Cycle Route South from Paris by the Seine
This is the route that I plan on cycling tomorrow, in reverse (well, not reversing but you know what I mean…)
Cycling Day 34: Montargis To Fontainebleau
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A short cycling day – just 56 km – but it was planned that way and puts me within a normal cycling day’s ride of the centre of Paris. But back to Montargis… I’m pretty good at telling […]
Morning Wood
In some respects it’s a dodgy campsite here in Montargis – more on that later in the day – but the view from the tent in the morning compensates somewhat:
Cycling Orléans To Paris
From Clare of Mon Vélo Et Moi: “Earlier in the year I bough a French book from Chamina publishers which plots the route from Tours to Namur along the, as yet unrealised with signs, Eurovelo 3. The directions in the book weren’t great when I did Namur to […]
Cycling Day 33: Orléans To Montargis
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. An average day in several ways but most obviously In that I cycled 75 km, my target average (which is currently exactly 74 km). I was out of the tent early. The fact that I didn’t know where […]
Orléans, France
I’ve visited Orléans before – I can’t quite remember when or why – but the image I had in my mind is so different from the reality that I’m beginning to wonder if I ever actually came here at all. It’s beautiful! Clearly the focus is, unsurprisingly, on […]
Cycling Day 32: Amboise To Orléans
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. One of those days where, when I set off, I really had no idea where it would end. I guessed somewhere between Blois and Orléans, the former being only 35 km from Amboise, the latter about 100 km, […]
Cycling Day 31: Tours To Amboise
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Did you follow that link? Yes? Thanks. No? Why not? If you are into your statistics you might enjoy finding out all about the quantative side of my cycling day. But hang on! Today, it doesn’t quite give […]
Rest Days 3 And 4: Loir Et Cher
There was a little bit of cycling yesterday (rest day 3) – 30 km from Chateau-Renault to Couture-sur-Loir – to visit my former colleague Liz after a train journey from Tours, but much of the day was spent resting and the cycling didn’t count towards the continental crossing […]
Tours, France
A morning of memories (and a few changes and additions) in Tours…
So Far In France…
As seen on Instagram:
Le Musée Des Beaux Arts, Tours: Digitally Revisited
One sunny afternoon during my time living in Tours in the second half of the 1990s, inspired by some similar creations that I had seen in a gallery in Bradford by David Hockney, I took my analogue SLR camera to the nearby fine art museum to take lots […]
Cycling Day 30: Saumur To Tours
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Most days I fight the urge to focus (quite naturally) upon the destination rather than the journey but I’m afraid yesterday and today, when I have been cycling to destinations that I know well, I have had to […]
Saumur
Yesterday and today in Saumur:
Cycling Day 29: Parthenay To Saumur
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. On a day when I feel as though I have done much it’s ironic that I’ve struggled to start writing this. I first came to the Loire Valley back in 1993 to work for Eurocamp as a campsite […]
Cycling Day 28: Niort To Parthenay
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A no-nonsense bit of cycling from A to B (well, N to P I suppose…) today in an almost straight line. Quite a short cycle – just over 40 km – but that was planned after having stayed […]
Cycling Day 27: La Rochelle To Niort
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Ok. Before we get on with the usual business, a plea for help. I’ll say this now rather than at some point below as I suspect many of you just skip over the text and look at the […]
Cycling Day 26: Rochefort To La Rochelle
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Wind has been the theme of the day, at times quite cold but thankfully the rain petered out after a few short bursts in the morning. There ends today’s weather report. Rochefort wasn’t at all what I expected […]
Cycling Day 25: Royan To Rochefort
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Back to the old fashioned method of doing this; I have no data coverage here on the Camping Municipal in Rochefort – my pitiful campsite WiFi allowance was frittered away listening to half an hour of Radio 4 […]
La Côte Sauvage: The Most Beautiful Point Of The Trip So Far?
The good weather helped but it was a wonderfully tranquil spot, almost like a desert island…
Cycling Day 24: Lacanau-Océan To Royan
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Today was a good day. The usual routine at the campsite this morning with one addition; I spent about 30 minutes attempting to remove all the accumulated gunk from the bike’s chain and mechanism that has developed since […]
In Praise Of… Fun Cycles, Maubuisson
These guys gave Reggie’s mechanism a clean in a way I could never have done. It was much appreciated! He’s been purring with delight all day… (or was it me?)
