{"id":602,"date":"2015-09-05T01:56:35","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T06:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/rickpress\/?p=602"},"modified":"2024-06-17T18:56:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T22:56:39","slug":"150905","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/150905\/","title":{"rendered":"150905"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving the campground in St. Symphorien, I found the day’s supermarket within 100 meters – convenient! It was later in the day I realized that with tomorrow being Sunday, all of the markets would be closed, so mid-day I stopped at another supermarket to increase my food supply. <\/p>\n

I passed two castles today. The second was closed to the public. The first more a restored city wall than a castle, used to lure in unsuspecting tourists to the restaurant on the other side. I ate lunch in the courtyard, and watched a steady stream of tourists drive in, park, see no other attractions, and decide to eat at the restaurant since they were already there. Well-played. <\/p>\n

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I cycled through the city of Bordeaux, as much to find fuel for the stove as anything else. Two camping stores later, still no fuel. One sold the stove I have and no fuel for it, the second or third time I have run across that on this trip. <\/p>\n

In the process of wandering through Bordeaux, I learned I don’t like it. Homeless people linger on street corners, benches, and store entrances, hassling those nearby for money. No real historic district exists, just a metropolis cluttered with modernity. The main strand of the city looked more like Istanbul than a normal European city, packed with people.<\/p>\n

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In Bordeaux far longer than planned, a long push remained to get to the campground. 9 km before the planned campground, another campground marker appeared beside the road, for a campground not indicated on my map, pointing back towards the bay. I started to turn, but decided to continue to my original planned destination. The original municipal campground had another campground nearby as a backup, and was 9 km closer to my eventual destination. The municipal campground would likely be cheaper. The original target\u00a0 named Camping Municipal de la Citadel might also have factored in that decision.<\/p>\n

Upon arriving at the campground, I found a medieval festival underway in the adjacent field, and registration for the campground closed before I arrived. Careful translation of the sign instructed to find a unreserved place, and pay in the morning. Only after wandering around a bit did I realize an additional sign likely indicated a full campground. I found what appeared to be an open spot, and asked the adjacent folks if I could camp there. While they agreed, I couldn’t determine if I was in fact in someone else’s reserved space, so set up the tent, but didn’t unpack and settle in until well after dark. <\/p>\n

Many, if not most, cycle tourists often wild camp. I don’t because a campground provides a shower, a toilet, and a quiet place I don’t have to worry about being disturbed in the middle of the night. In this case I had only two out of three. <\/p>\n

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I’ve decided 7:30 pm is too late to arrive at my destination. Dark sets in earlier now than when I started the trip. That late doesn’t leave a lot of time to deal with issues that arrive; earlier and I would have moved on to the other campground. Overall I’ve been rushing, and it’s getting old. I’d rather spend more time exploring, so time to mix things up a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving the campground in St. Symphorien, I found the day’s supermarket within 100 meters – convenient! It was later in the day I realized that with tomorrow being Sunday, all of the markets would be closed, so mid-day I stopped at another supermarket to increase my food supply. I passed two castles today. The second … Continue reading “150905”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3917,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions\/3917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}