Bicycle made for two

Hellenic adventures

2009-12-01T19:10:00.006Z

Warm sunshine, clear blue sea, swimming in it, an ouzo or a glass of retsina, delicious food, interesting places to visit, good roads... what more could we have asked for this part of our honeymoon adventure?

The last couple of weeks have been ace. In Lesvos we ventured north to Mithymna / Molyvos and experienced some proper hills (and thus a lot of sweating). Unfortunately part of this jaunt included Luke rather spectacularly falling off his bike at high speed on the way down a particularly steep and windy road. Thankfully he didn't have much more to show for it beyond a couple of nasty scrapes, a small hole in his favourite t-shirt, the shakes and a very pale face. We spent some time relaxing the following day in a remote and ancient thermal bath house right on the beach at Efthalou - alternating between a dip in the sea and floating around in a 46 degree pebble bottomed pool.

We then took a ferry to Chios and did some leisurely riding around and admiring some of the mastic villages and landscapes on the south of the island. We travelled overnight by boat to Athens and have enjoyed using up the last of our wedding present hotel vouchers. It is an impressive city, and great to wander about in. Ahead of us on the bike ride from the ferry port into the centre very early on Sunday morning was a view of the Acropolis at sunrise; tomorrow we will take on the weekday Athens traffic as we notch up some final kilometres on the way to the airport.

However, regarding the pipe dream of getting home overland... we did our sums properly and went for the easy option; we fly home tomorrow. This is not a bad thing, we are looking forward to spending a couple of months reverting to the van and touring the UK, catching up with family and friends while we have the chance.

Farewell Asia Minor

2009-11-20T17:41:00.005Z

This update comes from sunny Mytilini on the Greek island of Lesvos. Whilst we are very happy to be here, we felt a little sad waving goodbye to the Turkish mainland as we took the ferry from Ayvalik yesterday; our time in Turkey has certainly been the highlight of the honeymoon. This undoubtedly has something to do with it being our long-sought destination. But it has much more to do with the warm welcome shown to us almost everywhere we went - and people's kindness was yet again something we won't forget. Here's a photo of us at Mehmet's place - mentioned in the last post (he even put up with us playing the mandolin and recorder at him).

Since our last update from Gallipoli we have had some of the best cycling of the trip. From south of Eceabat we crossed by ferry to the lovely Canakkale and took a coastal route south as far as Ayvalik, passing the ruins at Troy and Assos, which were real highlights (especially cutting Luke's hair in the ancient theatre at Assos whilst enjoying a panoramic sea view). The sun has been shining consistently and we have our suntans back.

We've also passed the 5,000km mark which is a brilliant feeling, though Soph feels cross for forgetting to check for the actual moment on the cycle computer. Mytilini has a vast bike shop and Soph is relieved to have had some of the major parts replaced on her bike, which were finally worn out so that she can efficiently cycle once again (including a bigger gear range so hopefully she can overtake Luke on the hills more often from now on). In the coming days we hope to explore Lesvos before taking another ferry to Chios and on to Pireus (Athens). We have a vague plan to reach the south of France via Italy and then find our way home to England...

The slow road home

2009-11-13T08:43:00.003Z

Istanbul is a grand place and we have been priviledged to be looked after there for some of our stay by David & Sally, Sophıe's parents who flew out to meet us and generously booked us into the best accommodation we've stayed in for the whole trip. We spent three sunny days with them sightseeing, eating nice food and braving the interesting pavements and traffıc of the city with Sally's wheelchair - an adventure in itself, but not as difficult as feared thanks to Sally's patience and determination, and Istanbul's well meaning efforts to make the tourist centre wheelchair friendly, notwithstanding access to some of the bigger attractions.

Faced with the question of what to do next, we have spent much time ponderıng over çay and baklava and have come up wıth an answer: to go home.

