Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Bratislava to Komáron on The Danube Bikeway

After last nights cracking evening in the basement wellness centre at The Hotel Devín which involved swimming against a very strong current in the elliptical pool, steaming in the steam room & even sitting on the lowest seat in the huge sauna 🙂 followed by buckets of cold water tipped from the ceiling, then a one hour Thai massage done in the reverse order to Sally’s Swedish massage which is still to be beaten for relaxation therapy.

Modern house with grass roof & in water garden
Modern house with grass roof & in water garden

As you can imagine  after such pleasures and a rear wind I zoomed along the first 2/3rds of smooth cycleways, although be warned there are no sign’s and in a few places a tree root or pothole is cunningly placed to catch you out. Also the route is barricaded off at one point to try and force you to use the Danube Ferry, which of cause I ignored and then spent the next few miles worrying what I would do if there was no crossing place Fortunately the barrage, locks & power station with a road crossing eventually appeared, so no problem.

Berr chitLunch was a beer at the remarkable price of 50p for 500ml although the only food was a big bag of crisps at 80p 🙁  after quite a few miles on a gravel path, very treacherous if the gravel is deep, I arrived in Komátno on the Slovak side, “Aroundme” thought hotels on the Hungarian side were cheaper so I crossed the huge bridge with low parapets that I fear falling over, seeing the huge Tesco made me smile – I wonder what the checkout staff get paid there?

The first hotel was in the process of a massive rebuilt so I went towards the next choice but seeing a hotel called The Aqua I just at to stop. The price worked out at £36 for b&b including free admission to the huge outdoor sulphurous thermal pool a conventional heated outdoor 50 metre pool and a huge 25 metre pleasure pool. Totally amazing all in the most beautiful grounds. So you know how I spent my evening….

The Strava is here and look at the amazing average speed of 13.8mph 🙂

Strava_Ride___Bratislava_to_Komàrom

The pictures are here

A very pleasurable day indeed with fine weather.

Day 7 Reims to just outside Reims

I woke up really late (for me anyway). Went for breakfast to be met by a gaggle of girls on a hen party weekend boasting of their previous nights exploits.

IMG_3240Retrieving my bike from the luggage locker at the Hotel Bristol I set off, the roads are in pretty bad shape here, eventually I found  my way onto the canal, pleased to be out of the traffic. In one place they had set the path up as a beach resort complete with sand.

I then headed up towards the Champagne Hills. As a wise man once told me where there are grapes there are hills 🙁  Feeling a bit worn out I stopped at the retail park and visited Cora. I can see why Carrefour are doing badly: caught in a pincer movement between the Aldi’s & Lidl’s and the Cora’s it must be tough for them.

On the move again, I had to escape from the high speed Saturday shoppers, so dropped down into Rilly-la Montagne where the beautiful Chateau de Rily beckoned, I decided it was to pricey for poor old me, later I would regret it 🙁

I continued on up and down the hills till finally after 12 miles I gave up and stopped in Mailly where I checked in at the Chambres de Hotes run by a lady with and OCD on a OCD. I promptly fell asleep totally worn out.

At 7pm  I summoned up the energy to cycle down to Sillery to have a meal in the Michelin  Le Relais de Sillery a good ending to a not very good day.

Here is the Strava data:

Strava_Ride___Rheims_to_MaillyThe pictures will be here

 

Mega bike ride – Day 2 Euston to Whitsable

IMG_3105Today started with a very emotional Sally kissing me goodbye at Kings Cross, after our Pret breakfast. Not sure if the emotion was caused by the £22 single ticket fare to Cambridge (it’s only £15 the other way & the return is only £1 more).

After my previous fiasco navigating out of South London I decided to use the new bike mode in the iPhone Google Maps app. Obviously Google don’t expect you to be on the bike very long as it flattened the battery in less than 2 hours 🙂 and dumped me on the wretched  Route 1 Cycleway, Which sank to new lows today with the multiple kissing gates that aren’t  quite big enough for a touring bike and the keyholes not quite wide enough to take panniers 🙁 Ace design lads! Additionally for a fair stretch its a  very rough pathway and it takes you past the incredibly smelly sewage works.

A very hot & hilly day necessitating many stops at petrol stations to fill up with sugar water at roughly X3 the diesel price and offering considerably less calories. (petrol has 8 MILLION calories per litre).

IMG_5099After 78 miles with quite a bit on very  busy roads, I finally made it to Whitstable a town that loves its oysters and with remarkably few b&b’s. A lovely surprise was a skype call from Oliver, Ren & Stevie

Tomorrow its Dover & the boat ride to Calais.

This is my Strava data for today:

Strava_Ride___Euston_to_Whitstable

 

Southern Upland Way – Portpatrick to Castle Kennedy

IMG_9367Today with George (who I first met 50 years ago whilst doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme at Parkgate Iron & steel works) I started the Southern Upland Way. This is a 212 mile coast to coast walk across Scotland starting in Portpatrick near Stranraer.

This is the first time I have pre-booked the trains at either end plus the ten b&b’s in between. Another first is I’m  using my new Polar H7 heart monitor with the iCardio app on the iPhone.

icardioWhen we left George’s house in Kendal it was hammering down with rain. However, by noon when we arrived at Portpatrick all was clear but with a very cold wind blowing hard.

The walk is, so far, well marked although with a fair bit of road/track walking today. The moorland bits were very boggy with no refinements such as gravel or paving slabs like on other National Trails. The Via Ferrata bit is a chain handrail alongside straightforward  steps in the rock.

We did 18.38 miles in 5hr 52min + 1hr 35min stops  according to my GPS as we went into Stranraer to grab some fish & chips before our b&b. This is the rather magnificent deluxe Chlenry Farmhouse (which offers a big meal with wine for £35 each…)

Tomorrow is Bargrennan some 25 miles away

All the day’s pictures are here

The trip statistics are here 

The trip on Everytrail is here