Guest Blogger Alert!

Many of you are familiar with our friend Victoria Rose.  Vicky writes a blog dedicated to the advancement and rediscovery of eating local - yes, she’s a locavore.  Apparently, she’s also got some wanderlust in her system as well.  Thanks for the great article, Vicky.  To say I am jealous of your excursion would be an understatement!

By Victoria Rose

In 1995, a thinner and fitter (and obviously much younger) version of myself toured Europe for 5 months “en velo”.  I took a bicycle, sleeping bag, backpack, and a set of saddlebags.  My traveling companion brought the same and added a two-man tent.  We each purchased a Eurail pass to help cover the longer distances and absentmindedly wondered if there would be snow when we were ending our tour in November; apart from wool socks we had not packed any winter clothes.  We did not pack a stove either.  And maybe I should mention that we had just met a few months before our departure date.

We got called many things, mostly “crazy”.  We were about to tackle a five-month tour without any training but we did not see a problem with it.  “Life is for Living!” we exclaimed and started our ride from Redding, England.

In five months we ran into very few issues with touring by bike or even transporting our bicycles via bus, train or plane.  Since there has been a lot of mention about making our area “bike friendly” I thought I would go over a few things we liked, a few things we did not expect, and a few things that our region could easily adopt to achieve James’ not-so-crazy idea of Windsor being “the most bicycle friendly city in the world”.

Positives

• Our bikes flew for free since we were not bringing any luggage (bike can be bagged or boxed); our bikes also traveled for free or at a nominal cost when taking other modes of transportation (we took some coaches in Ireland to make up time; they charged $10 from major city to city trips and bikes were free and did not need to be boxed)
• Europe is extremely bike friendly with abundant bike racks, independent bike shops, and lots of good, frequent signs (you will ALWAYS see signs pointing to “Downtown” or “Centre-Ville”); most larger cities have well-marked bicycle lanes
• France has 11,000 campgrounds despite being less than half the size of Ontario!  There is a campground approximately every 20km
• The people (especially outside of the large cities) are amazingly friendly:  we consistently received cakes and hot drinks at campgrounds; during a long trip a conductor wanted to move us (and our bikes) to create a military-only car but the Italian soldiers would not allow it; a commuter who spoke no English (and we spoke little Italian) jumped off of the train at a stop and returned with coffee and donuts for us; upon entering a town and finding out from the tourist office that the local campground had closed, the employee locked our bikes in the office and drove us to a campground near her home (so we would not get stuck riding in the dark), picking us up the next day on her way back to work to return and retrieve our things; strangers encouraged us constantly with shouts of “On y va les filles!”
• Almost every town has a bakery, pub, butcher shop and market regardless of population size; we would eat outside and everyone entering/exiting would say “Bon appetit!” (we heard this constantly and not just in France)
• Pizza trucks with wood-burning stoves sell inexpensive individual pizzas to order - Yes, this one deserved its own bullet point!
• My friend is French and I speak a bit of French and some German so we were able to communicate but even in remote areas, many people speak some English or French

Issues

• The train station staff did not always know the type of storage car that the arriving train would have, so boarding the train quickly and not ticking off the conductor was sometimes difficult; options were hanging bike car (everything must be removed), standing bike car (everything can be left on), or no bike car (bike must be bagged with front tire removed); when taking the train from France to Italy, we got the news about needing a bike bag and had to go buy them at a cost of $100 each
• Most of Europe shuts down for lunch and some shops are shut for hours during the day; good luck riding into a small town at noon and hoping you can eat or use a washroom
• Our camping guide was about two years old and some of the campgrounds had closed; we had to continue riding on to the next site
• Floor toilets…try squatting over this after riding all day.  We used to go to McDonalds just to use the sit down toilet
• The camping season is short so some campgrounds are closed out of season or they stay open but close off most of the amenities (like sit down toilets and showers)
• Showers were either on a timer or required change to feed the meter; unlimited cold water was usually free

• More signage! Even I cannot find my way at times and I live here; for example: I took the Chrysler Canada Greenway Trail and the signs telling you what road you are at are missing (Yes, I forgot to print a map but it would be nice if it was marked and if there were maps along the trail or at least one big one in each of the parking lots)
• User-friendly train/coach storage; VIA charges $20 each trip for your bike and it must be boxed or bagged, Greyhound charges $20-35 depending on the distance and the bike must be boxed; your bike must be bagged to take on the Tunnel Bus (do you want to disassemble your bike just to cross the border?)
• Bike-friendly areas with more bike racks, cycling lanes and greater accessibility for cyclists using buses and trains

So what does our area have that could help us become a bicycle mecca?

• Starting around Belle River with its recently added train bridges for pedestrians/cyclists, one could do a large loop of Essex County, taking back roads to the start of the Ganatchio Trail and connecting with the Chysler Canada Greenway (would need a few trails to connect each point and lots of signs)
• Windsor is multicultural and tourists from most countries could visit a downtown restaurant or a specific area of the city (Chinatown, Little Italy, etc.) if they wanted to meet people or go to a place of worship that they are familiar with (after about 6 weeks in France we went to a truck stop and heard all of the drivers speaking English and it was such a nice thing to hear after speaking French for so long)
• Our season’s winters are mild and our camping/touring season is very long; in addition, from May to October there are countless festivals that people can enjoy
• We have restaurants and shops that are open seven days a week, with businesses being open all day without closing for an afternoon break
• Buses now have front bike racks and you can take your bike on the Tunnel Bus so visitors could get around the city easily or even visit another country
• Essex County has has 12 wineries and countless farms with long growing seasons; summer visitors could easily survive from stops at fruit stands and independent shops
• Canada is one of the world’s wealthiest nations and (believe it or not) we pay fair prices for many items; in addition, we do not suffer from shortages on food, products, etc.  So if a visitor runs out of batteries or film or wants to buy a Coca-Cola, they won’t have to pay an inflated price to do so
• Our region is flat and any of our overseas guests have been fascinated with how far they can see (we made the mistake of biking blindly and not looking at elevation maps and that made for some pretty tough days while riding through the Cotswolds); expert or novice cyclists to our area can enjoy flat terrain for easy riding

Windsor is well-positioned to become a cycling haven, not only for the residents but for tourists as well.  With true vision and leadership this is an attainable goal for our city.

And yes, there was snow in November.