My last one here from this trip, waiting at the end of a day’s training (the other kind) for the Hoek ferry across to Harwich where Jutta and normality await in the morning. As one of my Facebook friends put it, in one of the really lovely and supportive messages I’ve had, it’s a bittersweet … Read more …
It did. The whole electric motor. This from Graz (yes, Austria already – what happened to Hungary?!) – do you remember that post the other day when I said I wonder what disaster might be about to befall me next? Hoping none would? After all, I’d just smashed my expensive smartphone, ruined my favourite shirt … Read more …
Here I was thinking how kind these Hungarian ladies were offering me a space to sit out the searing midday sun today half way between Lake Balaton and the border with Slovenia, to charge my literal and metaphorical batteries, eat my picnic lunch and generally cool down as I now finally pedal westward and home. … Read more …
Well, this is nearly it, and for the third year in a row (after 5500 km round Germany in 2023, and 4000 km round France last year) , Jutta and I are about to head off on our now-regular spring/summer cycling adventure, this time driving first to Hungary then on with Daisy2 round Romania and … Read more …
Greetings friends and colleagues with a short post to confirm that Jutta and I are looking forward to heading out to Hungary later this month with Daisy2 in the back of our VW together with the solo I used to call Raven – realising now she’s actually a Thorn Nomad. This post is by way … Read more …
What a trip. Ending rather hilariously when, for an entire day last Friday, we were following what I thought was the correct Ride-With-GPS routing, only to discover after 135km (!) that we were heading for Amsterdam instead of the ferry in Hoek of Holland. A rapid shift of planning ensued, with an unscheduled overnight in … Read more …
Another long gap between posts, and this will probably be the last one from the road, from the delightful little canal-river-and-hills town of Epinal in French Lorraine. Close by Alsace, home to Jutta’s paternal grandmother in those border regions that have so often switched ownership over the centuries in the wars between France and Germany. … Read more …
1500 kilometres in three weeks, and we’re taking a two-day pause at the bottom of France in the completely delightful St Maries de le Mer, the capital of the Camargue (remember those stories about wild horses and gypsies at school – this is where they came from.) Riding the Voies Vertes along repurposed railway lines … Read more …
Two and a half weeks into our 10week (planned) odyssee around France, the Med looms ever closer, with two-days-and-a-bit to go before we should reach Montpellier, as we find ourselves seriously enjoying the unpredictability of Booking.com. I (Mark) love camping, ever so slightly more than Jutta does. But I have to say that the quality … Read more …
With thanks to Priscilla and Rupert for a warm welcome on Ile de Re, where they’re burning their 90-day Brexit you-can-stay-in-the-EU-per-half-year allowance in one go, we’ve trundled 320km+ gently south beyond La Rochelle heading towards Bordeaux. The French remain delightfully welcoming, the weather is behaving itself as are our ancient legs and Daisy2 too, so … Read more …