One Wheel Each: San Francisco to Lyon

Friday 13^th September

48km total for the day: Got to Emeryville San Francisco just after 11am on the Merced train and biked to Oakland Ferry Terminal. The ferry wasn’t till 1.35pm so we had some lunch in the park and then a coffee around the corner. Caught the ferry with ease and it was very exciting to see the East Bay Bridge, the city and Golden Gate Bridge appear. Also the massive port which had many many container cranes for miles. Arrived right in the middle of town and it was beautiful. Trams, people everywhere, buskers, beautiful sculptures, gorgeous buildings, cycle lanes and cyclists everywhere. Found a massive Farmers Market in the Emarcadero building which was simply amazing. Bought some amazing bread there for our Warm Showers (reciprocal cyclist accommodation) hosts. Back outside, we met a guy from NZ who owns Cactus Outdoor Company and chatted to him for ages.

Cycled around to Fishermans Wharf and past the America’s Cup Park. Everything was totally going off with the atmosphere of the America’s Cup, though apparently it is always like this anyway. It is a really cool place. Great people watching and atmosphere. Met a Belgian cyclist we had met in Fort Bragg which was nice. She is flying to Mexico now. Biked to the Golden Gate Bridge and across it and back which was awesome actually and felt that yes – we had finally reached our objective for this part of the trip. Windy towards the bridge and on it. Got quite late and so we had to race to get sorted after that but managed to bike fairly quickly to 17^th Avenue and arrived only 20 minutes after when we said we would (5pm). Met Heidi and settled in. Had a shower and a chat and then Martin came home and later we had a gorgeous dinner of ravioli and some red wine and nice conversation and such a taste of civilisation. It really was a treat. Kids had a bed and a room each – luxury. Lovely house and lovely people.

First taste of cycle-friendly San Francisco - leaving station at Emeryville

Emeryville Mural

Ferry from oakland to San Francisco

First view of city

VERY FAST ferry!

Embarcadero and Farmer's Market

Embarcadero

Biking towards Golden Gate Bridge

City from Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz Island

Golden Gate Bridge

Saturday 14^th September

25kms. Nice day and left after breakfast about 9.30pm and went into town – nice ride. Saw so many interesting things. Went to the Sports Basement and bought some new clothes and then went to the beach and watched the America’s Cup races. The first one was lost to New Zealand when their boat nearly overturned – heart-stopping moment! The second race was abandonned after strong winds. Awesome to be there and incredible to watch. We bought some food at Safeway and ate it in the park and then biked along to the Farmers Market again, saw some buskers and a bike stunt demonstation. Went back to Heidi and Martin’s but didn’t get back till 6pm. Really interesting trip through town and parks and back to theirs. Had a lovely evening with them with a lovely meal and another fabulous sleep. Lovely hospitality. Thanks Heidi and Martin.

Lucy outside Heidi and Martin's house in 17th Avenue

Team New Zealand warming up

Helicopters gathering for start of race

Racing with Oracle in background

Racing

Before Team New Zealand nearly capsized - I was in too much of a state to photograph it!

Lunch in the park

Bike stunt demonstration on the Embarcadero

Sunday 15^th September. Good day . Left Heidi and Martin’s about 10 or 11am after German pancakes and lovely coffee that Heidi made. Delicious. They gave us good instructions to get out of town and we rode through lots of interesting places. Stopped about 1pm at a cool Joe’s café where we had lunch. Had to wait a while for a table so it was good to have a good stop. Got going again and biked through more town and a few down market areas to get out to the airport. It really was a great ride until we got out near the airport and it was very noisy and we got a bit lost but managed to get there and park the bikes and go up to the departure terminal.

Organised some bike boxes at $45 each!!! But suited to get them there. Met Sue Boyd there which was fabulous so sat atStarbucks with here for 90 minutes or so. Great to see her and off-loaded Lucy’s fleece and Hugh’s jacket for Grace and Emily which we had replaced in San Franccisco. Tried to find the hotel after that amongst roadworks but did get there and it was a great hotel and we were very pleased to get there.

Hugh skyped his class and we received the devastating news from Tim that Lynne had passed away that morning. It was lovely to be able to see all the class and Tim at that time and we were all a bit floored and felt far from home. Went out for pizza afterwards and toasted Lynne’s wonderful life. It felt good to be heading to France, where she enjoyed many wonderful times.

Getting ready to leave Heidi and Martin's

Farewelling Heidi and Martin who biked out with us and gave us excellent instructions to the airport

Getting out near airport

Meeting up randomly with Sue Boyd at San Francisco Airport

Monday 16^th September.

Flew to France. Had a poor sleep thinking about Lynne and packing the bikes and everything a bit overwhelming but got up and packed up, booked the hotel again for November and left a little bag of gas and stuff there and biked back to airport. Spent two hours or so packing the bikes and checked in and flew. I sent a card to Jeff and the family from the airport. Rest of the day was flying to Paris. Lots of movies.

Even a bike stand to dismantle bikes at airport

Lucy chilling with her Oz friends at airport

Tuesday 17^th September

We arrived to Paris Charles de Gaulle at 11am after a little bit of sleep on the plane. Transferred by bus to the terminal, relocated all our stuff and headed to the TGV. Naievely lined up in the queue to get tickets at which point John appeared outside the window and people started yelling ‘impossible, impossible and shaking their heads’. Ended up in there for ages and it looked more and more bleak for us and finally the manager appeared who really did want to help us, as opposed to yelling at us, and he sort of sorted it – but charged us 160 euros to take the bikes – on top of our fares! We did enquire about flying while we waited but it was still 100 euros cheaper to train so persisted with that.

We were supposed to meet the Manager to go to the train but he didn’t come for ages and then it was a very big rush to get everything down to the train. Just when we’d done that and the lady gave us the thumbs up, the conductor started blowing his whistle and we hadn’t loaded anything at that point. It was a total mad rush and we nearly killed ourselves to do it but got in the train somehow and the doors closed and we were off. Then the conductor arrived and said we had to move the bikes and it was all awful. Managed to get them and us into a compartment and it was ok for a while. Kids exhausted and slept. Started to worry about the dismount ages before it happened and it was every bit as terrible as we had imagined as we had only about 5 minutes stop and there were not only a queue of people getting off but also waiting to get on! Had a streamlined plan and the kids were great as of course had all the panniers and another box as well.

Arrived just after 4pm and put the bikes together – also stressful as had no water from being on the plane and couldn’t find the toilet and still had 11kms to ride to the hotel. I reached the end about that point! Left finally at 6.30pm after having Subway. Happy to find a really good cycleway all the way to Myieux but got lost in the falling darkness finding our hotel. Got there in the end only to find that the room we had booked could only take three people – even though we had booked for us all. At that point Lucy burst into tears and at that point we just went with having two rooms as there were little alternatives presenting themselves. It really was a low point. We were jet lagged and exhausted. Also really hit hard by the reality of being so far away from Purakaunui with Lynne passing away…

Wednesday 18^th September

Yes – as Justine said – a baguette and a coffee made everything okay. It was amazing. Got up (late) and biked into Lyon via a patisserie near the hotel. Easy ride in on the cycleway and beautiful city. It did rain a little and made the road greasy and John and I both fell off simultaneously one behind the other trying to get onto the footpath on some granite edging. Everyone fine! Lots of friendly French people and felt altogether better about everything.

Had coffee and went to a camping shop and had a nice day. Kids rode the Carousel and we went back and got the bikes and it fined up for our ride back and we had some pizza near the hotel and an early night. Much happier all round.