The card arrived by courier on business day 4 at 8.30 am Wednesday. Within the of the promised 3 to 5 business days, so that was acceptable. It came with no instructions, just a peace of Paper with the Cash Card's Peterborough England office address with a sticky label stuck to it with a number to ring to validate the card.
The card is pre loaded with euros with pin number supplied by Master Card.
I don't carry a phone, so my friendly host Patric let me use his restaurant phone.
It is not a good line but worse of all, the number to ring has no area or country code with it, so I assume it to be a Belgian number. Not so, it is non existing, I try it with the British codes, then the NZ codes, unsuccessful. I ring the office in Peterborough to find out what is going on, the receptionist is helpful but sounds frustrated and tells me several times that all she can do is pass the message on. Fair enough. She suggests 3 other numbers, none of them work. I ring her back she suggests to save me money, rather than waiting on the phone for someone in the upstairs office to answer, she will email him and tell him personally to call me back. Sounds good, I wait till 3.30 pm and check again with the receptionist, still no one has returned my call. She apologises, it sounds like she puts up with that more often, I can understand her frustration.
I decide to go to the small Fortis Bank branch in the village. It is a internal ATM space with an office behind, to talk to someone is only by appointment. I hang around in the ATM space for a bit, hoping someone might come and check out why I am loitering in there. Then a young man comes in, who has an appointment, not long after the door is unlocked to let him in. I tell him my predicament, to the bank person, and he lets me in too and let me use the phone, after he looked up the MasterCard Belgian phone number.
It worked and within 10 minutes it is done, I have my card validated and know my new pin number. I still don't understand what went wrong with the English office, just that they seem totally incompetent.
Anyway, I was able to pay Patrick's bill, who pretended to be crying !
The dog in full admiration is sad I am leaving too !
Thursday I made the move, the weather forecast was for hot and sunny weather. I checked out the trail along the river Meuse from Fosses la Ville to Charleville Mezieres, and it is about 85 km as the crow flies according to my GPS. The trail is unknown to the GPS so I will have to follow the signs.
The good thing is it is mainly flat, but the river has many bends and with a few missed signs and a
little backtracking I biked in searing heat for 153 km in just under 7 hours.
little backtracking I biked in searing heat for 153 km in just under 7 hours.
It was crazy but having had trouble finding a place to stay the last ride to get here, I pre booked the hotel in C-M, so I had to keep going.
Several towns along the river have those huge fortresses in strategic locations overlooking the town and the river.
The following day Friday I promised myself a shorter ride. The temperatures in the mid thirties again, through the rolling hills of the Ardennes from Charleville Mezieres to Apremont where I found a lovely air conditioned Auberge after 83 km.
Passing through some big arable farms, which are ready for harvesting, but do not offer much shade for overheated bikers.
Fortunately I passed through some forested areas, which offered some much needed shade to cool down a bit.
Saturday 18July I got away after a huge breakfast, the Auberges usually have excellent kitchens, arriving for breakfast, I saw the usual on the set table, a small baguette, a pastry with chocolate, some honey and jams, a coffee cup, glass for juice and that is just about it usually. The host came over and asked me if I wanted tea or coffee, cheese and a series of other offers I had no idea what was offered. My usual answer is a nice smile a nod and merci. When he came back I got a can of coffee, a pancake, a slice of bread with a fried egg, a bowl with cut up fruit, 3 kinds of cheese and a carafe with orange juice. I managed to eat most of it which gave me a good start for the day ahead. The
weather was cooler at 30*C, the terrain more varied with many forested hills early on. My destination
today is Vitry le Francoise, which is the centre of the Champagne district. I wondered why I had not seen any vineyards at all. Not until about 20 km before Vitry did I see any, on the steeper slopes of the rolling hills above the vast acres of wheat, which are being harvested, sunflowers and lavender, certainly a diversified use of the land. It is not like New Zealand where in this case the whole district would be into champagne, or lavender or dairy ?
weather was cooler at 30*C, the terrain more varied with many forested hills early on. My destination
today is Vitry le Francoise, which is the centre of the Champagne district. I wondered why I had not seen any vineyards at all. Not until about 20 km before Vitry did I see any, on the steeper slopes of the rolling hills above the vast acres of wheat, which are being harvested, sunflowers and lavender, certainly a diversified use of the land. It is not like New Zealand where in this case the whole district would be into champagne, or lavender or dairy ?
The champagne vineyards on the slopes.
Arriving in Vitry just after 2 pm, into a nice old hotel in the centre of the old city. I decided to have a rest day tomorrow, looking forward to exploring the old city.
The view of the cathedral from my hotel room window at Hotel de la Poste.
3 comments:
Hi Willem. I see no one has commented but we are all reading about you --- I'm too nosey not to !!!
My memory tells me you left you passport behind somewhere last trip--- now you loose your wallet--- tut tutt !!
Ronnie and I are freeeezing here but your stories warm us up. xxxx
Janey.
Love your posts, Willem! Continued good health.....
It is great to hear from my NZ and USA friends, it gives me great pleasure ! Thanks.
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