I watched with amazement this week the tunneling efforts of the Swiss (as well as the Chileans of course) who have managed to bore their way through 37 kilometres of Alpine rock under the St Gotthard Pass. That puts my efforts to cycle over the top into perspective! An amazing sight; I would love to know how they work out that they are in exactly the correct position to meet each other so precisely when tunneling from either end; bit tricky to get a GPS signal under all that rock I would have thought.
On the Eurovelo 5 theme, Carlo in Switzerland emailed last weekend;
We have your trip report read by the Eurovelo 5 and are thrilled. We will leave next year the same track with the bike. How have you stayed? You have made us tips? Or you gave us some recommendations? Have you booked?
Thank you
Despite his name, I can only imagine that Carlo is Swiss German with his tendency to throw the verbs towards the end of the sentence! As I keep telling my students, communication is key and I understand perfectly what Carlo is saying. To answer your questions Carlo… I stayed mainly in campsites with the occasional night in a hotel when I couldn’t find a campsite or was in a big city where I really wanted to be in the centre (Luxembourg, Strasbourg…). I stayed with a couple of people I had contacted through www.warmshowers.com so its worth registering with that site. I didn’t book anything in advance and never had a problem with finding a place on the campsites; a small tent and a bike can usually be fitted in some corner! Good luck with your trip.
I think Dorettaย Viciniย may have tried to call me on Monday (see previous post) as there was a missed “international” call on my phone when I arrived home from work. Please try again Doretta, perhaps a little bit later in the evening as I have been arriving home very late recently!
My invite to the “VIP Opening of Decathlon Reading” (they certainly know how to massage a person’s ego!) arrived this week; it’s on Wednesday evening and I’ll cycle along after school. Should I turn up in full cycling gear or come home and change first? The new store is only next door so it wouldn’t be much of a hardship to change but Lycra and flourescent yellow might have more street cred in a new sports shop. I feel obliged to go if only in recognition of the boost it has provided to the visiting statistics to this site; since I mentioned a new Decathlon store in Reading a couple of months ago, I get a fair numbers of passing browsers who have found me via Google. We are promised “drinks, nibbles, promotions and a special guest, Dr Tim Brabants, Olympic kayak gold medalist”.
On the educational front but continuing the Olympic theme, I’ve taken the initial steps to sign my school up for Olympic Dreams, a joint BBC – British Council initiative which aims to get school children in the UK linked up with school children elsewhere in the World. Not yet sure how the Olympics bit fits in.
And finally, off to London tomorrow to the Languages Show at Earls Court (if I can get hold of a free ticket!). Expect a few posts from there….
Categories: Cycling
