Not my description, but my friend Basil’s description of his new website. Basil is the friend I stayed with in August 2010 at the end of my Eurovelo 5 cycle. He has just started his own WordPress blog and you can visit it by clicking here. His description […]
This blog has become a little more generalist of late with me discussing a varied range of topics from trips to France with groups of school children to how the re-decoration of my flat over the last couple of weeks has been progressing. I need to get things […]
Kate Belcheva is from Bulgaria, a country that has escaped the web of the Eurovelo network of routes. Routes 6 & 11 pass through neighbouring Romania to the north (route 6) and through Serbia and Macedonia to the west (route 11), but Bulgaria itself is devoid of Eurovelo […]
Unfortunately, I don’t live in Kensington & Chelsea. Perhaps if the book becomes a best-seller I might earn a million and move down the M4 to the big city to pursue a career as an author / Eurovelo consultant. You’re back in the room! Ah yes, shouldn’t spend […]
…the woman who had the idea of selling toys through the Internet was very proud of the fact that her website had ‘over 5,000 visitors’ per month. So do I! July 2011 has been the third most popular month since January 2010 (the peak by the way is […]
It’s a Sykes rather than a Rothko. Sorry to disappoint. Twelve months ago today I had just arrived in Strasbourg along the route of the Eurovelo 5. Today, I have spent much of the day in deliberation as to what colour to paint my living room, if at […]
…I set off to cycle to Brindisi. Just thought I’d let you know. Click here to read about what I thought about it at the time…and click here to read about some of the journey in extracts from the forthcoming book. If you like what you read, there […]
This Sunday – the one before the last week of the academic year – is the one on which I set off on my long cycle south from Reading to Brindisi. The date was actually 18th July which is of course tomorrow but let’s not quibble. It seems […]
Writing the book about my journey along the Eurovelo 5 has taken over the posts of this blog in recent times (I am still at the red pen correcting stage by the way and haven’t made much progress in the last couple of weeks) but the time is approaching […]
Being back in Boulogne (for the first of three visits on consecutive days this week) today with this lots, suitably obscured in this photo, reminded me very much that it is just over a year since I set off on my journey along the Eurovelo 5. It’s difficult […]
This could be worth a fortune one day… How much do Shakespeare’s First Folios go for? If it is, I’ll sell and donate the proceeds to my employers who have (unknowingly) paid for the ink to print it. They will thank me, I’m sure. Evening update: quite scared […]
It’s not every day you can say this, in fact I’ve never said it before in my life but I have written a book! It’s finished; 1 book, 302 pages, 998 paragraphs, 10,546 lines, 112,850 words and 498,698 characters. Goodness that took some counting! I started on the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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!
“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: […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
And he is shining like a new penny. I only took him down to the repair shop to investigate a wobbly back wheel due to another spoke becoming loose… but when I collected him earlier today they had cleaned him, replaced the brake pads and cables, a worn […]
Please note: I didn’t write any of this… The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every […]
Toby writes… I am an eighteen year old student who is looking for inspiration and perhaps a few suggestions from an experienced rider such as yourself. Me and my friend decided, a while ago, to do a trip from where we live on the south coast to Brussels. […]
As I did with Eurovelo 5, I have taken all the places mentioned on the official description of the route and plotted them onto a Google Earth map… France seems to be lacking in detail bit it gives you an idea of the route. I have added the […]
Darren from ??? (his Facebook page only gives a few clues – Australia? Camden town? Somewhere where it has been snowing recently from his picture so anywhere in the UK?) has messaged me on said social network… Hello Andrew, I am a complete novice cyclist and am considering […]
A group of soldiers is taking on the Eurovelo 5 in (what I consider to be) reverse. This is what it says on their Virgin Money Giving site; In March 2011 team Tartan Cassino will start their arduous challenge. The team will cycle from Monte Cassino in Italy […]
When I cycled to southern Italy along the Eurovelo 5 last summer (remember that?), I spent a relaxing hour or so in the French city of Metz on the morning of the 27th July. I sat in a café and knocked back two espressos to fortify me for […]
