1000km !!

Tuesday 7th September
We have had lots of unexpected events over the last few days. We crossed over the border into France and we have had problems finding somewhere to stay every night since. Hotels either look like the Bates Motel from Psycho or they are full, there is nothing in between. One night we asked a local B&B owner if he had room, of course he was full but he found us a room in someone's house. The old lady who lived in the house didn't speak English and we don't speak German so we had a lively conversation in the morning whilst she sat at the table watching us eat breakfast.
We then stayed in Strasbourg which was full because the European Parliament was sitting. I managed to find one room (a suite) and my credit card is still yelping! I have to say Strasbourg is a beautiful city and we would liked to have stayed a bit longer to explore it.
We woke up this morning to rain and it has bounced it down all day. Can't complain really as it's been the first day of rain since we left the Pennines behind.
For those who know of Sod's Law, then they will understand when I thought, I didn't say because that would be tempting fate, I just thought that we had been lucky with the bikes. In the next few minutes the spoke on my back wheel snapped. It was also the spoke that needs you to remove all the rear cogs to replace...nightmare! we are on a bike path in the middle of a corn field in the rain and my back wheel's knackered, lovely! Thankfully a local farmer helped me to cut off what was left of the spoke and I straightened the wheel as much as I could. Tina was overjoyed when I told her that she had to carry extra weight so I could take strain off my back wheel. We then limped on to hit a day's total of 115km and we are now staying in the Bates Motel 30km outside of Basel, it goes down as a 'character building' day!!
We have passed the 1000km milestone and we had a group hug to celebrate! I wanted a beer to celebrate but we were in the middle of nowhere. By the way, if you ever feel England is filling up, come to France, there is nobody here! The amount of villages we have cycled through and there are no shops and no people, you start to wonder how they eat and where are they?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The beautiful Rhine Valley

We have spent the last two days cycling through the Rhine Valley. It's amazing just how dramatic the changes can be over a few kilometres. We have cycled through Bonn which is a bit like Manchester, but with sunshine! We then went through the more dramatic gorges near Boppard and St Goar and we passed the 'World Famous Loreley' which was basically a rock but with added Japanese tourists. I'm sure some of the Japanese tourists took pictures of two knackered British cyclists as we tried cycling through the hordes. We then moved into the wine regions around Nierstein. All the vineyards were having open days today and there was a lot of red-faced and very 'happy' people about. I have to say the bike was nearly thrown in the river so I could join them wine-tasting.
We have finished in a city called Worms (!). We have now covered just over 750km. Tina has pulled a tendon in her leg and is in absolute agony but is taking whatever medicines she can find and carrying on....a strong Northern Lass!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lost in Cologne

Thursday 2nd September
We have spent almost 10 hours in the saddle today and quite a lot of it was spent going around in circles in Cologne! Don't get me wrong I'm sure Cologne is a lovely place but I don't think Tina and I will be rushing back there, well not until they put up some signs anyway!
Whilst part of the day has been frustrating we have also seen some fantastic countryside and cycled along the Rhine itself for quite a few hours. It's amazing to see the amount of activity on the river, some of the freight barges are enormous and they must take a lot of trucks off German roads.
We have covered 125km today and Tina is happy to report that she now has a red eye to match her interpretation of a baboon's bum!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Made it to Germany

Wednesday 1st September

We started the day in Holland and finished the day in Germany. To be honest, the border crossing was a bit of an anti-climax. We think the border was halfway across a cow field as we cycled along a dam, we just noticed that car number plates had changed when we got onto a road.




I have attached a picture of Tina stood in front of a windmill as proof that we were actually in Holland (and no, it's not the one in Lytham St Annes).
We have finished the day in a village called Budberg which is 20kms North of Duisberg. We have cycled 110kms today and the knees are starting to creak a bit, I am thinking that some nice German beer tonight might loosen things up! The only problem is that the hotel owners don't speak any English and we don't speak any German. I remembered the word 'zimmer' from 3rd year German but that was the wrong side of 20 years ago, we've no idea what we will end up eating tonight!

Total for the trip so far = 410km

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Arrived safely at Hull

Monday 30th.
We arrived safely at Hull after adding about 50 unexpected kilometres to the distance. I knew we should have turned right at the start and not left! Total distance to Hull = 175km.



This is Tina at the Port of Hull, still smiling as well! I'm not sure the other passengers were quite ready to witness my overstretched Lycra but hopefully things will loosen as the ride continues.

Tuesday 31st
We have arrived in Rotterdam after a very early start. For those who remember 'hi de hi' we had the wake up roll call at 5am!! Our aim for the day was to get to Nijmegen but things didn't start to well when we realised that the ferry port was actually 30km West of Rotterdam! After getting lost trying to get through Rotterdam we decided that maybe Nijmegen was a bit ambitious but in the end we stopped about 20km away in a place called Leeuwen. We have cycled just over 125kms today an Tina's blisters have arrived. I could say where the blisters are but this is a family show! Trip total so far = 300km.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nearly ready to go!

Well we are nearly at the starting line. I could say that everything is organised and we are ready to go but that would be a lie! I am hoping that all will come together in the next few hours but somehow I doubt it.
We are leaving from Whitworth Civic Hall tomorrow morning at 10am and to show off our meticulous route planning skills we still haven't decided whether to turn left or right when we leave the car park!



We have attached a picture of Tina with our bikes all loaded up with 3 weeks worth of mars bars and a spare pair of shorts. The sunshine is misleading, we managed to get 2 minutes in between torrential downpours to take the picture, you can always rely on the Great British Summer!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lots of training

A big weekend's training for everyone! Pete and Danny cycled from Bacup to Liverpool on Saturday morning (around 85km). Danny and Joff cycled the Mary Towneley Loop on Sunday. For those who don't know of the Mary Towneley Loop, it is a 48 mile mountain bike ride around the hills of Rossendale and Calderdale and is probably one of hardest runs I have done. The attached photo is outside a pub 6.5 hours into the ride and we still have another 3 hours to go. 9.5 hours for 48 miles! You can just see Joff on the phone in the background, he is explaining that he might be a little bit late!