Back to Chambery- For a While

After normandy, we headed back toward Paris and then on to Chambery. I wanted to go to Chambery so I could drop off my bicycle and not have to schlep it around for the next weeks. Nick and I spent a few days based in Chambery.

The first day in Chambery, we just walked around the city as I tried to remember things about the city, where things were, etc. The next day, we took a trip to Chamonix, a famous ski town in the Alps. I had been there a few times before, but I never really spent any time there since I was primarily hiking. I didn’t not remember it being so big and with so many tourists. But it was filled with tourists, no doubt. And for good reason. The French Alps are pretty impressive, Mont Blanc rising immediately above the town.

We spent much of the day there and then drove back to Chambery enjoying the scenery back through the mountain valleys down along the rivers.

On the third day, we decided to rent bikes and ride along the Voie Vert 63 bicycling trail to Aix Les Bains, a town I had ridden to many times 4 years ago. It is a fairly flat route, almost entirely on a dedicated bike path with no vehicles, and finishes riding along the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake in France.

I had my carbon fiber Cervelo, but it was still in the box, and it would have been unfair to Nick if I rode that bike when he would have to ride the rental that more closely resembled a tank! It was only a twenty mile ride, but it was my first since having my cardiac “event” as I began to call it. I didn’t feel all that great at the finish of the ride, but I did recover this time, so I took that as a positive.

The next day, we said goodbye to Chambery and drove the rental car back to Paris. We stayed the night in Paris before leaving for Amsterdam in the morning. It was a quick trip riding the bullet train. We found a hotel about 20 minutes from the train station called the Sphinx. I say we found it, but the truth is that I had stayed there many years ago and found it to be a nice place, although the stairs were NOT ADA compliant. Saying they were steep would be an understatement! I guess they don’t have an Americans With Disabilities act in Holland.

The first thing you would notice about Amsterdam is the bicycles. EVERYONE rides bicycles. It helps that the city is completely flat, except for the bridges that go over the canals. They commute to work, go shopping, go to the park, everything. No one wears a helmet and the bikes are not very fancy. But so, so many. At an intersection, there will be 100 bikes waiting for the green light and maybe 5 cars. And the bikes come in all sorts of varieties too……

After wandering about the first day and seeing the bikes, canals, old churches and other things, we ended up in Rembrandt Plein (one of the town squares) to have a beer and watch people. Mostly to have a beer though….

The next day we were more focused. I had seen that there was a windmill on the city map so I wanted to go see that since windmills are iconic in Holland. When we first got there, we were looking at it from across a canal and it appeared that there was some construction going on around the mill. Seeing that, I thought maybe we might be able to sneak through the work zone and get an “up close” look at the mill. The construction workers were pretty unconcerned about us, but it wasn’t clear how close we could get. Then I noticed Nick was off to the side talking to a guy so I wandered over. It turned out that Erik was the apprentice “miller” and he wanted to show us the windmill.

He showed us the wind propellers and how to rig them with their sails and then took us inside the mill itself to see the inner workings. This particular mill was set for sawing lumber, as opposed to most that were for milling grain or pumping water. It was one of only 5 lumber “mills” remaining in Holland. They released the brake and we saw the windmill blades actually turning. Unfortunately, the wind was not strong enough to mill any wood that day, but it was pretty incredible to see this ancient work horse come to life. We were fortunate because they only work on the mill on Tuesday and today was in fact Tuesday. We spent hours there, but eventually decided to go get some lunch and see more of the city. But we did tell Erik that we would be back around 4PM to go buy him a beer as thanks for taking the time to show the windmill. It was a great and unique experience.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city looking at whatever caught our attention. Old churches, canals, and Bikes. Amsterdam is one of the great cities of the world.