Epilogue: The Return
It’ now been 3 days since we stopped cycling. After our tour we spent an extra day in Bordeaux enjoying the area and celebrating our success of the 203 miles we had completed in just 7 days. Once our second night in Bordeaux was over we had the most unpredictable journey of the ride yet – back to our car in La Rochelle.
After leaving our accommodation at around 11:00 we spent an hour continuing to explore Bordeaux before cycling the short 1.5 mile route to the train station. We arrived at the station at 13:00, knowing that the train was set to depart at 13:40. Waiting outside the station for our platform to be announced I could already tell that this was a very busy station and it was even worse inside. 20 minutes before we were set to depart, the train platform was finally announced on the display. The electronic display was easy to understand and knowing the time of the train helped with this.
With the platform announced, we started moving through the station. I just followed Dad, wondering how he knew where to go, but after speaking to him later I realised that the platforms were fairly well signposted and there were directions to the lift we needed too (somehow I didn’t see any of these signs walking through the train station!).
The lift was fairly small so we went in two people and bikes at a time and managed to get in and out with a little bit of moving the bikes into slightly awkward positions. Once moving on from the lift a short walk down a corridor we arrived at some stairs which appeared to be the only way up to our platform. This was a bit of a challenge because all the panniers needed to be taken off at the bottom, bikes carried up, and panniers put back on which took a bit of extra time and effort but nothing we couldn’t manage. The stairs took us up right next to the train and the carriage specifically designated for bikes where we started to load the bikes on. One of our biggest fears about taking our bikes on the train was that we would be told not all our bikes could go on due to space. Halfway through putting our bikes on the train we were approached by a member of staff. This was the moment when the train journey was either going to be a success or a disaster. At this point according to my Fitbit my heart rate went up to 142bpm, which is only 8bpm below the highest it was over the whole cycle tour, (this was also partly due to running up and down the platform stairs to help move our bikes, panniers etc.). After a slight language barrier we were told where we could put all four of our bikes on the train but that after loading our bikes on we needed to remove all the panniers to store in the overhead storage (we intended to do that anyway). Once settled in few remaining random individual seats across the carriage we had lunch and arrived back in La Rochelle at 16:15.
A short cycle back to the car and the complete journey, there and back again, was done. A celebratory drink was needed before the 2 hour drive (separated into two, 1 hour segments by a welcome stop for dinner at McDonalds) to our accommodation for another week to relax before our journey back home to the UK next Saturday.
I am looking forward to swimming next week instead of cycling for a change of exercise! Thanks for following our bike tour and we will still be posting more about our first bike tour in the coming weeks.