like doing much of anything. We ventured out to the nearest grocery store to get food, but that’s about all we did. David made pancakes and then after eating I took a nap for most of the afternoon. It should be mentioned that we ate pancakes with ice cream for what was actually a very late breakfast. It was delicious and we felt a little guilty. Also it turns out that while I napped, David changed my tire. We also bought a new tire at the store which was kind of like a mini Walmart. When Alex got back he took us to the shopping mall to look for cell phones, and he helped interpret for us since most people spoke French. That evening when Katarzyna came back from work she made us a delicious dinner. Also, we were able to try a Polish vodka that was very good. She is from Poland and often goes back to visit family and to bring back Polish alcohol and other Polish goodies! The vodka alone may be the sole motivation for us to include a trip to Poland in our itinerary.

Day 26 - We might have died.

Today we found our way into Brussels and to the Grand Plaza but not without David falling off his bike! There are tram trains here and the wheel of the trailer got stuck in the track. Poor David ate it but no worries, hes alright! His bike did however suffer some scrapes that he was not happy about, but the only thing that was really hurt was his pride. After spending some time in the city center we made our way to the first place we were supposed to stay. At this point we still didn’t have a phone to get in touch with our hosts, we would just show up and a certain time determined by email. We were at Sarah’s house and no one was answering the door! We went around the corner to find a payphone and there was no answer. After awhile, we contacted the host we were supposed to stay with the night before, Katarzina, and asked if we could stay with them. She said we could so we got some delicious pita’s to go and ate in the park with some Belgian beer of course. We didn’t think Katarzina’s house was too far away so we weren’t concerned with leaving right away but of course we got lost on the way there and a twenty minute ride turned into two and a half hours. It was super late when we finally arrived at their house and we were really lucky that Katarzina and her fiance, Alex, were still awake. Actually David had forgotten her last name so we weren’t even sure of which button to ring for them to buzz us in. They heard us talking from their flat and came to let us in. We felt super super bad that we were so late and weren’t able to call when we got lost. It was impossible to find anyone to give us good directions to their house or even to a phone. Once they let us in we apologized and talked for a little bit before bed. It was decided that night we’re getting a phone!

Day 25 - They weren’t donuts, but they were alright….

We left Lille on Saturday for Brussels. By all accounts the road would be nice, scenic, pleasant, and FLAT. Guess which one wasn’t true? Maybe we let all the promises of reaching Brussels go to our heads a little too much or maybe we are just creatures of habit and our habit happens to be procrastination, either way we left Lille rather late - 2:30 in the afternoon to be precise. We started off making good time and made it to Tournai, where we had to pass through the city center, at about 4:00. Unfortunately their happened to be an impressively decrepit cathedral and a parade so we quickly became thoroughly distracted. Around 5:00 or more likely 5:30 we decided that we ought to leave town since Brussels was still quite a ways east. In fact much further east than we assumed. After leaving Tournai, we immediately discovered which description of the road to Brussels was not true; it was not flat. The first hill was over a mile long and included a section that was marked on the map that designates a grade greater than 6%. There were four more marked ascents along the way and the road was not ideal for climbing. It was often very bumpy causing us to have to make even more of an effort in order to ascend each hill. Alyssa, with here new pannier, was now forced to join me on the ascents and no longer got to wait for me at the top as I crawled up the hill. We struggled on until the odometer read 725 which means that by google map’s estimation we only had five miles to go. I thought that this was a pretty decent estimation, but a missed turn and the windiness of the roads through towns actually added quite a bit of extra miles between Brussels and us. The trip was supposed to be 55 miles, but at 65 miles into the day, we were a good way out from Brussels on our map, and it was already a pretty dimly lit 9:45. We were actually in Gooik which turned out to be about 15 miles outside of Brussels; however, it was too dark to continue safely. We decided that we could go no further. Having rode most of the day in Belgium already, we noticed a few things about the landscape: it was much greener; much less agriculture was taking place; and most importantly for our current situation, it was much more densely populated. In France, the countryside was often times entirely un-inhabited; there were only fields and forests which was great for finding a camp site. Belgium had many more towns, much closer together, and the often just blended into one another. We were pretty sure that there was not going to be any isolated forests for camping especially with our proximity to Brussels. After scouting the area for some indicator of a hotel, I headed to a bar to ask for help. On the way over, an older man turned the corner who I asked if he spoke any English. He happened to speak a little which turned out to be more than enough to tell me that there was a hotel that was very nice, which I instantly equated with expensive, and I asked for a cheaper option or a place to camp. He asked if I had a tent and then offered a large grassy area right next to the grocery store that he worked in front of which we happened to be standing! I said that we would take it, I ran to tell a tired Alyssa the good news, and he showed us where he was talking about. He asked if we needed food or water, and after we assured him that we were fine, he insisted that we take some pastries. They were slightly flaky, filled with crème, topped with thick dark chocolate, and were pretty delicious. We set up our tent behind a small row of bushes, devoured the extra pizza from the night before and the pastries, and then watched sixteen or so UFOs ascend from the trees off in the distance, hover for a few minutes, and slowly fade into the clouds. Alyssa later saw some stars moving about in an odd manner, and then we snuggled into the tent to escape the cold and quickly fell asleep.

