Descent of Speed

10/18 6:00 AM PDT:  OAK

My day started in Napa Valley at 4:00 am. It is about an hour to the Oakland Airport where I’ll catch the 7:00 AM flight to Seattle, the first leg of my trip. I’m flying back to Seattle first, because it was the cheapest alternative. An open jaw ticket from Seattle to the Bay Area to Brazil and back to Seattle was going to cost almost triple two round trip tickets would cost! So I decided to get a round trip from Seattle to Oakland, and then another to Brazil. Then I had to decided on when the return trip to Seattle would be, would I fly back to Seattle then to Brazil, or to Brazil first? It was several hundred dollars more to fly out of SFO than SeaTac! And thus the first leg of the long day was born.

10/18 10:00 AM PDT: SEA

The flight into Seattle got in a little early, as I got off the plane at 8:40 AM. I got my luge and other equipment from the left luggage storage facility. It was cheaper to store the two bags for two days than to try and fly with them. Plus I didn’t have to deal with them for two days. Checking in wasn’t that bad, although it took a while for the ticket agent to find my flight out of Sao Paulo. Fortunately I had the ticket information on my computer. Now I just have a few hours to kill until I board the plane to Atlanta.

10/18 6:00 PM PDT:  ATL

We touched down a little early at 8:30 PM. With only an hour layover here in Atlanta, that gives me enough time to grab a quick bite to eat. That is two flights in a row that have landed early!

10/19 12:22 AM PDT: MAO

It looks like we got into the small airport of Manaus Eduardo e few minutes early, but it still took over an hour to go through passport control, customs, and recheck my bags. Yesterday morning, when I left Seattle, I made sure I talked to a ticketing agent. I am flying on two (well three) separate tickets. I have a round trip from Seattle to Sao Paulo, and an open jaw from Sao Paulo to Iguassu Falls to Porte Alegre back to Sao Paulo. In Seattle I had my bags checked through to my final destination, in IGU. I’ve done this before on multiple tickets. Here in Manaus I had to recheck my bags at the ticket counter. I was told they could only check my bags through to Sao Paulo because it was on a different ticket. I tried to argue with them, but they insisted that they couldn’t do it because it was a separate ticket! Fortunately I have a couple hours in Sao Paulo. We’ll see if I have to go through this same process when I head home. Of course the ticket agent noticed my bags were checked through to IGU AFTER sending one bag through. She attached a new tag to my second bag. I always thought that the tags were just used for routing purposes. And I’ve already have them tagged through to IGU!

10/19 8:17 AM PDT: GRU

I think we touched down a bit late, or maybe it was the long taxi time, but I didn’t get to the baggage claim until 11:50. I figured I had about 2 hours, so it wasn’t a problem.  I was mildly worried when it took a half hour to get my bags, but I was really worried when I got to the ticket counter and found hundreds of people in line. And the lines were in complete disarray. I got in what I assumed was the line, and didn’t move for almost 10 minutes.  I finally flagged someone down, he told me I was in the right line. And not to worry, as they would call out the city. When they do, to raise my hand, and they would pull me out of line.  That is if I can understand when they call my city out! The line ended up moving faster than I expected, and I got through it in only 30 minutes.  Security wasn’t an issue at all, taking just a few minutes to get through.  I made it to my gate about 15 minutes before the original departure. Fortunately, my plane was delayed by a half hour! This would have been very tight if my plane had been delayed. All because they wouldn’t route my bags to my final destination.

10/19 10:55 AM PDT: IGU

I finally arrived in Foz de Iguassu, about 4 PM local time. It is a tiny airport and I am waiting for my luggage. And of course it is raining out. The airport is small enough that we had to depart the train and walk across the tarmac. They conveniently provided us with umbrellas, although it was barely raining.  I guess we just missed the brunt of the storm as there was still a lot of water on the tarmac.

While the rain makes it easier for me to justify taking a nap at the hotel after such a long trip, this is the second time my arrival in Brazil was met with rain.

10/19 11:40 AM PDT: Taroba Express Hotel

After a short $25 taxi ride I arrived at my final destination. A mere 31 hours after leaving my friends place in Napa Valley. Five legs, 28 hours from airport to airport, with 19 of it spent in the air.

My trip didn’t exactly start off with flying colors. My original plan was to meet up with some friends in Paris on Monday and take the overnight train to Luchon. Turns out it was cheaper for me to fly out a day earlier (at one point my friends were also thinking of getting to Paris on Sunday as well.) I had planned on getting a hotel nearby the train station we would leave from. I could leave my luggage at the hotel for a day of site seeing, before taking the night train. We have done something similar last year, except we spent a night in Paris, afterwards. So I decided to get a hotel near the train station that we got a hotel last year. I even used Google streets to verify it was the same train station.  Friday night, after I was mostly done packing, and double checking a few things, I decided to double check the train station. Well last year we were traveling from Luchon to Germany. We got a hotel near the train station we would leave to Germany on! NOT the one we would leave to get to Luchon! It wasn’t that big of a deal, just means I have to take the subway after I grab my backs. Of course I wrote down instructions on how to get to the train station from the airport, and from the train station to the recommended metro. But I forgot to write down the address of the hotel!