Cycling Day 23: Gujan-Mestras To Lacanau-Océan
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. When I woke this morning (well, ‘woke’ is used to refer to the time of the day that people generally wake rather than the actual physical activity of stopping sleeping which happened many hours earlier), the pitter patter […]
The Atlantic Coast Of France
I wish you could hear it as well…
La Bonne Conduite Du Cycliste
Hopefully you can tick them all, no?
Cycling Day 22: Arcachon To Gujan-Mestras
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. No video today, but I do have a sign that I came across on the short – just 10 km – ride from Arcachon to the municipal campsite at Gujan-Mestras: “Do not cross… without looking in both […]
Cycling Day 21: Saint-Julien-En-Born To Arcachon
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle.
Cycling Day 20: Capbreton To Saint-Julien-En-Born
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. A later than normal start to the day; I was up at the same time and packed and ready to go well before 9am but then got chatting with the other three cyclists who were camping in neighbouring […]
Reggie The Bike
In the pine forest earlier today. Full story later…
Tour De Yorkshire 2015
Cycling Day 19: Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port To Capbreton
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. This post is dedicated to Heltor Chasca. You were the first person I thought about this morning and have been thinking much about you on and off all day. On with the show! I spoke briefly to a […]
Cycling Day 18: Pamplona To Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycling. I emerged from the Europa Hotel clutching a banana and an apple (discretely removed from the breakfast buffet for use later in the day) and a replacement CatEye cycling computer. If you remember, the previous one stopped working […]
Pamplona: No Bull(s)
Pamplona without the bulls this time. Look out for lots of independence-minded balconies in the city centre sporting flags along those lines (as well as one door), an English mother (or is it a stepmother or a mother-in-law?), a closed down Hemingway, some of the many pilgrims en […]
Pamplona: Not Quite The Running Of The Bulls…
…but the nearest you’ll get to it on a cold, damp Monday in April. The real thing takes place in July as this colourful poster, one of several on display in the city centre, makes clear: However, not far from the bull ring in a shopping street I […]
It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (Or Thereabouts…)
The route network that has inspired me to cycle across the continent two and a bit times (hopefully three times by the end of July) is twenty years old. This from the European Cycling Federation’s Eurovelo website: “It was twenty years ago that the World Trade Organization was […]
Cycling In Spain (Review)
Before setting off on this little trip across the continent I wrote a piece for the website about my plans for cycling through each of the seven countries from Spain to Norway. I’m now nearly finished in Spain – just the small matter of climbing the Pyrenees tomorrow […]
Cycling Day 17: Logroño To Pamplona
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Today was hard work but ultimately a great day of not just cycling but simply travelling. The weather was very similar to cycling day 13 earlier this week and the arrival in Pamplona as wet as my arrival […]
Cycling Day 16: Santo Domingo De La Calzado To Lorgroño
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Not long before I get to the French border and today’s modest 50 km nudged me a little closer. The destination was chosen because it has a campsite where I arrived in the early afternoon amid the noise […]
Rioja
Some great pre-breakfast scenery this morning and the first vines I’ve seen since arriving in Spain. It’s interesting to note that the ones seen here have all been recently replanted, presumably following the disruption involved in building the new motorway just next to the N road that I’m […]
Cycling Day 15: Burgos To Santo Domingo De La Calzado
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Peter and Sandra, my neighbours on the campsite in Burgos, provided me with a nice cup of coffee this morning. The discussion we had continued from where it had left off the previous evening. Interestingly they had been […]
Cycling Day 14: Palencia To Burgos
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. If an antidote had been required for yesterday’s humdrum, wet, cold, uninspiring, boring, gloomy [OK we get the idea; please move on…] cycle to Palencia from Benavente (if you dare, read cycling day 13), then the last 24 […]
Cycling Day 13: Benavente To Palencia
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s ride. If you think what I’m doing is glamorous (No? You never thought that? Oh…) then think again. At least as far as today’s cycling goes. It was most definitely a Mercedes day (see Paul, Mercedes Days and Seville). […]
Cycling Day 12: Zamora To Benavente
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s ride. Today I feel as though a pilgrim… Of sorts. It will come as no surprise whatsoever to hear that upon my return to the Plaza Mayor in Zamora this morning I bumped into Dirk, the German guy who […]
Book review(s) – A bike called Reggie
Just spotted this article about the first two books…
Zamora
As I said at the end of the previous post, I wasn’t expecting much from Zamora but what a nice, relaxing place. If you are into your Romanesque churches, this is the place to come. According to the Rough Guide (that I should have consulted before thinking of […]
Cycling Day 11: Salamanca To Zamora
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s ride. A shortish cycle today – just 66 km – but the average has only slightly been dented, down to 74.5 km. I’ll try to keep it with 5 km of the magic 75 km over the coming weeks […]
Vias Verdes In Northern Spain
My departute from Salamanca is a little delayed as the bike is getting a check over at a local bike shop and they weren’t able to do the job until later this morning. The extra time has allowed me to do one thing that’s been playing on my […]
Tarifa To Nordkapp: The Plan For Week 3
Salamanca: The Rest…
Call it ‘part 2’ or ‘the photos that weren’t taken from or of the Universidad Pontificia’. Look out for… what looks like a frequently egged former head of state in the Plaza Mayor, modern buildings that fit in seamlessly with the older ones, a yet to be carved […]
Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia De Salamanca
So many pictures today that I have split my collection into two. The first group were all taken within or from the tower of the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. I’ll post the second group a little later this evening.