Day 24 - Un Pannier!

Today was another day of recovery for us. We were tired and didn’t feel like doing much. Our hosts were very understanding and allowed us to stay in their house, work on the bikes, and eat a bunch of food. Biking makes me insatiably hungry. Rest days usually involve me eating tons and tons of food. However, the trailer is becoming much “lighter” and easier for me to pull. It’s still slow going on some hills, but they don’t wear me out at all like they did toward the start of the trip. One of our hosts, Gilliam (Sorry if I spell this wrong; please feel free to tell me if I do.), has done many cycling trips around Europe, has an extensive collection of bikes and parts, much of which he has found in a similar manner to tree lawn picking, and offered to let us have a rack to put on Alyssa’s bike. Not only that he also gave us his old set of panniers which was actually only one pannier since the other on was turned into a campfire by someone when the bike was locked on the street overnight. It was incredibly nice of him to let us have them, and despite many offers of some form of compensation which were continuously refused by him, we lamely, despite it being good and French, left him and his housemates some beer as at least some form of payment for being such great hosts. Later on in the evening Alyssa and I made pizza with the ingredients that we bought earlier that day. We over estimated how much cheese, flour, and veggies we would need so two pizzas turned into four quite to the amusement of our hosts. There WAS a lot of pizza! After the pizza and some conversation, we all went to bed since everyone had to be up early-ish to leave the next morning.

Day 23 Finally arriving in Lille France

Today we made our way to Lille. It was 45 miles there and most of the time it was overcast. Actually I’m surprised it didn’t rain on the way there because the wind was picking up quite a bit and it was sprinkling a little also. On the way to Lille we ran into a couple of pissed off people. For some reason this crazy woman in a car rode past both of us honking and waving her hands at us. She had her turn signal on like she had wanted to get onto the highway but then didn’t because we were in the way. It was on a circle but she didn’t even go back around on the circle to try to get on again. Fucking crazy. That’s what breaks are for; slow the hell down. The second person was pissed at David because he was in front of a bus and was going slow because of the trailer so he honked also and yelled something in French. The two crazy people both were in the same town so I’m not sure why there were more crazy people in this one area. Speaking of riding in the road and bike trails… bike trails suck. If a city wants bikers to actually use the bike trails to get bikers out of the street, the city should maintain the bike trails just as it would a road for cars. I would rather ride in the street and hold up traffic than ride over all kinds of broken glass, avoid huge potholes, and have to go over curbs every couple blocks. Dumb dumb dumb and fucking ridiculous. Theres no point. Anyway we had an easy entry into Lille and found our next house to stay in rather quickly. Our host, who we met on couch surfing, is Charlotte.

Charlotte and her house-mates that we met - Gilliam and Marianne - were all very nice. We were starving and had been carrying around the ingredients to make some pasta with spaghetti sauce so they let us use their kitchen to cook it. We all ate together and were invited to go have a beer with them and their friend across town. We rode to a place where there were four long dirt courts where they played the “old man’s game” called petanque. It turned out to be a lot like bocci ball. We played a few games and ended up doing very well. I believe that together, Alyssa and I, would have been a petanque-ing juggernaut! Maybe I’ll trade bike polo for petanque so that I don’t have to face not being the best at something when I return….

