We’re now safely back in Berkeley, and thought it would be worth a wrap-up post to review how far we went, the highs and lows, and things we learned. Total Distance: 2261km (see our daily distance, costs, and notes log) kms in Ireland 361.1 kms in France 664.8 kms in Italy 145.8 kms in Switzerland […]
Author Archives: Joe
Aside: Differences Between Biking in France and Germany
We found that biking in Germany is different from biking in France. The French have a huge network of rural roads, open to cars but in most cases little used. There are signs for various villages, but none of them are specific to bicycles. We navigated by using Michelin maps (mostly 1:250,000 regional maps) and […]
Germany
From Strasbourg, we headed across the Rhine river, into Germany. This was the first time that we were biking across a national border – all the other times we crossed the border by train. Since it was entirely within the EU, though, it was pretty boring; there wasn’t even a “Welcome to Germany” sign. We […]
Strasbourg
In 2002, a young Suzanne Christensen Morris, just graduated from UC Davis, headed to France looking for adventure. Keen to be close to her German roots, she chose to move to Strasbourg in Alsace, on the border with Germany. After a few weeks of hard searching for a job and a place to live, she […]
Switzerland
Switzerland looks like a postcard of Switzerland. Green mountains plunging into crystal blue lakes. Grassy fields as far as the eye can see. Immaculate trains that are on time except when they catch on fire (more on that later). Bike trails that run like a swiss watch, ticking back and forth between countryside and town […]
Provence
From the Sarlat we took a train to Arles. Arles it was having a music festival, and more importantly, nearby Avignon was having its annual gigantic theatre festival. We stayed in a super nice hotel room in Arles — not on purpose, it just seems to be the last available hotel room in Arles, but […]
Bordeaux and Dordogne
We love the culture and people of Bretagne, but the rain day after day got to be a bit much. One very accurate postcard said (in French) “it is beautiful in Bretagne, several times a day.” Most of the time it was in fact quite nice and the weather warm and it what is beautiful […]
St. Malo and the Breton Coast
We are in St. Malo, and it is awesome. Suzanne finally got module marinere (mussels), we drank lots of cider, and we took a walk around the city walls, which I have an amazing view of the harbor and surrounding islands. There was also a tall ship show in town and sailors everywhere.
We Love France
France greeted us in full with abundance: a sunny day, a beautiful landscape, small cute villages and patisseries with pain au chocolate and other delicious baked things. On our first morning in France we visited and breakfasted with Tifane and Olivier, friends through Suzanne’s job teaching at the Ecole Bilangue in Berkeley, and Olivier’s family. […]
Dungarvan to Cork
After a huge overnight raimstorm that we were very happy did not occur while we were biking, we left the charming seaside resort of Dungarvan for Cork, Ireland’s second city and the jumping off point for our ferry to France. Time to find pints of Beamish, one of Corks native stouts, to celebrate a good […]