Stapleton Travel Blog

Today we pull out of the outskirts of Hanoi and head northwest to to the Ba Vi resort. Riding with the cars and motorscooters was a little unnerving but didn’t feel unsafe.

We had a delay at the bike shop waiting for Beth’ s and Chris’s ebikes to arrive. Beth had trouble adjusting to this e-bike as she felt it was pushing her when she started to go. No better place to work out the kinks than the city streets of Hanoi.

We stopped for lunch at a forgettable hole in the wall restaurant and had fried rice noodles.

Stopped in a rice paddy field to get a lesson on growing rice in Vietnam by our guide, Cuong.

Our ride finished with a steep 4.5 K climb to the Ba Vi resort. It was the hardest climb I’ve ever done. Felt like 12%+ grade the entire climb. Total miles today was 68K.

We finished the night with our group dinner at the resorts outdoor restaurant.

Today we have the day to ourselves until our 17:00 meeting with World Expedition’s cycling tour group. Our quest is to see the “Hanoi Hilton” that Senator John McCain was in and to also find some rambutan fruit.

Mission accomplished (including finding a rambutan) Had a good morning exploring (getting lost) in the old quarter of Hanoi. We got pretty good at crossing in traffic too. Fun fact: traffic lights, one way signs, etc are just a suggestion here. The most people we’ve seen on a motor scooter at one time has been 5 so far.

We had our group dinner tonight outside of Hanoi Centre at a family that does cooking classes in Hanoi. The group is mostly from the UK and Australia. At our table was Elena from Canada, plus Graham and Chris from Australia.

Headed to Hanoi today. Excited and tired. The Japanese are so polite. They make you feel like royalty. I’m going to miss that. I’m also going to miss my friend “Pepper”. He gets me.

Looking at the photo below, I know what you are thinking…….I want to party with those two! Actually, we are not real doctors, we only play ones on airplanes…….get me 750 milliliters of “Pinot Grigio” STAT!

Finally arrived in Hanoi. Checked in to our 3 star Skylark Hotel. Fun fact: when you approach a roundabout in your motorscooter, you can go to the right and follow the traffic pattern or turn left and go against the traffic. WTF!

We spent the night walking around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We had our first taste of Vietnam tonight. I washed it down with a Tiger lager. Last time I had a Tiger beer was in 1979 when I was in Malaysia. Still good.

We initially had a non-stop flight from Newark to Hong Kong and then after spending a day in Hong Kong we were scheduled to fly to Hanoi. Those plans changed 2 days before we were to leave (due to the coronavirus and flights being cancelled because they were not full). We thought we dodged the bullet when we re-booked to a Newark-Tokyo-Hong Kong flight. Then 1 day before leaving our Hong Kong to Hanoi flight was changed and was no longer an option. F#@K!

We then spent a half day re-booking to avoid Hong Kong entirely (I’ll spare you the details). We think we are now set to get to Vietnam (although neither of us actually think we are going to be able to get home as our return flights need to go through Hong Kong!).

After a 14 hour flight we are settled in and looking forward to a 6 hour flight to Hanoi tomorrow.

Today we rode along the Vecht river in the province of Utrecht along bike paths.  We saw canal boats, beautiful homes as well as high speed cycle groups go flying toward us. It is totally flat. We rode around 35 – 40 miles today. We even got to ferry across on section of the ride.

Along the way there was a 200 year old windmill that we got to visit.

 

We stopped for lunch (and a tour) in the Muiderslot Castle.

 

Riding into Amsterdam was interesting. Luckily for us, it was Sunday. It can get pretty chaotic when the bike paths are crowded. Tonight we have our final dinner on ship as well as a canal boat cruise.

 

Today was a 23 mile ride along the Rhine river from Bohn (home of Beethoven ) to Cologne.  We are now in the beer part of Germany. We had lunch in Cologne with the local Kolsch beer served in small glasses (not the big mugs you see in the Bavarian region).

The tradition (started in Paris) of putting locks on a fence when a couple gets married is everywhere  in Europe.

The cathedral in Cologne is the third highest holy building in the world. We stopped to say a few prayers and light a candle for Brian. They started to build it  in the 1100’s and it took 600 years to build.

Tomorrow we ride to Amsterdam.

Today we biked along the Rhine River Gorge. The basic run along the Rhine river was a flat (260 ft) 20 mile ride to our lunch at a local winery. We decided to add a 6.2 mile (807 ft) “Castle View” climb as well before lunch. It was a nice climb starting around 6% grade and ending up around a 12% grade. Beth did fine with the e-bike going up. It was a little unnerving coming back down the same grade. The view we had was actually from above the castle.

In the afternoon we sat on the sun deck as we cruised the river gorge to Lahnstein.  This was the part of the Rhine river that has many hilltop castles and towns right on the river.

Tonight we will be doing a tour of a castle in Lahnstein. Das ist gud.

This morning we were shuttled up to Hamacher Schloss so we could ride downhill through the vineyards of the German Weinstrasse. After a brief stop for a glass of wine at a local winery ,we rode onto Speyer (with Leigh from NJ/FL ) where our ship was. We will be cruising on the ship this afternoon  and going by Nierstein Germany where Julia’s family live.

As we passsed Nierstein, Julia, Todd, Maya and Max where on the shore waving to us. The captain gave us his binoculars and then blasted the horn. So cool.

Today we did a loop ride to and from the ship near Strasbourg. We went out with the first group of the day and three of us (Beth, me and Aaron from Utah) in that group chose the longer ride of 31 miles ( 750 feet of elevation).  We were eventually passed  by the second group (the Peloton always catches the breakaway group).  It was a relaxing pace for us through the corn fields.

This afternoon we did a short tour of Strasbourg. There are homes that are 400-500 years old there. The cathedral, which took 400 years to be built, was finished around 1500. Strasbourg flipped back and forth between Germany and France. It was not bombed out during the war because the allies knew it would go back to France after the war.

Today we biked through the towns and vineyards of the Alsace region in France (21 miles 1368 ft of elevation). Nice ride today and Beth is flying up the hills on her e-bike. We finished the ride with a wine tasting .  Pinot Gris and dry Reisling are our new found favorite white wines.

FYI. Our ship has 150 guests and over 40 are part of our Backroads biking group. The wheelhouse actually gets lowered so it can fit under the bridges.  We also having been going though many locks as we navigate northward.

Tonight we will end up in Strasbourg.