Europe Archives - Page 14 of 15

Day 6 – A days holiday in a holiday in retirement and 25,254 days old

Posted on September 17, 2016

Due to the vagaries of the monopoly supplier of ferries to Jersey, Condor Ferries, there was no ferry to St Malo today 🙁 So an official holiday was declared by me.

With the unexpected day here I decided to revisit the North coast, this time dropping down into the coves and also practising the Boulay bay hill climb unfortunately I had a laden saddle bag etc so the heart rate went out through the roof on the 24% gradient:stretch -( It still brought back many fond memories of the Bolsover hill climb, which was 33%, that I used to do as a kid.

Jersey with it’s so called “Green Lanes” is a bit of a cycling paradise. Quiet, well surfaced roads are ideal plus you can choose to do some pretty good hill climbing short and sharp! A lovely prevalence of reasonable cafes means you are never far from a cuppa or cake.

It’s easily accessible by bike from England (Condor Ferries willing) using Portsmouth, bikes are carried free and compared to flying totally hassle free. So I’m sure I will be back for a long weekend with Sally 🙂

After the ride I took a 10 minute dip in The Sea Lido, apparently the oldest in the UK even more astonishing is that at high water the pool is 40feet under water 🙂 as usual I was perished when I got out and after chatting to the oldie regulars :-), fortunately The Runnymede Hotel , where I’m staying, is literally 100 yards up the road so a hot shower did the usual thawing out trick.

All in all a very relaxing day for me, at this rate will I make it to Ibiza? even more does it matter 🙂

The Strava says I cycled 16 miles and 1132 ft of climbing. Meanwhile my son, Nick RAN nearly 41 miles and over 5,500 feet of climbing 🙂 shurely shome mishtake….

The pictures will be found here at some point.

Day 5 a whirlWINDY tour of Jersey on my 25,253 day.

Posted on September 16, 2016October 3, 2016

What a wet and wild night that was, thank goodness it was only my bike outside. After a much better nights sleep, on a firmer bed I had a gorgeous scrambled egg breakfast and left The Village b&b to a windy but dry morning.

I freewheeled down the hill and biked to St Aubin to meet up with snowboarder Peter, my guide for the morning. When he arrived on a uber lightweight carbon bike, I knew I was in for a struggle especially when he started talking about 8min running miles 🙁 in ParkRuns

We shot off up the old railroad track to the lighthouse at Corbiere Point and met the full force of the huge westerly wind 🙁 It was really stunning scenery and I was glad of a breather :-). At the bottom of the hill Peter suggested a rough track around the hill although it meant carrying my heavyish bike up a flight of steps..

Once down at sea level again and along the bay we stopped at the Jersey Pearl shop for a much needed cream tea. 🙂

Then it was of again up a very steep hill appropriately named Mont du Vallette , after a rest at the top to admire the view and Peter”s old childhood haunts we biked on, a bit inland of the coast, to our next tea break at the Durrell Wildlife Park. Then it was time for Peter to do his domestic duties so he flew off. I continued at a more leisurely pace, even spotting my first red squirrel, around the island. It really is beautiful with well maintained roads and on the whole courteous drivers. With the ferry from Portsmouth it probably makes a decent long weekend trip from the UK.

Once in St Helier I make a quick recce of the seawater lido, looks promising for a dip! Instead of returning back to the b&b I started the circuit again this time dropping down to St. Brelade’s gorgeous sandy bay. However, The Crab Shack had closed for an afternoon nap so I discovered the Wayside Cafe for my crab salad instead.

Once back at the b&b I confidently started to book a ferry to St Malo for tomorrow. However, to continue a theme, no ferries run that way on Saturday 🙁 so it’s another night on Jersey for me! I’ve moved myself to a place in St Helier so I can use the lido etc.

A good day and it was great to have Peter, a local, to show me around. The Strava shows I did 44.7 miles and 2094 feet of climbing

My pictures of the day should be here on Dropbox:-

Trip Day 4 – Weymouth to St. Lawrence (Jersey). Life Day 25,252

Posted on September 15, 2016March 12, 2018

A very grey & damp Jersey — A very grey; damp Jersey

After yesterdays faux pas of riding to Weymouth to find the ferry had moved to Poole. I escaped by taking the 7.23 train from Weymouth back to Poole, by the time the train arrived in Poole there were 15 bikes squeezed into our compartment!

Gmaps once again came up trumps to navigate the maze of cycleways from the station to the port in 15 minutes. I had a bit of a long wait for the ferry but chatted to a couple from CTC Nottingham on their flash bikes who are also touring around. The ferry itself was very efficient and we made the 150 mile crossing in just under 5 hours including stopping at Guernsey it clags along very smoothly at 40mph.

I had an awful night’s sleep at Seaspray, soft beds and sea sounds don’t suit me, the landlady was very helpful though, making me toast and coffee before I left. The triathletes were already bombing up and down the bay.

The weather in Jersey was pretty bad, overcast and drizzly. To get to The Village B&B it was uphill all the way to St Lawrence. The place itself is very organised but my poor bike has to stay outside 🙁 in the drizzle.

Tonight I met up with Peter at the neighbouring Saint Laurent pub which has only two beer taps, lager & ale! I met Peter from my luxury stay in Les Gets earlier in the year. Tomorrow he is taking me on a bit of a tour of the island on his bike.

Today’s exciting Strava shows 2.3 miles and 166 feet of climbing.

Day 3 Winchester to Weymouth – 25,251 days old and still pedalling

Posted on September 14, 2016December 22, 2016

Oh boy what a glorious cock up today was 🙁 🙁

I arrived in Weymouth after 9 hours on the road to find no ferries have left here for over a year 🙁 They now run from Poole 🙁 🙁 where I was a few hours ago…….

The day started OK although starting of up a steepish narrow busy main road wasn’t ideal in fact once I found a spot to stop I decided to deviate from the route chosen by Strava to one created by GMaps which went very well picking up the old railway track around Poole, although it let me down grotesquely just after Winfrith Newburgh, where it decided a track across a field up onto a ridge was OK, it wasn’t 🙁 but it proved again The Galaxy is an OK mountain bike 🙂

Favourite spots of the day were the lovely village of Fordingbridge and of cause the cream tea in The New Forest. I enjoyed the converted railway track around Poole ending in The Costa at Upton which is where I should have dropped down to Poole Harbour. Plus of course my very reasonable Seaspray Guest House in Weymouth

Real problems with my gpx devices today with the ETREX20 deciding to close down half way, Strava app conking out and Memory Map failing too. However good old Moves came up trumps with th missing bits easily pulled out of Moves Export

Christopher came to the rescue by finding a train from Weymouth to Poole a quick 45min ride. So I’ve booked the 10.30 crossing to Jersey.

Todays Strava is in two parts here and here a total of 78.5 miles and 2,353 feet of climbing