Wrap Up and Reflections

It has only taken us a little over two weeks to get to posting this.

We are both very happy with this tour overall and there’s not much we’d change if we did it again. Not that we would do it again as there are heaps of other places in Europe and elsewhere we’d tour before doing areas we’ve done before. If we did have to do it again, we would ride away from Lyon; the Loire does flow from East to West, so we would be riding downhill. We would prefer to ride downhill with a headwind than uphill with a headwind, which is what we did this time. We would then train from St Nazaire/Nantes to Lausanne, ride to Geneva and fly home from there.  This means dumping your bike boxes at Lyon and having to source more at Geneva. However, you could unpack the bikes at Lyon airport and ride away to your hotel.

Although extremely expensive, Switzerland is a great place to cycle tour and we would have been happy to spend some more time there. We would have had time too as we spent a few days waiting in Lyon to catch trains since it was so busy, and we couldn’t get tickets for us and our bikes sooner. Some trains do not take fully assembled bikes and we did not have bags to pack the disassembled bikes into, so could not catch those trains. So, if you know where and when you want to catch the train from and to, try and book before you leave home.  

The length of the tour (about nine weeks) was just about right. If you are going to spend all that money and time getting there you might as well make the most of it. Although Greg would be happy to just wander around Europe for ages, Wendy is the more homely type and nine weeks was plenty. Depending on where we were going, she could probably push it out to 12 weeks, or longer if we were on e-bikes.

With age and health issues catching up with us both, it’s probably time to think about touring on e-bikes. This would have plenty of benefits. You would be able to ride further in a day without the issue of tiredness. It also provides an extra degree of flexibility regarding booking accommodation, in that if there was no accommodation in the town you planned to stay at, you could easily ride onto the next town that has a vacancy. Wendy booked all accommodation before we left home, but with free cancellation. Whilst this gives some flexibility, the room rate is higher. Greg likes the idea of not booking accommodation at all in most situations as that way you can make the decision where to stay when you actually arrive at a suitable place. Not only would where you stay be flexible, but also the route could be modified as you go to take in places that you didn’t originally consider, and sometimes when talking to fellow touring cyclists you often hear about different places or attractions that are worth going off the planned route to visit. E-bikes would also assist in being able to tour the hillier areas, that we currently try to avoid.

Gear. While both of us have managed to keep the amount of clothes and gear we take to an absolute minimum, Greg would like to reduce it even further. Wendy does not agree but that is only because she doesn’t want him dressing in cycling clothes to go out to dinner. However, Greg has solved this issue by planning to ditch the cycling clothes altogether and just ride in normal street clothes. That way they would be multi-purpose and OK to wear when he’s off the bike. This idea also fits with a lot of peoples’ preference in Europe where most people cycle in normal street clothes. We are talking about saving probably less than 1kg of weight, but every bit counts when cycle touring, unless you have an e-bike.

Both of us went through the whole tour without experiencing any illness or injury. Neither of us had a fall or accident, pretty pleasing for nine weeks away. We saw no sign of COVID, nor did we hear anything about it while on tour. We were very fortunate in this respect. There was the knee soreness, but that is age-related and not a direct consequence of the riding. 

Flying in Business Class was amazing (Greg’s first taste for long haul) and as long as we can afford to travel that way we will. It definitely contributed to our quick transition into the new time zone in France because we had the opportunity to have a good sleep on the way. 

The refugees in France, and to a lesser degree in Switzerland, have not done the countries any favours. They tend to stick around in the bigger towns and cities, where accommodation is already tight, to sleep rough and use the streets as rubbish bins, and toilets. Many of the public toilets we tried to use were closed, probably due to overuse. Most of the smaller towns and villages we rode through had plenty of vacant accommodation and probably work available for them, and public toilets that were useable!

We only saw five mobility scooters in our nine weeks. We saw plenty of older people shuffling around to get groceries, coffee, etc. In our little town of Howard alone, there are at least 10 people getting around on mobility scooters. Does this make Australia the ‘lucky’ country?? Additionally, the e-bikes and scooters in France seem to not be limited to 25km/h as they are here, and very few people wear a helmet.

Day 65: Thu 27 Jul - Brisbane to Home, 277km, 4h

We landed at Brisbane pretty much on time (6:25am). We then waited what seemed like an eternity for the doors to open. It was probably to let the very special (first class) people at the front of the top deck to leave. Re-entry to Australia has been made so much easier and faster. On the way to immigration we stopped by a machine, answered some questions, retrieved our ticket, complete with a most unattractive photo, and proceeded directly to the automated gate. Scanned our tickets whilst standing on the footmarks, and we were done. 

