CRAZIEST DAY EVER FOR THE HAMSTER JAMMERS!
It started big.
Insane day.
It finished with four ENORMOUS heroes - THE HAMSTER JAMS!
It all began with me getting up at some insane hour to go pick up Cody from the airport.
Mike had gotten into our very dodgy Charles de Gaulle airport hotel at 11pm the previous night after doing an amazing drive to drop us at the hotel, down to Fountainbleu to pick up Cody's rental bike, then back to Claude and Laurence's to pick up all the panniers and three other bikes and four bike boxes - which he then his magical Tetris powers to pack into the back of the rental car - A FIVE HOUR DRIVE, all after the big Paris day. LEGEND.
So, back to my early morning. I was at the airport by 6.30am, grabbed the above coffee and pain au raisin for a spot of French nourishment and waited for my wonderful nephew, Cody, to arrive from a very very very long flight from Sydney via Vietnam (with a long stopover). What a trooper. His first trip to Europe. Woohooo!
He arrived! Gotta be happy about that. No sleep at all since he left Sydney.
So, we get him back to aforementioned dodgy hotel for a shower, a spot of breakfast, then the packing of the bikes into bike boxes, and the packing of the panniers. This whole cycling thing has been an organisational Rubiks cube.
Breakfast
Roses helps out
Everyone joins in
Then after a few loop visits to the airport, we have all four bike boxes, all panniers, and the four Hamster Jams at the airport to get our train, PLUS the rental car returned. UNBELIEVABLE FEAT. And it was only 11am. Our train to Amsterdam was leaving at 11.58. We had checked when we booked the tickets a few weeks before that the bikes would be ok to take..."no problem as long as they're boxed". They were boxed. And big. And heavy. Mike had whacked in half of the panniers and all the camping gear in the boxes so we didn't have to carry it ourselves.
So.
Suffice it to say that this day is one of the craziest of my life. And mike said exactly the same thing.
We are waiting to be allowed into the platform. Four staff come to check with us about the bikes..."no problems with them, I'll let my colleague know and we'll get you down the lift on the other side there cause these lifts are broken" they each said. No problem. All good.
Down on the platform, waiting for the train. Mike tells me it's my job to jump on first and block all the luggage space for the bikes. Hmmmm. I jumped on almost first - and discovered there was no way one bike was going to fit on the luggage rack, let alone 4. Fuck (I'm sorry for the swearing, but if you know me, you know it's me). I could not see how we were going to get one bike on there. Shit.
The rest of ticket holders were getting snarky with us. We were starting to panic. I leapt off the train to find the train man on the platform - he could see we had three bikes on the platform - and everyone else was aboard and ready to go. He said..."no problem, just find space wherever you can, on any carriage". I relayed the message. Cody jumped into action to take one box down to another carriage. No room. Fuck. Tetris Mike put on his cape, and with the help of Action Cody jammed all four bike boxes down the end of our carriage. I still don't know how they did it.
Roses and I had been in charge of the panniers and extra bags (6 in total) - and they were all safely above our head on the rails overhead. We all finally sat down, breathed a sigh of relief, Cody only running on adrenaline I think. The train departs. We know we're safe now. Nothing can get us. We're invincible!
Enter Train Lady.
"BIKES...NO...WHOSE BIKES?"
Shit.
Our four bike boxes are completely blocking the door.
Mike goes down to placage knowing we're on our way and they can't throw us off (he has experience).
They talk. He shuffles some bikes, putting two on top of two. Balancing precariously. "All right?" He asks Train Lady. "All right", she responds. We're safe.
We sit back in exhaustion and glory. We are on our way. Biggest hurdle complete.
We are on our way on the TGV to Brussels. We have to change trains for Amsterdam.
It's funny, I hadn't really thought past actually getting the bikes on the train.
I should have.
Action Cody and Mike carry the boxes down and up stairs, four times, while Rose and I bring the panniers and bags. All while watching the clock. I'm pleased to report we made it in plenty of time - 10 minutes to spare. YAY! The train arrives, not a TGV, a slow train - with plenty of space for 4 bike boxes - MAJOR HAPPY DANCE! We sit back, know it's a 3 1/2 hour ride, but at least we know we're going to make it to Amsterdam that night.
We get to Amsterdam. YAY!
Then the next chapter begins...putting the bikes together and fitting the panniers. It starts with Mike and Cody getting the bikes off the train and down the stairs into Amsterdam Central, where we delighted the locals and tourists alike for two hours as we opened each box and Mike put all the pieces together to recreate our 4 beautiful bikes. Then get the panniers sorted and put on.
By this time it's about 7pm - Cody must be absolutely shattered. He marches on.
Roses has been amazing in her practical action-driven planning and support of the assembly.
I got food and drink.
We are finally ready. A nice Dutch cleaning guy helps us get rid of the boxes. So nice. And we are ready.
As a group we decide to head out and check the weather, knowing it's been raining, and knowing a real option is to get the train to our campsite accommodation 18 km away. We decide if it's raining, we'll train it. We head out of the station, finally. It's raining. A lot. And freezing cold. And it's after 7pm.
Train it is.
But what train? Where? How? It takes us about an hour and many phone calls to find out what, where and how, and with tickets in hand we ask a lady which platform, and she then informs us they're doing trackwork on that line this weekend and there are no trains to that station, only replacement buses...which don't allow bikes. BLOODY NORAH.
Action Roses just calls it.
"Let's just get on the bikes and ride. The sooner we leave the sooner we get there."
And so we did.
We had on our jeans and jumpers and rain jackets. I put a leg clip on my right jean leg. We put our helmets on. To save face, we walked our bikes about 300m outside the train station so no-one could see us get on and fall over - this is the first time we'd ridden with all the full panniers on. It was raining, cold, and about 8pm. Mike put the route on his phone and off we went, in all our hope and glory.
IT WAS MAGNIFICENT. REALLY MAGNIFICENT.
THE HAMSTER JAMS TOTALLY ROCK.
We owned that bike path!
We rode it like champs.
No-one faltered.
We rode on the best bike paths I've ever seen.
Even with the rain, it was beautiful. Magical.
We rode past a windmill.
We rode past amazing old buildings, through beautiful parks, next to gorgeous tulip beds.
And we made it. We made it to our little camping hut. Tired, wet, and so so happy.
We are the Hamster Jams and we are AMAZING!
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