But the worst thing happened on the way to the airport (or rather before I left the house.) I decided to take Shuttle Express. I was mostly packed, waiting for the shuttle to come, as I was double checking a few things and doing some last minutes things around the house. The shuttle arrived a little early, so I closed up the house and hopped on the shuttle. He had a few people to pick up in Kirkland. On the way to Kirkland I realized I forgot my backup camera. No big deal, I just hope nothing goes wrong with my mostly brand new camera (mostly brand new, as I sent it in for repairs.) We pulled into a hotel in Kirkland, and I knew I never had a chance to double check my backpack. So I took a look in there, and sure enough I didn’t have my Eurail train pass! This isn’t quite as bad as forgetting my passport, but it is pretty bad. I thought I had packed my backpack days before, but I’m not sure if the train tickets actually made it into the backpack!

So I had to get out of the shuttle, and had the hotel order a town car. We drove back to my place picked up the tickets (and backup camera) and rushed down to the airport. We got to the airport about 15 minutes later than I planned! But I paid a little more than I expected.

I did have one good thing go for me. I’m bringing some extra wheels for some friends, more than 20 lbs extra! My board bag weighed in at almost 70 lbs. SAS charges $300 for a bag going over 50 lbs! She only charged my for a “sports” item. She leaned in said she could have charged me $250 for the bag being overweight. I was happy with paying only the $55 fee.

I finally made it to Paris, and found my hotel and then headed out for some dinner, and some crepes. Last year when we came through I had a goal of getting some chocolate crepes. We went to one place that served them, but everyone decided the beers were too expensive. So we went to a bar down the street, which didn’t have crepes but the beers were half the cost (turns out they were half as small as well, so we all lost!) Today I headed down to Champs Elysees and found an outdoor café and had a coke and a very yummy chocolate crepe. That sad part is my half liter bottle (smaller than a 20oz bottle) cost about $8.50!

Great, I just found out we don’t yet have reservations on tomorrow’s night train to Luchon.

We pulled into Salzburg around 10:00pm at night, and fortunately the first hostel we found had room for us. We were all pretty tired and slept until noon the next day. The rest of the gang was being fairly lazy, so I took off and went for a hike on the mountain across the river from the old town.

I got back in time for dinner, and still everyone was being lazy, so I headed out for a walk around the old town. Which is basically just a large outdoor mall, with shops like “The Body Shop.” I had a cake in the shop underneath Mozart’s apartments. Just before I got back to the hostel, it started to rain. My friends had decided to go out for a skate, and ended up getting more soaked than me.

I spent the rest of the evening doing some laundry, and managed to turn all my whites pink. I’m gonna have to rewash them several times when I get home.

It rained most of the day today, so after a lazy morning at the hostel a few of us did a little shopping (with ponchos first on the buy list.) Now we are getting ready to head out to the next race.

Spent the last week in Jungholz at the Almabtrieb race. It was sunny the first day, rainy the second, kind of cool threatening rain the next. Almost sunny but not quite the following day. And then today it rained most of the day, but then we were on the train.

We pulled in to Salzburg about 10pm, and were lucky to find a hostel for the next two days.

WOW!

Our race was cancelled due to fog and rain, and most everyone bailed out early. We had a small after party, and Sunday was pretty mellow at the resort. Marcus and I walked down from the resort to watch the Tour de France. This is something I’ve wanted to see for years, but it was always just too far away. This time it was within walking distance.

We got down in time to catch the caravan, which is a parade of advertiser vehicles about an hour long. Crazy looking vehicles, and lots of free stuff. I managed to snag a package of laundry soap! A van stopped, selling official souveniers. I bought a back for 20 euros, and got a shirt, hat, key chain, wristbands and a towel. What a deal.

The last group of French to leave the resort graciously gave us a ride to the train station, where we ran into one of the Canadian crew. They had tried to catch the 9:30am train, only to find it cancelled. All of the restaurants at the resort had been closed, so we hadn’t eaten all day. Unfortunately it was fairly late, so the local stores were closed, but we found a small pizza place that made the best pizzas.

We took the night train to Paris, and remembered that today is Bastille day, so the tourist office was closed. We were lucky to find a room around the corner from the train station. After dumping our bags, we took off skating across Paris, on a search for the Eiffel Tower. Because of the holiday, many of the roads were closed and we were able to skate them freely.