Day 22- My first poop in the woods OR David’s day of being a shit

The morning started out a little rough. David woke up with something in his eye and/or it just being sore and irritated in general. Eventually we packed up all of our crap and left our campsite in the woods. It was definitely time to leave the woods when I discovered a tick just dropped out of nowhere onto my arm. When we had all of out stuff out on the trail we took off the main road to get to our campsite we ate and packed up the trailer. We checked for ticks and of course we found three more on me. David found one on my sock and another one that I cant remember where it was. I also found one on my stomach. Gross. It was time to leave, but I needed to poop. David gave me helpful tips, like leaning against a nice tree, and the deed was done! Too bad David didn’t take his own advice and poop that morning because he was definitely a shit the rest of the day, probably because he didn’t have a nice poop in the woods!

Today couldn’t have been any fucking hotter for biking, probably the hottest day yet! David had an extremely difficult time with the trailer and biking in general. We tried to choose roads that didn’t have marked hills on the map but there were a lot of hills on the roads we were on anyway. With all of that came a lot of cursing and attitude from David. At the end of the day it was just frustrating to deal with the hills, and it was taking forever to get anywhere. I was trying really hard to be supportive and helpful all day but at some point I just had to answer David’s attitude and tantrums with my own attitude because it was getting ridiculous. Throwing bags answering my questions with sass was getting old and annoying. We had wanted to go about 80 miles to Arras France that day but we had to just find a hotel in one of the cities on the way there because we were both tired. Thank god we found hotels earlier that day in some of the cities along the way. We stopped in Baupume France and got a room at the Hotel le Gourmet. The room was actually really nice and there was a shower and toilet in the room for only 38€. We really needed a break, especially from David’s attitude, and a shower. After we got the room we found a grocery store which was closing, and David was the last person they let in. I had to stay outside because we forgot to bring a lock for the bikes, and my only request was some cold juice. David redeemed himself by apologizing several times for being such a shit the entire day and buying lots of treats for us to eat. I got my juice and we also had ice cream, champagne, red cabbage salad, and a couple other yummy things.

At the end of the day we ended at going 60 miles.

A Change of Perspective:
Its true. I was bitching the whole day. I was very uncomfortable, tired, sore, and the hills kept coming. The crest of each hill, instead of showing a descent, almost always leveled out into another climb. There were ascents that lasted throughout the lengths of town; several were over a mile long of solid ascent. My legs, for the first time this trip, were burning nearly all day which was my largest cause of aggravation. They had not even been that exhausted after the ride to Paris from Ameins which was over 100 miles, and today they wouldn’t take us even to Arras. But to say that I was a shit pretty much sums it up. I was not trying to be annoying but its hard to travel with someone, be in such a terrible mood, and not have it affect them. I did apologize many times, but was unable to transform back to a civil human again until we arrived in Baupume. The icecream, two juices, cheap champagne - .99€ only! - and some good beer. I think Alyssa forgave me and pretty quickly too, but if she tells you differently in private, let me know so I can buy more ice cream or something.

Day 21- I finally fell off my bike!

Well we finally left Meaux! We stopped on our way out of town and bought more food for breakfast or at that point lunch which included yummy coconut yogurt! After riding a bit we noticed a field full of a plant we didn’t recognize so I ran out to the field and pulled one from the ground! It was some kind of root plant and it tasted sweet. I still have no idea what it was but David’s guess was a rutabaga.

I’m not sure how it happened but we stopped for water, and when we started riding again, I immediately got my front wheel caught in the space between the trailer and its wheel. Of course I completely flipped over my handlebars and somehow scraped up my shin, knee, and shoulder. It hurt a little but mostly I just felt dumb. I don’t even remember how it happened, I must have been zoning out…

That evening we found somewhere to camp quite easily and early since we had been riding through some National Forests. I was happy we didn’t have to set up the tent in the dark and there was time for us to eat and hang out outside the tent. We had to carry the trailer and our bikes in two separate lengthy trips to the campsite so we were out of site. The first trip we took the trailer and I was in back so I couldn’t really see where I was walking so my legs got all scraped up from the prickly vines that were all over. My legs look terrible, I’ve never had so many bruises and scrapes. I’m not even sure where half of them come from. We set up the tent easily though and changed into pants since I at least was already getting attacked by mosquitoes. Huge mosquitoes! While eating dinner we heard some rustling in the woods and a fox eventually passed by us. In the night there were some other strange noises especially from some birds that sounded like death.

