Rachel, an artist from Grand Junction, Colorado has been in touch. Ever the teacher, my answers are in red; Hi, Love your blog Thanks! and I’ll have to get the book when it’s ready! Know any publishers? My husband, son, and I are considering doing the section from Colmar to […]
This is what the book currently looks like, all 42 chapters, 294 pages, and 107,835 words of it. It doesn’t look like a book when it’s all put together like this does it? The last couple of rows of pages are those that have yet to be transformed […]
What is it with cyclists also tending to have good taste in design and photography? I’ll let you make your own mind up about my taste in design and the qualities of the photos you can see on here but so many cycling-adventurers have cracking websites that have gorgeous […]
Here’s a man with a film waiting to be made about him; John Adrian Short. He has just posted a comment on The Book section of the site about his cycling journeys (presumably prompted by the discussion between my cousin Richard ‘Bill Bryson’ Birkby & me about Portugal). John […]
This may be an idea… unless you make me a better offer 🙂
Street View is a great tool for fact checking. As I write the book I have to piece together bits of information from many sources; the original blog, comments on the blog, photos, maps, books as well as my own memories of course.* It can be frustrating however when […]
Have a read of the following short extract from the book. Pay particular attention to the final sentence and bow down to the small inoffensive (French) word ‘en’. It is number 100,000 in the book… My short break also allowed me to look at the map in a […]
The view through the window of my flat earlier this evening was a spectacle of colour & light…
Kicks off next Saturday at the annual ‘Water Fest’ on my end of town and then continues all week, culminating in a big bike event at Prospect Park on Saturday 26th…
If you wake up at 3am and can’t get back to sleep, what do you do? Check your emails! And here is one from Hannah; Dear Andrew, Firstly, thankyou for your website it has come in extremely useful helping me plan a similar route! Thanks. It’s a pleasure. […]
The news is out! ‘Do you have a blog sir?‘ the pupils at my school have asked quite a few times in the last couple of weeks. A lot of them would benefit from a nudge in the right direction when it comes to finding a more environmentally friendly way […]
This article on the Bike Hub website is a good read and it’s worth taking a few moments out of your day to read it. Some interesting truths for the converted & unconverted cyclist.
I did one of these for the blog when I returned home to the UK last summer after the long cycle to Brindisi along the Eurovelo 5. The blog words totalled about 30,000. Now they are in the process of being re-written and I have so far got […]
Now available online for reading! Click here or follow the links at the top. Pisa to Siena was mosquito-ridden and the signs were not on my side either. The evening of the 12th August was a bit of a low point… Read on.
I think last time I mentioned this I was at number 15. I wonder why I don’t have a ‘proper’ title like the other blogs mentioned? Perhaps it’s in the WordPress settings somewhere. That said, does this blog have a name? Perhaps it should… I’m still not that […]
Thanks to Simone (now in Venice, not Pavia), I have updated the Part 2, Cycling Day 18 extract from the book. There were a few factual errors and things that needed clarifying. It does make me wonder how many other such errors and omissions I have made elsewhere… […]
Allan Muir writes; I wrote to you in the early days of your preparation for Eurovelo 5 – about GPS tracking, I think (I still enjoy dipping into your blog to see what you’re up to). At the time I and a couple of folk were planning a charity […]
Atoosa writes; I’m really interested in this route and want to start cycling from Milan to North. I’d like to know how did you pass The Alps? did you go with [the] train? No I didn’t – I went over the top! You would be doing it in the […]
I was at the Eiffel Tower if you didn’t guess… That was the high (although I didn’t go to the top). But disappointing that I haven’t got any tickets for any of the Olympic events… 🙁 No money has been taken from my account. But… I do understand […]
This could pass for a four star hotel…
…on the last day of term! Kind of. Off to Paris with 33 fifteen year olds tomorrow for four days.