Not my next adventure I hasten to add, but it is someone’s; Hello, I stumbled across your site whilst researching this famous pilgrimage route. My name is James Anderson. I am an extreme sportsmen and adventurer and next summer I plan to run from Canterbury to Rome in […]
My pan-European cycle continues to generate a fair bit of interest. Andrew from Leicestershire writes; A friend and myself are planning to cycle from Rome to home (Leicestershire) next year for the Loros charity. I was wondering if you could send me the exact route you took (plus […]
I didn’t realise it would be a name badge affair; here is mine, complete with my justification for inclusion on the ‘VIP’ list, the ‘EuroVelo 5 blog’. If only they hadn’t chosen to employ a deaf DJ for the evening…. The music blaring from his speakers was so loud that […]
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! […]
Doretta Vicini emailed a couple of days ago reporting back on her talk about the Eurovelo network to the Ciclomundi Festiva in Siena at the end of September; There were many interesting reports about long bicycle rides, as for example the one by the Swiss Claude Marthaler who also wrote several books, […]
My uncle David was in touch last week; he sent me a cheque to add to the donations for the BBC Wildlife Fund, the charity that I was supporting when I cycled along the Eurovelo 5. I’ve added it to the Just Giving site and it brings the total […]
I think I’m getting there with the new-look website. Clearly I would have preferred to go to work yesterday and today instead of coughing and sneezing over this computer (it’s true – I would; the hassles of being a teacher and missing two days of school cannot be […]
If you happen to be passing through Siena today, 25th September, you could make a little detour to go and listen to Doretta Vicini who is talking all about Eurovelo at a round table discussion at the Ciclomundi Festival entitled “In viaggio lungo le strade della civiltà” or “Travelling along the roads […]
Here’s a little story that, in the past hour has had its denouement. Kind of… Before I set off on my trip along the Eurovelo 5, I made sure that I wasn’t going to be stung by any hefty mobile phone charges from Orange. I had recently upgraded […]
This is the fifth attempt at writing the content of this post; all previous efforts have disappeared before they arrive on the blog itself. I am wondering if it has anything to do with “upgrading” my browser to IE9…. Let’s try again this time in Firefox. Mmmm… seems […]
Iain – the guy I stayed with in Deal before setting off for the continent along the Eurovelo 5 – has been busy advising me on Reggie’s refit (thanks for that Iain – very useful). He’s also emailed with a question about tents; Hello Andrew, a quick question […]
After three weeks of (almost) dormancy, I’m trying to give new life to the blog. The name had to go I’m afraid as it no longer seemed relevant (although http://www.eurovelo5.com still points in this direction and I’m not deleting any of the Eurovelo 5 information on here), so I […]
Reggie, after his £137 refit. New chain, new cassette, new cables, new headset, cleaned, greased, tyres pumped up. Ready for the winter commutes.
Apologies for the delay in posting this thank-you (my broadband connection has been down since I arrived home last Tuesday and it has only just been repaired), but here goes…. For providing me with a bed for the night when I was in their town or city thanks […]
I found it difficult to match up many places that I flew over last Tuesday with my route in the other direction. Is that Ostuni? What lake did I photograph? And where did I cross the channel? Is that Boulogne? What I do know is that what took […]
Cycling days = 30 Rest days = 5 Time in saddle = 174 hrs 58 mins (7.3 days) Longest day in the saddle = 7 hrs 45 mins Distance cycled = 3,311 kms (2,057 miles) Maximum distance in a day = 172 kms (107 miles) Average speed = […]
Distances (and speeds) are in kilometres (per hour), not miles (per hour).
Courtesy of http://www.wordle.net , a visual representation of the body of the posts that I wrote over the course of the trip from the 18th July to 24th August: 38,673 words in total. Great tool!
We made it in one piece!
Here is Reggie on the conveyor belt of destiny. Will he look like this when I see him again at Stansted? That said, he is doing better than my D-lock which was confiscated from my hand luggage; potential weapon….
Il cielo rosso la sera, i pastori sono felici
Tonight will be my 37th night away from home and I’m ready to return.; tomorrow on the 11.05 am Ryan Air flight from Brindisi to Stansted. I hear the weather in the UK isn’t great at the moment…. I’ll try and memorise the colour of the blue sky […]
The ‘problemo’ is solved. A few turns of an alan key and Reggie was reduced down in size and wrapped in bubble wrap for a comfy ride. The box was flattened and folded so as to fit in the back of Basil’s car. Tomorrow morning at the airport […]
This is a large box. The bike will fit inside the box. The bike will fit in Basil’s car. But the box won’t. Problemo!