The challenge complete, the return journey wıll make judicious use of ferries and local trains and will hopefully be rather less of a physical effort than the outward leg. Nonetheless, we are attempting to travel home with the bikes and without flying - a project we may have to abandon if the weather gets too bad.

The fırst day didn't go exactly accordıng to plan. A 5am start to catch the ferry south to Bandirma and heavy rain all morning affected our judgement a bit and after a couple of detours to get us off the main road, we wound up pedalling in the dusk and caked in clay stıll miles from a hotel. Once again though we were rescued, thıs time by a friendly young imam called Mehmet who gave us a bed for the night. It was a pleasure to spend part of the day cycling in the company of a French couple, Vincent and Magali, cycling a similar route.

Istanbul

2009-11-04T12:06:00.003Z

The sharp eyed amongst you wıll have notıced that our map marker ıs now suspended over the bustlıng megatroplıs of Istanbul, formerly Constantınople, formerly Byzantium. We made ıt 3 months to the day after those photographs of the two pasty people leavıng Norwıch were taken. The sprawlıng cıty ıs rammed wıth people and cars. The squares, parks, towerblocks, Ottoman mansıons and bazaars are punctuated every 100m or so by the towers of a grand mosque. It ıs expensıve and somewhat overwhelmıng but we are here and gradually unwındıng and rechargıng.

From the Bulgarıan Black Sea coast we clımbed steadıly and sweatıly up ınto the Stranja hılls and the fınal border crossıng. Arrıval ın Turkey was fabulous: we cruısed down from the border (sıtuated on a 560m high pass- the hıghest we've been all trıp?) on excellent empty roads ınto Kırklarelı whıch smelled and sounded pretty exotıc. Turkey ıs easy- food, refreshment, accomodatıon and ınternet are readıly avaılable, people are welcomıng, frıendly and helpful ın the extreme.

We struggled agaınst fıerce wınds, raın and cold for a few days to the outskırts of Istanbul, sustaıned by baklava, varıatıons on a kebab theme and free tea every 200m. The rıde wasn't very pleasant and we repeatedly got soaked, chılled and (ın Soph's case) blown off the road. We passed vıllages, towns and kms of roads and farm land that had been ravaged by floods ın the last fortnıght or so, but we rolled bravely ınto Çatalca at dusk to fınd the town's only hotel.

Unfortunately, the town's only hotel was full, the weather made campıng all but out of the questıon and the next hotel ıs 20km on on bıg roads ın the dark. What do we do? We have learnt from thıs trıp that the only thıng to do at such tımes ıs to look a bıt pathetıc and somebody wıll rescue you, ıt helps ıf you're totally bedraggled and ıf one of you looks lıke they mıght cry, that's the ıcıng on the cake.

Hopıng for the offer of somewhere dry to put our mattresses down, we appealed to a bloke ın a shop who'd jumped up and forced tea on us as we pedalled ın. Thıngs looked good except that he had no Englısh and 'hello', 'thanks', 'hotel', 'tea', 'kebab' and 'good' ıs not enough vocabulary ın Turkısh, even when accompanıed by wıld arm gestures, to explaın such a delıcate sıtuatıon. Fortunately, hıs frıend Ahmet (the Turkısh Mınty from Eastenders) was a busınessman wıth good Englısh. Ahmet could not understand why we'd want to stay ın such a hole anyway and told us hıs brother (the Turkısh Bılly Connelly) would drıve us ın hıs Levend (Turkısh LDV) ınto central Istanbul ın tıme for dınner- payment out of the questıon.

We hesıtated and thought long and hard about the moralıty of refusıng all lıfts, avoıdıng all publıc transport (ferrıes asıde) and pedallıng all the way to Turkey only to be drıven the last 50km. It took us about 5 seconds to say yes.

So here we are and ıt's stıll raınıng after 3 days. The end? maybe... maybe not...

