Day 150 Thursday 1/12/2016

Had a very hot night but thoroughly defrosted myself, my fingers and toes are normal again. In the morning I had breakfast and then set off pushing my bike with trailer on top.

Trailer on bike

At Roermond station I caught a train to Maastricht but at Maastricht station they could not sell international train tickets, they told me I would have to go to a travel agent, I went to a street travel agent and was told that no travel agents in town sell train tickets these days so back onto the bike. I did buy myself a pipe while I was there and feel comfortable giving people directions now.

It’s that way

I left Maastricht heading for Belgium and Liege, on the border of Holland and Belgium I was interviewed by a Swiss TV news channel as it was coming up to the 25th annerverery of the Maastricht Treaty.
In Liege I found the station and booked a ticket for Marseille at 4.40 in the morning. In the station I talked to some people were living/sleeping there, most were drunks and drug users, but 2 people a man and woman were just there due to unlucky circumstances and I spent some time talking to them. During the night I loaded the trailer onto the bike again with the thought that tomorrow night I would be on the med.
Today 36km.

Day 151

4.40 I caught my first train to Bruxelles Midi and just managed to make my first train connection as they had lifts in the station. Belgium trains have 3 steep steps and narrow doors, some stations do not even have platforms making it difficult to get around with goods. On the train from Bruxelles to Tournai a guard/inspector came along and had a go at me for blocking up the space between carriages, so I asked him in my best French where the cycle carriage was and was told there was not one, I then showed him my train tickets for me, my bike and a dog so he had to lump it.
Getting off was difficult and I only had 5 minutes to change platforms with no lift, I asked the same guard I’d seen eariler and he laughed and told me I’d have to use the stairs. I had to remove the trailer from the top of the bike, remove my panniers, run bike, bags, trailer up and down steps while keeping control of a small dog, I missed my connection and had to change platforms again I was getting really stressed out, I caught a later train from Tournai to Lille Flandres were I had to change my tickets to trains with less connections. By now with the difficult platforms, narrow doors, no lifts I was carrying everything separately and ferrying bags up and down.
In Lille I must have been looking a state as I was standing outside the station having a smoke and a man came over to give me money as he thought I was a begger and my coffee cup was a begging bowl.
From Lille I caught a train to Amiens. At Amiens I had 17 minutes for my connection but there were no lifts so I had to ferry all my gear up 3 flights of stairs along and down 3 flights of stairs, just missing my train by about 1 minute as the bike carriage was at the other end of the platform.
I had to leave all my stuff on a platform while I went to the information desk to find which platform the next train would be on.
When I eventually caught my next train from Amiens to Paris North it was he’ll getting the bike on but at least I’d made it onto the train.
I’d reached Paris North but my connection from Paris North was from Paris Becy station. When I asked at the info desk about how to get to there I was told l could not use the metro with all my gear and when I asked him where the other station was he had no idea, I did manage to get a map and worked it out myself. I’d had no sleep last night, I was exhausted and had to push my bike across Paris as I was in no fit state to ride, especially during rush hour in Paris. I reached Paris Becy and found I’d missed my train that I knew, but there were no more trains till tomorrow, I went to the ticket office and the lady found another train from Paris Lyon station, 5 minutes walk down the road to Marseilles, went to Paris Lyon station and waited for the train, when I went to get on I was told I could not take a bike

On the train, the lady who sold me the ticket knew I had a bike and dog but sold me a ticket I could not use, the ticket office there was closing and I was told I had to come back in the morning.
I went back to Paris Bercy and when the lady from SNCF who sold me the ticket saw me she pulled the blind down on her desk.
I went back to Paris Lyon station and had a bit of a run in with a security guard who did not want me in his station with a bike, but after making him read my ticket that said I had a ticket for a bike he had to let me in.
While waiting in the station a nice young French lady saw all my gear and came over to talk to me while waiting for her train. After she left an English lad who had been living on the streets of Paris came over for a chat, he told me that there were people looking at all my stuff and were planning to rob me. I thanked him for the heads up but it would mean another night on the trot with no sleep.
I tried to rest but station security kicked everyone out of the station at 1am until 4am so I had to walk the streets for a few hours.
Today 7km.

Day 152

From 1am to 4am I had to walk the streets of Paris, I did this for a couple of hours and then decided to make myself a cup of tea outside the station until it opened. I went back in at 4.30 but the ticket office did not open until 6am, I think Pippa must have felt my anguish as she went to the toilet outside the ticket office. At 6 I went to the office again and got another ticket to Marseilles that allowed bikes but it did have 1 change.
I caught that train and at my change I asked a guard where my connection was and he told me the wrong platform so I missed it, I did catch the next train and an hour or so later I was in Marseille.
I pushed my bike out of the station and managed to get a puncture in my rear tyre, I stopped at a cafe and ordered a coffee, then a small beer, while fixing the puncture, a piece of glass that I could not remove with tweezers so had to use a knife to dig it out, then use a piece of tyre boot to cover the hole in the tyre.
The best thing about being on the med was I could remove my jackets and go back to short sleeves again.
Next stop was the tourist office, they told me where a campsite was and I made my way there, it was 15km in the wrong direction but I needed to do major repairs to the bike and sleep. I cycled along the coast and arrived at the site in the dark, I was told that they did not allow tents and only let in campervans and caravans, so I cycled back towards Marseille and slept on the beach after shareing a kebab with Pippa.
Lots of work needed to my bike including a bent Bob Yak skewer and a cracked screen on my tablet computer.
At least the temperature during the night is warmer then the days up north.
Today 20km.