So these days Steph and I are living the dream in Portland. We got here late last year after a few visa delays (I had to go to the UK for a few weeks and spend time with friends... sucks to be me!). Portland is treating us really well, Steph has a sweet position at PSU and I have an awesome job downtown. And we have the best puppy ever:
Lucy a few month back, she is way bigger now.
The little detour to the UK was fun as (and happened about 6 months ago...) and I caught up with a bunch of people all over the place. Edinburgh to bromantic escapes in the Lakes District to London.
Edinburgh
Lakes District. Nice to see more of England after spending all my previous times in London.
Once in Portland, we got a sweet apartment... then it got foreclosed on.. so we got an even sweeter one. Here is what we are up to:
Weekend escape to Lapine State Park
Pioneer Square with Occupy Portland from my office.
Lucy at the Pumpkin Patch just before Halloween
PSU Campus in Fall (thats Autumn to most of you)
Multanomah Falls. If you visit, odds are I will take you here.
Steel Bridge over the Willamette River, downtown Portland.
Grimm film set a block from my work. They filmed in my building before I arrived!
Winter near our first apartment.
View from where I sit at work.
And last, but by no means least... Lucy a few days ago, she is getting pretty big, and is the best dog in the world. That is a fact.
Better late than never... So from Tours, France we rode through the Loire Valley with heaps of other tourists, none of which came all the way from Andalusia, most came from their support van at the top of the hill. It was nice through there. Then we opted to take a train to Strasbourg as we were super keen on seeing some of Germany and our time was slowly running out. We had to change trains in Paris which resulted in a urban ride from Gare d'Austerlitz via 8 lane round abouts to Gare d'Est for a speedy TGV ride East.
A Chateau in the Loire Valley
Another Chateau in the Loire Valley
Strasbourg
Strasbourg was fun, with Kronenbourg brewery tours and lots of canals, and was starting to feel a lot like Germany. The difference between it, and the citys and towns in the West of France was quite remarkable. From there we started following the Rhine then crossed into Germany proper. After getting caught in the rain and lost on a walking track in the Black Forest we eventually go to Pforzheim to stay with a good friend's family. It was nice to hang out with some Germans as we arrived in the country as we learnt a little language and got a little accustomed to what was going on.
Hidelbourg
Navigating Germany bike paths along the Danube/Donau
Distracted by Volksfest / Beer festivals constantly
From Pforzheim we rode beside rivers (Rhine, Necar, Jangst, Danube) along the extensive and fantastic German bike paths. We didn't really even have a map they were so awesome (way different from Spain! Although it took a lot of the fun navigating and adventure out of it...). Heidelberg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber were very cool, the rain for our few weeks in Germany was not. The beer was fantastic, especially with a massive pretzel.
Action shot of Steph cruising in Germany
Still shot of me stuck in the rain in Germany
Stopped by a wedding party on the bike path... we got champagne!
Beautiful Austria. No rain!
We then pulled into Vienna on August 22nd, a little over 3 months since we landed in Malaga, Spain. We clocked up 3,261kms on our bikes and had at least that many adventures along the way. Only 1 flat tire (thank you Kevlar reinforced touring tyres!) and one serious break down (thank you Madrid bike shop!). All in all a fantastic trip, I would highly recommend cycling as a good way to see Europe next time you are there.
After Vienna we hitched to Budapest for a few nights, flew to London for a few nights, trained to Paris for Steph's Birthday, then bus to Cologne then train to Dusseldorf. From Dusseldorf we just made our flight back to Portland with a stop for a beer in San Francisco with a friend. After 10 days in Portland we came back to New Zealand to be kiwis for a bit.
That was our trip.
Oh, one more thing. I took this little video in Germany, just to show you that it did in fact rain:
So over the Pyranees we went into France. There wasnt even a sign to indicate the border, we only knew for sure we were in France when people started greeting us with Bonjour rather than ola.
The Pyranees and Spain well behind us
We spent a few day biking through French Basque country, avoiding the rain and eating heaps of the tastiest, softest, freshest pastries I have ever had. We then got to Salies de Bearn which was to be the starting place for Stage 18 of the Tour de France.
The chaos before the race
The Tour was nuts. The night before the town was pretty much deserted, then in the morning the Tour Caravan rolled in with all the support crews and hundreds of sponsors vehicles. It was about 4 hours of watching sponsors and officials speeding up and down the road before the cyclists zipped past.
The front line of the Tour de France
The day after the Tour did the stage we followed their lead and managed to get 123kms of the 198km stage done in a day... but we stopped for a longer lunch and many more snacks than Lance did.
Farms, trees and the occasional pretty town... thats rural France
So we hit St Emilion. which is a old town in the middle of the Bordeaux wine region. This made for nice rolling hills and plenty of wine tastings. We took a day to explore the area on our bikes with none of our gear on, it was so much lighter and easier!
The view from St Emilion over the vineyards
From St Emilion we rode another big day to Perigeux. Then from Perigeux north into the Dordogne region, more hills than we normally like, but lots of really nice town and chateaux.
Just a 7th century church in a field of sunflowers...
We then looked at a map a realized that we cant possibly do bike the 1000 odd kiliometers to Germany and have time to explore there, so are now taking the odd train and about to bike through the Loire Valley from here in Tours. Oh, and we have now hit 2000kms of cycling, I dont know about you, but I am impressed!
