Day 29 – Tue 08 Jul 14, Arras to Lille

Forecast: 13-18 deg C, rain and cool most of the day, Listed distance: 51km, Actual distance: 2km; Cumulative distance: 1144km, Train time: 38min

We woke to a very rainy day and decided that if it was still raining after breakfast, we would catch the train. We caught the train! We just missed the 8:24am one, so had to wait around for an hour to get the next which had 2 stops and arrived in Lille just after 10am.  And, the rain kept coming.  It was still drizzling lightly when we arrived so we walked the bikes to the hotel (Mister Bed Lille) which we found quickly and easily.  Despite it being so early we were able to check-in; we have been very lucky in that regard. 

Before unpacking, our first priority was to find coffee which we did just down the road and it was good. We took it back to our room where our croissants saved from breakfast were waiting.  We then took our lunch (from breakfast as well) and water in our backpacks and headed off to explore. Our first stop was for lunch in a park somewhere, then found the Citadel, built a million years ago (but which you can't go into or you'll be shot cause it's now a French Army Base) and walked through and around that. We ended up on an overpass next to the zoo where we stopped and watched the black monkeys/chimps playing.  Also managed to get glimpses of zebra, rhino, and what we think was an eland.

We knew a stage of Le Tour de France was finishing in Lille this day, but we hadn't particularly planned it that way. Seeing our paths crossed we agreed that we might as well see it. So we set ourselves in a good spot and waited,... and waited, for 3 hours!. The circus that precedes the peloton ended up arriving so we were kept entertained by the passing parade of vehicles from the various sponsors throwing things at us. We managed to grab some caps, sweets and other stuff we didn't need to carry so some nearby kids were pleased with our hand-me-downs. It was a lot of fun. And oh yeah, we did see a fleeting glimpse of what we thought might have been some blokes on a bunch of flash looking bikes going very, very fast.  Wendy can now say she too has seen the TDF live, as Greg has seen it a number of times. 

As it was close to 6pm when the race went by, we stopped, on our way home, at a supermarket for beer and salad for dinner.  After not cycling today we didn't need anything else.  Even though we didn't do much, we were still quit exhausted from all the waiting so were in bed quite early.  And, despite the rain, we had a great day.



Room 216 Mr Bed Lille


Grand Place, Lille

a 'grand' looking building in Grand Place, Lille


Le Tour de France at Lille


A very wet Lille

Local wildlife

Le Tour

Botanic Garden Lille

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 46 – Fri 25 Jul 14, Haarlem

Image
Forecast: 17-21 deg C, cloudy with showers and thunderstorms; no riding Just because we did not need to get up early, we were both awake before 6am, so had a cuppa in bed and then went downstairs for breakfast.   It was another good spread, but for a 4* it could have been a little better, ie. it could have a bigger selection of cereals than only 2.   There was a good selection of meats and cheeses though. The bikes stayed in the bike park today as we explored on foot.   After brekky we caught the train to Alkmaar to watch the world famous Friday Cheese Market in the 'Weighing Square'.   It first started about 400 years ago and the tradition has continued to this day, albeit with some theatrics for us tourists.   Judging by the enormous crowd it is a very popular spectacle.  In short, a whole stack of cheese is carried onto the square on a shoulder slung platform by blokes dressed in traditional kit.   The buyers then negotiate a price with the selle...
Read more

Day 45 - Thu 24 Jul 14, Leiden to Haarlem (the Netherlands)

Image
 Forecast: 16-25 deg C, mostly sunny; Listed distance: 33km; Actual distance: 40km; Cumulative distance: 1811km; Av speed: 13.2 km/h; Max speed: 26.3 km/h; Leiden: 20 deg C; Haarlem: 26 deg C; Start time: 9:15am; Stop time: 1:30pm; Ride time: 3h02m Another fine day in the Netherlands. We spent a while having breakfast this morning in order to kill some time before leaving for Haarlem.  We then packed up and checked out after 9am, which was a record late time for us!  We found our way quickly and easily through town to the outskirts and really took our time as evidenced by the slow average speed.  We also had a fairly strong side to head-on wind which was quite blustery and if you weren't on the ball kinda blew you sideways for a bit.   We stopped often to take photos and stopped for mornos in the town/village of Lisse (we purposely went via this place to see a castle and tulips; the castle was closed and the tulips had been reduced to bulbs - bugger!). We did...
Read more

Day 47 – Sat 26 Jul 14, Haarlem

Image
Forecast: 17-23 deg C, cloudy with showers in the afternoon; Listed distance: 0km; Actual distance: 58km; Cumulative distance: 1869km; Av speed: 15.3 km/h; Start time: 8:45am; Stop time: 2:30pm; Ride time: 3h43m As it was such a lovely day, we decided to ride out to the airport to make sure we know which way to go on Monday and don't get lost and then panic.   We were originally going to follow the numbers, but found an actual “Airport” sign instead and the route was much more direct and probably a better/smoother path.   At one stage we were directly under the flight path and stopped to watch a few planes come in.   We found the entrance easily and Greg then went to check on bike box availability.   As we were leaving we saw an Italian who was unpacking his bike to set off for Copenhagen and he was getting rid of his packing material so Greg disposed of it into his saddle-bag as it will be handy for us on Monday. On the way home Greg decided we should go via Ams...
Read more