Cycling Day 10: Plasencia To Salamanca
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. [Saturday evening: Too tired to write the blurb tonight but come back tomorrow for the full story. The stats and pictures will hopefully suffice for the moment. Some of the photos do need explaining…] It’s now Sunday morning […]
Cycling Day 9: Cáceres To Plasencia
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. An interesting day… I had no great expectations that it would be. Just another few hours trundling along the N-630. I set off with no definite destination in mind; the plan was to cycle as far as Carcaboso […]
Cáceres: Bicycle Meets… Steps
But we persisted and succeeded in seeing an extraordinary wall city. World Heritage site with good reason!
Cycling Day 8: Mérida To Cáceres
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. It required a short climb out of Mérida this morning to rejoin my almost constant companion on this leg of the cycle, the N-630, but it wasn’t too many minutes into cycling along the road that I stopped […]
In Praise Of… Spanish Road Signs
I’ve written much about the quality of road signs across Europe from the perspective of the travelling cyclist; French – the benchmark of excellence, Swiss – disappointingly poor (no distances), Italian – oh dear… (More details on the books). But I have to say that Spanish signs rival […]
Cycling Day 7: Zafra To Mérida
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. The day kicked off with a visit to the post office in Zafra to post the documents, clothes and zoom lens back to Britain, all 2.2 kg of them. I am indebted to the woman who served me […]
Sunglasses: Third Time Lucky?
Pair 1: bought at an outdoor shop in the UK, lost somewhere in or near Tarifa on cycling day one. Pair 2: bought at El Cortes Inglés in Seville for about £11, broken at some point in the following 12 hours. My fault? Probably. Too late to return […]
Zafra
It’s a nice little place as long as you stay within the old part of the town. I wandered around the almost deserted streets earlier before the über relaxed atmosphere started to affect me and I came back to the hotel on the main square of the old […]
Cycling Day 6: Monesterio To Zafra
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle A short day after yesterday’s long ride to Monesterio. In fact, not only short but predominantely downhill. It was very much in the same vain in terms of cycling conditions along the defacto cycle path otherwise known as […]
Monesterio: Thoughts For Today
Here’s the bike: He looks very muddy after yesterday’s encounter with the realities of following a walking trail (see yesterday’s post, now updated with pictures). If I pass a high pressure jet car cleaning place today I’ll strip off his panniers and do the necessary. I’m not […]
Cycling Day 5: Sevilla To Monesterio
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle This risks being quite short as I’m very tired… I really want to avoid cycling 100 km + days but I’ve just my first. There will, inevitably, be others, but with the average distance that I need to […]
La Plaza De España, Seville
I’ve seen pictures of this before but on my two previous visits to Seville never got to see it. Not quite sure why as it’s in the city centre… It’s an extraordinary building but not as old as you might think. Built in the 1920s for an international […]
La Ruta De La Plata… More Details
The Ruta/Via de la Plata is clearly quite a famous thing in Spain as most people that I have mentioned it to in the last couple of months immediately recognise the name at the very least. Most, in addition, know something about it. I knew nothing about it […]
Cycling Day 4: Dos Hermanas To Sevilla
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle I had to wait until nearly halfway through the Eurovelo 8 trip along the Mediterranean to intersect with my previous continental crossing – my take on the Eurovelo 5 – in Piacenza, Italy. I even posted a video […]
Paul, Mercedes Days And Seville
Here is Paul from The Netherlands who wins the accolade of being the first touring cyclist I have not only seen since leaving Tarifa but also the first that I have had a good chat with. He’s an interesting chap, widely travelled and was careful – he kept […]
Cycling Day 3: Jerez De La Frontera To Dos Hermanas
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Not masses to write about the cycling today as it was simply a case of finding the N-IV (no idea what the significance of that name is) in north-east Jerez and following it all the way not just […]
The Top Five Boroughs In England For Cycling
By Cheryl Smith While treating illness and disease is at the core of any health service, tackling problems before they arise will be essential to dealing with the problems caused by unhealthy lifestyles and ageing populations. The Healthy Access project from Toothpick.com will empower people to make healthy […]
Cycling Day 2: Conil (Fuente Del Gallo) To Jerez De La Frontera
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Well I did have a brilliant idea (see the last paragraph of ‘cycling day 1’), although it wasn’t that brilliant. I looked again at the online maps and there was clearly lots of back roads that would take […]
Cádiz: The Return
I couldn’t resist coming back for a cycle around the city where I spent all of March… I only left last Friday at dawn but it does seem like a long time ago!
