Rome to London 2024

 32 riding days ago we left Rome with the goal of arriving in Paris on July 23rd, just in time to catch the opening of the 2024 Olympics. At 3:30 p.m. today, July 23, we pulled up outside of the UPCA Hostel, our base for the next three days here in Paris. You could say "Goal Achieved", and  yes we'd agree we are very happy to have arrived here on time and intact. The recorded distance is 2,465 km's, however I'm sure there's at least 35 km's that have gone unrecorded so let's round that off to 2,500 km's, and 17,000 metres of climbing. 77 km's travelled on average each day and you may recall our original goal was to do around 75 km's eacd day. Today started out drizzly through to lunchtime then overcast with wind for most of the afternoon however it wasn't cold so it wasn't too bad to ride in - the coat came off just after lunch. We amended our ride out of Chateau Thierry to take in the monument that stands on the hill overlooking th...

Just as I am a non-drinker and have no problem with people who are - (in fact many of those drinking people are my very best friends and family) - so too I am a non-religous person and have no problem with people who are - whatever the religous belief they follow (in fact some of those religious people are my friends and family - but not as many as the drinkers I would venture to suggest i.e. without polling you all and even then I couldn't be sure of the results of the poll as you can never be sure when is the correct time to conduct a poll of drinkers. Anyhow, I digress and have strayed from my travel blog. Today I could have felt as if I were riding down a road straight out of the Bible. On one of tne side there were vast paddocks of wheat and on the other side vast Vineyards - (my disclaimer - "I do not claim to have read or know what is in the Bible". However from the limited bit of theology that I have picked up from being around some of my religous and drinking fr...

It was decided to have a quiet day here in Reims as we have found ourselves ahead by about a day at this point and while we could have continued and made another overnight stop along the way we thought a quiet day with a visit to the bike shop for Stephen and a technology shop for me would be the way to go. On Google we found the only bike shop in Reims and it opened at 9:00 so we had a leisurely start to the day before the 4 km ride to the bike shop. Last night there was quite an electrical storm once again with thunder, lightning and rain however by the time we hit the road that was all well gone and there was a lovely fresh smell and feel to the day. Our navigation was spot on and we arrived exactly where Google said the bike shop was only to find it wasn't! Nor did it look like ever being on that corner. We saw a local cyclist and he confirmed that there is no bike shop here and there are NO bike shops open in Reims on a Sunday. In fact very little other than the Cathedrale w...

Avenue de Champagne is the place to have your "House" if you are a Champagne label as we found out with our earlu Saturday morning departure from Eperany here in the heart of Champagne country. As we rode up the Avenue one label after another had their House there and at the bottom of the Avenue is an information Board giving the details of the history of the Avenue/Region since the 18th centuary - the Houses are beautiful as is the Avenue. Here there is 110 km"s of tunnells that contain over 200 million bottles of Champagne! Once we left Eeprnay we were riding through vineyards on both sides of the road at times and even for a non-drinker as I am, I still recognised many of the Labels. The vineyards are quite different to ours at home in that the vines are smaller and the rows are a lot closer together so clearly they are still reliant on a ot of manual labour for work out in the vineyards, We stopped at a town with a lovely bakery for morning tea and then rode on i...

What began as a normal sort of day - a good getaway from the Hotel to find a bakery (coffee) for the Boys and then back on the Canal for all but a few km's, consequently we made really good time and stopped at Chalon en Champagne for morning tea and as much as I like the raspberry topped cakes I just didn't need one as I was still gettin over breakfaset so opted instead for a simple croissant and a cup of tea. We made our way back on to the canal path and the route basically said no change for the next 30 km's, so off we went. Along the way we stopped at a loch to regroup and while we were there a couple of Frenchmen rode in on their road bikes and also stopped for a breather. Now they were probably older than us however that and a language barrier does not stop some people from trying to converse (in our case Peter, today). The Frenchman began a very detailed discussion with Peter (all in French) while Peter carried on an equally in depth conversation (in English) - Pet...

A short flat ride of only 66 km for us today although some fluffing around at the end to be re-directed to the accommodation that wasn't where Booking.com said it ws going to be (well I hope where we are is where we are meabt to be! It's our first accommodation with a pool for uencounter s t0 use. With the ride being so flat and adjacent to the canal for most of it meant we got along good pace and didn't have any hills to encountwe had us here by lunchtime. While we were parked up in the shade overlooking the square the man with the pennyfarthing rode in to town.He parked up beside our bikes and Stephen sat with the bikes while the rest of us went in search of food.The fresh food market was in the process of closing up shop so I ended going back to the bakery for my panini. The Pennyfarthing chap is planning om being the first person to ride around Austalia on a Penny Farthing what a feat that will be.He and I exchanged email and Facrebook details - then he shows me a pi...