The Black Sea

2009-10-24T11:12:00.004+01:00

Wow: updating the map makes us look really close to Istanbul. Bulgaria so far has been a pleasure; the weather has improved, road surfaces are good and rooms are cheap enough that we haven't needed to camp in a while. All the trappings of eastern Europe are still here- litter, feral dogs, vivid domestic animal roadkill and potholes you could get lost in, but it seems somehow easier to deal with... maybe we're just aclimatising.

We have had to cope with a few hills, but that was expected as we deviated from the Danube and took the shortcut to Varna, which is a cracking place. The road out of Varna was an uncomfortable experience; who knew the rural coast road was the longest redlight district in Europe? We're guessing, not being experts. We have also found ourselves to be local celebrities after doing a roadside interview for BTV news about our trip. An incredible two people have now recognised us! Hopefully this is the correct link so you can see the interview online: http://www.btv.bg/videos/?video_id=21306&section_id=1.

We are presently about halfway down the Bulgarian Black Sea coast at Nesebar, right next door to Sunny Beach, hub of Bulgaria's less attractive tourist infrastructure. The sandy beaches are gorgeous, but it's equally amazing to drift through overdeveloped resort towns that are all but dead this side of the season. If this were the UK in the temperatures we've had, the beaches would be crammed with bodies; we've got the place to ourselves.

Through the Iron Gates: the edge of Europe

2009-10-16T17:13:00.004+01:00

Our entry and exit into and out of Romania have been the least official of all border crossings so far. In no-man's land between Serbia and Romania, we witnessed much trading of dubious goods from the car boots of Yugos and Dacias. On the way out of Romania border officials joked about charging us a Euro to pass. Only a cursory glance at our passports at either end.

Romania is part of the EU, at times this was difficult to believe but the Romainan chapter is more memorable for the experience. The first 48 hours were filled with hilly cycling and spectacular views of the Danube passing between steep cliffs - the foothills of the Carpathians on one side and the Balkans on the other - in the Portile de Fier (Iron Gates) national park. Hot, hot, hot and cheap, cheap, cheap. That seems like a very long time ago.

Beyond the Iron Gates, we had the feeling that we were in a different country. Rapidly the landscape flattened out, and our slow road east took us through one rural village after another. Roads were sometimes unsurfaced, usually pot-holed; livestock was in abundance on the main road including geese, turkeys, chickens, cows, dogs, pigs; some of the sights included gaggles of toothless old ladies in head scarves, cardies, long skirts, wooly tights and wellies who waved to us cheering 'Drum Bun'; and horse-drawn carts almost outnumbered cars for five days. During this time accommodation was sparse to say the least. We resorted to a mixture of dubious camping and over-priced hotels (we were thankful they existed).

Despite this, we still found ourselves stuck in Bechet in the pouring rain at dusk after riding nearly 100km (where the state hotel shown on the map had long since closed down). Here, we were rescued by a shopkeeper who gave us cans of beer. He phoned his mate, Marian who was exceptionally kind to us. He took us to his home where we had a dry place to sleep and where he and his wife shared their evening meal with us. Once again we have learnt a lot about hospitality from people in strikingly more humble circumstances. We hope that we will do the same for others in future, maybe we would not have been so ready to before this trip.

Romania was a bit of a trial, not least the last couple of days when the weather turned from hot and sunny to bitterly cold, wet and windy, compelling us to bring out all our cold and wet weather gear. Our last day in the country was marked by having to cycle 156kms in search of a bed, luckily the wind was behind us.

Arriving in Bulgaria felt like emerging from a strange bubble. There are other tourists here, we have internet access, a choice of places to stay here in Ruse (Rousse), and a chance to take a day's rest. It is still raining. It is still really cold.

