Home Sweet Home...and dry

Why did travelling by train in Britain feel like about the most challenging part of our journey, I wonder?

We didn't arrive at Kitty's parents' place in Wellington until after 10PM, so rather than cause a nocturnal fuss, we camped on their lawn. They had quite a shock, next morning!

So that's it - we've landed, and with a BUMP!Thank you so much for all your mails during our absence, encouraging words and subsequent 'welcome home' messages. It has been an amazing journey & apart from the difficulties of adjusting to the 'normal' life, our biggest challenge now will be trying not to bore everybody to death by going on about it. Did I tell you about the time we were trying to cross the border into Slov...

Back to blighty

We made a mad dash across Denmark (after 3 months of stunning weather, Denmark was our horizontal-rain Nemesis!) - in fact so mad that we didn't draw a single Danish Kroner from the bank, nor even buy a map - just followed the signs & the sun (what we could see of it) all the way to Esbjerg port!

After the rumours of a spot or 2 of rain in Britain, we were slightly taken aback to arrive in blazing sunshine.

In Harwich, we heard some guy say "right, I'm off across the estuary now", turned out he was skipper of the Stockley ferry and, nope, we didn't know what that was either, but we threw the bike & trailer onboard anyway and ended up in...yep, Stockley (see pic). We cycled the 10 miles to Ipswich and caught a train to Wellington. Tandems aren't allowed on British trains, so a bit of blagging was required, especially in Cambridge @ 5.30 on a Friday afternoon!

Going down

On our way up to north Germany, we hit a big, or rather wide, problem: trying to cross the Elbe river.

People we asked suggested the nearest bridge was a long way away - in the wrong direction.

Eventually the mystery was solved when we found this tucked-away lift entrance. It dropped us down to a large pedestrian tunnel, which we cycled along, resurfacing via another lift at the far end. Quite exciting - 'twas like a scene from Dr. Who!

Bringing it to life...

We nearly raced through the east German town of Torgau without stopping, oblivious to its rich history.
Luckily this lively, erudite retired farmer, Heinz - with a real flare for storytelling - adopted us for a whole day. I was so enthralled with his tales - such as how the allied & Russian troops met here at the river Elbe, thus effectively isolating Germany & ending the war - that I kept catching myself with my face almost pressed against his!

A wonderful day, thank you Heinz!

City of Romance

It´s a bit corny, I know, but what a wonderful place Prague is - well deserving of its UNESCO world heritage badge.
Kitty was grinning from ear to ear, on account of a newly opened museum with original Beethoven, Mozart & Handel manuscripts. I was grinning from ear to ear, on account of cheap beer.

Getting High...

In this little Austrian town of Retz, just south of the Czech border, there was an open-air high-wire act one evening. You can just make out the guy balancing on his head, on the wire running up to the rathaus (town hall - you have to love a nation that calls the place where its local politicians meet, a rat house!).
We sat outside a restaurant drinking local wine whilst the artists attempted to fall from great heights.
At the end of the show, there was a really dramatic electric storm and we cycled 3 miles back at high speed, lit up by lightning & laughing all the way - jumping into our tent just seconds before the torrent of rain!

trailer map

One of Kitty´s best ideas on this trip, was to draw a large map, in black, of Europe on the lid of our trailer - with our trail drawn in, in red.

It also gives our names, and has allowed us to explain visually what we´re up to in every country-without being able to speak a word of the lingo.


The downside is that we frequently have to spend 10 minutes going through it all and fighting our way through the gathered onlookers, before we can get on our way!
Considering the trailer was knocked together in a couple of evenings and has had an absolute hammering on this trip (oh, how I love these east European cobbled streets!), it has stayed intact, watertight and done sterling service.