Today was the first day of our cycling. Everything went perfect the first couple of days, so we were hoping that this would go well. The official starting point of the trail is St, Brevin Les Pins, about 40 miles away on the Atlantic Ocean.
Our
plan required us to take the train to St Nazaire, cross a treacherous bridge to
get to the start and cycle back to our accommodations in Nantes. The good news is that this is such a popular
route that they have a shuttle that takes cyclists and their bikes across the
bridge each hour. It carries 8 (and there
are 6 of us), runs every hour and is first come first serve. Again, a lot of moving parts for everything to
work out, which it did (Whew).
Once we got to St Nazaire, we had a historical pitstop. We went and saw the Submarine Pens from WWII
located on the harbor. These immense structures
were built by slave labor for Germany to safely store U boats being fixed and
reprovisioned. The 12-meter-thick
concrete ceilings were impervious to bombing.
They were amazing structures to see and very hard to photograph because
of the immensity.
Next stop was St Brevin Les Pins. We took the opportunity to do the traditional
bicycle tour activity of dipping our rear tires in the Ocean. If Rob and I get to the Black Sea, we will
dip our front tires in the sea when we arrive.
Then we were off.
Our ride was 40 miles along the Loire River and associated
canals and waterways'. We had our first
of many ham and cheese sandwiches from a local boulangerie. The wind was a
slight crosswind and occasional headwind, and it was very warm, 90 degrees. It was our first day with a late start, so
although we had fun, we did not stop a lot, preferring to get our miles in
quickly. Normally, we will take a few
more pictures.
The ride went great and we got back to our accommodations by
about 4:30. After a brief rest, we decide we were not done for the day and
headed to a local tourist attraction.
In Nantes, there is an area call Isle de la machines. They feature mechanical objects, the most
impressive of which is a 50’ high elephant.
We were able to see it walking with passengers aboard.
Beside a Greek-Turkish dinner and a good night’s sleep, that was it for the day. We are glad most days will be much simpler.
Wow! I just got the blog info from Peter and have read the whole thing. You guys are having a wonderful trip, and I am loving reading about it and seeing the really professional photos.
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