Paris by bike

The project End January 2009, I am on holiday in Italy. I am reading a book: “Tre uomini in bicicletta” (3 men on a bycicle) where Francesco Altan (58, cartoonist), Emilio Rigatti (47, professor) en Paolo Rumiz (53, journalist) describe their adventures during their cycling tour “Trieste – Istanbul” And I wonder: why 3 men? Why no women? Some ideas come up of doing something similar: Serskamp – Paris by bike. But immediately the questions arise: how far is it? How much km do I need to bike daily? What do I need except of the bike? Once back in Belgium I do some research and ask my Belgian and Italian biker friends. All off them have something interesting to advise me.

Advice from my friends
Silvio

• Even without work out you can do 70 km in a day.
• Remember one thing: do not save on a good pair of gloves and general thermal clothing for biking. “Too cold” doesn’t exist, only “not well equipped” exists...
• As long as it isn’t raining, you will not have any problem, but rain and wind are the biggest enemies of the cyclist (and the cars of course).

Floriano

• If you have trained a bit, you can make 80 km in a day.
• Do you carry your stuff in bike bags? These are ok, but don’t take a back pack: that will stress your shoulders too much. Just take care you can fix them well on your bike and you devide the weight equally on both backs. What do you think of a bag in the front? I have a kind of carrier there... That is ok, but don’t carry too much weight there, it will make hard to turn the handlebars. It is better to put the weight at the back. And of course limit to the strickt necessary stuff.
• Something else: I immagine there will be wind in that region at that time of the year. Keep in mind that cycling agains the wind is like cycling uphill :( . Unnecessary to tell you you need a good rain jacket.
• I don’t know if there is more… in any case, avoid streets with much traffic, but I suppose you already knew.

Ready
Good preparation, bike ok and good advice and I am ready for the adventure. But I need to change my plan: it will be Paris – Serskamp because of overnight problems in Paris.

And so I leave on Febrary 11th with the Thalys to Paris, only 1:20 h. from Brussels to Gare du Nord, more than 300 km. Ik could take my bike with me as I took of the front wheel and put everything in a big bag.

In Paris...
... Silvio and his doughter Galatea are waiting for me. Xenia is not here yet, she will join us the next day. Seeing back my friends is nice and the hospitality of Silvio makes that I can visit Paris. My plan was to stay only 1 night in Paris and to start cycling on Friday. But on Friday morning it is snowing. I decide to delay with one day, so I have an extra day in Paris.

The “Sainte Chapelle”, a double church

La “conciergeri”, this building was a royal palace, than changed into a prison and courthouse.

Notre Dame de Paris

Montmartre

Musée d'Orsay

The museum Rodin

On saturday morning I am ready for "the trip".


I have everything: bicycle, helmet, maps with the road and directions, bags, warm gloves and long, warm winter cycling pants.


I leave Paris by the channel "Ourq", through which the "site scientifique" lies.
The scenery is beautiful but only after some hours of cycling I realise that the direction is not correct and I need to cycle around the airport of Charles de Gaulle to get back in the right direction. When I stop in the evening, I am at the point where I should have started more than 24 hours ago... and I am exhausted.


The next morning I leave with new courage but it is very cold (0°C). And besides the cold, I have another problem: I have not taken anything to eat, as I believe that there would be bars or restaurants along the road to keep up my energy levels. None of it: beautiful landscape with a house now and then but no bar or restaurant.


It's almost 2 o'clock when I arrive in Grèvecoeur, a village in full carnival mood. I'm exhausted and extremely hungry. And even after a hearty meal, I have no strength to continue forward. I decide to look for a place to stay and enjoy the French way of live with some cheese and a good bottle of wine.

The next morning I leave with renewed strength and ... with a supply of food. The landscape is beautiful, occasionally I stop to enjoy it en to take pictures
However, because of the cold, I decide to put me and my bike on the train and to continu by train till Amiens, the city with its beautiful cathedral.




I like the combination bike-train. At the end, nobody can force me to do everything by bike and the trip should stay a pleasure, not a battle. So the next morning a will a travel a part by train.


I am completely relaxed when I reach the Flemish French city Lille/Rijssel ...

