Lost, tired and in love

I landed in Paris at 6 a.m. and it took me until almost 9 to find an Internet connection. Couldn’t find a free WiFi spot at the airport and their Internet kiosks were broken (see photo below), so I had to lug what felt like 80 pounds of leathers, rain gear and the few items of clothing I brought with me hither and yon before I finally trekked down the road to a hotel. Internet access there was 15 euros for 45 minutes, which was fairly expensive. Especially considering it cost only 3 euros later today at a hostel in Brugge for an hour.

The Charles de Gaulle International Airport was a decidedly bare-bones operation compared to airports in big cities in North America. Terminal 3 where I landed had little but washrooms, car rental kiosks and places to pick up baggage. Even the departure level at Terminal 3 had only a couple of fast-food places, all with cafe de creme, cappucino and shots of expresso (see photo below).

Didn't check out Terminal 1, but Terminal 2 was more of the same. Very spare.
The Paris train/subway system is HUGE, though, with lineups to buy tickets. Didn't know you were supposed to retrieve your ticket and use it to exit on the other end, but a fella named Francois put his through twice so I could exit at Charles de Gaulle Etoile and then gallantly walked me the two blocks to Business-bikes.com so I wouldn't get lost. What a guy! Don't let anyone tell you Parisians aren't helpful and friendly.

I didn't get lost getting out of Paris, but not because of any brilliant navigating. Christopher, the mechanic at business-bikes.com, gave me an escort to the highway. It was on the recommendation of the owner, who didn't want me threading my way through any more Paris downtown traffic than I had to, but it was still very kind of him.

I did manage to make a wrong turn onto the A27 instead of the A22 just south of Lille, however, and got hopelessly lost until a young man named Munir on a scooter who couldn't have been more than 16 years old helped me get back on the right highway.

So, here I am in Brugge, three hours late, but where I'm supposed to be, largely due to the kindness of strangers, and in one piece. But TIRED.

Mara (Miller – the gal who set me up with a hostel room in Amsterdam for tomorrow night and recommended I stop in Brugge on the way there) was right, though. Trying to get to Amsterdam in one day from Paris would have been too much. By the time I got to Brugge, which is about half that distance, I was exhausted.


And, heaven help me, I * LOVE* this bike. The Honda CBF600. It's too tall for me (especially on these slippery cobblestones they seem to have everywhere here) but it's zippy -- I love the way it zooms. I've never been a speedy biker before, I ride mostly for the sheer kinetic pleasure of slaloming on curving roads, but now I'm in love.

This could be very bad. I confess opened it up almost as far as it would go when I got a stretch of the A1 where there wasn't any traffic to either side of me that could make sudden moves -- this puppy can do 180 klicks an hour EASY but I decided not to find out exactly how fast she'd go when the wind started buffeting my helmet around like a ping pong ball.

Stories about crazed French motorists are slightly exaggerated. Although Paris traffic was so insane I wondered if I was going to get out of the city alive, that's probably true of any large city. But I got cut off (squeezed sideways in my lane) only once on the highways between Paris and Brugge, and I’m pretty sure I had already crossed the border into Belgium just north of Lille when that happened. They do drive *fast* though -- had anyone been in the lanes beside me when I opened her up, they would have comfortably kept pace without an eyebrow raised.

I wish I could say the same for my fellow bikers. Lane-splitting (riding down the centre of lines of car traffic) is not only legal here but even the motorists seem to expect you to do it and get annoyed with you when you take up space in what they consider car lanes.

I tried following the other bikers down the centre of a line of cars for a couple of kilometers, -- but really couldn’t hack it. These bikers are insane. They zoom in and out and around the cars like they’re tired of living. And not one gave me the "biker wave" I love so much in North America. They were going so fast they didn't have time.

I thought the speed limit on the highway was 110, but found out later that was just for the slow truck lane -- the real speed limit was 130 kph. Which would explain why everyone was doing 140 and I felt like a slowpoke doing 120 to keep from getting run over.

But the drive to Brugge was a gas! Didn't need to turn on the Gerbing gear until after sundown north of the Belgian border, though -- it was 8C today. Perfect biking weather. Not cold enough to chill you, and not warm enough that you feel uncomfortable wearing full hide leathers.

The countdown begins

I've made a slight change to my plans -- or, more precisely, to my route.

On the advice of Mara Miller, an Ottawa native and incredibly nice woman in Amsterdam whom I've connected with through a colleague here in Toronto, I will be stopping for a night in Brugge in Belgium before continuing to Amsterdam. Mara's been very helpful, setting me up with a hostel room in Amsterdam and providing oodles of great advice. Although it's only a five-hour drive from Paris, Mara assured me it would still be too much for the first day after a long overnight flight. I do sleep well on planes, but don't want any vestiges of jet lag dogging me while I'm on two wheels. Safety comes first.

