My Travel Route

This map shows the route I took. Red is the part completed in 2007, from Munich to Barcelona, and the green is from Barcelona to Frankfurt.

July 10, Vancouver

Here's how my bike arrived back in Vancouver, all wrapped up like a present. The cargo guys undid the straps and removed the plastic. I connected the battery, started it up and drove home.

July 9, Frankfurt

Well, everything comes to an end. Today I leave to return to Vancouver and the trip to Europe ends. But....maybe not.

Over the past four days I've seen Frankfurt. I moved into a hotel in the center of the old part of town. Great location, nice hotel, but everyone parties all night. The best part of Frankfurt was seeing the Stadel Museum.

Kevin Murphy came to visti from Berline, and we spent a lot of time talking...and eating....and drinking a little beer. We also went to see the Stadel Museum. For me it was the second time, as I had gone just a few days before. But, it was just as good to see it again.

Here's a photo of Kevin, for those who know him.

July 4, Frankfurt

Today I turned over my bike for shipment back to Canada. First I had to burn off fuel since there is supposed to be less than a gallon left in the tank for shipping. I drove up and down the freeway at the airport until it got low enough.

Last night at the hotel I met a couple of guys heading back to Denver, Dave and Rich. We had a few beers and dinner together. If you guys see this can you re-send me your e-mail addresses. I lost the ones that you gave me.

Turning it over was a lot more complicated than receiving it in Munich, and ended up taking most of the afternoon. It was pretty simple, but a lot of papers had to be filled out. So now it is done, and now I wait five days in Frankfurt before heading back to Vancouver.

Okay, one last picture of my bike.

July 3, Frankfurt

Here´s my bike at the hotel at the Frankfurt airport. Tomorrow I turn it over for shipping to Canada.

Last night it started raining, with tremendous thunder and lightning. When I got up in the morning the rain had stopped, but everything was soaked. Being the experienced camper that I am I had left my bike jacket outside to dry out from the trip. So, of course, it was soaking wet. As was my tent when I packed it up.

I got underway pretty early, but not long after starting out it began to rain again, really rain. I could only see one truck length in front of me. Almost all the way from Basel to Frankfurt I drove along with the trucks. This is the last day of my trip, and even though it was raining it didn´t seem too bad. Although I kept thinking about stopping along the way and driving straight to the cargo terminal tomorrow. But, I kept on going and all of a sudden the airport was alongside the road.

July 2, Basel

Leaving Geneva in the morning I followed back roads up along the East side of Lake Leman, through Lusanne, Neuchatel, Biel and Delemont. Most of this drive was pretty slow since the freeway is under construction. At some point the language switched from French over to German, but I was still in Switzerland. Just before Basel I saw a sign for a campground and turned off to stay at the Camping Waldorf. The people who ran the campground were really nice and made me a pizza for dinner.

July 1, Geneva

Today Monica left us to return to Barcelona.

Anamaria and I headed out of Vichy with plans to get as far as Geneva today. On the way out I had the only accident of the whole trip. We were stopped in traffic and all of a sudden I heard a screech of brakes behind me and someone crashed into the back of my bike. Fortunately it wasn´t serious and we were able to carry on.

The trip to Geneva was easy. We drove along the freeway and passing through a tunnel were all of a sudden in the Alps. When we got to Geneva, Anamaria contacted her friend Adriana and we drove to the train station to meet her. The traffic though was incredibly bad and it took a long time to get there. At the train station we separated and I headed up along the east side of Lake Leman to find a campground. Coming out of Geneva was also difficult. It took over two hours to drive through the city and get to the campground. Now, I need to get to Frankfurt in two more days. So, I didn´t even see anything of Geneva. It´s just set up camp, sleep over and pack up in the morning.

One of the great experiences of the day was that we stopped at a little restaurant on the side of the highway for lunch. It was a truckstop and full of truckers having lunch. It turned out to the one of the best lunches we had. It was three courses including a plate of cheese and dessert. The waitress even gave the kids a little present when we left.