Pictures from Waikiki

Kay and I are here in Hawaii finding our aloha spirit and spending quality time together far from the demands of the home front. Aloha everyone!

European Bike Tour of 2013: The Complete Photo Journal

During the summer of 2013, nine friends and friends of friends, five from the UK and four from the US which includes me, did a self supported bicycle tour along the Eurovelo 6 route through France and Germany with short jaunts into Switzerland, traveling about 1,400 miles with major segments alongside three of Europe's largest rivers; the Loire, the Rhine and the Danube. The Eurovelo 6 route, which travels from Nantes, France near the Atlantic Ocean to Constanta on the Black Sea, is one of the 14 routes within the European Velo Network created by the European Cyclists’ Federation in 1994. After an overnight ferry across the English Channel from Portsmouth, we started our bicycle tour in St. Malo in northern France on July 16th traveling southward for 3 days until we crossed the Loire River to join the Eurovelo 6 route which travels in a nonlinear but easterly direction alongside countless canals and rivers with short stretches into the adjacent hillsides, where upon we ended in Passau in southern Germany on Aug 19th at the border of Austria. As always, it was a wonderful way to see and experience these countries' food (and drinks), culture, history and natural surroundings. Many thanks to my friends for getting this trip together and for handling all the logistics which included bus shuttles, ferries, trains, cycling schedules, accommodations, and being trail bosses, as such a trip would have been impossible for me without all of them. I divided my photo journal into three groups as represented by each of the three pictures below. To see all of the photographs within each group, click on the link below the pictures.

Portsmouth, UK to Sully Sur Loire, France

From Eurovelo Tour: Portsmouth, UK to Sully Sur Loire, France

Sully Sur Loire, France to Reidlingen, Germany

From Eurovelo Tour: Sully Sur Loire, France to Reidlingen, Germany

Reidlingen, Germany to Market Harborough, UK

From Eurovelo Tour: Reidlingen, Germany to Market Harborough, UK

Home Bound

In the Birmingham International Airport with my last English breakfast which I always enjoy due to the variety of items on the plate: over easy eggs, sausage, thick slice bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, half tomato, and potato paddies. It will be good to be home, but first, I have a three part flight.

Hanging in the UK

Hanging in Market Harborough with Shirl and Lee, and with Veronica in Leicester until my flight home Monday morning. Pictured below, from Veronica, are Scottish Eggs which have chopped hard boiled egg centers surrounded by sausage meat, rolled in crumbs and deep fried. Tasty! Then let there be ice cream in Market Harborough. Thank you so much Shirl and Lee for your hospitality.

Safely Home

After two days of travel, four trains, a train delay, a ferry crossing, and a late evening bus shuttle, seven of us are all back in the comforts of our homes and our wonderful tour of France, a small part of Switzerland, and Germany becomes a memory as we readjust to daily life and all that entails. The adventure for Frank and Eileen continues as they are off to Iceland from Munich for another adventure. Thanks Lee and Adrian for getting us all home. Traveling is also about adjusting as we go since we can't always expect things to go as planned. In the end, we got a few extra hours in Munich and Paris, and we are all safely back home. Job well done and another tour of a lifetime. Pictured below is Lee and the can of tuna he found in his panniers when we got home.  If you ride with Lee, you know there is food around but you have to get it from him.

Sent from my iPhone

Bikes on Trains

Seven bikes and panniers; space is a little tight on the train.

The Road Home

The road home back to the U.K. was not actually smooth. The overnight train was late arriving in Paris so we missed our connecting train. We rescheduled for the mid-afternoon and delayed our ferry crossing. On the positive side, we got to spend a few hours in Paris near the Nord Train Station.