Cycling Day 1: Tarifa To Conil (Fuente Del Gallo)
Click here to see the detailed statistics of today’s cycle. Finally, it’s started! I’m sure you are as relieved as me… It was a soggy morning back in Tarifa (see previous post) but after that very virtuous breakfast it was off to knock on the door of the […]
And We’re Off: Next Stop Nordkapp… (Well, Via…)
Breakfast In Tarifa
I did sleep last night just a little, but most of the time was spent listening to the pitter patter of raindrops on the tent. Grumbles of thunder in the distance were a sign of things to come and the downpour coincided with my departure time. Over the […]
Prologue Day 2: Gibraltar To Tarifa
The plan this morning was to first spend an hour or so meandering my way along the edge of the rock so as to complete a full circumnavigation. OK, it’s not perhaps the British Isles but it would at least give me claim to having visited most things […]
Gibraltar
It’s a curious place. Dont get me wrong; I actually quite like it (and my hotel – the Rock Hotel – is wonderful), but it is slightly strange. I’m sure that I’m not the first person to make such a comment. It’s British but not quite British. It’s […]
Prologue Day 1: Estepona To Gibraltar
So, not the first day of cycling from the southernmost point of Europe to the northernmost point, but the first day of cycling any kind of distance on a fully loaded bike. It was a straightforward journey along the coast although I when I looked out of the […]
Ready To Take On Europe (Again)
Tomorrow morning, Tuesday 7th April, it’s a relatively short ride to Gibraltar and a final night of luxury in a hotel. On Wednesday it’s an even shorter ride to Tarifa and a campsite just to the west of Europe’s most southerly mainland point. Then on Thursday 9th I […]
In Praise Of… Yep Bike
If you ever need to reignite your faith in the wider cycling community then I can suggest few better people to meet than Roman and his colleagues at Yep Bike in San Pedro, just south of Marbella on the Costa del Sol. I first contacted Roman a couple […]
Estepona: The Calm Before The Cycling
Sunday night near Estepoba on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain… The start of the cycle approaches fast but here’s a quick summary of the last few days… If you were paying attention back at the start of March (no? You should be ashamed…) you will remember […]
Ronda / San Roque, Andalucia, Spain
After having left Cádiz it was back to Estepona yesterday to pick up Reggie (the bike) but my uncle Ron had pieced together a full but very enjoyable day of sightseeing before I was finally able to hit the sack in a comfortable bed (first time in five […]
“The 10,000k Challenge: …Faffing Across Europe On A Bike!” By John Chick
John Chick recounts a tale of long days in the saddle followed by even longer days at the PC writing his book about cycling to Istanbul and back… “Writing a book about my adventures rolling around Europe‘s less travelled roads was never on the cards at the inception of the 10,000k […]
Cádiz: The Last Post
Once this is uploaded I’m off back to the flat to pack (listening to the leaders debate as I do so), have a shower and then hit the sack in preparation for a 6am rise and a coach to Tarifa at 7am. My time in Cádiz is done. […]
Cádiz: Coming Soon…
A final collection of photos from my last afternoon in the Andalucian city… Watch this space!
Cádiz: Parque Marisma De Los Torunos
The original plan, as noted in last night’s post, was to go kayaking. Alas it was too windy and all such activities had been cancelled. Instead I went with one of my teachers José (with the beard), his girlfriend and my fellow student Glen to the Parque Metropolitano […]
Cádiz: The End Is Nigh…
Earlier today I attended my final lesson at the K2 Internacional language school here in Cádiz. The choice was a bit random and based primarily upon the school’s location on what looked like a nice square in the old part of town (and the impressive video on their […]
Cádiz: Semana Santa In Benedicion De Dios!
