Tuesday 11th

Currently on the train to Tours for one night and then home tomorrow.  But flying home. I have had issues with booking the Eurostar back to London. I’ll chat to you about that if you want to hear it when I see you.

Well Bordeaux was a bit of a wash-out, feeling ill for a couple days and then it started raining yesterday and again today. So I have not seen much of it and certainly not found any of Rick Stein’s restaurants from his series of weekend visits, one ambition for being here.  I have also passed thru Bordeaux a couple time on previous cycling trips but never seen it properly. Oh well!  I’ll just have to come back!

Well apart from getting home and back to reality tomorrow, this is the start of the end of the trip. 

How do I feel about it?

It’s been interesting.  Organising travel and accommodation every couple of days is time consuming, (A) with figuring out EUrail and Interrail.  (B) hotels or rooms wherever you end up.

Interrail:

is not easy.  I thought I had it cracked before leaving. As I had booked the first 3 days of train journeys through the Interrail web site, and had reservation emailed to me vey quickly and with no issues. But, since those first 3, I have not been able to complete any reservations via the internet.  I complete all the pages and it has not accepted any payments at the last step.  Interrail passes are accepted at stations when book in person and SNCF even have a button for it on the self-service terminals.

Trains:

Currently doing around 180 mph and it is wonderfully smooth.  I have also done a number of very long trips at a lot lower pace.  But, I have enjoyed them all

Accommodation:

A bit mixed. I could have done it at less cost if I had been prepared to use dormitory hostels.  But I have used a variety of private hostel rooms, Booking.com, and direct booking.  On the whole I am not sure which is the best way.  I have always tried to use city centre, close to the rail stations, so this limits choice and increases prices, and to a certain extent I also thinks it reduces quality.  I’ll leave it at that.