Rome to London 2024

A quiet morning spent at Steve and Sarah's where I spent a bit of time organising where I'm off to tomorrow - Wales. In the afternoon Steve and I went to the Swindon Rail Museum which is a museum with about 10 steam engines housed inside what used to be the Great Western Railway Workshops - It was very good and if you're in this part of the world and you like things mechanical then it will well be worth a visit. I serviced my bike and then found out it could do with the gears being tuned so that;s going to be my first job in the morning to pop in to the local bike shop. We went out to a nice Indian restaurant for a meal.

I'm so fortunate to have good friends Steve and Sarah here in Cirecester and so appreciate their hospitality. After being on the road for around 70 days living out of two 8 kg dry bags and eating at a variety of cafes/bakeries/restaurants and the odd kind of homemade meal from what I can buy at the local supermarket its so nice to be back in "normal" family home, to have "normal" family meals and do "normal" family things. All of which are getting ticks for here. What is not normal is not riding the bike and instead going for a walk through the rolling hills right here on the doorstep of Steve and Sarah's home both yesterday and today. Quite different to walking at home in that here the Public Footpaths, The Byways, The Restrited Byways and the Permissive Access paths all allow you to walk through farmers fields, sometimes the track goes diagnoally through the field which maybe meadow or a wheat crop. Not all of them allow cycles and/or horses. I l...

Steve met us at the Hostel and took us on a walking tour of Cirencester Market Square and Church - the area is rich in history with Cirencester being the large wool growing and selling region along with cottage  weaving pre industrial revolution. He then took us in a day long trip on the car of into the surrounding countryside and villages. It is so much better when you have your own personal guide and we learnt a lot about the Cotswolds and the villages and their architecture. I can now identify an original stone roof as opposed to a new stone roof replacement. Some of these houses are 3 - 400 years old and the near thing is they still look very much like they did when first constructed. The noticeable thing being the absence of any later period infill or replacement housing. We were treated to visiting villages off the tourist route so we were not having to fife our walk around other tourists. After the tour we stopped off at Steve's and gave the bikes a good clean, the other two...

St Christopher's Inn offered a five pound breakfast and as we weren't meeting Steve (from Cirencester) until 10:30 we opted to take that option and also we know how hard it is to find anything open before 8:00 here in Bath and with today being a Sunday the one mid week place we found a few days back may well also not be open.  We got the bikes from the cellar, loaded up and headed off for a random (kind of) ride through and around Bath, first stop was the Circus and then onto the Crescent and gardens before swinging past the Jane Austen Centre (her home in Bath) and then back through the city centre, across the pulteny bridge where we Steve (my friend from the Cotswolds) was waiting to ride with us through the counties of Somerset. Wiltshire and finally Gloustershire - the home of the beautful Cotswolds. It was great meeting up with Steve as it's been five years since I last saw him and Sarah when they visited NZ and flew out of CHC. There is nothing quite like have a local...

Dogs. What is it about the English and their dogs that makes them want to take their dogs with them everywhere they go? It's beyond me and I have been a dog owner. It takes a lot for us Kiwi's and me in particular to come to grips with a dog being taken into a shop or on a bus or train but over here that is simply common place, likewise at Pubs and Cafe's people will march in with their dog in tow or be sitting at the table having a pint with the dog beside them. Then if there is food involved of course the dog must be fed some chips of the humans plate! So, imagine this if you will. This morning we were sitting at our table at the New Birchfield Hotel overlooking the swimming beach at Weston Super Mare - I say our table as there was a seating plan on the card at the dining room entrance and the Hotel is one of the grand old ladies of the era from 100 plus years ago. Then in walks a chap his Alsation dog and his partner! Really! Well when in Rome do as the Roman's do go...

We planned ahead last night and bought a yoghurt+granola pottle from the Supermarket last night and this along with a banana and my self made cup of tea was my two pound breakfast. We saw the most well designed high voltage electricity towers I've ever seen today. These towers were not only structural and practical and then they had design elements that made them visually appealing objects. Check out the pics and see if you agree with me.  We were underway by 7:30 a.m. which was plenty early enough as we only had 42 km's to ride today. Our ride took us through some lovely Somerset countryside but not a lot of towns selling coffee. At about the 18 km mark at Mark I saw four women standing on the corner talking so I rode over to them to ask about coffee Cafe's - one thing lead to another and before too long we were right into a much bigger conversation than simply where is the cafe! They had just finished their 5  km run and three of them were retired and one still working th...

Our bikes had to be locked in the cellar of the pub overnight as there was nowhere sfae to leave them outside. This meant we could not get away until the pub opened at 8:00 which was a lot better than the 10:00 we originally were lead to believe was the retrieval time. So, at 6:30 ish we went walking through Bath trying to find somewhere open for breakfast. Back home that would not be a problem but here in the UK it seems many of the cafe's and bakeries even do not open until 8, 9 or 10:00 in the morning. We weren't having much luck (other than the flash hotel which we didn't feel we were dressed for or had the wish to pay 25 pound for breakfast). I saw a chap walking along with a takeaway coffee so asked him and he pointed us to Costa's the only place open at that hour of the morning. The Boys were pleased coz it did proper coffee they tell me (must have been coz they had two Capuccinos each). On the way back to our accommodation we took a wee detour to take in the Put...