An App that is actually worth downloading (must remove all the crap ones that do nothing whatsoever apart from amuse for a few minutes after being installed…) has just been published by Sustrans, so I just did but it is quite difficult to test while still in bed. […]
Now available online! Comment is, as always, free, so please do so. Follow the link above or simply click here to read the latest draft chapter of the upcoming book about my Eurovelo 5 journey… Day 18 was a guided cycle from Como to Pavia through the northern […]
Sounds like a new surrealist film? No, just a round-up of the topics that have fallen into my inbox this week. Read on to find out more… I was wondering what crossing the alps was like? writes Henry Ulmann… Excellent! If you follow the Eurovelo 5 / Swiss National […]
Great documentary on BBC4 in the early hours of this morning – a repeat from 2009. The blurb says; “Author Rob Penn travels around the world collecting hand-built parts for his dream bicycle and charts the social history of one of mankind’s greatest inventions.”. It’s based upon his […]
…visitors. 🙂
When cycling to work this morning, I was thinking that if ever The One Show were to have an article about the Eurovelo 5 on their programme then surely I would be the person they would turn to. This was tossing over in my mind (it’s amazing what […]
Yet another sample chapter from the book now available to read for free (!) online. Just click here to enjoy a wet romp (if indeed you can romp on a bike) in central Switzerland. If the climbing the Alps was the high point of the trip, my day […]
‘Mattie’ in the Channel Islands is planning a trip from St. Malo to Athens. He asked on one of CTC’s forums for advice as to whether to take the Italian route (which would potentially use part of the Eurovelo 5) or the Balkan route (which would use part of the […]
Another sample chapter of the book available to read online. A little bit shorter than previous ones reflecting the shorter cycle from Dabo to Strasbourg. Read it here or by following the links at the top of the page. Feedback welcome!
This is a fascinating photograph – click on picture and explore… Wow!
I really enjoyed that. Only the most hardened of cynics would fail to do so, even the republican ones. The whole thing was beautifully done, especially the music in Westminster Abbey and the bit at the end with the classic Aston Martin. Nice touch. It was the perfect […]
“Estimated time of departure: 5th May 2011. We are cycling across Northern France, a bit of Germany, Switzerland (the high bits) and zig zagging down Italy (trying to avoid the high bits) to Taranto in Southern italy which is where Mary Ann lives. Hopefully friends and family will join us from […]
Another sample chapter is available online! Click here or follow ‘The Book’ link at the top of the page. Day 6 was when the rain started as I cycled from Maubeuge to Charleville-Mézières in the north-east of France. Feedback welcome and if anyone knows a publisher… 🙂 Update @ 3pm: […]
The rich ones have the Pacific crashing upon the shore next to their Malibu beach houses. I have this… I really should do some work for going back to school tomorrow but I feel I have at least one chapter in me this morning, perhaps two… And then […]
You are probably getting a little bit bored of the mention of this book I’m writing so pass over the following if that’s indeed the case. It is quite addictive though. I’ve now written just under 20,000 words and have got as far as the end of the third day […]
A couple of cyclists are joining the roll call of those having cycled the Eurovelo 5 south although these two are going a little bit further than most. John Howe writes; This summer I am cycling from London to Greece, with a friend, Kit Alexander. The final destination […]
I’m at risk of getting a little bit ahead of myself here. Not only have I located my place on the bookshelf at Waterstones, but I have now attempted to design the cover of the book itself! I’ve only written half of the thing so far (and most […]
Not me. Not yet. I was just in Waterstones and located where my yet unnamed book could be slotted in the travel section. It would be in good company, just to the left of Paul Theroux’s ‘The Pillars Of Hercules’ (which I have on my bedside table poised […]
I wrote about 4,000 words this afternoon. Once I started I couldn’t really stop. It’s great having a story to tell. I can’t imagine how I would ever write fiction. But writing non-fiction is easy. Must try and join my sentences together however. And add a few opinions. […]
Just returned from a very quick overnight visit to Yorkshire to see family. I didn’t cycle up there but did hire a car and took the opportunity this morning to revisit the towns of Halifax & Huddersfield. The former has a small but relatively unknown jewel in its […]
…kind of.
