Big Ben' s Bike Blog

Day 20; back home Today 115 km home, crossing 4 major rivers. The recent flooding in Belgium and Germany made the water level very high for this time of the year. Normally we would have used little ferries, some of them were out of service now due to the high water. We had only one ferry, after 20 km over the river Maas. On board 2 huge tractors with grass cutters to be taken across. The ferry had major problems having these two vehicles on board, the skipper started manoeuvring them in a favourable position and at one point the deck of the ferry subsided with a serious amount of water. A Belgium car driver was so scared by this that he reversed his car in and swiftly drove off the ferry to take a bridge further down. We trusted the skipper and safely arrived at the other side of the river.  We had coffee and cake at a trout farm and crossed the last 3 rivers by bridge. The day was uneventful but pleasant with a good average speed of 25.3 km with a slight headwind. For a moment we ...

  Day 19; cycling from Belgium to Holland Today was the best breakfast so far, amazing place this NH hotel. It was a National Holiday in Belgium and the papers were speculating whether or not the King was in a divorce because his wife was not at the ceremony. I think she was bored stiff with ceremonies, I wouldn’t go either if I was spouse to the King. Leaving a big city is not the best part of a cycling trip, after 15 km we were once again on a towpath that led us out of Antwerpen. We crossed the border at 40 km and had a light lunch just over the border in Holland. Today was a short etappe and we decided to push on to ‘s Hertogenbosch at 100km. Ben was moaning because the wind was in front again, Esther told him to shut up and stop talking about the wind on a beautiful day. Front wind is now described as the weather condition that shall not be named. ‘s Hertogenbosch was set on the agenda because it has the only serieus  Cathedral in the Netherlands. We looked at it and...

  Day 12; Exploring Paris. The Versailles railway station is in front of our hotel. It is a beautiful fin du siècle railway station, a pleasure to get on the train. Ben pushed Es in the only train that was departing at the very moment we arrived at the platform, leading to some marital tension because we were not sure at all where this train was heading anyway. The train and the marriage were heading in the right direction so we arrived in time at the Picasso Museum for an exhibition on Picasso and Rodin. After the exhibition we made a long walk through the city. Place des Vosges with a light lunch, coffee at the Centre Pompidou, a very interesting explanation about the repairs on the Norte Dame, the Sorbonne, the Pantheon and finally the Gardins de Luxembourg. We took the train back to Versailles at the Boulevard St Michel and ended a very enjoyable day at an Indian restaurant. Time for bed now, tomorrow 102 km to Beauvais.

  Day 11; Mousse au Bloc de Frein  75 km Chartres 09.00 with some drizzle. Within a few miles we were outside town heading for Versailles. In Rambouillet the drizzle changed to more serious rain and we took refuge in a restaurant. On the table next to us were other refugees, a German family who were on their way to the Atlantic coast. These cyclists looked so smart and clean that the rest of the day we were discussing how on earth they managed to look like that in these conditions. After our usual caffe creme we decided to get going, the beauty contest was already lost to these Germans and we’ d better show them what a real cyclist was up to. By now the rain was pouring from the sky. Before Versailles there were two short climbs and descents; Ben had more and more trouble using the brakes in the rain. When we arrived in Versailles there was no braking left and inspection at the hotel learned that the shimano brake pads had completely disappeared and changed into a substanc...

  Day 10; Orleans- Chartres in the rain, 75 km Especially elderly French give us thumbs up all day. I guess we are the reminder of long forgotten times when the tandem was popular in France. France had some famous tandem builders like Rene Herse, but also Peugeot, Gitane and Look had a tradition of building nice tandems. Cyfac in the Bourgogne still makes some very nice tandems…. In the ENFB magazine in Holland (an organisation that promotes cycling, and has fully jumped on the electric bike) recently stated that not many tandems would be sold now the man who wants to cycle with his wife buys her an electric bike. They could not be further off the truth; tandeming is a team effort as riding after your hubby on one of these accu bikes is making the wife a lesser part of evolution. So far on emancipation and tandems. We woke up to the familiar sound of raindrops on our Orleans roof. Breakfast was provided from a local bakery with a broken down oven, it was an excellent excuse ...