Day 20 - Camping directly behind the hotel we stayed in the night before!

After packing up and leaving the Formula 1 where we stayed, we started our day with coffee at, of course, McDonalds after riding back into Meaux. The McDonalds was needed to locate the bike shops and bookstores in town that we needed to get new chains and a map of Belgium and Amsterdam. Here is a weird thing about France. The country is dead in August. Everyone is on vacation. The weirder and more subtle thing about France is that it does not at all adhere to the same ideals of capitalism that are so prevalent and taken for granted in America. Don’t get me wrong; capitalism exists here in all it glory, which, ironically, we came to be very happy about, but the people and business here mostly operate which what seems like a different mentality than they do in America. For example, in France, when its time for a holiday, you just shut your shop up and put a hand written sign in the window that you will return and please have a nice day. In Meaux, the only sizable town for sixty miles around and, more importantly, the only one that had cycle shops for sixty miles around, all the bike store owners must have gone on holiday together. While I’m happy for their chance at a break and the confidence they have at the prospect of loosing customers while a way from their shops (perhaps that’s why they all left at the same time) we still needed new chains. After forgoing breakfast because we assumed that the trip to get new chains would be quick and after having visited three shops, one of which was very far outside of town, we were getting frustrated. I started to think of what would I do if I were in America and if I were faced with this situation. Since I could simply go to my basement and pick out a few new-ish chains at home, I was unable to fully comprehend how this could happen in America unless it was at 9:00 at night and even then I could just wait until morning and not until August 28th or whatever date my local bike merchant decided to return from his month long holiday. Then I had a thought that would turn out to reverse the course entirely to what could have been a very unproductive day. What if a store was open 24 hours and carried a bunch of crap that you could get in case you need it? In America, people with far superior free-market instincts had that same thought long before I, and they had brought that idea to fruition in a recklessly profit-driven venture that they called Walmart. Now the avid reader of this blog will note that, although what we found was a lame French replica of what we know as Walmart complete with set hours of operation, the superstore model did exist in France and, on our way out of town to the final bike shop we checked which was closed for holiday, we happened to pass one of these replicas. I admit that I have never been happier to have found a discount superstore, but would the French replica live up to it’s American conceived forerunner and provide for us a selection of low quality merchandise large enough to include bike chains? It turns out that the L.Eclerc, the name of the French monster retailer, had an inventory of bike parts that would rival that of all but the most serious of bicycle retail shops! We got two new chains, lubricant, break-pads (mine are starting to wear), and they had fenders that definitely temped me for a moment. Next, since we failed to find a map of both Belgium and Holland at the local bookshops, we checked for maps and found to our further surprise that they carried Michelin maps for nearly every part of the globe! We left; amused at our happiness at having just left a replica of the very store that we both avoid while in the states. Our next goal was to get food for what now would be more appropriately called lunch but was in fact our breakfast. The trailer had been left locked up at the hotel while we ran errands without its cumbersome presence, and we had picked out a grocery store on the way back to the hotel where we planned to stop and buy food both for our immediate needs and for our trip to Lille. Yet, when we got to said grocery store, we were confronted with another aspect of the more leisurely atmosphere in the French economy. The grocery store, although it was 2:00 in the afternoon, was closed. Turns out that everything also closes everyday from 12:30 and 2:30, so we waited until it reopened with a crowd of locals. The crowd queued up at around 2:15 and then go pretty restless when the manager opened the doors but wouldn’t let anyone in until 2:40. We were annoyed but if everything closes everyday for siesta time, I’m not sure why the locals weren’t more prepared for the inconvenience. Anyway we got food, made it back to the hotel, ate on their patio, and decided that we wanted to have a siesta of our own instead of starting our journey to Lille. While eating, we discovered that the code that we got for our room still opened the door to the hotel, and since the showers and toilettes were separate from the rooms, we still had access to them. After scheming about how our code may still open our room, but discovering that it did not, we decided to find a place to camp nearby and use the showers at the hotel for one more night. I worked on the bikes, and Alyssa went to scout a place to camp. She ended up finding a great place right behind the hotel so we set up our tent and returned to the hotel to eat, cut our hair, and shower before going to sleep. The day also included our first flat tire, Alyssa’s rear wheel, which went flat as we were scouting out our camping spot. Alyssa and I quickly fixed it with a patch so we still have two spare tubes. Tomorrow we are finally leaving Meaux…We hope.