Carlo Levi wrote a book entitled ‘Christ Stopped At Eboli’, Eboli being a town on the west coast of Campania in Italy, south of Rome. The book title comes from a local saying and is referring to the poverty and exclusion ‘from the full human experience’ in southern Italy […]
As promoted in today’s Independent newspaper; The London Cycling Campaign, which promotes safer cycling in the capital, has produced a nine-point-plan for reducing the toll of death and injury among cyclists: * Enforce speed limits and clamp down on drivers who use mobile phones. (A young woman in […]
Here it is in its raw state. All 39,153 words and 168 pages. Set in Georgia 18pt (italic for the blog entries), justified. Now all I need to do is transform it into a best seller, which may take a bit longer than the time taken simply copying and pasting […]
My book is now standing at just under 10,000 words and has 39 pages. OK, I admit it, I’m cheating just a little bit as most of those words are not new but text copied from the posts I made along the way. To begin with I didn’t […]
I Tweeted this morning that “I need to write that book about cycling from Reading to Brindisi last summer”. The thought may have been forgotten, as most thoughts on Twitter are, had @No_More_Beer responded within the hour Tweeting “Yes you do! Worth a read”. So I have started […]
From the BBC website; MPs could introduce a new offence of causing death by dangerous cycling. But how much of a danger do these two-wheeled travellers really pose? There is little that divides UK public opinion more sharply than cyclists.To their supporters, Britain’s bike-riders are clean, green, commuters-with-a-conscience, who […]
Here is a slick, if functional video about Eurovelo 8, The Mediterranean Route and Eurovelo 7, The Sun Route. It could really do with some stirring motivational music to liven the whole thing up. And a translation into English of the Italian bit at the start and the end. […]
I used to love taking these panorama stitched together pictures with an old Nokia mobile phone. The effect is great. Wonder if there is a way to get the iPhone to do something similar. There must be an app out there, no? Which station is the top one by […]
A few days ago I added that Wikio badge just over there on the left of the website. According to Wikio this blog is ranked at number 15 in the country for cycling. That’s something I find a bit hard to believe and I am sceptical as to how […]
From the Dummy Jim website; In May 1951 a profoundly deaf 30-year-old Scotsman called James Duthie – known to his local community as ‘Dummy Jim’ – cycled solo on a return trip from the small fishing town of Cairnbulg in the north-east of Scotland to the Arctic Circle. The journey of over […]
This is becoming a little bit of a tradition. It took me a while to take today’s picture as the traffic was a little heavier but as you can see, the spring has unmistakably arrived. Such a difference from that shivery day back in December. Today was sublime. […]
Now, what do you make of the following email? It is, I suppose, in response to the post about Lisa Baum and her plans to cycle to the Arctic Circle. The weirdest thing is that the man himself – Dummy Jim – was killed “in mysterious circumstances” in 1965. […]
Lisa Baum has been in touch following my post below about her trip to the Arctic Circle this summer; x Hi Andrew, Thanks again for your kind words and add on your blog. Your trip to the south of Italy sounded awesome, there are so many good trips […]
Mary Ann Coupland and her friend Sally are about to head off on the Eurovelo 5. They have set up a Just Giving page to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Here is there story in their own words; We are cycling from Boulogne sur Mer in France […]
The article below is from this week’s Times Educational Supplement. Interesting choice of a bike. Her website is here. This summer, geography teacher Lisa Baum will cycle from her school, Ernest Bevin College in south London, to the Arctic Circle, with the aim of encouraging more pupils to […]
…because you never have the opportunity to do what I just did; stop and take in the view on your way to work. Those of you who travel from Reading to Henley-on-Thames in a car missed this wonderful sight as you sped past me at high speed on the country […]
Seems such a pity to shunt the picture in the previous post off the top of the blog; I may well fiddle with the dates so that it stays there for a few more days yet. 🙂 Not everything is always as it seems on the blogosphere… Anyway, […]
There may be an “after” shot later; reunion tonight of my ex-colleagues from Prospect College.
