Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook Gets A New Look

Well, the Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie page on Facebook does. What do you think? Aiming for 100 ‘likes’ before Easter. Can you help out? If you want to read the book before ‘liking’ (recommended!), click here for the paperback or here for the eBook. Thanks if you just did. Also available at Waterstones, Kobo & Lulu. Coming soon to the Apple iStore; watch this space!

Breaking News: Bike Sets Up Own Facebook Account

Strange though it may seem, my trusted steed, Reggie Ridgeback, has set up his own Facebook account. Don’t believe it? See for yourself by clicking on the picture below…

La Via Romeo Francigena / Eurovelo 5

Today is Sunday 18th July 2010. The day has come for me to set off on my own road to Rome and beyond. Below is the first post written on this blog back in summer 2008;

The ancient route from Canterbury to Rome, followed by archbishops travelling to receive from the pope their symbols of authority as well as ordinary pilgrims en route to Rome or onward to Jerusalem, has become known as the Via Francigena. It was first formally described by Archbishop Sigeric in AD 990 and his route has been adopted by the Council of Europe Institute of Cultural Routes as the definitive way from Canterbury to Rome.
Part of the EuroVelo network of cycle routes crossing the European continent. The Via Romea Francigena is route number 5 and it has recently been awarded EU funds to reinstate the hostelry organisation and to improve the route. There is a supporters’ group in several countries and route maps, and Santiago-style passports for stamping at abbeys and cathedrals. The route goes from London to Brindisi through Rome and via the St Bernard’s pass in Switzerland

I’m proud to say that, despite the grey sky outside and all the unknown elements of what I am about to do, I am even more motivated now than I was all those days ago during that Olympic summer. It would be a cliché to say how quickly time has passed but since I have never held back on the odd cliché in the past two years of writing on this blog, today doesn’t seem an appropriate place to stop!

Wish we luck; follow me here on www.eurovelo5.com, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ev5, on Facebook and of course on the live map (it should be updated every ten minutes during the day); there is no escape. Thanks to those of you who have already donated to the BBC Wildlife Fund via my Just Giving page; the total has leaped to 56% of the target in the last few days and it would be fantastic to make it to 100% (and beyond) by the time I return to the UK in late August. Don’t hold back on sending me a message from time to time either through comments on this blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, via email apsykes@hotmail.com or via text; 0 79 70 27 85 69. No escape!

And to Alain, Claus, Simone, Marcello, Massimo, Basil & Liz; I’ll see you soon!

Inconsequential techno babble

Isn’t it wonderful that, despite being competitors in the social networking world, WordPress, Twitter and Facebook all allow cross posting resulting in a spidery lattice of information to span the ether (they could call it the World Wide Web, no? It will never catch on…); there is no escape from my messages! This is the first one which should be posted to my Facebook homepage. If I have ticked the correct boxes that is. It’s just a pity that it is a message of inconsequential techno babble and nothing to do with cycling to Italy… It is a journey by bike and blog I suppose.

A Facebook invitation

It’s cool (which that word no longer is) when you get a Facebook friend request from the author of the book you are currently reading; introducing my new Facebook friend, Mr Bernie Friend! Thanks Bernie. If Bernie can do it, the rest of you can – just click on my picture in the top right hand corner to befriend me on Facebook. Or here.

Adventurer Update

It’s been a while since I have mentioned any of the cycling adventurers who have inspired me over the past 18 months or so….
Mark Beaumont: he is in Peru and still going strong. Not sure when he is due to arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina – his final destination. He has mastered the Internet communication thing by having a blog, Facebook page and updates on Twitter apart from his own website. He is inspiration number 1! Forgot to mention his Flickr site as well! I’ve nicked his most recent photograph – here he is eating some Christmas Cake from his mum! Not sure about the Red Dwarf-style appendage to his forehead…
Oli Broom: he is cycling to the Ashes in Australia and has just arrived in Istanbul. The map on his website indicates that he is now about to head south and avoid the dodgy bits Middle East by cycling through Syria, Jordan etc… and then Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. That’s an interesting if extremely long way to avoid the areas where you could get killed! He then gets back on the usual route of the long-distance cyclist by heading for India.
Alastair Humphries: he is the guy who is based in North Yorkshire and who I first heard mentioned when I cycled through his village – Airton – last summer. It’s not immediately apparent what he is doing from reading his website. Resting?
James Bowthorpe: he broke Mark Beaumont’s record for cycling around the World – he did it in 150 days – arriving back in London on 19th September. He has posted a couple of times since on his blog, the last time was on the 5th October. Perhaps he has just slipped back into normality…
Wonder if any of them follow this blog (Mark and Alastair have emailed me in the past). If you do, how about a more detailed, personailsed update for Puglia2010.com ?