Wendy waited for the panniers to come off from the normal luggage carousel and Greg went to the oversize area to collect the bikes. A little while later, Wendy received a call from Greg saying he had all the luggage. With the Emirates app, we could see our three items of checked luggage were at the connecting airport. We forgot to check if they were onboard when we boarded, but in Brisbane, Wendy could see they had arrived. And, that's without an Apple tag. Now through to Customs; we had a new guy, and all he asked was "are these mountain bikes or road bikes?". "Road bikes," we replied, and he pointed to the exit. We were out of the airport by 6:15am, waiting for the Andrews Parking bus to pick us up. By 7:15am we were driving out onto the Sunshine Motorway, on our way home.

We stopped at Maccas Caboolture for an eye-opening coffee and again just North of Gympie to change drivers. We arrived at a beautiful-looking Hippo Farm about 11:15am and then began the unpacking process. We tried to stay awake as long as we could, but just had to have a nana nap before having lunch. After that, we did not stop until we went to bed at 9:45pm.

Total transit time from leaving the hotel at Lyon to arriving at HF: 38h25m. Bring on the supersonic jet!!

We’ll do a wrap up of the tour when we get time, but overall the whole thing went well and we wouldn’t change much if we had the chance.  

Cloudy day in Brisbane for our arrival

Descending through the clouds

Nice sparkly runway

Day 64: Wed 26 Jul - Dubai to Brisbane, 24h10m

34-41 (Dubai) - 13 (Brisbane on arrival) degC, tropical in Dubai (although we didn’t go outside) to very fresh (for us anyway), with a light drizzle every so often in Brisbane

Walk: 8km: total: 479km

We arrived at Dubai a few minutes late at 12:22am, and so began the long trek, after the obligatory security screening, through the concourses to the Emirates B Lounge. We moved spots twice during the first 90 minutes and eventually found a nice quiet area where we could snooze without too much interruption. We took it in turns to watch the bags while the other walked. When we received our boarding passes in Lyon, they said we would be departing from a B gate, so that's why we were in the B Lounge. However, we have been through Dubai many times and knew this could change. When we arrived at the B Lounge, the departures board showed us departing from an A Gate. We did not immediately rush to the A Lounge as we knew it may change. Wendy was in no hurry to leave the B lounge as that is where the Moёt & Chandon bar is, and we were sitting adjacent it. It was only 2:44am (7:44am in Aus), so thought it a bit early to be indulging. At the 3.5 hr to go to boarding mark, the board still said A lounge, so after a glass of Rosé, (they only have the imperial brut at all other bars), off we went. The walk was a lot more pleasant as we could only take the underground driverless tram. It still involved a little walk, but not too much. 

Once inside the A Lounge, we found a suitable spot that was a bit noisy from the bar underneath the lounge, but relatively free of foot traffic and other human noise. Greg managed to have another nana nap, whilst Wendy walked the almost 1km long lounge a few times. Boarding was delayed about 30 minutes, and take-off by another 30 minutes. The A380 Business Class seats is really spacious and our heads were trying to fall off our shoulders but we managed to stay awake until dinner was served, eaten, and trays removed. Wendy had not slept since leaving the hotel in Lyon and managed four hours of interrupted sleep, and Greg managed a few less. We then watched the box, until Wendy could find nothing better, so watched Top Gun: Maverick for the 4th time, tragic, but you do pick up on little things on every re-run.

During the 13h50m flight they provide drinks (including tea and coffee) and snacks from a bar and snack area at the back of the top deck. Wraps, cakes, muffins, nuts, chips, fresh fruit and other items are laid out and you help yourself.  However we mostly waited for them to serve a lovely hot breakfast a couple of hours before we landed in Brisbane. Thankfully the flight was very smooth, quiet and uneventful.  

Emirates Business Class B Lounge

Duty Free shopping at Dubai International Airport

Boarding the A380 on the top deck

Seats 16 E&F Dubai to Brisbane

Behind us

Taxi andTake-off at Dubai

Coming into Brisbane

Day 63: Tue 25 Jul - Lyon to Dubai, 10h15m

16 (Lyon) - 36 (Dubai) degC

After another leisurely breakfast, we did some more sorting and packing. Greg then got itchy feet, so went for a 12km walk. After showering, we did the final pack and were downstairs retrieving the boxed-up bikes from their storage location. After placing them in the reception area we waited for our pre-booked maxi-taxi, that arrived on time at 12pm. We helped the lady (well we did it all as she was a real novice) load the boxes and the panniers. In a few minutes we were on our way. 

