In this final instalment of my European trip I try to strike a balance between enjoying the journey and making a dash for home before the truly awful weather sweeping up through Europe catches up with me. My previous posts are in no way necessary for you to enjoy this one, but if you are curious about the first eight days of my solo trip you can read about them in my previous posts.
A Scenic Route to Switzerland - Riding in the French Ardennes, Vosges Mountains and The Black Forest
Day 10 - Sunday
242 miles
Kressbronn (Germany) - Freyming-Merlebach (France)
As I was going to bed last night my neighbour was throwing stuff around in his tent, clearly looking for something - most of what I could hear being thrown around sounded like empty drinks cans. When he stood up with a fresh can he swayed on the spot - and when he looked at me and nodded my first thought was ‘That’s not just alcohol, he’s on something’. I didn’t think much of it and went to bed. He was up and about most of the night. Crashing around looking for and opening one beer can after another. He's also got a chesty cough that keeps booming out. It goes on most of the night, I checked the time on one occasion I heard a can opening and it was gone 4am!
I sleep badly with all the noise from next door. By 7am there's a steady stream of people walking past my tent, most of them in flip flops which are clapping away. Oh, and there's a dog opposite that barks at anything that moves. It's not even 7:30 before I give up, and get up. My cooking stuff never came out the panniers last night so I’ll get some breakfast on the road. I'm ready to move on from here. At least the sun is up and it's warm again.
I’m in no rush but I do need to be heading back towards Calais now if I want to avoid big days later. I head west first and arrive in Triberg for a late morning café stop. I visited here last year but it was chucking it down and was like a ghost town. This year it is a lot busier when I stop and I spend while to walk around the town with a takeaway coffee before getting back on the bike. I have to laugh at the sign in the public toilets telling us how to use them, there is no denying they are a lot cleaner than the usual grimy affairs we get in the UK though, so maybe it's having the desired effect.
From Triberg I follow the B500 north, same as last year but in much nicer weather and I take in a few of the smaller roads snaking their way through the stunning Black Forest. The weather is starting to set in now though, the low cloud and mist doesn't lend itself to photography.
I’m following the satnav towards a campsite in France when I arrive at the German-French border, only to discover there is no bridge! I cross the river Rhein on a small, free, car ferry which is a novelty and am soon on some long straight roads. I like riding in France but after the last few days in the mountains these soon get monotonous.
I arrive at the campsite to find all the gates locked and no way in. It’s just gone 6pm and it’s a Sunday! I start wondering if I am going to have a problem finding somewhere to stay, I've never had a problem in France before but this is later than I usually stop. On top of this I haven’t seen an open supermarket today so I don’t have much with me to cook when I do find somewhere for the night. I'm considering my options outside the closed campsite when it starts raining and the doubts really start to set in.
I get going again and head towards Sarreguemines, it's a bigger town so I figure I have a better chance of finding somewhere to stay. As I join the ring road I spot a Burger King - not really why I am in France, but it's open so it’ll do for today.
Turns out 20 minutes in a warm restaurant with a hot burger and chips (and a cold chocolate milkshake) is exactly what I need to regroup and think about my options. It’s raining properly now and I don’t fancy setting up camp in this. I have a look on Google and find an F1 Hotel. These are France's cheap and cheerful version of a Travelodge. Another half hour’s riding and I book a room - €31 for a room and another €6 for an ensuite. I pay the extra and go through to my room. It’s right at the back of the hotel and on the ground floor - when I open the window my bike is right outside. I leave the window open, walk round and pass all my luggage in through the window to save me trekking back and forth through the hotel. My kit is designed to be strapped on a bike, not carried by hand and it’s a pain to do this is a result.
The sun is out now, typical - but my room is clean and warm so I hang my wet gear up and have a shower. Between the noise last night and the long day today I’m knackered so after a call home to check in with my Dad, and to tell him I'll be home in a couple of days, I read for a bit and am in bed by 9pm.
Day 11 - Monday
189 miles
Freyming-Merlebach (France) - Namur (Belgium)
There is some really heavy rain overnight and I’m glad I’m not in a tent. I have plenty of time to get to Calais still so I have a lie in and despite not having to pack all my camping stuff away it’s 10:15 before I set off for the day. I feel a lot better after a good nights sleep but it’s raining from the start. After a few miles the rain gets so heavy I consider heading straight for Calais but it does come and go a bit so I stick to the ‘plan’ and go north into Luxembourg.
I’ve never been to Luxembourg before and I’ve heard great things about it. It’s not raining as I cross the border into the 8th different country of this trip. The tarmac is perfect, the roads are full of sweeping bends and, on the occasion I can see through the rain, the scenery looks stunning. Sorry - there aren’t many pictures because my phone is buried under my waterproofs all day.
I stop in Vianden and get some snaps of the castle before deciding it really is time to start heading for Calais. I plug it into my satnav (avoid motorways and tolls) and start riding west. The roads continue to deliver, right up until I cross the border into Belgium (that’s country number 9) - the tarmac stops in a perfectly straight line at the border and it’s like being back in the UK. Potholes, loose gravel and badly done patches everywhere. I keep going for a while but the rain is getting ridiculous now and, despite my waterproofs being very good and having worked this far I can start to feel the water getting in. I pull into a farm yard and shelter in an open sided barn to decide what’s next.
If I get on the motorway I can be in Calais in 3.5hrs. Decision made - I’ve had enough of this rain, it’s time to go home! I wont get there today but I set off and join the motorway. If I can get to within 3hrs of Calais today I’ll find a hotel for tonight. I can then look at my options again in the morning, but I’m pretty well decided I’m going to try and go home tomorrow, even though my booking isn’t until the day after.
