Just look at how blue it is and how fluffy the clouds are…. The town itself is less beautiful although my hotel – the building on the photo – has the same interior designer as the boudoirs at the Moulin Rouge. The story of the day? Here goes… […]
I’ve just received this email from Mark Rowland which contains lots of useful tips and hints; Good luck on the route – you may recall we exchanged emails some time ago. A friend and I set off on our own Italian adventure at the start of June and […]
..are cousins; Anais lives just outside the centre of Lille and tonight I am sleeping on an inflatable mattress on her floor. It is very comfortable! The story of today is as follows; I woke up early courtesy of Alain’s braying donkeys. Alain himself was already up and […]
Moderately interesting fact of the day about northern France: Lille is called Lille because it used to be an island. I’m sure a geography teacher would argue the toss with me over that – it’s something to do with the canal / river… I’ll post later about the […]
I have just spent one of the most French nights of my life! The day’s stats to begin with; Time in saddle: 3 hrs 2 mins 38 secs Distance: 56.53 kms Average speed: 18.5 kms/hour Maximum speed: 49.7 kms/hour Eurovelo 5 total: 313.8 kms Alain was waiting for […]
My first border crossing awaits me at the bottom of the cliff. You get a very different view of Dover from this side. The castle behind me holds a stunning position in deeply wooded land. Beats the M20 entrance into the town hands down! Posting from continent may […]
Iain Harper and I exchanged messages as I was sitting in the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral and arranged to meet. We had coffee and he persuaded me that a comfortable bed in his house was a better option than scamp-site and I eventually agreed (I am worried about […]
Now let’s get this straight; I’m not cycling the Via Francigena. I’m not starting in Canterbury and finishing in Rome and unless I experience some sort of revelation in the next few weeks, I remain an unbeliever. However the Eurovelo 5 is inspired by the VF and they […]
One of Kent’s less picturesque spots but when you have to eat you have to eat. The A2 is relentless; one long straight road between Gillingham and eventually Canterbury. It’s now 2.30pm so I should be in Canterbury by 4.30pm. Will that give me enough time to sort […]
London didn’t seem to want to end but after two hours cycling and approaching Rochester, the Kent countryside has kicked in big time. What a view!
I think I need to be more careful when pitching the tent. As I type this message, the blood is rushing to my head as the ground is clearly not flat. Perhaps I will dream better… Sorry to bang I’m about the campsite but it really is amazing. […]
What an amazing place. Tucked into a corner of south east London, not far from Woolwich, lots of trading estates and Belmarsh Prison, you could quite easily be in the Dordogne. And at £11.90, a bargain to boot. Great days cycling – here are the stats; total kilometres: […]
Don’t worry,I’m not going to number all of them but this first one means I have escaped Reading! You may get fed up with pictures of Reggie – the bike – next to famous things; the next one will probably be Nelson’s Column.
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 […]
Almost two years ago I sat in front of the television watching the Olympics in Beijing. It was wet, very wet and the cyclists were suffering as they made their way around the course that led around the Great Wall. But it was such a striking image; fit […]
Just returned home after spending the afternoon with some good friends; (Puglian) Basil, Amanda, Zoe & Sue. All are teachers, all erudite, witty and thoroughly good company. Thanks to them I will set off tomorrow morning in good spirit. Twelve hours to go of which eight will be […]
…even for those who don’t do it! What better message for everyone as I continue my preparations. Picture courtesy of Massimo Mazzone in Italy who I will be meeting up with south of Rome. (Nice example of an object pronoun in French as well 🙂 )
This is not the best preparation for a continental cycle ride but it is a Friday night and the end of an academic year. I met my friend Sally earlier in town for a drink, came home and slumped in front of the TV with a pizza on […]
…for me, but not the rest of the school. It seemed strange to end the year without the usual fanfare and mass salutations. It was just another Friday afternoon for everyone else; a happier than usual one I imagine for most as they look forward to the real […]
“It’s a grim old day…” says the weatherman on Five Live and as I look through the window as I prepare for my second educational day visit of the week to France, I see the proof. Where has the summer gone? So it is with delight that I […]
My friends, Puglian Basil & Liz have written about my trip on their new blog; We are preparing for the beginning of a tremendous journey by our good friend Andrew Sykes, who is about to set off on the bike ride of a life time – cycling from […]
Alain from Boulogne points me in this web direction for some detailed information about the St Gotthard Pass. Time for you non-French speakers to get your dictionaries out! More spectacular pictures can be found on the original site; L’ascension de ce mois-ci nous emmène faire une petite incursion dans […]
….from a coach full of screaming kids; the tranquility of the scene is only visual.
