T-61: Practice and dates

Practice: Last week was a disaster. My goal was 4 km/day, 28 km total for the week. The total was 4.22 km. This, of course, explained by the fact that my oldest son was sick, and I spend much of the week as "assisting home nurse".

Also with regards to children - assuming that my wife gets assistance with junior from my parents, the boundries of the trip must be May 11th - May 31st. However, this is a very busy time of the year at school, and it might be just as good to bring junior along to France - in which case the boundries are May 11th - June 6th. It's an idea anyway. And he likes to fly - but will he be content to sit in the car with Klemet, or do I need to pull him along on the bicycle? Hmmm...

Goal for next week: 7 km/day, 49 km total, and if I should catch up with this week's 23.78 km deficit, I should do 72.28 km - or 10.3 km/day. Hmmmm... we'll see. At least "the wolf" will be back in kindergarden tomorrow.

Todo next week: Tighten chain and get riding outside again.

T-68 An inaccurate date?

Time is closing in, and might be closing faster than expected, too. My travel partner is open for travel between May 11th and June 6th. As ESC is being dropped, I need to finalize the travel dates, and this could mean starting before May 21st. Basically, only start and stop of travel are required. And booking the plane tickets.

I will be a "home alone with one chide"-dad for a few weeks counting from March 29th. In the meanwhile, I need to intensify my practice, which has been close to non-existant. Target travel rate is, after all, 30 km/day - or 210 km/week - a far cry from my current 5km/week average (actually altering between 4, 6 and 9 km/week of walking).

It is ten weeks until expected departure. A practice program should increase the distance by 20 km/week2 - 3km/day every week or 0.42 km/day every day. When bicycling is not an option due to other restraints, I must make use of the stationary bike - every day!

How should I accomplish this, I wonder? Well... first of all, write it down!

Week number: daily practice, total for week, total in period (comment)

Week 11: 4 km/day 28 km 28 km(15 minutes/day?)

Week 12: 7 km/day 49 km 77 km

Week 13: 10 km/day 70 km 147 km

Week 14: 13 km/day 91 km 238 km (an hour/day? Must be morning practice.)

Week 15: 16 km/day 112 km 350 km

Week 16: 19 km/day 133 km 483 km

Week 17: 22 km/day 154 km 637 km (two hours/day? How do I fit this into my schedule?)

Week 18: 25 km/day 175 km 812 km

Week 19: 28 km/day 196 km TOTAL: 1008 km

Next: Something as simple as a piece of paper with this information - or a spreadsheet. Jot down actual practice and check against the four different goals written down in the table above. Figure out how to get about doing this as I go.

P-114 Caravan

Klemet will be joining. The plan now is a rental caravan. This would radically change the approach; while the route still sits, the schedule can be completely undecided. That is, only start and stop dates need to be set (to be able to catch the plane), but the rate of progress can be completely up to my own pace. I can therefore go slower or faster than planned, and basically the project changes from specifically Paris-Lille to "Paris towards Amsterdam and let's see how far I get within this time frame."

Facebook: Paambi Stage 1 event Join in!

P-118 Time for action

Basically, the decision seems to be - drop Düsseldorf, go directly to Paris. Time to get some accomodation and plane tickets.

On Facebook:

• Event: Visiting Paris
• Event: Paris-Lille by bicycle
• Group: Paambi

P-133 The days are closing in

It is already 2011, and I have not made any reservations yet. The Düsseldorf part is now a little in the gray area. Will there be Düsseldorf, or is that only an unnecesary part of the trip?

Super cheap plane tickets are available for a few more days, and I have yet to agree with the rest of the family about travel dates. I might have to make an executive decision before it is too late - so that I can be 100% certain about dates and start contacting locations for accomodation.

The most worrysome bit is that I can't seem to find any couchsurfers between Paris and Creil.

P-268 Logo

Back in 2005, when I drove round the Baltic Sea with my neighbour, we had a logo for the "Barents-to-Baltic Project". And that project only lasted one summer. Paambi has been in the planning stage since 2001, and with the current plan, it will take three years to complete. It deserves its own logo, which can be used on T-shirts, business cards, envelopes and letter heads.

My first starting point is "How do I signify Paris, Belgium and Amsterdam in a graphic way?" Or the route. Or France/Belgium/Netherlands?

Paris or France is easy: Eiffel tower. Amsterdam or Netherlands is easy: Tulip or windmill. I will avoid making use of red lights or cannabis as a symbol here: I might get arrested in France with a photo of a cannabis plant on my T-shirt, and we don't want that. But what to do with Belgium? French fries? I found out that the saxophone was invented by a Belgian.

Trying to put the Eiffel tower, a saxophone and a tulip together with simple lines, however, does not create the simplicity I'm after. Especially if I should put a bicycle in there - which incidentally is also another great symbol for France. Nothing screams "France" more than a bicycle.

On another note, I went ahead and bought a new bicycle chain. It was cheaper than getting rust remover and oil to treat the old one.

And finally: Route Paris-Creil

Minus 270: Accomodation

I have been doing research on accomodation along the route. Not very thorough research, but enough to put numbers into the budget.

• Paris: Expect €84/night since we're two: http://www.waytostay.com/search-en-109-2-110515-110521
• Creil: Expect ca 46€: http://www.hotel-bb.com/reservation-hotel/hotel_info?hotelId=4509#hotel&utm_source=googlemap&utm_medium=2010&utm_campaign=googlemap
• Ayencourt: Couchsurfing arranged
• Albert was surprisingly expencive for a town that size. What I managed to get of prices. Expect €85 from Hotel Ibis http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-6234-ibis-albert/index.shtml and with even more luxurious Best Western Royale more downtown at €15 more, that could be a well deserved treat when I get that far.
• Similarly, Arras gives me an option down to €60: http://www.ostel-les-3luppars.com/news/TARIF,16-16.html which is less than expected.
• In Wingles, I only found an address and no website to Le Rustique. I may have to send them snail mail to find out more.
• Finally, in Lille, not made any specific notes yet, but have found one below €100, there are probably better deals.

Add 5% leeway, and estimated travel cost totals about €1200. Airplane tickets still uncertain, should I bring a bike or buy one, and I should also consider long biker pants, must get a new helmet - it's all those "other preparations". Total budget through savings is approximately €3200 for Paambi-project only. Eurovision and five day vacation in Paris is a different project.

However, the schedule is pretty much set as such:

• May 12: Fly to Germany (city TBD)
• May 14: Eurovision in some pub
• May 15: Train to Paris
• May 20: Family sent home to Norway
• May 21: Paris-Creil (60 km)
• May 22: Creil-Ayencourt (47,7 km)
• May 23: leeway #1 (if unused, then Ayencourt-Montdidier, spend more time in Montidier)
• May 24: Ayencourt-Montidier-Albert (10+40 km)
• May 25: Albert-Arras (46 km)
• May 26: leeway #2
• May 27: Arras-Wingles (20 km)
• May 28: Wingles-Lille (24 km)
• May 29: leeway #3
• May 30: Fly home
• May 31: Rest day
• June 1: Back to work!