Serbia: highs and lows, but mostly flat

2009-10-16T16:37:00.006+01:00

Bike issues resolved and hangovers fading, we covered the distance from the border town of Backa Palanka to Novi Sad, host of the Exit festival and holder of prestigious title 'Norwich's twin town'. Serbia must be lauded for making a big effort to signpost the Danube cycle route, but it still needs to grasp the idea that a cycle path needs to be cyclable. Approaching the city we were joined by Sam, a French cyclotouriste (the first we'd seen since Budapest) on a much more suitable mountain bike, who was on a 10000km tour of Europe.

Novi Sad was an enjoyable place to visit with a grand Vauban fortress and a decent central square, unfortunately we took it in turns to succumb to mystery bugs and had to stay 5 whole days. Luke will remember with some clarity a day spent at the mercy of the Serbian health system being hooked up to successive drips. Apparently this is the first course of action for all patients in Serbia, but he can report on the treatment's efficacy. Soph will remember with clarity the mystery bureaucracy and charges associated, as well as the anxiety caused by being told her husband had a 43 degree temperature (the doctor added that she shouldn't worry as he was a very nice man, strong, and that she was very lucky to have him!). Throughout the ordeal, we were looked after in an exemplary fashion by Miki and his team at the hostel Sova - recommended.

Out of Novi Sad, we passed the 3000km mark, avoided Belgrade, sampled a Serbian communist era hotel, an excellent homestay with Olga and her breakfast burek and rakija; and an out of season campsite where Goran refused to charge us, but also refused to clean the squat toilets or control his dogs.

Serbia was a pretty good experience overall with friendly people (amazing considering we bombed the hell out of them in recent memory), reasonable road surfaces, hot sunny weather and brilliant TV, including three channels of relentless Balkan folk music and dancing. Landscapes were grand but we found it hard to stomach the amount of litter and fly-tipping which was sadly everywhere.

Slivovic for breakfast

2009-09-30T18:15:00.003+01:00

We write this entry from Serbia, which has not got off to a good start though through no fault of the Serbs or their country. More to follow, but nothing more serious than a dodgy tummy and a few bike issues. However, the gist of this update will be in full praise of Croatia and its wonderful people. We hadn´t even thought about crossing the border until the day before when it seemed like a cool idea to do a tiny detour, delay Serbia and add another country (number 8) to the list.

Sophie got into trouble on the border by taking pictures of the diplomatically sensitive "welcome to Croatia" sign and was forced to delete them by a rather joyless border gaurd. From this point though, the country provided us with wholly pleasurable experiences.

The landscape immediately changed as vine covered hills emerged from the plain and hospitality during the whole stay was unsurpassed. We camped one night in an old couple´s garden who, for a small fee, forced us to eat all their food and drink all their booze, including an 8am breakfast rakija. This was perhaps a good preparation for the rather sobering experience of passing through Vukovar, a Danube port town that was devastated in 1991 during the war and still bears the very obvious scars.

Searching for a place to eat that night in Ilok, we walked into a restaurant where a private party was in full swing. The restaurant was closed, but that didn´t stop Marco and friends forcing us to eat all their food and drink all their booze. See a theme developing? Their hospitality was so generous that our cycling the next day was limited to an afternoon limp across the border into Serbia where Luke´s back wheel promptly contributed to the hangover by losing a couple of spokes and having to be straightened twice. We went no further that day.

The Great Hungarian Plain... a bit like Lincolnshire

2009-09-30T18:05:00.003+01:00

South from Budapest we followed the Danube down into the Great Plain. Hungary was marked by good weather, people feeding us Palinka (fire water) and passing thousands of chilli peppers drying in the sun.

The cycle path is getting to the point where we may have to abandon almost all offroad sections of the Danube cycle route, but we´ve been lucky to have got so far with so little road use. Mosquitos, sand and very loose gravel are conspiring to make all ventures on the "cycle tracks" slow, frustrating and almost dangerous.

Camp sites have been basic where they exist, but happily light on our budget.

The skies have been enormous and the people kind and welcoming, special mention to Tamas for looking after us in Dunafalva, tolerating our terrible German and sending us off with a good bottle of Palinka to speed our route.