Brugge is less than three hours from Paris, so even if I get horribly lost trying to get *out* of Paris I'm still sure to be pretty fresh when I get there. I've decided I'll probably stop in Brussels on my way back to Paris, too, to make sure I'm not overextending myself and allowing enough time to stop and take photos when something strikes me.

My plane lands in Paris 6 a.m. local time, which gives me three hours to make my way to Businessbikes.com by 9 a.m. They are setting me up with a full-face helmet, a tank bag and a tail bag. I'm bringing my own saddlebags and a small backpack.

It's less than 24 hours until my flight leaves for Paris and so much still to do. Here's what's left on my checklist:


1) Buy health insurance
2) Buy euros
3) Confirm second bike rental
4) Pick up boots from shoemaker
5) Hem new leathers
6) Confirm transit points on my route to Brugge and Amsterdam.
7) Learn how to use my iPAQ

I'm going to be busy tonight.

Yay! My passport's here!

Just finished dancing a jig around my dining room to Jock Cocker's Feelin' Alright...

Carol's efforts must have paid off -- my passport just arrived by Priority Post. Now, if I can just make it out of Paris traffic alive, I'm on my way!

So, today I pack, learn how to use my new iPAQ, and start to figure out my route.

Thanks, Carol!

It's sunny in Amsterdam!

This is the rainy season in Holland, so I am packing along a rain suit and packing everything that will go in my saddlebags in zip-able bags.

But since I will be heading straight for Amsterdam the day I land in Paris, I checked the weather tonight and so far the forecast for Friday is sunny with a day-time low of 6C. The Gerbing's gear may not get much of a workout on the ride there.

But I'll gladly take the dry roads. I'm calling Business-bikes.com tomorrow to tie up a few details, such as whether they'll supply a full-face helmet (so I'll know whether to bring mine) and whether they'll rent me a tank bag and saddlebags.

I'm excited. It's starting to look like I'm going to pull this off.

Oh Carol, can you see my passport?

Woke up at 7:30 this morning to go to Passport Canada office in Scarborough. Arrived at around 8:30, prepared to sit on the floor and wail piteously until they agreed to get help me get my passport before my plane leaves on Thursday.

Turned out that Carol from that very same Passport Canada office had called me at home while I was en route, saying that she had received my fax on Friday and was expediting matters. When I got there, there were only three people lined up ahead of me in the main application queue. When it was my turn, a friendly young lady in the booth quickly directed me to Carol, who was very reassuring.

My passport was in production, and would be sent to me by Priority Post before Thursday, she promised. If I hadn't gotten it by Thursday at noon, she told me to call her directly and she will make sure I get it before my plane leaves. She gave me the phone number for her direct line. I clutched the piece of paper with her phone number on it as if I were afraid it would fly away.

And discovered I needed to call her the minute I got home. I realized that my flight leaves at 3:25 Thursday afternoon. That meant that if my passport hadn't arrived by noon Thursday, there wasn't going to be a whole lot of time for Carol to do very much expediting.

"Don't worry," she said when I called. "If you haven't received it by Wednesday afternoon, call me then."

I thanked her and apologized for being a nervous Nellie.

"I know this makes you nervous, she said, "but it will be OK. We deal with this kind of thing all the time."

I noted that her job resembled a high-wire act to a civilian like me. I'm not sure she thought that was funny.

But, somewhat reassured, I hung up the phone and went to go spend some more money.

Want to consolidate devices: calendar, phone, email, quick Web hits.

I liked the trim look of the Pearl (which is almost half the width of the other Blackberry models -- there are fewer keys and you tap them twice for certain characters) and had used a Blackberry before, so the interface would be familiar.

But the iPAQ had WiFi, which the Pearl didn't have. Because of the WiFi, I could probably use it for almost everything I'd need my laptop for while on the road. That would allow me to leave my laptop at home. Since it doesn't have a spinning drive like the laptop does, the iPAQ would have a better chance of surviving the bike vibrations on the road, too.

So, I decided to spring for the iPAQ: $799 with a $50 rebate, for a three-year plan.

Brought the iPAQ home and started charging it. I've never used a PDA except the Blackberry, not even the Palm devices. But the iPAQ uses a trimmed down version of Windows, so I hope the learning curve isn't going to be too steep. And that the iPAQ's version of Windows doesn't share my laptop OS's propensity for locking up at the most inopportune moments.

My friend Terry Fong is far more patient with hardware/software glitches than I am, and has promised to look at what I'd need to do if the iPAQ resets itself and loses all its data. He said my best plan may be to back up the software and data I need on a memory stick so I can repopulate the iPAQ with my data at a cybercafe, if necessary.

Next, I checked email while munching an eggplant roti from Island Foods. Browsed some material I will use later tonight to update my Media Gleaner blog. I'm going to try to maintain it while on the road -- entries will just be more sporadic than normal.

I settled in for the night, knowing I have no choice but to leave the fate of my trip in Carol's hands.

Data, data everywhere -- but how to sip it?

I was going to go look at a Blackberry Pearl today and decide if I was going to get one before going on the trip, but the roads here in Toronto were so bad after freezing rain and then snow that I decided to wait until tomorrow. The news reported 200 accidents by mid-day today.

