Accommodation: Studio meublé, piscine et terrasse dans rés. calme (Airbnb)
The heat finally broke, and it rained—poured--all morning. Ken and I spent a couple of hours working on bike routes for next week, figuring out train schedules for our transfer to Annecy Saturday night, and rebooking our Airbnb in Dijon for next month (after receiving a message from our original host, reminding us that he could not accommodate our bikes; we thought we had canceled and rebooked that, but apparently we had not; anyway, we found a great alternative and are all squared away now).
I packed for the trip to Minnesota, made of list of things to bring back with me—things we could get here if necessary, like sunscreen, but as long as I’m going home, we might as well have our favorite brands. When the rain quit, we walked down to the train station to scope out where Ken could lock up the bikes when he shuttles them down alone on Saturday. He and the bikes will meet me at the station so we can get the earliest possible train to Annecy.
We shared a burger at an outdoor restaurant on our way back to the apartment. I took a little nap and a shower, and it started to pour and thunder again—just as it was time to head for the train station. Raincoats, an umbrella from the apartment, my waterproof Ortlieb saddlebag—no problem.
Two hours and two trains later, I made it to the Geneva airport. My plane doesn’t take off until 7:20 tomorrow morning, but the last train I could get out of Aix was at 18:55 this evening; all the later trains were fully booked. I could have gotten a hotel room in Geneva, but I didn’t put that piece into the pie. So I’m trying to get comfortable on a wooden bench in the airport and tough it out until morning. This part of traveling lost its appeal a long time ago—actually, it’s always been a pain.
