Europe 2013: France to Holland

August 23, 2013

Today was my longest distance ridden of the whole trip, and I could definitely tell by the end of the day. 429 kilometers, 6 hours and 15 minutes of moving time (plus a couple hours stopped), and a lot of traffic on motorways.

To start, I wanted to remark on a few things about the French campground I found after getting out of the Chunnel. It was very clean, for one thing. I got a huge area for myself, separated on three sides by hedges. Once the kids went to bed, I didn't have any more problem with noise, unless you count the English family that arrived at the same time I did, and magically hailed the proprietor, which I had thus far been unable to do.

However, it had some unexpected parts as well. There was no toilet paper. Not even a holder. Clearly campers are expected to bring their own, and I found myself unprepared. It wasn't a disaster, but it was far out of my experience so far. The showers were free, which is great, but they had essentially no "dry side," so the towel and clean clothes I'd brought with me were very nearly as subject to shower spray as I was myself.

I spent too long in the morning trying to decide what I wanted to do. I had a number of possible destinations and paths open to me. I could head directly for Hamburg (which would only take two days, and I had three), or I could try to fit Nuerburgring (a race track I've vowed to ride while I'm over here) into the schedule. Fortunately, my investigations included checking travel times, and I realized that although Hamburg would only take two days, they would be two very long days. Getting to the Nuerburgring and to Hamburg in three days would be three even longer days. Straight to Hamburg it was, then. (I only wish I'd been able to come to this conclusion as fast as I just wrote it out.) I also remembered finally to adjust and lube my chain, which has been overdue for the last 1000 km.

So I set my sights on Amsterdam, figuring there would be plenty of campsites around. The path the GPS sent me down was pure freeway the whole way, and I ended up stuck in traffic five or six different times. One time, I gave in and tried filtering -- I can do it, it's not enjoyable, but it did probably save me an hour of sitting in traffic around Antwerp. A motorcycle passes down an impressively narrow path. No problems encountered, although if I use it again, it will only be when traffic is actually dead stopped. It was too much stress otherwise.

Fortunately, the weather was decent for the trip. When I set out from France, it was muggy, but a very moderate temperature. As I continued along, it got warmer, and the mugginess subsided somewhat, although it never completely went away.

As I mentioned at the top, today was a long, long day, with a comparatively huge number of hours and kilometers ridden. The complaints from yesterday about the seat and sitting in one position remain true.

When I finally, finally got to the campsite I'd targeted, it was to discover that they were 100% full. Turning back to get my helmet back on and get back on the bike inspired me to thoughts of "torture rack" and similar concepts. I was really ready to be done, but the proprietor was insistent that he had no space.

It turns out I arrived on Friday evening of some variety of holiday weekend. I'm lucky I found a spot eventually at a campsite next to a canal in Haarlem, near Amsterdam. Even so, I'm parked in front (like, five feet in front) of a moderate-sized German frat party, which I fully expect will continue well into the night, so I suspect I'll be sleeping with earplugs tonight.

As the day wore on, I became more and more aware of my chain, which I'd adjusted in the morning. It was making griding noises, and I was increasingly afraid that I'd damaged the output bearing of the transmission by tightening the chain too much. Finally, at 7:30 tonight, riding dejectedly from the full campground (and the four other full campgrounds in the vicinity), I pulled into a parking spot in Haarlem and loosened the chain, hoping against hope that the grinding was just the chain, and not in the bearing. Indeterminate results, but I suspect the output bearing is in trouble. If that's the case, it will most likely mean dropping the engine and splitting the case, probably a 400-600 euro operation, just in labor. I could do it myself, if I had a workshop, but I don't, so money may have to stand in. I hope not, I hope it's just the chain. Time will tell. I'll probably bring it to someone on Monday, in Hamburg.

As I thought about it more, I had adjusted the chain to the correct tension (or very near it), which shouldn't have been anywhere near tight enough to cause the output bearing to fail in 430 km. If it is the bearing, it must have been suffering from a too-tight chain for most of its life, and I just added the straw that broke the camel's back. There's also still the possibility that the adjustment pulled the wheel out of alignment (it shouldn't have, but it's possible). I'll have to check that in the morning. That could have a similar effect.

On a completely different topic, language has been on my mind. Last night in France, I asked some kids where the toilets were (getting the word completely wrong, asking for the baths first), and other than the very basic "here" and "turn left" they said, I caught not a word of their conversation with me, which was ongoing.

The proprietor of the campsite was speaking English with the people before me, so I chickened out and addressed her in English as well. I had intended to at least start out in French, but the relief at being able to use English was palpable. When I tried to compose anything more than very simple questions or phrases with the two kids, I'm sure I sounded like a child trying to talk for the first time.

Now that I've arrived in Holland, I'm very aware that I don't speak any Dutch other than one or two little phrases I learned via my brother, who spent a year here. I'll be glad to get to Germany, where I actually have a clue how to speak the language, even if I'm not fantastic at it.

I've paid money for my internet connection tonight, so I'd better go get my euros' worth.

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Created by Ian Johnston. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.