I was in Newcastle this week, with bike, obviously, researching routes, obviously. I like Newcastle, and the way it makes me feel so over-dressed and under-tattooed. More about the Toon soon, but first, the Angel of the North (right). Antony Gormley’s iconic statue is three miles or so south of the Tyne bridges, a straight…
Category: Other
Birmingham: Christmas and canals
German Christmas Markets seem to be everywhere these days. We’ve been visiting a few – Leeds, Sheffield, York, Birmingham – in the echt German way. That is, on bikes, and not spending more than we can afford. Which means not spending anything, when they want four quid for a sausage. The Birmingham trip was an…
Cramond Island: Rebel with a causeway
Cramond Island, five miles or so from central Edinburgh along the coast, is a kind of mini-Lindisfarne: a small isle connected to the mainland by a narrow concrete causeway. Most of the time the causeway is under water. But for a couple of hours at low tide, when the waters recede, it’s perfectly cyclable. Go…
Camino 10: Monte de Gozo to Santiago de Compostela
Thanks to the clocks springing forward, it was still black outside at 8am when I had to leave the hostel. Misty, damp, half-drizzling: it was all a bit anti-climatic. Er, anti-climactic. Well, both, actually. I slipped downhill and along trafficky roads through dreary outskirts, and followed my nose to the cathedral square and my entrance-finale….
Camino 9: Ligonde to Monte de Gozo
The clocks went forward at 2am, when I was fast asleep. When I woke it was nearly seven, ie eight, technically chucking out time from the albergue, though there was no sign of that happening. Which was good, as it was pitch-dark outside and still showery-chilly. When it began to get light I started gingerly…
Camino 8: Triacastela to Ligonde
I had to wait outside the hostel until 8.30, by which time most of the hostelers gone, for the Saturday bloke to come and let my bike out of the garage, having talked his way through the exact purpose of each key in his copious bunch. The morning looked grey but dry. Samos had a…
Camino 7: Ponferrada to Triacastela
A pear and banana for breakfast, plus two steaming, frothy glasses of tap water – yes, it was that cold this morning. The day looked like it was spoiling for an argument, gloomy and grey and short-tempered. But it never really came to that. There was, granted, a shower en route out from Ponferrada (which,…
Camino 6: Hospital de Orbega to Ponferrada
With rain forecast I was a little worried about today’s climb, which involved 700m of ascent. But the weather bots of eltiempo.es also promised me one last day of tailwind, so I’d better use it. A humdrum ride took me into Astorga, an OK looking town with an OK square where I had a fine…
Camino 5: Sahagún to Hospital de Orbega
An excellent night’s sleep, thanks to two blankets, the right amount of wine, and silent dormmates. I left around half eight, after a cursory look round Sahagun, off into the sun with the tailwind still pushing me along like dads do with little kids learning to ride. It was joy, pedalling easily and quietly thanks…
Camino 4: Burgos to Sahagún
Early starts are par for the course of the Camino: the hostel chucks out between 7 and 8, but I was awake and showered well before that anyway. Out, on my bike, free and energised and into the bright but chilly and damp morning. I thought I was following the N120, but found myself heading…