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.

June 30, Vichy

Gouffre de Padirac was well worth it. After packing up in the morning we went to the caves and took a tour. At first you ride down an elevator into this huge hole in the ground. At the bottom you walk a ways through the caves until there is a boat landing. From there you ride in a boat over an underground river with a guide explaining everything (in French). At the end there is another walk and then back to the boats for the return. It´s sort of Dysneylandyish, you almost expect to see rails under the boat. But, it was very beautiful and interesting both for us and the kids.

We drove on through the day, making our way towards Vichy. Everyone was tired and it took awhile to find a campground. Eventually we found on, right on the side of the river and so full of mosquitos. This is to be our last night together, as Monica is going to return to Barcelona tomorrow.

June 29, Gouffre de Padirac

We´re getting pretty good at packing up and leaving. Today we got up fairly early, packed and left. We drove along the Lot river towards Cahors. Along the way we stopped at a winery to do some wine tasting and ended up buying some wine. We turned off for the Gouffre de Padirac. This is an underground cave complex, which when we got there was closed. So we decided to camp nearby so we could see it in the morning. The campground was another great one. It had a huge playground for the kids, and an even bigger tv screen to watch the soccer game between Spain and Germany (Spain won!!)

June 28, France

So, now we´re crossing France. I have to get to Franfurt by July 3 to turn over my bike and Anamaria has to get to Geneva by July 1. We´re going to travel together to Geneva. Today we just drove, with a couple of rest breaks. We´re not making a lot of distance but it takes us a while to get anywhere. We stopped at one town with intentions of staying in the municipal campground, but after looking all over for it we found it was closed. Continuing on we just looked for a sign indicating a campground along the road. We saw one and turned off and the road wound back the way we had come for what seemed like a long time. But finally we found the place which was right on the side of an old boat canal that follows the river Garonne. There were three boats tied up there, two of them from England. And next to us in the campground was a couple from France who were making a bike trip along the canal and were going to meet up with a couple from Canada the next day. All of us had dinner together in the little restaurant at the campground.

June 27, France!!

So, we just came across the border and all of a sudden everyone speaks a different language. We left Laredo after spending the day on the beach. Well not me, but Anamaria, Monica and the kids did. We only drove a short distance into France and stopped at another beautiful campground. We went down to the beach to watch the sunset and Niko throwing half the stones on the beach into the water.

And here´s a picture of the gypsie camp. We´ve gotten pretty good at setting up and tearing down.

June 26, Laredo

This morning it was sote of drizzling, so we decided to go in to Bilbao and see the Guggenheim Museum. This was not a real good venue for the kids, but we managed to look around quite a bit and it was pretty impressive.

In the evening we did a barbecue of fish and squid. Everything was going great until the clouds built up and it started to rain. Not just rain, but pour, with thunder and lightning. We ate under the little tarp that I had, but in the end we were soaked. After eating our wet dinner we went to the restaurant at the campground and watched the soccer game between Spain and Russia. Spain won, great.

June 25, Laredo

Monica and the kids went to the beach in the morning, while Anamaria and I packed up to leave. We were not too happy with this campground so we decided to move a little way along the coast. We ended up at a fantastic little campground near Laredo.

But, not before trying another one that was just unbeleivably bad. We followed the signs to this place that was built right next to a huge prison. The walls were right next to the camground. And on the other side was a cemetery. And, there was no shade and the guy who ran it was kind of spooky. So, we maded a wise decision and moved on to Laredo. Here, the campground was perfect. The site had a view out over the water and right next to it is a barbecure pit. So, we decided to stay here a couple of days. Besides we wanted to watch the soccer match and they had a huge television.

June 24, Santander

In the morning we packed up and then went into Covarubias to look around. It turned out to be another beautiful medieval town, with a flee market set up in the plaza mayor. Anamaria and Audrey both found things they really liked.

We drove the rest of the day over back roads up to the north coast of Spain near Santander. Here we found a campground perched on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. We set up camp next to a couple of German guys who were travelling on motorcycles too.

June 23, Covarubias

Anamaria, Monica and the kids packed up their car and headed off north. I packed up my bike, said goodbye to Raquel and headed in the same direction. A couple of hours later we met up on the autopista and I began following them. We turned off the autopista and headed to an area where we hoped there would be a campground. It turned out there was one in Covarubias and we set up camp there. They gave us a site right next to the playground, which was perfect for the kids.

After we were installed we went to a town closed by called Santo Domingo de los Silos. A very beautiful medieval town. We spent some time walking around and had dinner at a restaurant there.

June 22, Madrid

Last night was Francisco and Ana's wedding. This took place at the casino near Madrid, with a beautiful outdoor ceremony followed by an incredible dinner.

June 20, Madrid

Today is the day of Francisco's bachelor party, or something like it. It's a get together in Ana's parents apartment to meet all of the family. We were all there when Anamaria called to say they where coming into Madrid and again asking Francisco for instructions. We went down to the street to wait for them when they arrived to the neighbourhood, and soon we had four more people in our group. Audrey and Niko fit right in, even though there was a bit of a language barrier.

June 18, Madrid

We had a great time in Segovia. It was a nice tranquil place to relax and take it easy.

The we moved to Madrid to be there for Francisco's wedding. Anamaria and the kids had arrived in Milan and were making there way to Madrid via Barcelona to pick up Monica. Raquel took the train from Segovia and I rode my bike. When I got to Madrid I had no idea where I was so I stopped and called Francisco. I was only a few blocks away from his apartment and made my way in what I hoped was the right direction. And, what a surprise. Francisco was standing on the side of the street waving to me. We parked my bike off the street and went to his apartment. A short time later Cecilia and Jose Ramon showed up, and a little while after that Raquel showed up. So here we all were in Madrid.