Day 19 - Lessons

After waking at the hotel and discovering a deep freezer full of mini baguettes and croissants that we couldn’t resist, we bought groceries for our trip and started off early to Meaux where we would decide to either go to Reims or to Lille on our way to Brussels. It was a hard morning to ride through, and I was irritated with the trailer (one of the lessons of the day) by the time we finished the short five mile ride to Meaux. We found a McDonald’s easily and just as easily found that we weren’t going to Reims since our only contact hadn’t yet responded to our email. After planning our trip, finding bike shops to buy new chains and oil based lube since our chains regularly were producing a gummy excretion that constantly, it seemed, needed cleaned from our derailleurs, and book shops to buy a Michelin map of Belgium, we confidently set off to purchase our supplies and head north to Lille. We made it to the center of Meaux where we realized that it was Sunday. We had again forgotten what day it was and didn’t consider the fact that everything is closed in France on Sundays. Our disappointment subsided and we visited Meaux’s historic cathedral. It had been started in 1170 which was a vaguely important number to Alyssa, and we started off on a new, vaguely planned trip to a large national forest. This is where another lesson was learned. The trailer had been difficult all day long, and after an entire morning of struggling, I was beyond frustrated and decided that my legs could not “break free” with this trailer. Some times cycling is hard and becomes a mental battle. The reward comes when your legs break free - a rhythm develops and it becomes easier. I found no reward today, only a lesson. Although taken for granted until this day, pulling a heavy trailer requires a lot of concentration and synchronization, and a few things were fighting me. First my tire pressure was a bit low. Second, the trailer, while going up hills, constantly bobs and tugs downward canceling forward motion. If pedaling is not planned and smooth, the trailer can almost entirely cancel out any work done while going up-hill. Third, because rhythm is so important while pulling a trailer, your bike has to be in very good working order. My chain developed a kink due to the wax collecting dirt. I probably slightly damaged a link when breaking the chain to bring it on this trip, but it was now accented by the dirt and had become stiff. Therefore it caught on the derailleur and caused a jump in my cadence. It may sound particular but that kink caused a lot of difficulty while taking the trailer up hills since it was most pronounced in my lower “climbing” gears. Anyway, we made it to the next small town outside of Meaux and decided that new chains were necessary and that we wouldn’t go on at the pace we were going. We would spend the night in Meaux. After stopping mid-way up a hill that lead through town that we were not making it up, we ate lunch at a fork in the road. The hill, in actuality, continued for more than a half a mile through the town - over a mile of ascent in total. Our lunch provided another us with another lesson. The croissants that I had put in a bag with a bunch of mini baguettes turned out to be frozen croissant dough which had melted on and covered the baguettes. Baguettes with croissant dough turn out to be pretty good so we laughed about it and ate them anyway. The rest of the day was spent hunting for hotels and camping sites. Eventually a hotel was decided upon but it was outside of Meaux. I have gotten over any regret that I feel about leaving Paris. There was some internal conflict, but Alyssa was right; we needed to leave. Expect more on Paris though. It was an interesting and difficult city.

Day 18 - “Let’s just get our of this dead horse.”

It took a while but by 1:30 we were on our way out of Paris. We followed a canal east. The canal was promised to take us to Reims which is not pronounced how you would probably think it is. We made it about 20 miles and the canal path turned to hard-packed dirt and gravel. Also, it was getting about the time to think about a camping spot. Big plans were made for a canal side salon to form so that we could make practical and stylish the hair that we have grown since leaving, but as usual our plans went astray. Our chains have been lubricated by wax on this trip. I’ve been a big fan as it last longer than oil-based and seems to initially work better. Dirt is a waxed chains Achilles heel, and despite being recently cleaned, they were soon loud and kinky. The chains become a bigger deal later on in this saga. After finding and pillaging an onion field, we heard rumor of a camp ground and decided to race the sun in order to get to it. The camp ground turned out to not only be our of our way but also full. We returned to some promising woods but were discouraged by what at least looked like poison ivy in the failing light and other dense undergrowth, so made our target a cheap hotel that was promised to be a few towns away. We made it just as the lobby was closing and got a room. The days travels had resulted in 40 miles and a resolution to leave the dusty canal trail for good the next day.

