With the final stage of the tour proper being held, advice was that with road closures and traffic, the best way to get to the airport was by public transport using the trams and trains. After goodbyes to the team, I was driven to the Gare de Nord train station in the van as a couple of other riders were due to catch trains from there.
It was then necessary to catch the Metro to Charles de Gaulle Airport which with lifts too small for bike bags and other luggage to carry up and down the various levels at the train stations and airport was more difficult than it needed to be. The Metro was hot and relatively slow through the various stops.
Once at the airport, it was a long walk to check in which with a bike, also proved very time consuming. It took literally eight airline staff and two "self check in" machines to get the bike checked in and accepted. With such efficiency, my hopes of ever seeing it again were at best 50/50.
It took around two hours to get to the departure gate from the start of check in after boarding passes and bag stickers were obtained before going through border control. From there, it was an internal airport train ride and another walk to get to the gate and wait.
As by that time it was evening, I had a baguette for dinner from one of the airport shops.
The flights home departed and arrived near enough on schedule in contrast to my outbound journey.
A little surprisingly, the bike bag appeared in Auckland but bio-security were very slow due to staff training which meant I had to take all my luggage to the domestic terminal to ensure it caught the same flight as me. The bike again made this harder than it needed to be.
I arrived home to an overcast day with a temperature of just 11 degrees.
A longer video of the complete tour is planned and this will take a few months to be compiled and edited. There has been some suggestion that this could be shown at local theatres as a further fundraiser for the Mental Health Foundation. The team has raised over $67,000 to date with more to come. Visit https://events.mentalhealth.org.nz/fundraisers/jasonkelly to make a donation.
I will endeavour to put together a tour summary over the next few weeks and further photos will also be added to various posts in due course.
It took around two hours to get to the departure gate from the start of check in after boarding passes and bag stickers were obtained before going through border control. From there, it was an internal airport train ride and another walk to get to the gate and wait.
As by that time it was evening, I had a baguette for dinner from one of the airport shops.
The flights home departed and arrived near enough on schedule in contrast to my outbound journey.
A little surprisingly, the bike bag appeared in Auckland but bio-security were very slow due to staff training which meant I had to take all my luggage to the domestic terminal to ensure it caught the same flight as me. The bike again made this harder than it needed to be.
I arrived home to an overcast day with a temperature of just 11 degrees.
A longer video of the complete tour is planned and this will take a few months to be compiled and edited. There has been some suggestion that this could be shown at local theatres as a further fundraiser for the Mental Health Foundation. The team has raised over $67,000 to date with more to come. Visit https://events.mentalhealth.org.nz/fundraisers/jasonkelly to make a donation.
I will endeavour to put together a tour summary over the next few weeks and further photos will also be added to various posts in due course.
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