Randonnée Vienne-Nantes - May-July 2014

[Wirelizard]

I just got an email from Marc saying I've had a place reserved for me in the ride!

Now to start seriously figuring out plane tickets and such... there are worse problems to have.

Seriously excited to be in Vienna at the end of May! 

[trailrunner]

Yes I got it too...I am one of three that are going together. I have been communicating with another fellow also. He said Marc said that paypal was OK to use. So I sent my registration money for all 3 of us via paypal this AM  ....right before the email ! I am not sure why they don't say to use paypal...no charge on your end and very very small on theirs.I added 3 euros to cover charge...paypal shows the charge so you can adjust amount. I will use it to send all fees to them. Good Luck..look forward to meeting you !!!  I am going to try and preorder boxes from Air france or KLM to be at the Atlanta airport..they are big and allow only turning bars and pedal removal. Any tips you have will be appreciated. Thanks for the note.c

[Wirelizard]

I sent my deposit off to AF3V a couple weeks ago, got an email from them three or four days later saying they'd gotten it.

I'll chuck the rest of the money at them later in March or April, right now I want to get my airfare booked and paid for first. I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen for ages and it turns out he works for Air Canada as a gate agent, and he mentioned being able to swing me a discount code for AC - who are already my cheapest option to get from BC to Europe! Even better, AC is only $50 Cdn for a bike as baggage, and Victoria-Toronto-Frankfurt-Vienna/Paris-Toronto-Victoria is the sanest routing I've found that doesn't go through the US - nobody flies direct from Canada to Vienna for anything less than stupid $$$, it seems, and I won't fly through the States if I can possibly avoid it... your TSA is best avoided.

Also officially told work I'd be off for seven weeks; the response there was "We'll look forward to seeing the postcards!", which is good!

Brian.

[trailrunner]

Sounds like you have a plan. I was told by another person that AF3V would take pay pal so sent all my papers in for the 3 of us that are going and sent the membership dues by pay pal . Sent them an email that said what I did. Never heard anything. Sent another email..nada. Then I get a note that says we got your papers and you are excepted but..where is the money...duh...I sent it pay pal..no we don't have it. I called pay pal..yes they have an acct an yes they have it. Finally this past week..one month after I sent the money...I get a note...OH you are right !! We have it , you sent it pay pal   Yes...I told you I did. Well they said thank you but DON'T do it again. So I will wire our money like you say in April most likely as I don't quite have all of it. We have an apt for the 3 of us in Vienna. It was quite inexpensive on VRBO and is in the historic district and has a washer/dryer and lovely kitchen and views. Great reviews and I heard back from him very quickly when I used.....drum roll....Pay Pal ! Yeah. We are flying KLM...it is only one hr stop in Paris from Atlanta on the way and nonstop from Amsterdam on the way home. Price was only a small amount more than others are paying for lots more stops etc. We are taking the train from Nantes to Amsterdam at the end of the AF3V ride and will be using Warm Showers to ride all over Holland till Aug 5th. I will likely be ready to come home by then !!   

Keep me posted as to your plans. Look forward to meeting you .  Thank you for posting back. c

[Wirelizard]

After we get to Nantes on the 14th of July I don't fly home (from Paris) until the 20th, so I'm planning on spending a couple of days biking in the Nantes area, probably including riding down the Loire to Saint-Nazaire at the Atlantic coast, mostly so I can say I've ridden the entire width of France from the Swiss border to the Atlantic! (it's about 65km or so down to Saint-Nazaire)

I've also sat down with Google Maps and laid out the whole route in four sections; I posted this to the new mailing list for the ride a day or two ago but I'll repost it here too. I wound up having to use four maps due to the limits on the number of waypoints you can specify on a single Google Map.