Day 17 - One more time…

We meant to leave, but we ended up staying. We found a hotel, but we called Florence and asked to stay instead. We also meant to be tourist one more day, but we just took advantage of the book store at the Pompidou instead. We meant to make spaghetti, but we got drunk and ate the food that Nico’s Grandmother used to make instead. Florence was still out of town, but continues to be incredibly hospitable and let us stay. I can’t see how the permanent collection at the Pompidou can compare to their bookstore even though we never saw the collection. Nico has new couch surfers after all, and my watch, which we asked Nico to look for at his place many times, was in my bag all along. Tomorrow we will leave Paris.

Day 16 - Expectations

Today was monopolized by the Louve. After breakfasting and cleaning up, we immediately set out for the Louve which turned out to be our sole destination for the day. I’m not even sure what to say about the Louve; our experience with it was that after an unknown number of hours we were exhausted with looking at art, but there were stages that may help to illustrate how we felt about it. First, we were very impressed with the size and the works and the layout...basically everything. After a few hours our thoughts, which you would catch once and while and would chuckle to yourself about, turned into, “Oh, that’s just another Rembrandt; And there’s some more painting from the 14th century; Ok, another room of paintings that are more than 50 feet long.” The size is equally as unbelievable. I promised myself that I would at least notice each work that I encountered without just walking by in order to get to a different room, but that was impossible. There is way, WAY too much to see in any one day. I’m positive that even with our brisk pace and eventually disregard for rooms that didn’t have the most notable works, we still maybe walked through a third of the museum. The most notable part of the day was when we realized that we only had an hour left and decided to see the Mona Lisa. It was ridiculous. The crowd, which was bearable all day long, steadily thickens to an annoying, impolite climax around the Mona Lisa. The painting is, after looking at paintings all day long, unremarkable and there are hundreds of people crowded around it taking pictures of it with a sea of multicolored hair as the foreground. It is absurd and wondered if “the most famous painting” was just a title created to keep most of the Louve’s crowd contained in a small area. After the Louve, where we walked around until well after closing when they barricaded us toward the exit, we went to the south of Paris in hopes of visiting the catacombs so instead settled for a photo tour of the “Rue de la Sexy.” Here we found no exciting postcards. The French take their sexy stores pretty seriously it turns out, and have no time for novelty items.

***temporary posting**** the sequell

We are poised to leave Paris tomorrow. Our postings have been sans-photo proof of our activities because of the low bandwidth of the McDonalds Wi-Fi Gratuit. We apologize and will update them with photos -as well as include a link to photobucket where all the photos we've taken will be posted - just as soon as we can get our hands on some decent internet. Also Brussels is about 189 miles so it will be a few days. We plan to have a much more leisurely cycling trip, however, since we have realized that rushing to make it to a city before night fall sucks, and we still have over a month to see Europe. Wish us luck!

Day 15 - Two Birds

Today was started as a stressful day. It was moving day for our little traveling caravan, and we were not ready. Moving day may not seem to be a big deal as we haven’t mentioned it much, but it consists of us carrying all of our possessions downstairs, which usually takes about three to four large trips, re-packing and re assembling the trailer, finding our new place, and traveling across the city with the trailer, and this morning we did not have a new host. Our host, Florence, was poised to leave town on a bike trip to visit her parents second house in Normandy. We were invited, but Normandy is in the opposite direction from Brussels, and it is too soon for a departure from Paris. As usual, on days of import or that require action, we woke late. We didn’t wake up until 10:30 which isn’t bad for us, but our host had been up since 7:00 - a weird position to be in when her apartment is a one room flat where we sleep on a couch that folds out into a bed three feet from her’s. Anyway we woke up, began to pack our things, and begin our exodus which first required a trip to McDonalds to see if anyone wanted to host us when two great things happened: first, Florence made us some breakfast for the second day in the row; and second, she announced that she planned to leave this evening to see her boyfriend who she had hoped to see last night, since he just returned from holiday, but that we were welcome to stay the night and that she would be leaving tomorrow morning for her parents AND that we could just leave the key in the apartment when we left tomorrow or even just stay the next night as well. Florence has gone beyond being hospitable. For me, I almost feel guilty allowing myself to do what she invites us to do because it seems too generous. Needless to say, our day started off much better than we assumed, and we left Florence’s place with plans to visit the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, and Musee de Pompidou instead of being encumbered with our luggage.