Round the bend

2009-09-21T09:19:00.004+01:00

We have cycled to Hungary and are nearing a somewhat impressive 2500km. Our semi-regular musings reach you today from the rather grand city of Budapest where we are engaged in wandering along impressively lined streets in the sunshine, taking in the many sights. We are heading for a swanky thermal spa a bit later and will be suitably relaxed for the next leg tomorrow.

Getting here from Slovakia was very straightforward: we crossed the bridge into Hungary at Esztergom and the sun shone down on the scenic southward swing of the Danube (Duna) bend. The cycle paths rivalled Holland for signposting and surface and in the course of looking for lunch we discovered the world's best fish and chips. Really tasty battered catfish (?), who'd have guessed?

Budapest sprawls a bit and we had to fight our way in, making full use of Soph's navigation skills and lucky guesswork. The main central artery though (the last 4kms into central Pest) had conveniently been pedestrianised for the day for a street festival involving lots of interesting pedal-powered transport. We felt like we blended in well.

Östlich von Wien fängt der Orient an

2009-09-18T19:54:00.005+01:00

East of Vienna the Orient begins...

Dva pivo prosím. (2 beers please) thank you, that will be 1 euro 12 cents, excellent, would you like a slivovic with that? Welcome to Slovakia- country number 6.

As an indicator that we may now be in eastern Europe, Luke was pleased to see a man showing his friend what was almost certainly a sub-machine gun while they waited for a ferry across the river that is now called the Dunaj. The food has improved since Austria, the campsites now have barbed wire, locked gates and concrete walls; spoons now stand up on their own in the coffee, and there are loads of ladas and skodas.

The cycle path deteriorated somewhat after about 50kms east of Bratislava (which is a charming city. Otto will be interested that the Slovak national philarmonic concert hall is 1934kms from Amsterdam by bike). However, Slovak drivers are considerate and the people friendly. At the risk of sounding too English, the weather has been a mixed bag, but hasn´t stopped us making the most of our three days here, apart from causing Soph some distress when the cycle computer got damp and malfunctioned, blanking our trip distance so far. We cross the river to Hungary tomorrow after some rest and relaxation in the thermal pools of štúrovo.

Elkins and the boys from Brum save the Days

2009-09-18T19:35:00.003+01:00

So, we have undergone a fairly significant change in our trip identity: despite the title of our blog, we now continue the adventure eastwards on our own bikes. This came at quite cost in time and energy, not just ours. We are incredibly grateful to Al in Norwich who co-ordinated a splendid rescue mission by getting our bikes together and shipping them out to us safely. Sending the tandem home was the least of our worries until we started looking into it - due to its size, impossible to send. Luck came in the form of four lads on a European road trip, complete with a car and nothing on the roof. Not bad for the first English tourists that we had come across in Austria. We were pretty stunned when they took Luke up on his suggestion that they take the bike home for us. We have word that it made it and also thank the Coles for putting a roof over its head in Birmingham. We had almost given up hope and were considering the unthinkable option of abandoning our wedding transport in Central Europe - we are very relieved, thanks lads.

Time without wheels was frustrating, but it was nice to rest and catch up on some sleep and reading; in fact we were at the campsite for so long that the local wildlife became fearless, the hedgehogs taking food from our hands. We also took a train to Vienna and treated ourselves to a night in a nice hotel, it´s an amazing city.

Life on bikes is good. We were very sad to say goodbye to riding the tandem but having our own bikes is a pleasure and turning out to be a lot more convenient and easy to handle on potholed Slovakian bicykle routes. We have even resorted to sending Bob home due to him being superfluous to requirements so are back down to four wheels as we began.

