Well, today tested us. In several ways. But we’re rolling with the punches and moving towards our next destination. We knew things would not always go smoothly, and today has had some bumps, to put it mildly.
We started out eating croissants and coffee in our apartment, which I tried to photograph this morning because it was such a cute spot!
The taxi we reserved to pick us up at 11am and bring us to the luggage storage place never arrived. I called and they said, “your driver he is trying to! But all roads are closed.” After 20 minutes waiting we decided we needed to start walking if we didn’t want to miss the pre-stage festivities.
It was a 20 minute walk in heat with heavy bags. It reminded me of long portages with the canoe, trying to keep spirits up.
We dropped off our baggage in a locker and returned to the festivities before the start of the stage. There’s a caravan of swag (we snagged some), a presentation of teams and riders, and then the depart!
It was super fun to be a part of the race start this time.
Here’s a link to my videos, for our own reference (maybe not so interesting):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vDUZ6DVxwvS2acE98
Then we shopped our way to the train station . . .
. . . where an accident on the line caused a two-hour delay, resulting in a domino effect that essentially left us stranded in Tarbes, France. We ended up up finding beds just in the nick of time (before sunset), but it was another crazy trek with bags on our backs. We were all pushed to the limit of what we could handle. The uncertainty was stressful, but really each person seemed to take a turn bouying the group’s spirits.
Welcome to Tarbes, the city we didn’t know we would traverse on foot!
In the morning we’ll catch two buses into the foothills of the Pyrenees!
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