Speaking of our luggage, we have been contemplating shipping some extras home, but really have no clue what we don’t need. The reason for wanting to do so is that it is so cumbersome to move into someone’s place, and the trailer is so difficult to manage on hills of any notable size; however, we have no idea what to send home except some t-shirts and a pair of pants which seem hardly worth the effort. All this said, the trailer, in some ways, was a great idea that allowed us to find great-inexpensive bikes to bring, but it is far from ideal.

So we began another day as tourists. Today was hot and sunny in Paris; we made it to the Arc de Triumph where I already needed sunblock. The arc is bigger than we both thought, but, other than its notable size, was pretty unremarkable so we headed down the Champs Elysees toward Notre Dame where it was pre-decided to climb to the top of the bell towers in order to take some photos of the city as well as to see the upper levels of the cathedral. The cathedral was exceptionally crowded and was not nearly as impressive as the comparatively desolate cathedral in Amiens, but we waited in line and made our way inside only to find that the interior was also upstaged by its names-sake in the north. After bustling through crowds we returned outside, found and ate lunch, which included espresso ice-cream, on a park on an island in the middle of the Seine. We then attempted to visit the Pompidou museum of modern art only to find that what was promised to be free to us was only free if we were EU citizens, in our case it was 8 euro each. The bookstore sufficed after this discovery and was in fact quite impressive. With our planned day coming to an end, we decided to re-visit Notre Dame after having found money with which we could, in the usual Catholic fashion, use to buy our ascension. We were too late. The towers were closed. Alas, we went back to Florence’s.

After buying groceries for the nights dinner which included french-fry BALLS and lots of cheap wine, we arrived at Florence’s door and heard something that stopped us dead in our tracks which were predestined to lead us inside. Florence was home, and Sex in the City was played loudly from inside. Florence, if you will remember, was supposed to be at her bofriend’s for a rendezvous after he had been on holiday for a while. Were didn’t know what to do. Do we open the door and risk interrupting what Florence wasn’t’ able to do last night because of her boyfriends work schedule? We risked it and found that Florence was in fact home alone and her boyfriend was still at work which was not ok with Florence. She was again upset and feeling stood up. So we offered our wine and company as a distraction which she matched with wine of her own and a quiche with French goat’s cheese. Although we had had a very similar concoction the night before, we were grateful and talked with Florence about France, America, and their people for quite a while until she left for her parents empty apartment in the city from where she planned to start her journey toward Normandy to meet them. We may not see Florence again since she won’t return until Friday which is looking more and more like the date for our exodus from the city, but Florence said that she was happy that we were around which made me feel much better about her overwhelming hospitality. Not long after that, probably due to the cheap wine that we had bought, Alyssa and I fell asleep.

Day 14 - Crepe-ity, Crap, Crap, Cra.