On the way to the tower, we cross a park and noticed a large group of people looking northwards. They appeared to be looking out a sculpture garden. I was trying to figure out what they were looking at when a formation flew overhead trailing blue, white, red smoke! They were starting the day off with a minutare air show (or rather a fly by by several groups of airplanes) and we happened to be in a great spot, and just the right time!

We climbed up the tower, listening to some of the music from the Champs de Mars, where they are staging a concert for the holiday.

 What a great couple of days, Tour de France yesterday, and Bastille Day today. And I made use of the free laundry detergent…. mmmmm fresh cleaned clothes.

It’s Friday night, it’s raining outside and I am getting sick. Still in the Pyrenees. There is a chance the race will be cancelled tomorrow due to rain and fog. They ran the standup race today because of possible bad weather. We had a great morning session, but the clouds started coming over the mountains and lunch, and the resort was fogged in by the end of the race.

The Tour de France will be just down the road from us on Sunday!

I woke up this morning on the train in Luchon, France. A small tour in the Peyrenes. We took the overnight train from Paris. That was a small ordeal. We had to take the subway from one side of Paris to the next. We weren’t exactly sure how long it would take, and how much time we had. We had problems getting all of our bags through the subway ticket gates. One person even climbed over the gates! We got all of our bags on the subway, except for me… I made it on, but barely.

We got to the train station, and some of the guys wanted to get some alcohol, and someone else wanted an ATM. We couldn’t find either in the station, and we figured we could grab a beer in the diner car.

After we got settled in to our cabin (we somehow got all 16 bags stowed into our small cabin) the girls we met in Amsterdam stuck their heads in the door, along with some of the guys from southern cal. Our group grew to about 10 strong, and we decided to go off in search of the diner car. We walked for what seemed like a mile, but no diner car! I guess they figured an overnight sleeper train didn’t need a diner car. Our cabin was in the very last car, so we just hung out at the end of the car for a bit.

The race is at the Peyragudes Ski Resort. Doesn’t look like there are too many people not associated with the race here. Since we got in about 9AM we have had plenty of time to explore. A few of us walked down the course to the next village. I had some bread and cheese for lunch!

I’m sitting on a high speed train heading to Paris. Travelling about 300 KPH! Just over an hour to go from Brussels to Paris. We’ll take an overnight train to our first race.

Didn’t really do a whole lot in Amsterdam. Spent a good portion of yesterday picking up a couple friends from the airport. Their bags were delayed. When we got back into town, we spent several hours skating around town, and hitting various FEBO’s to grab a Kroket (an amazing Dutch food, thing deep friend pot pie.) I also finally got to try some really good poffertjes, another famous Dutch treat, basically miniature pancakes smothered in butter and powdered sugar. I’ll have to upload a photo soon.

We got up early and skated around a bunch today. We stopped by the open air market again, I looked for the guy that was making fresh hot waffles (they aren’t really waffles, but they look like thin versions with carmel sandwhiched between, yum!)

On the way back to our hotel to grab our bags we ran into two racers from Canada. They happened to be in Amersterdam for 3 days, and were catching the same train to the race.

I got to Amsterdam this morning, early. The plane was almost an hour early. On the way out you go by passport control. there were two agents, one doing all passports, one doing EU only. There were two in line for EU, and about 20 or so in line for All Passports. I got in the All line, but kept an eye on the EU line. Sure enough as soon as she cleared the two people, she changed the sign to All Passports. I waited for a second, and NO one moved! So I decided to get in line. Just before I got there, the next person in the other line just noticed the change, but I don’t think anyone else in the room noticed.

Marcus was meeting me, but I figured I wouldn’t be ready to go until 8 or so, and he didn’t get there till 9.

So far we managed to only check out a local market, and wander through a couple of parks.

Almost out of time…

I spent the next 4 days racing at Newton’s Playground. NPG was perhaps the coolest event since the last Gravity Games. The event was a combination music festival and extreme sports festival. Grinspoon headlined, and about 20 sports were represented.

Thursday a half dozen of us went out to an open road for a little practice, before heading into to register. The riders meeting was held that evening at a local pub, the Oxford. The pub stayed open relatively late for such a small town on a weekday.

Friday morning started off bright and early with us being on track by 7:30 am. We had practice followed by qualifying. Afterwards we went back to the Ox for dinner. We decided to call in an early night since we would most likely be up late Sat night.

Saturday was the first day of racing. The first two rounds of luge and standup were run, followed by the entire buttboard race. I didn’t really do well in either one. I need a bit more practice during the winter. A friend of mine wrecked and hurt his elbow in the buttboard finals. By the time we got back from the hospital, Grinspoon had already played!

Sunday was the semi finals and finals of luge and standup, as well as the entire practice, qualifying, race for GS. I was able to watch a bit, as well as get a couple more runs in.

The after party as back at the Ox. Apparently it was set up as a private party, because it start at 8pm, which is normally when it closes on a Sunday.

Monday we spent most of the day driving back to Sydney.