Europe 2018 - August 8 - Portland to Sweet Home

Wednesday - August 8
"What time zone are we in", said our bodies. All of us were awake by 4 am so we decided to pack up and leave right after breakfast. The hotel breakfast crew did not show up at 6:00 as scheduled, so we checked out instead and left for downtown at 6:15. It was already 68F and the sun was rising.

It was a quiet ride through the neighborhoods at that hour.

We joined the early commuters on the bridge over the Willamette River.

We had a lovely breakfast at Lovejoy Bakery, so we were glad the hotel breakfast did not work out. We were blocked by construction one block from the train station and had to take a detour. This was a fitting event since this happened to us so many times in Europe too. 

We had about an hour wait for our train.

It is so nice that we didn't have to box the bikes for our ride on the Amtrak Cascades.

Red Lion Inn at Portland Airport to Portland Amtrak Train Station

We arrived in Albany on time and were packed and ready to roll by 11:45. It was supposed to get to the mid 90's later in the day so we decided to forego lunch until we got to Lebanon.

All these fancy turkeys were strutting around Lebanon, new arrivals since we left in June.

Almost there! It was 96F and the shower felt especially good. Then it was a celebratory dinner and early to bed since our bodies were still in a different time zone, we just weren't sure which one.

Trip of the 10 C's
Cycling, Camping, Canals, (World) Cup, Churches, Castles, Construction, Clarions, Chocolate, and Cheese.

June 19 to August 8
1319 miles (2127 kilometers)
Doug - 4,577 pictures
Donna - 3,683 pictures
And miles of smiles!

Paris, France to Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium to Amsterdam, Netherlands

Lori left for Montana the next morning and we had to drive to Salem for an eye doctor appointment. It felt a little strange to be in a car and doing our "ordinary" life again so soon. We are ever so grateful that we got to share this trip with our daughters!!

Postscript: On August 16, we went to the coast to get out of the smoke for a day. We almost stayed the night but the sunset was looking blah and our own bed sounded much better. We decided to do the two-hour drive home. At 1:30 am, our upstairs toilet water pipe broke, flooding our kitchen and sunroom. This sent us on a whole different adventure for the next year. 

Timing is everything!