I have just refitted the bike computer back on Reggie. Now that I can see the digits (the days are finally becoming a little bit longer after the short days of winter), let’s see how fast I can get to and from work. I will be assisted a […]
Earlier this week I received a friend request on Facebook from a certain Tom Hooker. I like to think that his second name is Jasper, James or Jeremy and that his friends call him TJ Hooker but as he only looks as though he is in his 20s, […]
Perhaps they will be a little less tabloid when they become “independent”…
Of all the unsettling but jaw-dropping images coming out of Japan, this one struck me the most and really speaks volumes about the magnitude of the power of the Earth. Amazing.
My commute was so much better than this guy’s… As was my commute back home this evening. Wonderful day. Just a bit chilly.
It is bloody freezing outside the Back of Beyond pub in the Kings Road, Reading (there were no seats available inside that gave me a sufficient buffer zone between myself and a pissed old bloke doing nothing but drinking; such is the clientele of your average Wetherspoons pub), […]
You wait all week for a blog post and then four come along all at once! Sorry for the flood but remember that I am a teacher and only function on other levels on a weekend… An interesting nudge from Iain Harper earlier this week (see Iain’s own […]
The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo. This video is so beautifully filmed… It’s a bit like watching a sequence from Human Planet.
Why so many visitors yesterday?
A bit of a milestone (kilometre stone?) this week; I have received an email from someone asking me about Eurovelo 8 rather than Eurovelo 5. Clearly I am more of an expert on Eurovelo 5 and my ability to say much about number 8 is limited but this […]
Sitting on the sofa, iPad in hand typing this post, I am in two minds. My serious, professional, teacher head is telling me to get off my backside and make a start on the large bag of exercise books that I brought home at the end of last […]
Mark Easton’s blog
‘When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race’ ‘Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia’ …or was it Nigel Mansell?
I paused en route home from work last night (it is now 12.30am) to replicate the photo that I had taken on the final day of term 2 just before Christmas. It’s been a long term and there is a decidedly spring feel as we edge towards the end […]
Kind of… It looked a lot bigger through my eyes.
…nearly. Only three lessons to go and we are half way through the academic year 🙂 And Spring is just around the corner. Well, not this corner… Lovely still morning in Reading. Great day for cycling! Errr… Oh yes, Reggie stayed at work last night as I got […]
When I was a student at York University back in the late 1990s, a series of revolutions spread down through eastern Europe. Poland had been rumbling for years but in 1989 successive regimes crumbled. It was an exciting period of recent history but many students in York had their […]
A strange week of extremes on apsykes.com ; from last weekend to mid-week I was getting around 200 hits a day… and in the second half of the week under 100. Could this be all the Year 11 kids at school who had discovered that Reggie has his […]
Not me. I’m still stuck in Reading on a grey and dreary Saturday morning but hey! It’s Saturday morning so I shouldn’t complain. I’m a bit of a shandy cyclist compared to some; earlier this week, Jim Rawnsley invited me to join him and some friends on a […]
How about stopping labelling them as “bottom sets”?
Article below from the TES; deciding to walk or cycle to school, or work or anywhere really is a decision you make because you believe it is the right thing to do, not because of some glossy advertising campaign or some green do-gooder. Luckily, some of us have […]
Joe Durnall has emailed; I hope you don’t mind me emailing. I intend to ride the Eurovelo 5 to Rome this coming summer, and wondered if you could give me any indication of the costs of such a venture? I have all the kit (Bike, tent, etc..) and […]
It’s like a sweet shop…
…to London (in theory). Day in London; here is the plan. 10am: BETT Show at Olympia, 1pm: meet niece in Kensington High Street for lunch, 3pm: The Outdoors Show (incorporating The London Bike Show) at The Excel Centre in Docklands. The last bit – The Outdoors Show – […]
http://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/ To investigate…