“I’ve just about had it with this cycling from Reading to Brindisi lark. Who the hell does he think he is? He has spent the past five weeks sitting on me, at times cursing me and now, would you believe it, I have had my wheels removed and […]
Thanks to a couple of recent donations, my target has now been passed! To everyone who has donated a big thank-you and if you haven’t but are planning on doing so please don’t hold back. It means a lot to me personally that all my effort is helping […]
Relaxing with the ‘locals’ at Basil & Liz’s place near Ostuni. Just following your instructions John (thanks for the text).
The statistics you know (they are in the previous post). What you may have missed is the figure for the average speed today – 23.5 kms/hr – being the highest of the whole trip. It was a wonderfully easy ride and, with the wind slightly behind me, had […]
For the very last time, here at the statistics for today; Cycling time: 2 hrs 38 mins 39 secs Distance: 62.14 kms Average speed: 23.5 kms/hr Maximum speed: 52.2 kms/hr Eurovelo 5 distance: 3,318.8 kms That’s it: finished! My journey ends at a deserted, graffitied, litter-strewn end-of-harbour-wall lighthouse; […]
Should be there within the next half hour or so…
A slimline looking Reggie is ready for his final day on the road. There is no need to carry all my equipment with me to Brindisi as I will be back staying with Basil & Liz tonight albeit in their other property near Ostuni. The plan is for […]
Arriving in Cisternino and eventually finding Basil & Liz was great. Clearly we all celebrated but the celebrations were 24 hours before the event! Despite waking up feeling a little hung over from the good food and wine consumed last night I must cycle off to Brindisi today […]
What is David Dickinson doing in Puglia?
Fortunately they weren’t on holiday… 🙂
It’s a bit of a shock arriving on Alberobello; there are people and cars everywhere. There is even a car alarm going off every 30 seconds! I came here three years ago on my previous visit to see Basil and Liz so I’m not going to stick around […]
Just under half-way to Cisternino and I’ve paused for lunch in Gioia del Colle. Quite a busy town but then again it is Saturday lunchtime and where else would any self-respecting Italian with a car horn be other than in the local town centre to show off how […]
This sign would have had greater significance if this website still had its old name: puglia2010.com . As it is I still have quite a few kilometres to get to the end of the Eurovelo 5 route: Brindisi.
This picture probably gives you a much better idea of how stressed that postman must be…
Of course it wasn’t built for Mel Gibson’s film. Many of you must still be chuckling from the wit of yesterday’s post. It is a fascinating thing to look at however. And it’s no museum piece; people live, work, pray, paint, holiday… in the maze of dwellings in […]
Almost forgot! Cycling time: 6 hrs 47 mins 29 secs Distance: 128.4 kms Average speed: 18.9 kms/hr Maximum speed: 55.3 kms/hr Eurovelo 5 distance: 3,162.4 kms
I think I picked the route well today. I wanted flat and that’s what I got! It seemed a slow start this morning and when I posted from Venosa I was a little anxious that I would be cutting it fine to arrive in Matera and find a […]
This is a nice place that I just happen to have stumbled upon. I have opted for the (hopefully) flatter, longer route to Matera but I’m making slow progress so far. About 35 kilometres on the clock but only about 20 as-the-crow-flies kilometres from last night’s campsite. Back […]
As you can see, it’s market day in Rionero in Vulture. The name comes from the name of the mountain next door – Monti Vulture. Well, hopefully. I don’t fancy being carried off by an enormous bird who fancies a big breakfast. Mind you, there were wolves in […]
Not far from the Puglian border I reach a major, err… ‘milestone’
If you are reading this then it is probably at least Friday, if not Saturday or Sunday. My phone no longer wants to “connect to the data network”. Apologies. You probably all think I have been murdered if you aren’t used to using the Spot tracker link just […]
I will have to spend the rest of today reflecting carefully upon my visit to Benevento, Massimo, his ideas, his promises and his actions. It was an “interesting” experience to have spent 48 hours with him. The inverted commas say much. For the time being I’ll stick to […]
Massimo has a flat next to his parents’ flat and his parents live in his house somewhere else. So… while Massimo was in his parents’ flat, I was next door in his flat. Does that make sense? Anyway, once I had got myself up and out of the […]
Apollosa is a village in the hills somewhere near Benevento and the place where Massimo lives. I’m sitting in the small square just beneath the church watching the world go by…. The clock is striking 11…. people are chatting outside the bar and small supermarket…. old blokes have […]