Well, I have just arrived in France but not en route to Brindisi, simply en route to Boulogne-sur-mer with eighty children in tow. We are only here for a day to visit a boulangerie, a sweet factory and do some shopping in the town itself. It’s not the […]
Removing the excess parts of the eleven 1:200,000 maps that cover the entire length of the Eurovelo 5 route allows me to create a (temporary) addition to the living room…. There is a gap between the Saint Gotthard Pass and the Swiss-Italian border; not the place to get […]
The European Cyclists’ Federation have given me their seal of approval! Doretta Vincini, one of the organisation’s Vice Presidents has written the following email; Dear Andrew, I congratulate you on your wonderful initiative and I envy you for this wonderful trip. I shall follow your efforts and your […]
The Rough Guide to the Eurovelo 5; not sure it will sell….
…hasn’t been written yet. So it’s a good job that the Rough Guides to France, Switzerland and Italy were on sale at Waterstones today; three for the price of two. I am about to surgically remove the sections with the red circles. Not yet sure if it is possible […]
Is one of France’s best exports coming to Reading? And not only that; opposite the back of the block of flats where I live? I have long evangelised about the joys of the sports & outdoor shop and there are a few up and down the country here in the […]
The brackets are required as I don’t know whether this will be an explanation (“How Twitter Works”) or a question (“How Does Twitter Work?”). I am, as you are aware, on Twitter. Over there on the left. My most recent post being about Dierdre Barlow (ha! I spelt […]
Here’s a friendly email from a guy called Richard Bradley who is quite local to me; he lives in Basingstoke; Hi Andrew, I have been reading your blog with great interest over the last few weeks. Stumbled across it whilst searching for online reviews of the Ridgeback Panorama. […]
A couple of weeks ago I made a list…. Let’s see how I am doing with just over one week to go; 1. Finish planning the route – Nowhere near finished; I have got as far as Strasbourg with some stages only remarkable in their lack of detail 2. […]
As predicted, much stress was involved in sending this picture. The instructions from the teenage technophile were far too brief to be of use and after a call to an Indian call centre and far too much alcohol, I have managed to start to get to grips with the […]
Here we go! Hours of stress is in front of me as I try to figure out the writings of a technophile teenager who has written the manual….
Sorry, but I have to post this comment from Helen O’Shaunghnessy in New Zealand; she wrote it recently on Chris Hammersley’s blog; I have been following Andrew’s…. blog avidly…it’s informative and highly entertaining ! It’s the kind of quote that, if this blog were a book (come on you […]
Laura Birchenough has just returned home from a cycle ride that took in the last part of the Eurovelo 5 – she stayed with Massimo Mazzone in Benevento – and then most of eastern / central Europe back to the UK. It seems to be the done thing to […]
Here is my first track with the new SPOT device. Sending a message every ten minutes means that between home and work, a journey that normally takes me only about 25 minutes, I would expect to have two “waypoints” tracked between me setting off and arriving. I only have […]
So far so good…. Haven’t yet got to the tracking bit (I need to go somewhere to be tracked!), but it is working and I have activated the device. Hanging out of the window of my flat, I sent my first message to the satellite and “beep beep” […]
Facebook is great. It has brought me into contact with lots of people who are interested in cycling either the Eurovelo 5 or a route that involves passing through the same places as the Eurovelo 5. Hamish Pattison from New Zealand is one of them and he’s just […]
Following his check-up on Saturday morning at AW Cycles, Reggie appears to be in fine form. The vibration at the front is gone, the knocking gear when going uphill has disappeared and the vibrating rear mud guard a thing of the past! Just a squeaking saddle remains but […]
Gary Walters, a PE teacher from Nottingham contacted me back in April. Here is his original email; Hi, I recently stumbled along your website about the Eurovelo 5 as me and 4 friends are cycling from Rotterdam to Milan on August 2nd this summer. We are hoping […]
I need somewhere to put my map while cycling. I have a cheap plastic map cover thing from Decathlon that can be Velcroed to the handlbars but when I tested this out last week it flapped around everywhere and was very annoying. So, I put my thinking cap on and […]
And probably the final iron ever for some of my clothes; these trousers have holes where holds shouldn’t be… and the white shirts are slowly taking on the hue of the sun cream that I slap on liberally before setting off on my bike every morning. They will […]
I still have two weeks remaining of school, including two visits to France (to Boulogne-sur-Mer of all places!) but I am now getting to the point of being ready to cycle to southern Italy. Jim Rawnsley has suggested below that I start a thread of comments in response […]
There has been just as much action in Reading and Caversham today with me making great leaps forward in my preparations for July 18th as there has been in SW19, South Africa and Rotterdam combined (Wimbledon, The World Cup & the Tour de France respectively). So as Germany […]
Expect lots of activity on here over the next 48 hours; I need to get things planned!
