tirsdag, november 22, 2005
Leaving Strasbourg
After having tried to write the story of how I left Strasbourg on bike, I have decided not to write the full story. Instead, I'll write a brief summary of the trip, and hopefully come up with a more thourough story later. But not too late, though.
As most people now know, I was one day late when I left Strasbourg on Sunday October 2nd. on this first day, I followed the canal towards Colmar, and had lunch at the train station there. Afterwards, it started raining and I went on to Belfort where I stayed at Grand Hotel. Expensive and nice. The second day, I left for Besancon, had lunch there, and continued to Lons-le-Saunier. At 218 kilometres and eight and a half hours this was the most extensive day on the bicycling seat, but also the nicest one. The scenery was very nice most of the way, and the fog/drizzle gave a nice atmosphere in the hills. The hills also gave the most incredible uphill speeding experience I've ever had; with a draught in my back and the help from an occasional trailer, I effortlessly reached uphill speed at 40-45 km/h! The third day I left Lons-le-Saunier and headed towards Bourg-en-Bresse where I had lunch. I continued riding the highway (Route Nationale 83), and reached Lyon early in the evening and even had time to rest before dinner! The following day, wednesday, I had a day of rest and went sightseeing in Lyon before going by TGV to Perpignan in southern France. Thursday, the weather finally became nice and sunny, and I crossed the border to Spain. I tried to go the easy way and followed the coastline rather than climbing the Pyrenees, but even the Spanish coastline is dominated by hills and so I did a lot of climbing. The climbing, the heat, the lack of target places to eat, being in an even more foreign country (my French had proven sufficient for navigating the French countryside without a map), and a muscular inflammation, kept me from going all the way from Perpignan to Barcelona. So, in order to get one day of sightseeing there, I took the train from Figueres to Barcelona. This made Thursday the shortest leg, at about 110 kilometres. But it gave me rest and Friday off for having a look at Barcelona before leaving for Norway on Saturday.
What I did after I left Barcelona is found in my new blog.
As most people now know, I was one day late when I left Strasbourg on Sunday October 2nd. on this first day, I followed the canal towards Colmar, and had lunch at the train station there. Afterwards, it started raining and I went on to Belfort where I stayed at Grand Hotel. Expensive and nice. The second day, I left for Besancon, had lunch there, and continued to Lons-le-Saunier. At 218 kilometres and eight and a half hours this was the most extensive day on the bicycling seat, but also the nicest one. The scenery was very nice most of the way, and the fog/drizzle gave a nice atmosphere in the hills. The hills also gave the most incredible uphill speeding experience I've ever had; with a draught in my back and the help from an occasional trailer, I effortlessly reached uphill speed at 40-45 km/h! The third day I left Lons-le-Saunier and headed towards Bourg-en-Bresse where I had lunch. I continued riding the highway (Route Nationale 83), and reached Lyon early in the evening and even had time to rest before dinner! The following day, wednesday, I had a day of rest and went sightseeing in Lyon before going by TGV to Perpignan in southern France. Thursday, the weather finally became nice and sunny, and I crossed the border to Spain. I tried to go the easy way and followed the coastline rather than climbing the Pyrenees, but even the Spanish coastline is dominated by hills and so I did a lot of climbing. The climbing, the heat, the lack of target places to eat, being in an even more foreign country (my French had proven sufficient for navigating the French countryside without a map), and a muscular inflammation, kept me from going all the way from Perpignan to Barcelona. So, in order to get one day of sightseeing there, I took the train from Figueres to Barcelona. This made Thursday the shortest leg, at about 110 kilometres. But it gave me rest and Friday off for having a look at Barcelona before leaving for Norway on Saturday.
What I did after I left Barcelona is found in my new blog.
# Skrevet av Asbjørn @ 20:18 