2000km... und ein kleines Problem

2009-09-06T16:08:00.003+01:00

This one isn't going to be a happy entry. After a mere 160kms our super-dupa new wheel failed in the most unusual way possible. It seems our combined power up a steep incline in pouring rain, two minutes from the campsite at Grein, caused the hub to part company with the gears, shredding the thread on both. Bikeshop in Grein was unhelpful, unfriendly and unreliable; we felt strongly that the replacement wheel (rear wheel number 3) foisted upon us wasn't up to it, but had no other means of continuing.

We did another 110kms over two days (pouring rain, cold, windy, miserable Austrians, Mrs Day's not always sunny disposition...) and on the dot of the 2000km mark the wheel developed a major buckle. We limped another 30km to the next campsite en route to Vienna, but we both know it's not going to get further and we're seriously reluctant to throw more money at the problem.

This dissappointing turn of events finds us in Tulln, a short ride from Vienna. We have a number of choices but it looks like we may send the tandem home in favour of our bikes. We thank our friends in Norwich who are being so helpful in making this option a real possibility. We don't want to come home and we certainly don't want to give up on the adventure. Luke also feels that it might be Sophie's turn to go in front, so that he can look at her bottom for a change. Needless to say, it may be some time before the next on the road update, we shall take the opportunity for some well earned R&R.

As a post script, we have been unlucky in many respects, but it would be wrong of us not to note that the last few days have seen us pass the amazing scenery of the Austrian Danube: the Wachau valley, Melk (where weather forced us into a guesthouse and the owner gave us the whole garage to dry out a very wet tent and kit) and countless impressive castles. Our spirits have also been lifted by the local firewater: Himbeer Schnäpps, as well as a day resting on the campsite and doing crosswords.

"We Lost Our Spokey-Dokies in Passau"

2009-09-03T10:54:00.004+01:00

...to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the Mountain'

Today's installment finds the plucky pair in Austria (country number 5), Linz: European city of culture 09. It's nice- we had coffee and cake for breakfast and logged on to see weather and news situation. We'll take a proper look around in a bit.

Over the last few days, we have been following the Danube cycle trail. Despite it's apparant popularity, the paths themselves have been free of crowds of bikers and very rewarding. We got into the lovely Passau to realise we'd lost a rear wheel spoke again and caused a bit of a buckle. A wheel can only take so much punishment and repair so we bit the bullet, bought a new rear wheel and have given the tandem a stern talking to. Sounds simple, but nothing's simple on (old, British) tandems: cue an enforced (though not unwelcome) rest day in Passau while European standard measurements clashed with UK standard measurements. Bob the trailer didn't fit the result so his connecting components had to be imaginatively and ingeniously altered, blah blah blah. The result is satisfactory and we're pinning our hopes on the new wheel.

Passau itself was lovely, impressively situated on the confluence of the rivers Danube, Inn and Ilz. Onwards towards Linz, the route was breathtakingly good: Bavarian landscapes gave way to more epic Austrian hillsides, no traffic and distant mountains. Our best day's pedalling yet and a very easy 83kms in very little time. Just 12kms short of Linz, bad weather and whatever the waitress had put in our morning currywürst and beer conspired to force early retirement at yet another dodgy campsite. Luke, who has famously high tolerance of shoddy facilities and inbred residents, reckons the ratio of good to dodgy camps is now about 2:1.

The Blue Danube

2009-08-29T15:50:00.003+01:00

It's all downhill from here: we were excited to reach our highest point (500m ? above sea level) as we approached the Danube along the Main-Donau Kanal.

Our experience of the Danube so far has mainly consisted of drinking dunkel beer and eating sausages, it is great. At the moment we are in the wonderful Regensburg, yesterday was spent on a boat trip to the world's oldest monastic brewery and eating jellied suckling pig's head washed down with beer. We'll add to this post when we get to a cheaper internet cafe...

3 days of Germany left... we'll be sorry to leave.

The Main Line

2009-08-25T08:21:00.002+01:00

... or the Main line, you see...