Vienna to Passau: (Austria to the German border)
http://goo.gl/maps/HGlWo

Passau to the Bodensee: (across Bavaria to the Swiss border)
http://goo.gl/maps/CtlxI

Bodensee to Digion, FR: (Switzerland to the Loire River)
http://goo.gl/maps/NAXa3

Digion to Nantes: (down the Loire)
http://goo.gl/maps/d0ZDt

The route might not be entirely accurate, but the towns (each white dot) are correct. Note that I did NOT use the hostel/accommodation address provided in the route book for each town's dot, I just picked an arbitrary point in the rough centre of each town, except in Vienna, where the starting dot is at roughly the right location for the hostel there. Rough location is good enough for basic route familiarization and for sharing with friends and family who are wondering about our route.

Just for the sake of a complete set of maps, here's Vienna-Schwechat Airport (Vienna Int'l) to the hostel in Vienna, for those of us arriving by air with bikes. Looks like a nice ride along the Danube for the most part, and a dedicated bike route off the airport property.

https://goo.gl/maps/HbAot

The only downside I've just learned about is that it's not $50 Cdn to bring the bike on Air Canada, it's effectively $150 because the cheap sods only give you one free piece of baggage on an international flight these days, $100 for the second plus $50 for a bike. Oh, and they also forbid stuffing the bike box with personal luggage, and with two panniers + helmet there's no way to avoid having two pieces of checked baggage. Sodding airlines. So there's that, but the bike has a spot reserved for it both outbound and inbound now.
Looking forward to being in Vienna in ten days!

[trailrunner]

WOW!! You have been busy !  I love the maps you sent. How does one get to the place on the map so that one can move it left/right/up/down as on map quest  ? I never can find a place on the screen for doing that...all they have is the + - on the bottom right.

Yikes the airlines is really getting you aren't they ?!  That is terrible. We have to pay the 150.00 for the bikes but then we get a checked bag and 2 carry ons. So we are checking 2 rack bags and carrying on our 2 panniers each. We use tiny panniers and pack very light. May actually only bring one rack bag.

Your post plan to ride down the coast sounds great ! We have no plan We want to do some in the Netherlands as we lived there in 1988-89 and our nephew is in den Haag now and we want to see him before we go back to the states. As the trip goes forth we can talk and see what is what...may add on more with you if that is acceptable to all.

We are very excited. getting in a lot of miles...did 130 or so this week and added weight in the packs too. I am sure we will be ready as this is way easier than any other tour I have done. Will see you SOON !!   c

[Wirelizard]

WOW!! You have been busy !  I love the maps you sent. How does one get to the place on the map so that one can move it left/right/up/down as on map quest  ?

On Google Maps, just click anywhere on the map that isn't a route line and click and drag to move the map around. Zoom is the plus/minus buttons or just the mouse wheel - scroll up to zoom in, scroll down to zoom out.

I'm going to do a full test pack after dinner this evening, I just bought one of the ultralight sil-nylon duffels I mentioned over on this thread and want to try out various configurations of that and possibly using of of my Ortlieb panniers as a carryon. I might (very big if!) be able to squash everything down and distribute it such that I have one carryon, the bike box with a few things tucked alongside the bike (one of the empty Ortliebs + helmet, tucked into the frame, maybe) and a small side bag as my personal item. Given that that would save me $200, I'm going to try hard to make that happen...

[trailrunner]

Thanks worked like a charm. I sent the links to some friends and family that want to track us . Yes there is talk on the list about going to the coast and doing a boat trip out to an island that is lovely. Did you read that on the list ? There is a pic of a metal snake sculpture there that is very cool looking. We pack light so I am not concerned. But we did buy to soft bike bags that are 10# together and if I can't get the IH people in Nantes to let me mail them from Vienna and then hold them there for us I will have  to cart them the whole trip !  So far the girl in Nantes said she would ask her manager but I haven't heard back today, I will try her again next week. We need them for the French trains so we can take our bikes to Holland...they don't allow bikes that aren't taken apart if you want to go out of France on Thaylis trains. irritating !  See you soon ! THANK YOU for the maps !  I think we will take the train from the airport but you never know...maybe we will ride...taxi is 40 euros so I know we won't do that !  c