I’m recovering from scheduled hand surgery, which has resulted in forty or so stitches in my left palm and little finger. It looks like Boris Karloff’s attempts to sew a mailbag on deck in a storm. So for a couple of weeks I’m having to take things easy. Which means essential journeys only. Such as...
I had an unexpected stay in Rotterdam, so I nipped down south on the train today to see the Netherlands’ most celebrated cycle roundabout: the Hovenring, a gyratory suspended in mid-air above a main road in Eindhoven. The hovering interchange is on the Rondje Eindhoven (‘Little Ring’) bike route that loops round the city. Half-bridge,...
With time short today – I had to be in Bruges by the evening – I utilised the fact I was on a folding bike and took a bus short cut back up the hill to Bertrix, which I cycled through yesterday. (It’s ‘bear-tree’, not ‘bear-tricks’, by the way.) Progress was slow today, what with...
Another sunny, easy, lovely day, trundling the quiet lanes and bike paths of southern Wallonia, and ending up at a place called Soup. It was straight-up freezing cold when I left my room in Beauraing at half seven this morning. I always wondered what chilblains were when my grandparents talked about them sixty years ago....
A short day, dictated by the availability of affordable accomm… but some of the loveliest cycling so far, following the river. Eek! It’s the Meuse! I’d had a sleepless night in a noisy dorm. If only science could invent some device that enabled people to listen to music or films on their phone without disturbing...
When I did my Belgium Side to Side in 2022 I passed through the country’s central point. Now I’m doing it Top to Bottom, I just had to go through the same point. This made my two routes cross in the most appropriate way, forming a wobbly chromosome-like ‘X’ shape. Well, cycle routes are clearly...
A short, bright, breezy day of headwinds and towpaths. Not the narrow, lumpy, muddy tracks typically accompanying a British canal, though: here, a ‘towpath’ is a jaagpad, a wide, smooth, tarmac service road on which motor vehicles are as common as Belgian downhill skiers. With plenty of time in hand, I could dawdle round Antwerp...
Two years ago I did Belgium End to End by doing it Side to Side. I love cycling the place because of its excellent cycle paths and its highbrow cultural experiences such as beer, chips, chocolate and comics. So now I’m doing it Top to Bottom. This will take me from Essen – not the...
The poetically named Gypsey Race is East Yorkshire’s most enigmatic watercourse. One that only works part-time, like me, and keeps disappearing unpredictably, also like me. It’s a winterbourne; it’s a chalk stream; and it’s a predictor of disaster. It’s part of the mystery behind the Wold Newton Triangle, Yorkshire’s equivalent of the one in Bermuda....
The Great War of 1914–18 resulted in the loss of almost 900,000 of Britain’s men. Every city, town and village suffered casualties. Well, not quite every village. Historians reckon 53 settlements in England (none in Scotland or Ireland, as it happens) saw all their men return. Of these ‘thankful villages’, as they’ve been dubbed, five...
This is the website of cycling writer Rob Ainsley. Read about End-to-End touring (and other rides) in York, Yorkshire, Britain, and round the world. Enjoy lively travel writing, lots of photos and plenty of humour. (And no ads!) ♬ Hear my music for classical guitar inspired by bike rides
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Britain side to side: C2C, Way of the Roses, Hadrian’s Wall, W2W, Trans Pennine Trail, Reivers… Plus rhyming rides: Barmouth to Yarmouth, Poole to Goole, Barrow to Jarrow, Mull to Hull…
Exploring Britain’s greatest county end to end, top to bottom, and side to side: from grand rivers, moors and dales to quirky curiosities in villages and towns, plus York route guides…
Route research all round Britain, plus the King Alfred way; Spain’s Camino de Santiago; South America; every place called Bath in the world; riding the Monopoly board; Quirky London, and more…
Some of my published pieces (books, columns, talks, podcasts, fun stuff mostly about everyday cycling and cycle-touring) and recent works for classical guitar…