I find a hotel on the outskirts of Namur in Belgium. It’s more expensive than last night but what a dump! My room is clean enough but the sheets are worn so thin they have holes in them. I don’t have an ensuite and decide to skip the shower when I look at the facilities - yuk! This is the other side unplanned travel, sometimes you just have to take what you can get, especially on a budget that prevents heading for the nicer hotels. Traveling solo means that there is nobody to laugh about the situation with but, on the plus side, there is nobody to moan at me for landing us here either!
I spend the evening in my room, finish the book I have been reading and get another early night. I’ll get going early tomorrow and find a café to stop in for breakfast - that way I can use their toilets instead of the ones in this hotel. I'm not usually that fussy, but yes, these really are that bad! Hopefully by this time tomorrow I’ll be able to use my own shower and sleep in my own bed.
Day 12 - Tuesday
222 miles
Namur (Belguim) - Hailsham (UK)
It’s not actually raining when I get up but the forecast tells me it’s only a matter of time. I’ve made my mind up - it’s time to go home. I’m on the road by 8:30 so I could be in Calais by 11. I do an hour on the motorway before starting to get desperate for fuel. I haven't seen a service station yet and there doesn't appear to be any indication on the Belgian motorways of where the next one is! I leave the motorway in search of some in a town, the first two stations I find have closed down but I finally manage to fill up at the third one - phew!
As I am riding back towards the motorway I come across the Pont-canal du Sart (Sart Canal Bridge). It’s an aqueduct on a scale I haven’t seen before, there is a roundabout and road system underneath the canal! It isn’t raining at the moment so I leave the bike and have a walk up to the towpath, take a few pictures and watch some of the traffic pass over it. It’s nice to have an unexpected find like this on the last day, it breaks things up a bit.
Back on the motorway I just keep going until I am about five miles from the LeShuttle terminal. Now back in France the service stations are regular and well sign posted. I don’t need petrol again but I fill up so I'll have enough to get home without stopping once I'm back in the UK. I take the opportunity to transfer my passport and credit card into an easily accessible pocket. Right, time to see if they let me use my ticket a full day in advance…
I pull up to the machine at the terminal and put my credit card in - they use the card you used to pay for the crossing to identify your booking. I get my card back with the message that no booking is found. Not entirely unexpected so I move over to a manned check in desk. I give the guy my registration number and he can’t find any booking, I explain I’m a day early but I’m wet, cold and just want to go home.
'The weather is no better over there mate.' he informs me.
My response of 'But I wont be sleeping in a tent when I get home!' makes him laugh and he has another look at his computer.
He’s able to find my booking using the reference number I was emailed. The maximum I can transfer it by is 24hrs so I'll have to wait until the 13:15 crossing, that's only just over an hour so I take it. There’s a difference in price and an admin fee to pay, but the €32 he asks for sounds like a bargain to me right now! It would cost me more than that to stay in Calais tonight and now I’m here I really want to get home.
I kill half hour or so in the terminal block before riding through to the collecting area for boarding the train. Like most of the other riders here, I keep all of my gear on because it's raining again. We seem to spend a long time out in the elements before boarding the train. Once on board I chat to some other riders, but it’s a subdued carriage, everyone is wet and tired and looking forward to getting home. I’m not the only one leaving France earlier than originally planned either.
Once I'm off the tunnel I’m glad I don’t have to stop on the way home. It's not a bad run for me, I just need to readjust to riding on the left and avoiding the potholes, this is an easy time to switch off and make a silly mistake. I guess I had some practice with the potholes in Belgium yesterday.
I get home just after 3pm and wheel the bike into the garage. I’ll unload it tomorrow but today I want a shower and a proper cup of tea!
I’ve done 1895 miles through nine different countries in 12 days, seen some fantastic places and ridden on some of the best roads in I've ever been on. I've finished on a but of a downer though, the last couple of days have been difficult with the weather but that’s always a risk at this time of year. In truth the weather has had an impact on the trip as a whole, one of my favourite things about traveling solo is the people you meet on the way round. Mountain passes and campsites are gathering places for people with common interests but all sorts of very different stories to tell. However this time it was cold and wet a lot of the time and when I’m sheltering from the rain and wind in my tent I don’t meet anyone. I’d often stop at the top of a mountain to admire the view and take a few photos but I wouldn’t hang around in the cold, everyone else was in more of a rush as well. Riding in the rain isn’t fun but I can put up with that in moderation. The social aspect of traveling on my own is what I have missed the most this time. It’s been another great trip, but unlike this time last year I am glad to be home.
Over the following few days I unload the bike, get my tent out to clean and dry it properly and do my washing. By the weekend everything is put away and ready for next time but I don't feel the buzz I've come back with in the past.
Before putting the panniers away I added a few stickers to the back. I've never been one for doing this before but I did buy a few on this trip - after sticking them on I decide to look online and see if I can get the ones I am missing. I'm convinced it isn't cheating because I'm only buying them for places I actually visited! While I'm at it I look at the ones from last year as well - still not cheating! Once they are all in my basket they add up to over £100! I leave them there and decide the collection can start from now on, it wont seem as bad if I buy them as I go!
The final part of this trip comes almost 5 weeks later when I am dropping my Gran off at home after a doctors appointment. There, lying on the doormat, is the postcard I sent from the Stelvio Pass. I check the date, it took six weeks to the day to arrive! Now that I am warm and dry I can reminisce about some of the better parts of the trip and, by the time I get home that evening, I'm thinking about where I am going next summer - looks like I'll have something to tell you about next year after all. Thanks for reading...
The Route
And here it is - the complete route tracked on my phone from my 12 day trip through
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