Category: Other

With heavy rain forecast for this afternoon, I just did a short ride today, out on lanes direct from the hostel to do a bit of the High Peak Trail. It was all a bit overcast on the puddly back lanes and gravel tracks, but nicely quiet, and green in a grey sort of way….

I’m on a winter break in the Derbyshire Peaks, staying at YHA Hartington Hall for the bargain price of £13 a night. Up to the 1960s, the gritty tors, sheepy moors and lush dales were criss-crossed by passenger and mining railways. Now some of their trackbeds form four major railtrails: High Peak, Tissington, Monsal and…

I’m here in Northern Spain’s Basque Country for a few days’ winter break, bar-hopping on my folding bike. After a few days in Bilbao doing little but riding around slowly and eating pintxos – this region’s equivalent of tapas – I’m now in Donostia / San Sebastián also riding around slowly and eating pintxos. Yes,…

Milton Keynes, with its grid streets, shopping malls, shiny steel’n’glass newbuild, and sprawling scale, is like America without the guns. Or Trump. But with good bike paths, Greggs and Wetherspoons. So I like Milton Keynes. It was built from scratch starting in the 1970s as a new town halfway between Birmingham and London. Now a…

I’m doing Queen’s (College, Oxford) to Queens’ (College, Cambridge): an academic journey between the two eminent university cities that, over the course of a hundred miles, only moves an apostrophe one letter to the right. Today I did Oxford to the slightly more recent city of Milton Keynes, via a village that isn’t a village,…

Never say Nevers. I’d originally planned to ride all the way to Nevers, sixty-ish k further up the Loire, so had accomm and my transport back home booked there. But with another terrible weather forecast, and the prospect of riding all day into a sleety headwind with no great scenic reward, I decided that a…

Autumn turned up while I was asleep. This morning was misty and cold, and I had to warm my hands around my breakfast tea mug before they worked well enough to take down the tent. There’s an end-of-season feel: several campsites along the way shut early for the year because of rainy weather and dwindling…

Orléans looked splendid in this morning’s sunshine. The city’s most famous son is a daughter: Joan of Arc, defender of the French Nation, who played a big role in the Siege of Orléans in the 1400s. She is commemorated in many ways, such as a cannabis shop called the Marie Jeanne d’Arc CBD. I think…

Another easy-going day of level riverside riding. The Loire route is not for seekers of thrills and spills, though I did almost spill some of my coffee this morning in a Blois cafe. (As for pastries, I’d had those back at the tent, thanks to the morning bakery delivery service that’s common at French campsites.)…

Yesterday was heavy rain all day so I stayed in Tours and just cycled – well, aquaplaned mostly – round town, exploring the very decent bike infrastructure. This morning, with my new-found knowledge of the city’s layout, I splashed my way to the doctor to show off my impressive collection of insect bites, and colourfully…