Bike: 32 miles, 1200 feet of climb
Accommodation: Logis St. Joseph (Booking.com). Two studios, one full bed each, private bath, kitchenette, breakfast.
Our longest and last day with Konur on the bikes. We started off with an amazing breakfast on the patio in Saumur. We were the first guests for our hosts. They served homemade muffins and jellies and eggs, coffee, hot chocolate, juice, fruit, yogurt, bread, local cheese and meat, and eggs. They sat with us and talked about their life and their family. It was hard to leave. But we had a long journey and needed to get on the road.
When we reached Angers, we met up with Meghan at the train station. Konur’s bike needed to be dropped off at the rental shop in a campground about five miles away. Meghan and Konur stayed at the station with Ken’s and my bikes. Ken and I hired a taxi and took Konur’s bike to the rental shop.
Once we got back to the train station, we all walked to our hotel, next to a church in the old part of town. The hotel had self-check-in. We had two rooms—the boys in one, the girls in another. We did not find any bike storage options, so we took the bikes to our rooms. (We often do that. It is nice to have a garage or storeroom, but when those are not available, we just put the bikes in the room or apartment.) After we checked in, our host messaged asking what time we wanted breakfast. We needed to leave before it was served, so she offered to drop off a bagged breakfast for us that evening. That sounded great.
When she arrived with the breakfast, she saw our bikes in the rooms, and got very upset and demanded that we take them outside right then. The only place to leave them outside was right on the street. We tried to tell her that we couldn’t leave the bikes on the street, even with locks. They just wouldn’t be safe. She insisted. I pointed out that when I made the reservation, I said we were traveling with bikes, and I was not told there would be any problem with storing them. I showed her the message I had sent. She showed me a note in the listing that said there was no parking available. She insisted that "no parking" included no bike storage, and we had to take the bikes out.
We were not sure what to do. Finally, Ken said he would remove the wheels and take just the frames down and chain them to a pipe outside the door. About that time, the host decided to call her manager and see if he would make an exception for us. A few minutes later, she came back with a message translated into English on her phone. It was a sincere apology from her, saying her manager said we could keep the bikes in our room. She was so sorry she had made such a fuss.
That little bit of drama over, we all calmed down and congratulated one another on a great last day of biking and a good evening being all together again.
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Konur had to say good-bye to his rented bike at the train station in Angers. I think he was a little sad to come to the end of his big bike adventure on the Loire. |