It was a safe, smooth run to the airport, arriving at 12:40pm. There’s no drop-off outside the doors, we were actually deposited so far from the entrance to the terminal we needed a cut lunch and a compass. Well not that far, but when you have to get two bike boxes with other luggage to the terminal, in drizzling rain, it seems that far! However this is where we got lucky, someone had left a trolley right where we were parked, so Greg made a hasty exit from the vehicle and grabbed it. He unloaded the bikes and baggage on to the trolley while Wendy paid the bill.

Our flight had already been allocated check-in counters. There were two counters for Business Class, with only one person in each queue. We were checked-in by 1pm, and then began the laborious task of going through security. We wonder why people wait till they get to the front of the queue to start sorting their stuff out. The amount of confiscated liquids at this airport was amazing. Anyway, we finally got to the front of the queue and were through and in the Mont Blanc Lounge at 1:40pm. We settled in for our two hour wait until boarding. Not a big lounge, but it had all the requirements to feed and water hungry travelers. It was a relief to have the bikes and luggage checked-in and know that we were on our way home. 

After boarding opened, we were allowed to board at our leisure. We settled into our comfy seats and enjoyed a champers together. We then got down to the serious business of watching a rather large screen TV.  Apart from the TDF we haven’t watched any TV while away. It certainly makes the flying time go faster! Greg watched a whole series on the African Serengeti while Wendy watched a movie before doing the same. 

The Mont Blanc lounge

Onboard our flight from Lyon to Dubai

Wendy’s main meal

Greg’s entree

Greg’s main meal

Day 62: Mon 24 Jul - Lyon

19-25 degC, wet in the morning, clearing briefly to thunderstorms and rain early afternoon, and then the sun tried valiantly to re-appear

Walk: 12km; total: 465km

We took our time over breakfast as we had no real mission other than to wander the streets. When the breakfast room started filling up with people, we went back to our room. As we looked out the window, the rain started, so we delayed our departure until 9:30am, even then it was still drizzling. About 10 minutes after leaving the hotel, there was lightning, thunder, and the rain came down quite heavily so we sought cover under a shop awning. It cleared pretty quickly after that. We even saw some blue sky and the sun but not for very long. 

We took more photos of things we’d already seen, but this was in a different light! Wendy had had enough by about 11:30am so called it quits while Greg continued. After lunch and a little rest in the room, we started the pre-pack procedure - throwing out that which we did not need at home and managed to fill a few small bags. Wendy’s mobile pharmacy is looking quite sad, but that is less to check in, so that is good. Greg went out for another pre-dinner wander.

We decided to eat out on our last night and decided that it was only fitting that we visit the the same restaurant that we ate out at when we first arrived - George’s Brasserie, all of 50m down the road. Both meals were good. It’s been serving good food since 1836 so they must be doing something right. It does look flash but the meals are more down to earth than that. 

We wandered a bit more to settle dinner then retreated to the room because of an approaching storm. 

Victor Hugo street Mall in the rain 

Candy shop

Master chocolatier, the goods were more tempting than the candy

Boulangerie/patisserie, very tempting but the the queue was out the door, so it must have been good

Some people have no respect

Charity Church Tower, built in 1665, was part of a hospice built in 1626 on the Rhône. The hospice was demolished in 1934 to make way for the main Post Office.

Hotel Royal, with the Paul Bocuse (famous chef) institution inside 

Telegraph, Post, and Telephone building

Fountain at Antonin Poncet Place

L’arbre à fleurs, near the Rhône river

Antonin Poncet Place

Bellecour Place with Notre Dame Basicila of Fourviere up on the hill

Saône

Cloister of Saint Jean Baptiste Cathedral

Saint Jean Baptiste Cathedral

 Cinema museum

Shop with brightly coloured wares, good to see in a rainy day

Chamber of Commerce

Passage de la République 

Saône and Notre Dame

St Jean Baptiste with Notre Dame above

Saône river scenery

Church of St Georges de Lyon

Not very pleasant weather, lucky it is our last day and we don’t have to ride anywhere

Rhône Riverside Aquatic Centre

Dinner venue

Rhône River scenery with a huge storm cell