Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond
The first proper day of the Latvian End to End involved some border setbacks, abandoned villages, roads with skaters, and the first taste of what will undoubtedly be many gravel roads. A rather crunchy, dusty taste. First I had to get from my guesthouse in Alūksne to my intended start: the border tripoint of Estonia,…
I’m going Baltic for my latest End to End, riding Latvia’s quiet back roads through woods. In fact, outside its busy eurocapital Rīga, the entire country is quiet back roads through woods. Latvia is also as flat as a Saturday night karaoke singer – the highest point is barely three hundred metres, though from the…
The marshy levels around Aveiro, south of Porto, are great fun to explore by bike. Partly because of the birdlife – flamingoes, storks – but also because of the boardwalks you can ride along: kilometre after kilometre of clanky wooden planks. It’s like cycling to the accompaniment of Taiko drummers. We were there because we’d…
Final days of End to Ends can be a curious mixture of climax and anti-climax. When I completed my first – Land’s End to John o’Groats, in 1997 – I was literally in tears of joy and surprise, rang all my friends to tell them, and had a slap-up champagne dinner at JoG House Hotel….
Last night’s guesthouse came with the bonus of a petrol station/cafe run by the same lady. So like the drivers we could fuel up, except with coffee and home-made pastéis de nata, not petrol. Though one local was getting stuck in to his own morning rocket fuel, in the shape of macieira – Portuguese brandy,…
The longest day of the entire trip – and the flattest. We left Abrantes by crossing the Tejo, greeted immediately by the N2’s arrow-straight road across the dusty flatlands of the Alentejo. Goodbye hills the colour of emerald and avocado, hello wheatfield plains the colour of… er, wheat. And hello cows. Also, hello cork. We’ve…
I’ve cycled to the centre of various places. Britain; Belgium; London; York; and of course Yorkshire (hence the world). And today I added Portugal. For two minutes, I was central to the entire country’s economy and everyone else in the land was marginal. Which was quite an achievement from buying a €1.20 coffee. There was…
Yesterday, Day 5, was a rest day exploring Coimbra’s mazy, steep old-town alleys, and the university area. I was intrigued by the reliefs decorating the entrance to the maths department – the stonemason was reasonably adept at mathematical notation, even if a violin f-hole has served as an integral sign. That infinite sum for π/4,…
Wonderful, wonderful riding today: half on one of the best railtrails I’ve ever done; half on beautiful quiet scenic mountain roads; and what felt like half on a terrible forest track I wouldn’t wish on even a Tory MP. First, that fabulous railway bike path. The Ecopista do Dão was opened in 2011 on the…
A shortish day, but a strenuous one. Because despite yesterday evening’s ascent, we had much more climbing this morning: five hundred or so more metres, up to a summit just shy of a thousand metres. At least it would burn off last night’s burgers and beers. And give us an appetite for tonight’s. Portugal’s cafes…