Today we woke up and went to the Musee de Tokyo (modern art). Personally I thought it was terrible. The permanent collection was boring, and I thought the actual museum was crap and not well kept. Not everything was bad, but overall I’ve just seen better museums. Maybe I was just hungry? Speaking of being hungry, we bought crepes, peaches, ricotta cheese, and rice pudding for lunch. Delish. We went to the Louvre Gardens to assemble our crepes, and it was very nice. While sitting in the park we watched the pigeons and saw a couple rats playing in the bushes. The Louvre is huge! I didn’t realize how big it was. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays so we didn’t get to visit inside it yet. On the way back to the loft, we went by the Moulin Rouge and all the sex stores again and took some photos. For dinner we made a quiche-like dish with potatoes, onion, egg, and cheese with our left over crepes! YUM again! That evening we talked to Florence some more. She was supposed to see her boyfriend, but wasn’t going to be able to anymore because he was stuck at work. She talked to us about her boyfriend problems… I decided we should go out for a drink. I also had wanted to take photos of all the flashy sexy time stores. The bar she took us to was kind of cool. It is open from 8pm to 8am. We bought some ridiculously expensive drinks there. Like a gin and tonic, cranberry vodka, and a shot of rum was 22€. Oh my god and the drinks kind of sucked. Not strong at all and small, I think the kid bartender fucked us. We bought the first round and Florence bought the second round. She convinced us to try a shot of flavored run. They add banana or vanilla or ginger to a bottle of rum with sugar. I got vanilla which is what Florence was drinking and David got ginger. It was pretty good. Nothing like what we have in the states. We came back a little drunk and went to sleep!

One of the things we forgot to write about was that, after camping, I had a couple ticks. Apparently I attract ticks and David gets poison ivy. Fun. I found one on my leg the first evening in the hotel in Amiens. I then found one on my arm the next day at the grocery store. After that we decided that we need to groom each other like monkeys which is exactly what we did! David found another on my back immediately. He then tried to use the trick that he dad taught him which is to heat up a pair of tweezers and pull it out. It might of worked really well, but I flinched and it "exploded" as David said. There was actually even a pop. Gross. Then he had to get the rest out of my back with the tweezers, which he let cool, and a needle.

Day 13 - Pickles at Last!

We had to leave Nico’s loft today but not until early afternoon. So we slept in a bit and then figured out how to get to the next place we were staying. Our next host was Florence. David found her on Warmshowers.com which is a website for cyclists to find warm showers on the road of course! Of course we got lost on the way there too! We spent most of the day moving and figuring out how to find her place. Florence was super nice and immediately inviting. We went upstairs and she gave us water, talked to us a bit about our travels, and gave us some maps of Paris. She was very helpful and we were very appreciative of her letting us stay. Her loft is really cute. One room and a bathroom with a balcony. She lives by herself but has a boyfriend. We left after a bit and found our way to the Eiffel Tower. I thought it was kind of cool and not that tacky like David thinks. There were a lot of people but we found a spot of grass to eat our victory jar of pickles! On the way to the Tower we passes a McDonalds on every corner. Whenever we need a McDonalds there isn’t one. When we’re lost, there isn’t one to be found. Ridiculous. Also on the way to the Eiffel Tower we passed the Moulin Rouge and David misses it so we have to go back - or maybe just did because we got a little lost again... That evening we made penne pasta in an oil sauce with spinach, basil, onion, garlic, and tomatoes. YUM!

Day 12 - Floof me!

Today we woke up with our legs feeling pretty tired. We got ready and Nico took us to the open market that happens ever Sunday down a couple blocks from his place. Speaking of Sunday… we had no idea today was Sunday. Somehow we missed a day. In the message we sent Nico the day earlier we even mentioned that we would be arriving a day earlier than expected. Apparently not though. The market was cool, and we bought some fresh veggies to make Nico and his flat mates pizza this evening. The reward for making it to Paris in one day was supposed to be pickles and cheap champagne. We found cheap champagne but not too many pickles unfortunately. Its unbelievable the lack of pickle selection. Victor always talked about how the Pols brought all the good stuff to London and this side of Europe and I’m starting to believe him.

We’re pretty much just sitting around the flat trying to find another couch to surf for the rest of the week. Nico wasn’t sure if we were coming so he let other surfers stay with him the rest of the week so we need to leave tomorrow… Mostly we are being lazy today because of the amount of miles we rode yesterday. We met Nico’s flat mates and ate lunch with them. Very nice people! We discussed how crazy we were for cycling and how we should meet up with them when they are in Cleveland. We offered to go up to visit and/or to bring them down to Columbus with us. Nico mentioned wanting to see a typical “American University”, plastic red cups and all. We said Ohio State would be a great place to visit if he wanted to see typical and trashy.

At the end of the evening we ate our pizza, that was pretty good but different than how we usually make it, and we went out on a night ride. Nico and Toma were taking photographs for a video they are working on so we went along for the ride. And we finally drank our cheap champagne!