When I imagined Semana Santa in Cadiz, I thought it would be two or three religious-themed processions on Thursday and Friday of ‘holy week’. I wasn’t expecting thirty or more of them spread throughout the week and in many cases stretching late into the night. Last night the […]
Prudential Ride London And UNICEF
By Imogen Walker, UNICEF UK Are you looking for a cycle ride with a difference? Or maybe you want to challenge yourself but aren’t quite sure how. Then look no further as Unicef UK are delighted to be able to offer places in the Prudential Ride London 100. […]
Cádiz: Museo De Las Cortes
Amazing model from 1779 now housed in the Museo de la Cortes. Hanging above the model is an iconic picture depicting the presentation of the 1812 constitution to the King, I think. Two years later in 1814 the (new?) King ripped it up, if not literally then metaphorically. […]
Cádiz: Sunset On The First Day Of Summertime
The sun is beginning to set on my time in Cádiz. Three more days at the language school followed by a day off and then an early morning bus to Tarifa on Friday to meet up with my uncle and eventually, back in Estepona, my bicycle Reggie. All […]
Ditching The Rough Guides In Favour Of…
I would happily class myself as an enthusiastic early adopter of technology, especially when it comes to cycling. Back in 2009 when I cycled along the Pennine Cycleway as a shakedown of my skills as a first time touring cyclist I blogged as I travelled having moved on from writing […]
Cádiz: The Puerta De Tierra Meets The GoPro
The wonders of mobile blogging… I think I’ve more or less got the whole thing sorted. Here are a few GoPro shots from this morning, transferred wirelessly to my iPhone and beamed up to the Internet via 4G. Hopefully also a couple of videos (but it’s there where […]
Cádiz: La Plaza Montidero & Bar / Restaurante El Serrallo
You may remember – I’ve certainly mentioned it on here before, and probably elsewhere – that one of the principal reasons for choosing to study Spanish at the K2 language school here in Cádiz was not just its general location in the heart of the old part of […]
Cycling Tarifa To Nordkapp: Two Weeks Until Departure
The plan is that two weeks today – Thursday 9th April – I will be standing somewhere near the southernmost point of the European mainland looking north and thinking “here we go again…” (or even, “bloody hell, here we go again…”). Between now and then, my time is […]
Cádiz: The Post With All The Bicycles
I promised this a couple of weeks ago so here it is; the post with all the bikes of Cádiz, or at least some of them. I wouldn’t want to give the impression that the city is up there at the top of the European premier league of […]
Cádiz: My Favourite Photograph(s) So Far
…and then perhaps this one:
Cycling Tarifa To Nordkapp: Planning Week 1
Can I just get something off my chest? Or indeed off my bed here in Cádiz. Digestive biscuits as sold by Carrefour here in Spain are not to be mistaken with what most of you and I would consider to be a ‘digestive’ biscuit. Far too sweet, far […]
Cádiz: The Andalucian News At 9.10am
If you’ve got election fatigue in the UK, spare a though for the poor people in Spain. This year they have a triple whammy of local, regional and national elections to ‘look forward’ to. The election season kicked off yesterday with regional elections here in Andalucia and the […]
Cádiz: El Puerto De Santa Maria
There’s a a feeling you get when visiting El Puerto de Santa Maria that its glory days are in the distance past. But what glory days they were; Columbus sailed from here on one of his journeys to the Americas and the first map of the Americas was […]
The Equipment Needed To Blog From Tarifa To Nordkapp
The photograph below has been inspired by BikeTourGlobal on Instagram doing something similar. That said, it follows on from the photograph that I posted to CyclingEurope.org back in February (which is also at the foot of this post) showing all of the equipment I will be taking with […]
Cádiz: The Pillars Of Hercules
I mentioned The Pillars of Hercules in the previous post and it gave me an idea for a dreary afternoon in Cádiz; see how many of them I could spot in coats of arms dotted around the city. The predominant coat of arms shown below is the one […]
Cádiz: El Museo De Cádiz, Part 3
A modest collection of contemporary art on the second floor. It didn’t take me long to stroll around. The three-dimensional cardboard piece was my favourite, the contorted bodies reminding me of some of the religious stuff on the first floor (see earlier post). As for the black metal […]
