..... it all started on May 30th, when we finally sold our house and moved, in rather swift fashion, into a 2002 Honda Civic. The months of trips to the Recycling Centre, various charity shops and our garage in Bristol, were finally coming to an end. Well almost. Then began the whirlwind tour of friends and family to say our farewells. We had already found a very appreciative buyer for our trusty Honda and the insurance ran out on June 22nd, so that was that. That would be the date of the handover, and the day we just had our trusty Thorns to rely on for transport.
Fast forward to now and you find us in Germany, just outside Dusseldorf. The reason for the delay in starting the blog? I could blame lack of signal, or the weather, but to be honest I was stuck in an endless cycle of I'll start tomorrow. What is it they say? 'If you want something doing, ask a busy person'.
The trip so far: We spent a week in The New Forest waiting for our Cumulus quilt to arrive from Poland (the whole story would send you to sleep) and simply getting used to being on the road again. Once said quilt arrived (thanks Sally and Paul) we hot pedalled it down to Portsmouth to catch a ferry. After a severe mugging from the ferry company we found ourselves in Caen. From Caen we headed along the coast to Le Havre, up to Dunkirk, through Belgium and into Holland. It was in Amsterdam that we decided the weather looked decidedly nicer to the south rather than the north and so we are now camping on the bank of the Rhine, 10km away from Dusseldorf.
After only being in Germany for a couple of days we realised how spoilt we had been in Holland. The Dutch have the whole cycling thing well and truly sorted, it was an absolute pleasure to cycle there. Germany isn't 'bad' it just doesn't compare with Holland.
So having been on the road for 6 weeks now I can officially announce that we are doing OK. My knee (half replacement 18 months ago) is holding up, although the first 3 days gave me the eeby jeebies. We have got into the swing of life on the road. We have stopped saying 'where's the thingy' or 'haven't you got the whatdyacallit' because the realisation of everything having to fit onto a bicycle means there's not many places to hide. Although BW has turned into a bit of a magician lately. I say something like 'I wish I had a thermal hat to stop my head getting cold' and out comes a thermal hat. Ditto a conversation about arm warmers. I mean, arm warmers!
The weather always plays a big part in any cycling trip and this has been no exception. We've gone from 35c in France to 16c and raining in Holland. We bought a foldable cool bag to try and keep food and drinks cold. The experiment with a bag of frozen spinach didn't work out too well, so now it's either a bag of ice (preferable), or, go to the shop an hour or so before we need the items and stash them in the freezer, but that ole trick doesn't work when we are out in the boondocks.
We are girding our loins for the next few days of rainy weather. Personally I favour hopping on a train to Prague but BW is having none of it.
Laters
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