Departing the Rhine we headed east for Bavaria. Tired from a few days cycling on the trot, we used one of our hotel vouchers in a little town called Langstadt. Fortunately for us, Langstadt was celebrating 150 years of the guesthouse and restaurant where we were staying and everybody had turned out to sit on long tables, drink beer, eat schnitzel and sing along to oompah music. It is obviously our cultural responsibility to observe and where possible emulate our hosts on such occasions, so the next day's 94kms were completed with slightly sore heads.

We've spent the last few days cycling along or around the Main river and scenery has been grand. Soph has been pedalling along totally rapt with the hills, vineyards, castles and well tended allotments on every side. We did lose a spoke in the neverending saga of our newly rebuilt rear wheel, but we're trying not to think about it. We'll maybe give it to Vienna to sort itself out or we'll pursue more radical solutions.

From the lovely Würzburg we were able to give Engin (friend, former colleague and resident-savant of Ochsenfurt) three hours notice before dropping in on him and his family for dinner and beers. Yesterday was a much-needed rest day spent sorting our stuff out (including the spoke), swimming and reading in the blazing sunshine.

The Rhine

2009-08-21T15:18:00.003+01:00

Good afternoon from Darmstadt. So, we are well aware that we are very lucky people indeed. We are also aware that over the last few days we've had some excellent cycling in sunny weather on good bike paths as we followed the Rhine south from Köln. Bob the trailer, our new friend, is brilliant: he follows us wherever we go, carries all our stuff, pushes us uphill and doesn't go wondering off up curbs.

But nobody wants to read that, or that we're really chuffed to have just tipped 1000km yesterday, so here's the juicy stuff that you do want to read: Rear wheel spokes pinging all the way down the Rhine, we got the bike to a bike shop where a very nice man charged us a lot of money to replace all the spokes and rebuild the wheel. Fortunately the nice man's bike shop was not too far from a riverside campsite with a good bar and good views across the Rhine, so we rested up in the sun for a while, read books, worked on making our tans look like we haven't just been wearing vests and cycle shorts all year and walked up a very big hill to visit the nearest Schloss ruin.

That episode over and with the bike and trailer finally behaving, we departed the nice campsite down a really good stretch of the Rhine - a valley full of castles, vineyards and timbered buildings, and Koblenz was lovely. The next day was blisteringly, overbearingly, unbelievably hot and we had lots to complain about. Sophie even forgot to eat and drink enough, so she had even more to complain about. Continuing once the day had cooled slightly, we arrived late at a private campsite populated exclusively by spherical people with sun burn. The round red people allowed us to camp on the wrong side of the fence on the condition that we only used the cold, dirty beach showers and that we fed the hordes of local mosquitos. This we did ably, given their ability to bite through clothes and we are still itching as a result. We awoke in the middle of the night to discover a dramatic change in the weather and donned waterproofs this morning to bid farewell to the Rhine and ride east to link up with a bend in the Main river.

The Empire Strikes Back

2009-08-15T18:49:00.005+01:00

Oh dear, things were going so well...

We crossed the border into Germany after a couple of days of patchy rain and then spent a night in the already damp tent under the most torrential downpour we've seen - ever. Soph courageously realligned the tent on its poles so that the drips were directed onto Luke's head instead of hers, but she still wasn't happy. And frankly who could blame her - this was supposed to be her honeymoon, and yet here she was, knackered from days relentlessly pushing pedals, on a campsite for hundreds with just one toilet. Not good.

To make matters worse, the day after as our heroes cycled into Aachen, the old seat of the Holy Roman Empire, Luke got rather too close to a pavement at enough speed to flip the trailer. After crushing his helmet which he'd bungeed to the top of it, it then flipped back over, revealing a bent axle and a dubious angle on the chassis.

Repair was futile but Luke did enough for them to make the 70km (90km with Sophie's imaginative navigation and up some substantial hills powered by numerous snickers bars) to Cologne and buy a new one (see the addidtion to 'How to Bodge').