Next morning I head to my native city Kortrijk. It rains, but the road is flat and it is only 30km to my aunt's house. She waits for me and has prepared my favourite dish: red cabbage with sausage.
We chat at the fire place and when the sun breaks out in the afternoon I can go on.


I feel at home in this "plat pays” with it roads along the water ways and the Flemish cobble stones.

I reach my friends Piet & Veronique where I need to tell about my adventures of the last days/weeks/months. And of course I can stay there overnight.



Next day I make a detour to see some other friends. I follow as much as possible the roads along the rivers as they are very beautiful.
At sunset I arrive in Wingene at An & Didier's place.
Didier is one of the Flemish cycling friends who has given me practical advise and logistic help to undertake this trip. Of course I need to tell them about my adventures.
Because of the same passion for food and the country, we end up in an Italian restaurant...

The next morning I have a short stop at Geert, as Sabine is not at home. Than I put my bike on the train direction Serskamp.
It has been nice, wonderful experience. But I have some reflections.
My first intention was to cycle from Paris to Serskamp and take the train only in case of emergency. Finally I am glad that I "shortened" the trip with this train-parts. Due to the cold on the first days, I was not enjoying my trip but suffering it. I realised I was not on a contest against nobody, especially not against myself, so it was correct to listen to my body. Once I had taken the decision to take a train I felt much more relaxed and could enjoy the trip. Silvio and Floriano were right: cold is the worst ennemie. Especially my buttock soffered...
Making this trip during winter was not easy. But notwhitstanding the suffering, I would do it again... mayb in warmer times.

The next challange??? I already have some idea...

Technical dates...

• my bike: a completely black "bianchi" (Italian brand) with 21 changes.
  
• I cycled exactly 308 km in 5 days, 61,6 km per day.
  
• Average speed daily was 18,3 km/h
  
• maximumspeed I once reached: 46,6 km/h (downhill with backwind...)

Bye bye Turkey

Sunday 18 January, 6:15 am, flight to Brussels. I’m on it with about 100 kg luggage without paying any supplement. Good bye Antalya. I learned that I can’t get a new working permit until 1 august 2009 so next summer I will work somewhere else.
Monday 19 January: it stopped freezing in Belgium but I’m still cold. I get my new passport and now ID: no problems for the next 5 years.
Tuesday 20 January, Ryanair flight 3745. That means Charleroi – Pisa.
I eat pizza and pasta, drink real good wine, taste extra virgin olive oil, ribollita, salami, raw ham. I eat and eat: lunch with friends, dinner with other friends. In between tea with some more friends. Choir rehearsal. Walking around in Florence to discover that there is something like “design” for clothes. After one year in Turkey I needed this.
One year in Turkey, it has gone so quickly, though there has been periods that were going very slowly.
Making plans for the upcoming next two months: waiting for an answer from Egypt, it’s not coming.
Selda (Turkish friend) let me know that she has got the visa but only for the period of the tourist fair in Brussels. So I will go to work there, but there will be no trip together in Europe.
Reading books: “3 men on a bicycle”. I keep on thinking: why 3 men and no woman? Bicycle. Paris. How far? Could I do it with my bike? I ask some advise at expert friends how to go by bike to Paris. This time no fast train or plane.
Next summer destination? A riddle. Probably it will be resolved in about 3 weeks. Hopefully it will be with the same coast manager I had last summer, at least that’s my preferred “destination”.
Next summer is still far away. First I need to enjoy this holiday before I floats away.
Someone has some suggestions?

I have to go...

Yes, really, I have to go. I feel it like this: I HAVE to go.
It’s one year now I live in Turkey, and as you might remember, not everything has always been ok. At the end of the first six months I lived in Istanbul, I really wanted to go back to Europe.
But than I came to Kemer and slowly I started to accept Turkey and it’s people, and I started to live my life again. Kemer is beautiful and here I have found a real good job with a fantastic manager, lovely colleagues and very nice people in the hotels I was working for.
And now… I really feel sorry I have to leave Turkey. I might see back my colleagues and manager in another country, but my Turkish friends… I don’t know.
Since a couple of days I know that I can’t come back to work in Turkey before August 2009. Foreigners may only work for 6 months in one year in Turkey. My working permit started at the beginning of August 2008 and expires the 18 of January 2009. So I cannot come back to work before beginning of August 2009.
I will miss Nermin, Selda, Kerem, Maria, Sinan, Selami, Zeynep, Hüssein, Elmira and many many others.