Wiggle

I joined the “Wiggle” fan group on Facebook – it seemed like an interesting place for cyclists to “Facebook” (does the verb exist yet?). I feel as though I have been told off by Manon Valin – see her comment on the left – who, quite frankly, tells me to stop whining, get off my arse and start pedaling…
Wiggle, after investigation, is actually an online shop. It seems to be a popular one as their fan site on Facebook has nearly 10,000 fans.

Sunny Saturday catch up

“Ian invited you to join the Facebook group “Bugger off Facebook, it’s warm outside…!!”.” That was the email from Facebook. I joined but did point out on the group that I was not in Australia and that my days are getting colder. Although not today! Bright sunshine and a blue sky!
A catch up on things Puglia 2010:
This came back from Christian Ensslin at Sustrans
Andrew,
many thanks for your enquiry. The EuroVelo routes are still very much under development as a continuously signed and marketed route. On the ground however many of the routes already exist. In the UK, you would need to follow National Cycle Network route 4 to London / Greenwich, and then EV5 follows the route of National Cycle Network route 1 from Greenwich to Dover. Both these routes are fully signed.
To get contacts for the other countries, it would probably easiest to speak to the European Cyclist Federation, see
http://www.ecf.com/13_1 for their contact details. They should be able to give you either a full itinerary or at least contact details for cycling organisations that know the route in the other countries.
I hope this helps and good luck with your tour.

Thanks Christian but I actually knew all that already. Interesting, however, that he thinks that the ECF should be able to furnish full route details. No response from them yet although I did notice some Brussels activity on the Live Traffic Feed. Perhaps they are going to suggest that I visit this site to get some detailed information. That would be an accolade of recognition!
Massimo Mazzone has left a comment on my entry below where I mention contacting the ECF and others. He says:
I’m looking forward to reading what ECF is going to answer you. Anyway, at the moment there is 1 only general map about the whole routes. Nothing detailed but somehow helpful. It’s published by Galli Verlag and I think you can order it on-line.On the back of the map, about eurovelo 5, you can find short route description. You get that the main connected cities are: London – Canterbury – Dover; Calais – Sain Omer – Lille – Ronse – Brussels – NamurLuxenbourgSchengen – Strasbourg – Colmar – Basel – AarauLucerne – St.Gotthard Pass – Chiasso – Como – Roma – Brindisi.For the Rome – Brindisi leg I will provide you all the details in short time. I hope that other associations will do the same for their areas.cheers, Mas
Again, thanks Massimo: I already have the map. It is interesting to note that I have managed to sort out the bit from Reading to London and from Rome to Brindisi (courtesy of Massimo) but the bit that would be the “Via Fancigena” bit (albeit via very different towns and cities) is the most elusive!
Finally, a comment from Alastair Humphreys following my entry on here about first hearing from him on my travels this summer:
Glad you didn’t get run over in my home village of Airton!!How’s the planning for the rest of the world coming along?Al
The rest of the World will have to wait until I get London to Rome sorted…. Would like to respond to his comment but not sure how to do that. If I make a comment myself, does it find its way to him?

Mark Beaumont on TV, this blog & the flu

It’s a bit strange seeing someone interviewed on TV as Mark Beaumont was this morning on Breakfast News knowing that you exchanged emails with them only a couple of days ago (unless Mark has a phalanx of flunkies doing his admin for him in the name of “Mark Beaumont” – doubt it, he seems more genuine than that!).
In light of my imminent departure north and then the cycle back south, I have, for the first time, put a link to this blog on Facebook. Wonder if anyone will follow the link to here? At least I will have a mini audience for my posts, twitters, photos and videos… Perhaps.
My “swine flu” (see yesterday’s post) hasn’t got any worse – keeping my fingers crossed.

Posting at 2am should be banned

Not sleepy so on the Internet. Just had a Facebook chat with Ian Hendry – he seems like a nice guy – I admire the guy’s motivation to come all the way over here to cycle London to Rome. Not sure whether I would go over to Australia to do the same thing or something similar. Respect to him! My rediscovery of Facebook – I had gone cold on the whole Facebook thing – has got me 13 friends back in one evening. Don’t really want to start advertising the whole Puglia 2010 thing on there just yet… the website URL is hidden away somewhere. It would take a bit of detective work to find it :) Time for bed, no?