When I met Alain Lenain last weekend (see below), he suggested a small but useful change to my route. He has sent an email which sets out his suggestion; Andrew Me voici rentré chez moi et un grand merci pour ta gentillesse l’autre jour. Je peux d’ores et déjà te confirmer être à la maison le […]
Todd Rygh writes (and I respond in red); Hello Andrew, I just finished watching England-Germany. Not the result I was hoping for. Me neither, but they deserve nothing better! I am preparing my own bicycle journey from Winchester to Brindisi in late August through September, and I have […]
Alain, my warmshowers.com visitor was very good company; within a few minutes of meeting him at the station I felt that I had known him for a long time. After the football (see previous post) and a follow-up post-match discussion over another beer, we retired to the flat and […]
Watching Germany v England with Basil (he of Puglia fame) and Alain (he of Warmshowers fame). And Germany have just scored. 🙁 Update: The final score was 4-1 to Germany (or was that 4-2?). England never deserved to get through to the next round so the defeat was […]
Here is my friend Zoe who lent me her garden so that I could practice putting up the tent for the first time with pegs (I had only previously attempted to do it in my living room, needless to say without pegs…). It went straight up! Nice erection […]
I’ve never been a list person; I would spend more time writing lists than actually ticking things off the list. But I feel the strange urge to write one following the comment in the previous post about having so much to do… Updated at 4.30pm 1. Finish planning […]
We are currently going through a mini heat-wave here in south-east England (confirmed by the fact that earlier this week the first hose-pipe ban was announced…). Temperatures are predicted to soar to around 30 degrees today (in the shade). I cast my mind back to a similar sun-drenched […]
I’ve decided that, as an extra motivation to keep cycling (especially when I get to The Alps!) that it makes sense for my efforts to help support a charity. Over the last month I have been avidly watching Springwatch on the TV and then caught the BBC “Wild […]
At some point this morning, the counter over there on the right (just below the email subscription that you keep meaning to fill in so that you receive an email every time I update the blog 🙂 ) will tick over to 20,000. That’s the number of visitors in […]
Guess what I’ve been doing since I arrived home from work? Which is a pity because I have a few pieces of news to report and now have to write about them while falling asleep… The first should really deserve a whole post to itself as it is […]
This is a plug (an Indian one!) for my niece’s new blog – it does what it says on the tin…. anniegoestoindia.wordpress.com …and this is a picture showing where she is going. I’ve also put an RSS feed over there on the right to keep up-to-date with her adventures. […]
A funny 24 hours has just gone by… I went to a barbeque yesterday afternoon and as it was quite cold in the shade I suggested we move the table and chairs into the sunlight. I then sat down in the very same sunlight for three hours and got very […]
This little device – a FreeLoader solar recharger – should be worth its weight in gold en route; it will hopefully keep the mobile phone topped up with energy without the need to stick it into the mains. It also encourages me to take the i-pod touch with me; this […]
Jon Scott continues to amuse me with his retrospective posts about his cycling trip through continental Europe; this is a fun read. And the pictures continue to be stunning. Hope he doesn’t mind me nicking them and posting them here. If you click on the photo it will […]
Looking very similar to both Bill & Sue’s blogs, here’s Chris Hammersley’s’ new blog. He sets off on the 9th August so will be following in my slip stream! I’ll add you to the EV5 blog list below Chris; think of it as an incentive to get posting […]
OK, the detailed planning has started! Not before time you might think (I set off four weeks tomorrow…). I will write notes about each day on a double page of my Moleskine notebook so that I can refer to them en route. I will then scan and post […]
A couple of weeks ago, Bill Vrabel (he is cycling from Scotland to Rome later in the year – see below and his fledgling blog) emailed me with the following questions; I wanted to ask you a general question, or maybe just need your opinion. I’m thinking of […]
Click the picture for more info! I did 🙂
Not quite there yet, but one day perhaps. Mark Beaumont is a well-deserved member of the list produced by National Geographic. I may have posted this photo here before but it is worth a re-blogging; it sums up so much…
Bill Vrabel, via his blog, is going through the learning process about long-distance cycling that I have had to do over the last couple of years and it’s interesting to see his two most recent posts about camping (or not) and going down the route of clipless pedals. […]
But look at this picture also from the Ortlieb website (see earlier post about how to…). The top of the bag is rolled under and the longer straps (that I have detached and are currently on top of a wardrobe back at the flat) stretch down to the clip […]
Not according to BBC Radio 5 Live; the presenter of the early news programme welcomed the nation this morning with the following words; Good morning, it’s 5 o’clock on Friday 18th July and welcome to Morning Reports… I didn’t sleep well last night so I knew for sure she was wrong and I […]
This cycling thing is catching on…. The following from the BBC website; Adventurers James Cracknell and Ben Fogle are to tackle a 2,745-mile bike race for their next TV challenge. The Tour Divide – which stretches from Canada to Mexico – is the world’s longest off-road race. Cracknell […]
I cycle past these signs every day and ask that question. Work is being carried out on the bridge but the road remains open and cars zoom past… Nonsense!