But one day I will come back to say hello to those people that made me feel at home in Turkey

Kemer and its surroundings

The Christmas tree has disappeared!

6 December, Saint Nicolaus (the real Santa Claus!). Although the good man Agios Nikolaos was originally Turkish (from Myra, about 110 km from Kemer), there are no signs of him. Of course, we are in a muslim country…
In the meantime a Christmas tree had appeared in the restaurant of my hotel, complete with presents and… Easter bells. One can not have everything in life.

The day after a second tree was built up in the entrance hall of the hotel, this time with real Christmas balls and garlands.
I was about to make a picture of it but what happened… since yesterday the Christmas trees have disappeared. Nobody knows where they are. When I ask explanation at the reception they just say “I don’t know, it is gone”.

Probably it has to do with Bayram that is celebrated about 70 days after Ramadan and during which a sheep is sacrificed. I wonder if they will slaughter on the street like immigrants sometimes try to do or if they will go to the butchery. It doesn’t matter, I just hope I will get some sheep meat as I had enough of chicken, the rund meat a bit tasteless and pork meat completely absent.

And further… I only had 12 guests last week, not much, till 2 pm it’s still hot, up to 25° C, but it gets cooler and dark at 5 pm. I stay here until January 18th (end of the working permit), and afterwards… it will be a surprise…

Looking for a job.

No, I didn't leave Thomas Cook, neithber they licensed me.
But I'm a bit unhappy with the stand-by situation for the second winter half (15 January – end March). It means I don't know where I will go to, even not when. I could be 16th January but also a month later or... even nothing.
I need to be available so I can't go abroad.

Therefor I'm thinking of getting a non-actief position for that period: I will not be working for Thomas Cook and I'm free to do what I want: travelling, working, nothing,...

If someone has some idea for holiday, (temporarily) job,... please let me know. So I might finally go back to Italy or go to Egypt. Or go to Slovenia (It's years I have an invitation to go there.....) or who knows, maybe I can go to see a friend in Canada....
All advise is welcome... and I will inform you on my decision.

Winter in Kemer...

Hmmm, big changes here.

Of course it's not a real winter: temperature during the day is almost 30°, only the evenings are cooler or even cold.

But it's winter season in tourism, and you can feel it.

A lot of souvenir shops are closed, the others have discount and fix prices.

Some hotels are closing down. That's somehow sad, especially for the last guests. No lights in the lobby, no animation, no music, cold water in the swimming pool and every day left overs on the buffet. These are the main complaints of the guests.

I went to say goodbye to the people at the reception desk or guest relations, to the security personal. Sad situation: most of them will not have a job during winter. And next year: they will work in the same hotel or in another one...

Also our little office in Kemer is deserted: no cleaning woman anymore, less drivers jump in to say hello and the Russian hosts living upstairs all have left.
Peri has left to and of course he has taken away all the pictures and announcements from the walls: it looks sad and empty.
Only Risa and Korhan are still working, but rather quiet.

Today I visited my “new” hotels in Antalya: my goodness, great things. Sheraton Voyager, finally a “real” 5 star hotel, and Hillside Su: every thing in and outside is white. I had to keep on my sunglasses as it was blinking too much.
I hope that I will have good contacts there.

Even our guests have changed: they seem to have I higher economical level, and we have a lot of grandparents with grandchildren. And some are here for a longer period: a couple of weeks or even months, to avoid the cold time at home.

And maybe I have to move to, to the “big city”. But I'm not sure that I want it: here in Kemer it's green and quite. Maybe also a little bit dead. There is defenetively much more to do in Antalya. But it is more chaotic and I don't know if I am already ready for it. But of course it is not like in Istanbul.

You see, I'm a bit nostalgic to the summer, the heat, the work and many guests, my manager and colleagues. But winters here are much shorter than in Europe, so everything will go quickly...