I've also decided to look at the HP iPAQ hw6955, which, unlike the Pearl, has WiFi. The HP uses a trimmed-down version of a Microsoft OS so, combined with a real-sized keyboard, it would act much as a tiny laptop would.

The HP is a pint-sized dynamo that would allow me to test for free WiFi access in Europe without the bulk of a laptop. But I won't have enough time to chase down a holographic keyboard I've been lusting after.

It would have a better chance of surviving the trip intact, though. As a friend pointed out very early this morning, the vibrations from more than 1,400 kilometres of bike travel might not be very healthy for my laptop's hard drive, even if I pad it carefully with foam and bubblewrap.

The HP, unfortunately, is $650 with a three-year plan, and the Pearl is only $249. That's a pretty big difference.

The moon must have been in klutz yesterday. I was so upset over Passport Canada's redial queue hell and conflicting information from Passport Canada employees that I forgot to mention the weirdness that resulted in reserving the bike I'm renting by fax and phone.

About half a dozen emails I sent to Frederick at Business-bikes.com went into a black hole instead of his In box. They failed to reach him at either of the email addresses posted on their website.

So yesterday I faxed Frederick a printout of the most recent of those emails, along with the instructions for installing the Gerbing's battery harness.

Not long after noon, their technician read the description of the installation and confirmed that he will attach the harness, so I booked a Honda CBF600 for the Amsterdam leg of the trip.

I've always owned cruisers and this will be the first time I've driven a sport bike. My son Shawn has been trying to convince me I should try a sport bike for my next bike, so this will be a good test to see if I like them.

From the information I've found on the Web, it doesn't look like Honda sells this bike in North America. It and the Yamaha FZ6 Fazer are the two 600cc bikes Business.com rents in the size and seat height that I want. The Fazer seems to be a popular offering with some of the other motorcycle touring companies, as well.

Apparently the Fazer and the CBF600 were designed for riders who, like me, are transitioning from cruisers. I've been told that the torque on sport bikes make them twitchier than cruisers, but the riding position is probably the biggest difference.

On a cruiser, the sitting and foot peg positions allow you to sit straight up and place your feet in front, much the same as if you were sitting in a chair. The pegs, brakes and clutch shifter on most sports bikes are positioned further back and you have to lean forward over the gas tank to reach the handlebars.

This is a more aerodynamic position than sitting straight up, as you do on a cruiser, but it changes the centre of gravity and your legs end up angled toward the back of the bike. The peg position on both the CBF600 and the Fazer is not as extreme as on most sport bikes, so although you still have to lean over the tank a bit to reach the handlebars, there isn't as big a change in the foot position to adjust to..

I want to get past my skittishness about sport bikes. This, I think, is a confidence issue that should resolve itself (or not) by the time I've gone a few dozen kilometres. Kind of like driving a three--tonne truck for the first time instead of a car. It takes a little while to wrap your brain around the size and how you fit in traffic (and parking spots) but you accommodate and your body memory soon adopts the different handling.

And if 20 kilometres down the road from the rental agency I'm still freakin' out over the bike's weird ergonomics, I can always turn around and drop another $200 on the weekend by renting a Honda Scrambler, an antique cruiser they have in their fleet.

The only other cruiser alternative is a Harley 1450 Roadking, which weighs in the neighbourhood of a honking 700 pounds and will cost more than $800 for three days. Ouch.

Passport Canada blues...

I still haven't received my passport and this is starting to get scary. It was supposed to be mailed by Priority Post by today. But because Canadians flying to the United States after January 23, 2007 need to have a valid passport to enter the U.S., Passport Canada is "experiencing a high volume of passport demand."

A woman I talked to at Passport Canada last week said that if I hadn't received it by today I should call and get them to give it a little push. The line to Passport Canada is (surprise) always busy. With some persistence and the use of my phone's redial button, I eventually got through to the voice response system.

But once I navigated to the "inquire about an application" option, I got a message saying that my call is very important to them, all their agents are busy, and they have reached the limit of the number of people who can be on hold. They then ask you to call back later.

It took 30 minutes of hitting redial and punching in the numbers that navigate back to that option before I finally got into a queue to talk to an agent. Then I waited on hold for another 40 minutes. Total wait time: 1 hour and 10 minutes. You really have to be determined.

But once I finally got through, the person I talked to laughed when I told him what his colleague had told me last week, and said she couldn't promise that. He then explained to me that the only way to get it in time for my Thursday flight would be to get them to halt mailing it to me and initiate a pickup at the Passport Canada office.

I had suggested exactly that to his colleague last week, who had told me it wasn't possible.

Since I don't have an alternative, I'm following his advice. I sent an "urgent" fax to the Scarborough Passport Canada office, telling them that I need the passport for business travel, along with emails or letters confirming I am writing about this to provide proof for reason of travel.

I'm wondering if I'm going to have to reschedule my flight.