Having a coffee before work… (that’s some other bloke btw – I’m sitting opposite, behind the camera of course!)
Ha ha! This is a question that someone has filled into a search engine and was directed to eurovelo5.com . Not that they would find an answer here as it is a question I was asking myself only earlier this week as I was preparing for my cycle […]
Susan Hausberger emails from Austria. Hi Andrew! Hope you don’t mind me writing to you (otherwise I don’t suppose you’d publish your email address!). I am very interested in your tour as I am planning to go from my home in the Tyrol to Christchurch/Bournemouth in August – […]
My day started by cursing (under my breath) a French colleague for not really doing her job properly and I then spent this morning teaching French to a bunch of enthusiastic (in the main) 12 year olds (including one American). This afternoon I went to Reading University and met […]
Remember Rachel McCormack & partner Giovanni who are cycling from Ireland to Puglia for the Irish Cancer Society? They are following a sightly more easterly route than me but it is interesting to see that they used the Saint Gotthard pass to cross the Alps – see the […]
It’s getting difficult to motivate myself for work when I know that five weeks today I set off on my big adventure; it’s going to take some time to get my shirts ironed tonight.
Marks & Spencer stands out in the high street as a shop that sells things at sensible prices. I don’t mean low prices (it’s a long time since I gave up any pretence of being able to do my weekly food shop in their high-class supermarket), I mean […]
This is purely a self-imposed pressure. No advertisers to keep happy or critics to placate. But, as my subtitle tells you, this is a journey by blog and bike and I do keep a keen eye on my WordPress stats page which a fascinating mine of mathematical facts […]
It was late night opening at A.W. Cylces yesterday so I took a slight detour on my way home last night to see what they had on offer in the cycling shorts direction. One of the familiar faces greeted me and after a few pleasantries, he said he […]
In replying to Simone (from Pavia – see posts below), I asked him if he knew a god route to miss out the centre of Milan (well actually it is not the centre of the city I suppose I want to avoid; it is all those suburbs full […]
Not sure why but this morning I smashed the time it takes me to cycle to work; 23 minutes and 40 seconds. From memory that is around a minute and a half faster than the last time I timed myself. Was it the new bike? Was it my […]
A potentially very useful website as recommended by Simone in Pavia (see previous post).
Just received this message (via Facebook) from Italy; Hello there, My name’s Simone and with some friends I work in a cycle co-op in Pavia. I’m also a bike enthusiast, for all kind of pedal powered vehicles. I saw your blog and I was immediately fascinated by your […]
…back to school. Thought I would try out the panniers; the first day back of each term always means I am heavily laden on the bike so I thought I would make the most of the situation to put Reggie’s pulling power to the test. He looks good […]
What a brilliant book… but I won’t be buying it. I wandered down to Cotswold Leisure this afternoon for a general browse and to ogle at all the things I would buy if money were no object; quite frankly I could purchase everything in the store. I was […]
I have spent many pounds on many glossy cycling magazines in the last couple of years but I have to say that one of the best is the one that I receive for free by being a member of the CTC (OK, it’s not really free I know […]
Bill Vrabel has got his own site up and running. Called “Orkney To Rome – A Cycling Journey” with the subtitle “A librarian’s autumnal journey southbound through Europe on a bicycle” it does what it says on the tin! I love the clean style that he has chosen; […]
Well I did 109.3 kms in the end (that’s nearly 70 miles for the oldies!); well over the average that I will have to do en route to Puglia. I continued from Newbury along the Kennet & Avon Canal but on arrival in Hungerford, chatting to a fellow […]
But where am I? Clue: this guy is Alfred the Great and he was born here. A less helpful clue is that I have cycled 68 kms so far. Would like to hit 100 before getting back home. Update at 8pm (when back at home): I win my […]
No. Just mild annoyance and an important threshold to have passed in owning a new bike; taking it apart for the first time!
That’s what they would call it if Reggie (that’s the name of the bike btw for any new readers) were a rally car. So far so good. I am blogging from Newbury, a town which is 36 kms from my road in Reading via the Kennet and Avon Canal, […]
I like this and sympathise with the guy who has written with it; Reading is not a good place to be a cyclist because of the state of the roads. He writes in his first post at crapreading (don’t hold back mate!); Many towns have angry people who […]