With a new trailer, cheaper German beer, the shadow of Köln cathedral behind them and the prospect of sunny weather for a while, our plucky pair look set for better times ahead heading south along the Rhine.

The crossroads of Europe

2009-08-12T10:38:00.003+01:00

We are in Maastricht, southernmost city of the Netherlands, spitting distance from both Belgium and Germany. We went to Belgium by footferry yesterday for a beer, then crossed our first land border so far on the way back in to Holland. We'll cross our second today on the way to Aachen (Germany will be country number 4 - already).

Progress has been aided by good weather and excellent cycle paths, but hampered by good hospitality and Sophie's strained relationship with her saddle. Luke has been characteristically unsympathetic, but was happy to spend a rest day by the river Maas reading Sherlock Holmes stories and drinking very small beers.

The Dutch are a very civilized people. Complaints are limited to a lack of places to pee outdoors (population density meaning that you are never more than three metres from another person) and unbelievably appalling fast food- specifically SnackPoint (which should be renamed StarvationPoint as that is the only time any sane person should consider eating there.

Current mileage - 586km.

The first chapter

2009-08-05T12:11:00.003+01:00

It's bloody heavy. We were somewhat unprepared for the weight of the bike, trailer, each other and all our stuff as we pedalled round the corner to the pub for the send off. Thanks to all who came to wave us off, especially those who joined us for the ride out of Norwich.

Three days and 230km in, we are much more confident: Luke has learned to steer, and Soph is learning to trust him.

Amongst other things we have so far experienced a dodgy campsite, a smooth ferry crossing, lots of friendly people and an amazing ride up the coast from the Hook of Holland on the North Sea cycle route. We are now luxuriously installed in Amsterdam at Eva's place.

How to bodge

2009-07-20T17:44:00.011+01:00

This is not the major expedition Luke would like to think it is. In an effort to make it a more adventurous proposition, he has stayed true to form by being cheap and bodging things together. Despite his best efforts though, it should all stand up to the task of crossing a continent.

If you are considering a trip of this sort, this is what you should buy:

http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/enlargeravenadventure.html

and one of these too:

www.bobgear.com/trailers/

If anyone fancies buying us this stuff, grand; for the moment we've got an old Dawes Galaxy Tandem (state of the art in the mid 80s, when ours was built, and they're still building them) and a big old cargo trailer like this

(off ebay) which we rode round for a while before Luke borrowed Iain's angle grinder and took off all the unnecessarily heavy bits.

Stop press. 15th August.

Luke has to eat humble pie. The trailer might well have made it, but he crashed it into the curb, flipped it over and then made Sophie cycle 90km with one wheel on the wonk. His ideals of cycling across Europe on a shoestring have been shattered.

Undettered, our heroes tracked down a shop in Cologne that sells BOB trailers, and went for the (marginally) cheaper one than that indicated above. Luke supposes that the moral of the story is: gear is good, buy the best you can afford. Sorry.

Kit test

2009-07-16T11:16:00.006+01:00

Our only training, possibly our only advance attempt at a bike ride with the full kit set-up...

Last weekend we pedalled up to the North Norfolk coast and dusted off the tent to join friends for the night at Stiffkey campsite. All good so far (once we fixed the flagpole)!

Preliminaries

2009-07-06T09:29:00.007+01:00

View Tandem to Istanbul in a larger map

This is the route we are likely to follow. We're intending to depart on Sunday the 2nd August.

There will be a party at a mystery (but predictable) Golden Triangle public house on Sat the 1st and Soph has proposed a York Tavern roast lunch on the Sunday, followed by a glorious departure from the fine city.

Anyone wishing to share in the glory would be very welcome to accompany us by bike out of Norwich on our route as far as they fancy. We shall be heading out of the city on National Cycleroute no1 (via Whitlingham) towards Harwich and the ferry to Holland.

We are very excited.