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Welcome to Eurotandem2009THE MISSION: To complete our tandem ride from North Cape, Norway, to Malta, following the EuroVelo 7 cycle route - The Sun Route. Approximate distance 7,500km. |
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Thanks for visiting!
Derekwrote:
Glad to see you're on the road again Kath and Neil, what a super tandem, we thought our pre-war ultra short wheel base Claud Butler was good 40 years ago but things have certainly moved on! best wishes from a couple of ex CTC types and members of Warrington Field Club, Jean and Derek Garner.
May 22
MARK COWARDwrote:
The very best of luck to both of you.A very worthwhile thing to do.Well done and my best wishes are with.
May 17
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Thanks to everyone who donated last year - we raised more than £2,500. New Justgiving pages are now running so please help if you haven't already.
The European Cycle Network
June 12 Eurotandem2009 -mission accomplished!
Greetings all! Eurotandem2009 touched Maltese soil at 5.30pm local time. There is little more to be done! We have covered 7,800km from Nordkapp to Valletta. We plan to ride over to the south side of the island sometime over the next day or two, just to seal the North-South achievement, and then come home. We've had a splendid time in Southern Italy. Sicily, particularly, has been f ascinating and we would like to have stayed longer but we are tired too and ready to finish. We hope to post some photos on our return - we'll let you know... Eurotandem2009 -mission accomplished!
Greetings all! Eurotandem2009 touched Maltese soil at 5.30pm local time. There is little more to be done! We have covered 7,800km from Nordkapp to Valletta. We plan to ride over to the south side of the island sometime over the next day or two, just to seal the North-South achievement, and then come home. We've had a splendid time in Southern Italy. Sicily, particularly, has been f ascinating and we would like to have stayed longer but we are tired too and ready to finish. We hope to post some photos on our return - we'll let you know... June 01 Up Pompei!
We've come roaring through Naples like it ain't no thang - an exhilarating experience. It took us a day or two to work out the rules of the road in these parts but now we know there is only one: if you believe you have Right of Way, you haven't. Every fourth car looks like it's been involved in some frightful shunt. There must be lots more too dunched to drive! The region swings wildly from astoundingly lovely to unspeakably awful. Tragically there is a terrible litter problem. It began just north of Rome and has grown to surreal proportions, with rubbish piled up to head height in the lay-byes (no exaggeration) and many beautiful beaches despoiled. We can't understand how such nice people can treat their surroundings like this. On Saturday, by a mixture of chance and design, our route coincided with that of the Giro d'Italia cycle race. We spent a couple of hours at Mondragone, waiting for the race to come through. It seemed as though the whole town came out to see it, though it came and went in a flash. The heatwave has ended and I am sitting in the tent listening to the rain pattering down. At least it made for a more comfortable day to visit Pompei, which gets a Eurotandem five-star recommendation - and we don't give those out lightly! May 24 Rambling and Roman
You join us at Lido di Castel Fusano, the Tynemouth of Rome. Actually it's much better than some of the dreadful resorts we've passed through on our way here and has easy public transport to the Capital. All is well and the sun is still shining - a bit too brightly perhaps as temps soar into the 30's daily. We spend all day fantasising about cold drinks. Even the Italians think the weather is unusual - we've already seen an item on the news about the heatwave. We lingered quite a long time in Tuscany where the hills were big and the landscape and towns too lovely to rush. Now we are at the coast we are making faster progress and a breeze from the sea helps moderate the heat. We slept at a convent in Grosseto the other night - Nuns made our breakfast. We also went to the Tommasini bike shop where the lovely lady owner was so impressed with our trip she gave us some cycling caps and showed us their frame factory full of droolsome bikes www.tommasini.it Rome is our last big city stop so we hope to make good progress south when we move on in a day or three. Please email us with your news! Love from Neil and Kathryn. May 16 It Aint half hot, mum!Hello again everyone and apologies for a long time in updating but time and internet access have both been at a premium.
First, can I ask anyone interested in keeping up with the blog to check in once a week or so, rather than wait for the email update? This has been a bit of a bore to do and is virtually impossible if we update the blog via mobile phone. Ta...
So, where are we? At San Gimignano, in Tuscany, that's where. We rode here today from Florence and a thermometer we saw along the way said it was 36 degrees C in the shade. I can believe it. Right through the Appennines we have made slow progress as the hot sun and the long, hard climbs have conspired against us. But we took it steady, riding three 50km days and one 75km and taking 3 days off this week. The first we spent on a sweet little campsite in the hills north of Florence, where we did as little as possible and the nice Polish owner ran us to the shops in his car. The only shops were in a town high on a hill from which we had ridden down the day before - we weren't riding back up there!
Another day we stopped at the gate of a big house to ask a lady for some directions and went away with a home-made salami which she insisted on giving us. We like the Italians.
Thursday and Friday we spent in Florence, doing the usual thing in cities. Perhaps we were tired, but neither of us liked Florence as much as some of the other cities we have seen. It's actually quite a gloomy place, with narrow streets closed in by tall buildings which have heavily iron-barred windows and big studded doors. It has the air of an old prison. It looks great from the hills around, though.
Now we are in Chianti country and have certain obligations to fulfill in that respect.
Tatta for now! |
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