Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond
Among England and Wales’s 53 ‘thankful villages’ – ones whose soldiers all survived WWI – Norton-le-Clay and Cundall, east of Ripon in North Yorkshire, are the closest together: neighbours, in fact, only a couple of kilometres of farmland lane apart. Today was baking hot and I wasn’t up for a long ride, so a bus-assisted…
My rides to all five of Yorkshire’s ‘Thankful Villages’ – whose sons emerged unscathed from WWI – continued this summer day with a ride from Hull to Catwick. (See map below). The small East Yorkshire village is that rarity, ‘doubly thankful’: one of only 14 in England and Wales that also came through WWII without…
After a few days in Denmark, I cycled a few days in Schleswig-Holstein. Why? Ah, that old question. Well, I’m planning a German End to End later this year, and this seemed good preparation. Northern Germany does good cycling infra. The hundred-plus-mile trip from Flensburg, on the Danish border, through the DK/DE ambiguity of Schleswig-Holstein…
Our Denmark Side to Side finished today: at Nyhavn. The colourful harbour is one of Copenhagen’s major tourist tick-boxes, and more picturesque than the underwhelming Little Mermaid. It felt a suitable end point. To get there we had a straight run of thirty-odd miles on good main road bike paths past Roskilde. Nigel’s mechanical concerns…
A long day – 75 miles – and a rainy one, but thanks to Denmark’s quiet country lanes and good separated bike paths, rather fun. If you call cycling in the rain fun. Which, being a cycle tourist, I often do. We surfed the commuter tide out of Odense on decent and well-signed bike infra….
Danish hostels are not cheap, but the breakfast was just what I needed: a big buffet of fruit, cold cuts, fresh bread, yoghurt, salad, coffee and juices. A cold cut above the average English hostel, I must say, although something this hostel has in common with its British counterparts is that it’s on top of…
I did Denmark last year ‘bottom to top’ (Padborg to Skagen, all the way up Jutland). Like the slightly guilty fan of the pricey coffee and full-fat pastries in a hygge cafe, I enjoyed it so much that I’m here again, to do the happy cycling country ‘side to side’. That is, from Blåvand on…
As Robert Burns said, the best laid plans of cycle tourers gang aft agley. We finished the Czech End to End today, though things ganged a bit agley. We didn’t have time to explore all that Frýdek-Místek has to offer – we must come back one day when we have a spare ten minutes –…
Another terrible night. I wouldn’t wish long-term seafood poisoning on too many people (although I can think of a few populist politicians). Breakfast was only apple juice and water. I clearly wasn’t going to be cycling all the way to our target of Frýdek-Místek today, our penultimate day. But I managed half or so in…
Things were looking up this morning: my breakfast stayed in, and I quickly got out, reversing the situation of the last few days post-food-poisoning. We followed the path north from Brno along the Svitava River, a lovely little trail on an untrafficked lane that hugged the woodsy waterside. Eventually we rejoined the road, and Nigel…