The pre-trip
London to Milan by train and ferry, 26th March - 3rd April
I'd committed to a start location of Milan, meeting my cousin there, but I didn't want to take my bike on a plane, so I decided to make life fun (or difficult, if you prefer) for myself and go over land and sea instead. The route went like this: train, train, ferry, train, train, hostel, train, train, train, friend's house, train, friend's house, train, Milan. Slightly more simply, London - Newhaven - Dieppe - Paris - Bern - Zürich - Milan, visiting friends in Bern and Zürich.
Things were slowed down by the fact that I was unwilling to bring a bike bag, ruling out most French TGV trains, and that the slow TER French trains don't allow bike reservations, so I planned not to travel in peak times. I did manage to take one TGV between Paris and Strasbourg, and was informed by my seat neighbour (a chatty Frenchman beginning to get into bike travel) that Mike Horn, a France-famous Bear Grylls type figure from South Africa, was in the next train carriage and would probably be interested in talking if he saw my bike. I didn't feel like feigning an interest in some celebrity I'd just learned about though, so I didn't visit his first class seat.
It was fun to take the Newhaven - Dieppe ferry again - last time I took it was for my first international bike trip, when I followed Donald Hirsch's Dieppe-Paris route over three and a half days in a freezing November. This time, I was selected for a "random search" when arriving at Newhaven port and almost thought I'd get to see some true scrutiny of a bike (unheard of for ferries), but the entirety of the search was a cursory glance in my handlebar bag and the staff taking my word for it that I didn't have any flares, large knives, or firearms. Brilliant.
I had a fun moment on the TER train from Strasbourg to Basel. It was a bit delayed, just 10 or 15 minutes, so for some reason they decided they would stop early in Saint-Louis (France) instead of going on to Basel. I wouldn't make my connection in Basel and the next was an hour later so I decided to just cycle 20 minutes from Saint-Louis to Basel since it would be fun to cycle across a border anyway.
On the train, I was engrossed in a book (The Hearing Trumpet) with a convoluted ending. Just after I finished reading it, there was a train announcement and the train slowed down. Everyone was getting out, and upon checking my watch, it made sense: it was around the time for us to arrive in Saint-Louis. I'd need to pull my bike off a high hook and re-attach all my panniers, which wouldn't be possible with everyone standing by the door, so I waited until they got off and took my bike down in no particular rush. As I was about to attach my panniers, a cleaner boarded the train (makes sense, terminus), and the doors closed. I pressed the door open button immediately, which didn't work, and the cleaner said something to me in French which I didn't understand - and she didn't speak English.
I tried the button again, and it worked, so, leaving three of my panniers on the train, I took my bike and one bag onto the platform. As I did this, the train started to slowly move, which I had definitely not been expecting. Perhaps it was on its way to the depot? Jumping back on to retrieve my remaining panniers seemed risky, but thankfully the cleaner was willing to throw them to me from the moving train as I encouraged her in broken French.
Slightly shaken but glad to somehow have all my belongings, I tried to act as though this was completely normal and started to reattach the rest of my panniers when the train stopped again and four SNCF staff came to ask me why the hell I had just jumped off a moving train, and if I knew that it was dangerous. At this point, I looked up at the station and realised I was not at Saint-Louis, but rather at Mulhouse, 30km away. There was really no point explaining to the staff, and I didn't want to ask if I could actually please get back on the train, so I let them talk at me and agreed that I must be crazy. They left me alone after that, and I caught a local train three minutes later that went all the way to Basel, but unfortunately arrived too late for me to cycle across from Saint-Louis.
Visiting friends in Bern and Zürich was a welcome calm period between the frantic rush I'd been in while preparing to leave London and my upcoming trip. In Zürich, my lovely friend was keen to print me something useful with his 3D printer, and we (mostly him) designed an organiser to go inside my handlebar bag, which was getting a bit chaotic inside. I'm really happy with how it came out and looking forward to using it.
Inside is a quote, "follow a map to its edges", from Iohan Gueorguiev, a bike tourer who created an epic series of videos. I've only watched the first few, but I love his manifesto:
I, Iohan, want to see the world. Follow a map to its edges, and keep going. Forgo the plans. Trust my instincts. Let curiosity be my guide. I want to change hemispheres. Sleep with unfamiliar stars. And let the journey unfold before me.