Travel notes

We left our bikes, and Tours, by train. The hotel was close to the main station but unfortunately we needed a secondary station 4km across town. The main station did have a laundromat nearby so we took advantage of that, and the other station was conveniently connected by bus. Buses so far have proven to be the least visitor friendly transport choice. Every service has a different ticketing approach. In Corfu you could use cash, but the price was inflated by enough to annoy you. Generally cash is no longer an option and you need to use a narcissistic vending machine. The best approach is to choose one with a queue so you can learn from other peoples mistakes (which can be made in a choice of languages). Everyone seems to end up desperately poking at the screen and randomly pressing their bank card against the console. Skimmers take note. Anyway, we followed a flow that promised "One ticket" and boarded the bus none the wiser. We're in Nantes so it must have worked. The la...

Day 3 of our bike ride was Saturday. As we left Blois a classic car festival was setting up, not too dissimilar to what you might see at home, just a lot more Citreon and Renault.  We idled along enjoying the serenity of the river surrounds. The route takes you away from congested areas which has a downside, we climbed out of the river valley a few times and had to do some work. It was a little over 5 hours before we checked in to our Amboise hotel.  Amboise is postcard Loire. The castle overlooks a well preserved old town.  Lots of tourists gather here on Rue Victor Hugo. I'm not sure if he had any connection to Amboise but the house Leonardo Da Vinci spent his final three years is near one end of this street. Poppies are flowering everywhere at the moment reminding me of the commemorations back home. Most villages we cycle through have war memorials similar to NZ. Sping has provided a nice bit of colour overall, we haven't identified ...

The first day of our bike ride was a bit of a tiddler. 28km. We enjoyed a single digit tempurature mid morning, so layers were required. The route mostly followed the Loire along paved stop banks and rural paths. You hardly needed to pedal. It was quite zen. Points of interest were a town called Meung-sur-loire which has a bit of history so we wandered around for quite a while and boosted its GDP by purchasing a Banana and a Pear. We were in Beaugency before we knew it and had two hours to fill before we could check in to our hotel. We circled the town numerous times before 15:00 rolled around.  Joan of Arc is revered in this part of the Loire. There are references to her everywhere, and statues like this in most towns it seems. This is Kieran's fourth visit to Beaugency which is disproportionate. The first visit was with Kay and Sharon. I think the place we stayed in still exists. Auberge de Juenesse shown on the top of this map Beaugency is very pretty ...

Our bikes. No battery :-( Prior to starting our cycle tour in Orleans, we had a full day in Paris. Firstly we wanted to take advantage of a larger retail environment to refresh some of our travel consumables. We achieved this by randomly walking the city. We started down the southern bank of the Seine to the Louvre. There's a good selection of homeless Parisians on this route, and a surprising number of tourists on boat trips up and down the river. The area around the Louvre is pretty upmarket so we left and walked to Montmartre. Montemarte has the Sacre Coeur which we climbed up to for the view and then we dropped down into the African influenced area which is pretty vibrant and edgy. A good place to go to avoid tourists it turns out. We loosely followed a route back towards our hotel which by now was miles away. Paris has distinct clusters of like minded communities and commerce, which may be true of most places but it stands out here. This is the area where you go wh...

Our final full day in Corfu, Easter Sunday, was a relatively quiet one. The previous evening was a big one for the locals. We got a hint of this from our proprietor at the Taverna when he said they were fully booked from 10pm to midnight. At first I thought his English was letting him down. The Greek orthodox lent is over so they launch into a big celebration. A religious procession passed down the street in the middle of our night. Corfu in the suburbs was basically closed for business in the morning. We caught a bus into town and walked down the waterfront to a large estate open to the public (birth place of Prince Phillip no less). It was nice to share a morning with the Corfiots, it's a big family day for them. Some of the restaurants were closed to the public, with family and friends taking over to celebrate the day. Gradually things opened up in town and we enjoyed a lazy lunch, soaking up what might be the warmest weather we will experience for a while as we head north. The ...

Athens to Corfu is a short flight. We were a bit disappointing and used taxis at both ends for transfers.  Corfu town is charming. We're staying 10 minutes by bus beyond charming in Kontokali. It has a large marina and a small beach with a big supermarket and plenty of Tavernas. In fact we are staying in a Taverna but the Taverna bits are mostly closed over Easter. The area is slightly schizophrenic, one side of the road is palacial villas and resorts, the other side looks like a landfill. Often properties and businesses look like people just up and left and the cats have moved in. When we were planning our trip we had a four day gap. We were a bit constrained with our next destination being Paris. We also realised it was Easter, so we picked Corfu thinking it might shelter us over the holiday period. On the way to Athens airport, our driver told us Corfu is Greece's most popular Easter destination because of its famous celebations. They welcome 1000s of extra visitors from aro...