Thur 11th Troyes DAY 19

Parked for coffee in the mountains - just us!

Can't belive we actually got here - to Troyes just South of Reims, I mean. A huge day of riding - biggest yet - with at least 11hours on the bike and 419 miles done! BUT what a trip - the most beautiful and spectacular ride so far through the Alps and miles and miles of superb bends and swoopy corners. Perfect for 60-65mph whizzing.
We were actually COLD for the first time in two-and-a-half weeks. At coffee time I had to get Debbie's wind jacket out so she could maintain some warmth - she's worn it all day! Rob gets his heat from the engine and is shielded from the wind by the fairing.

The photos say it all and, as you can see, we have had a fantastic day riding.

Mountain road

Lake from above - in the Alps, somewhere!

Had a very good meal actually but we were very glad that we only had one 'plat'. Debbie had a knuckle of pork and Rob had 'Assiette de Cochon'....which he re-named assiette POUR cochon because there was so much on the plate.

There have been  couple of riding 'incidents' over the last day or two but I can only remember these two.

Just on the last day exit-ing Italy and entering France we came round a bend and there was a car stopped on our side of the road, the two passengers discussing whether or not to take the road to their left whilst the cars in the lane they should've been in were whizzing past. We screeched to a halt about a foot from their bumper and tried not to fall over, as balance went rather. Their bemused response was to raise an arm in apology and drive back into their stream of traffic.

Rob on bike in the Alps

There were quite a few fast overtaking other bikes over the last couple of days, on the bike friendly routes, but there was one in particular who seemed to be finding out just exactly HOW fast his machine would go. You could actually see perspective diminish as he was passing us with a racing whine one second and then suddenly on the horizon the next.

Yet another coffee break - Debbie is freezing on RHS

Although it was a very long day we seem to be getting better at coping with long hours 'in the saddle' and dealing with fast motorway as well as hair-pin bend kind of riding. We took more little breaks than usual today and that seems to be the

best way to be able to do long days on the move.

Today we're off to the coast ready to catch the 11.20am ferry in the morning. We've seen cloud for the first time in days this morning so I hope it doesn't actually rain!

Only two more posts to go.....and then this is all history.