Rambling Cyclists: July 2014

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Almost home

On our way but with one minor hiccup - upon packing up my stuff I discovered that I did not have my passport, which threw in another complication. I think it dropped out of my bag in the hire car under the passenger seat, which we needed to unpack in great haste.

We proceeded to the airport to register for the flight, and I was told I could board the flight without my passport as long as I have a HK ID and letter of a lost passport report from the French police. I rushed down to the hire care place to ask them if it had been found - the car had been checked in at 4:31 and rehired at 5pm - probably not even cleaned in the turnaround.

So next step was to find the Police office in the Airport - which no one seemed to know where it was. After wasting about 20minutes trying to find the office I eventually found it, and feeling somewhat stressed as I had a time limit by when I could produce the required documents and it was getting closer. Only one Gendarme on at a time with someone who was taking ages to be sorted, and someone in front of me did not bode well. I found the office of the Officer 'du Jour' and asked for his help, he was a little bit abrupt, and I would consider with the 'stereotypical french manner' but after seeing my distress was very nice and helpful. I was given the required document, rushed back to the check in counters and asked to wait with the other staff.

About 1.5 hours before the due takeoff time we were given out boarding passes and we were off!
Arrived in HK at 6:30am to be home at 8am ----
The adventure was finally over. Hoorah! Now for the washing & unpacking.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Trying to get home ....day 2

We packed up after a lovely breakfast and set off about 9am headed for Paris.

We passed some great scenery & fabulous little towns & historic places that we couldn't stop to explore ....

The signage was brilliant for the whole 650 Kms

Crossing into France ...

We mastered the French toll system ... Some have tickets, some pay before you enter & one of the freeways went for 100's of Kms .... We spent 35 euros in tolls.

We arrived at the airport hotel at 3:30pm ... Wayne took the car back & I relaxed watching the tour du France.

Then we walked around the little town of Roissy-en-France trying to find something open that sold food on Sunday night. We ended up having pizza in the park.

Lara Croft was in town

The plane was too packed tonight to try to get home... Maybe tomorrow.

Trying to get home... Day 1

Got our stuff sorted, got the bikes cleaned & ready for packing, headed off to the airport - found out that we were at the wrong terminal & bikes were not allowed on the inter terminal train ( after negotiating multiple escalators etc), so we had to walk the bikes & all our stuff to terminal 2 at the further most terminal...

Got to the check in gate - bagged the bikes, and we were given passes to get through to the boarding gates where we waited while on standby after going through all the immigration & screening etc ...

Didn't get on the plane, so had to go back outside & collect our bikes from the caramels, fought 100's of people to get our bikes on the shuttle bus - which had no lines & was a complete bum fight to get on.

We then proceeded to the train station where we then tried to find how to get ourselves & our bikes to Paris where the chances of getting a plane were higher. I went to find out about hire cars, the price I got was very very high for a one way rental. We found out the trains were impossible with bikes, so Wayne went to negotiate & got a car for a reasonable deal. Yes... A plan coming together!!

We packed the bikes in the back & headed to Stuttgart to visit some friends who live there. We ended up staying the night after having a great catch up.