Loire Valley - Day Two

An earlier start today. We woke at 7am and had breakfast in the room. Mine was porridge with blueberries and yoghurt whilst Daniel fried eggs. By 10am we had our bikes prepared and headed north through the centre of Tours. On reaching the river we changed direction and headed east using the cycle path beside the river. Last night I sat at the laptop and planned a route that would take use to three chateaus east of Tours. The nearest was 30km from our apartment. It took almost two hours to reach the town of Amboise.

It was Sunday and the town centre was packed with tourists and restaurant diners.

The Chateau D'Amboise is beside the main street and was open to visitors (paying). We decided not to enter as there were better chateaus further along the route. Further to the south is Château de Chenonceau, which reputedly is very beautiful. Five kilometers into the route we experienced two bike issues. One of the pedal cranks kept working loose and the front wheel wouldn’t spin smoothly. The former is a consequence of not using Loctite on the securing bolt, whilst the latter is likely a lack of grease on the bearings. We decided to terminate the trip and return to the apartment. Tomorrow is Monday and the local bicycle repair shop will be open. Consequentially we cycled 84km today and only saw one chateau. There was a change in the crops today. No corn or sunflower. Instead it was grapevines

The weather has been fine, sunny and hot. Daniel looks lobster red on the face, neck, arms and thighs. I don’t have the same issue. My face and neck were protected by the sun visor I’ve fitted to my helmet. My arms and legs are probably used to the Australian sun. I’ve been using my Insta 360 camera to record video rather than taking photos. I really need to get on with viewing the footage and seeing if any of it is useful. I’m a quantity vs quality photographer. This means 99% of the blog photos have been taken by Daniel. Dinner tonight is chicken (just chicken). Both of us are trying to lose weight and are therefore attempting to have a minimal carb intake. Tomorrow will be a non cycling day. I hate writing posts using blogger!!!!