The journey ends

To celebrate this five month journey in Europe and the UK I've rewarded myself with three hotel nights in Kensington West in the centre of London. Like Paris, I wanted to give myself enough time to visit all those iconic locations with some extra special activities like The 39 Steps showing in Piccadilly Circus.

Tower Bridge

 

The Tower of London - keeper of the Crown Jewels and several Queens waiting to be executed

 

The most photographed crossing on the planet - Abbey Road as seen on the Beatles Abbey Road album 1970

Abbey Road - home for the Beatles recordings and Dark Side of the Moon for a Pink Floyd

 

The ultimate Welsh spelling test

 

 

It has a large population of around 14 million but it felt no different to any European city or even Sydney. I've been impressed with the public transport and rail systems of Europe. They're very efficient at moving people around but then they need to with the very high population.

Southern Ireland

 

Southern Ireland

Edinburgh

It's been a real challenge to test my abilities to connect with resources and people along the way, learn some of the local languages, customs and cuisines. The people have all been very helpful and some providing generous time and hospitality as a guest in ther homes. I've made new friends and it helped me to understand life in rural Northern France, Netherlands, Southern Bavaria, Luxembourg and The United Kingdom.

Edinburgh Castle

There have also been logistical challenges negotiating several city centre stations across Europe - Vienna, Venice, Salzburg and regional stations where major development is occurring,

And because a 12 platform station has to support dozens of regular services across Europe you will not know the platform of departure until 15-20 mins before it leaves. Then you have to be sure where the platform is and where the lifts are when you have the bicycle and bags to manage. If you have to connect with other regional trains you may only have 4-5 mins to get from one train to the other.

My advice If you're planning a cycling trip like mine is to definitely ride in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands but backpack France, Greece, Italy and the UK as the cycling infrastructure is virtually non-existent.

A big thanks to all the people I met and support form family and friends. Now off home to Australia for a final few weeks riding to climatise.

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Yorkshire dales and moors, the Peak District and Whitby

How often have I heard of the old stories of the life in the Yorkshire dales and moors in central England. One ofthe key birthplaces of the industrial revolution in the western world and the place for hardy trekers negotiating the hills and dales of at times wild weathered terrain. One of the oldest cities is York to the east, Sheffield and Leeds in the middle with Manchester and Liverpool in the west. My English geography has never been the accurate, in fact I thought Liverpool was on the east coast with Manchester nearby. A benefit of cycle touring is that you have more time to familiarise yourself with the terrain: where the people live, the villages, towns, location of cities, the language and accents.

The Shambles - medieval street in York

A native south easterner living in Eastbourne appears to have a totally different vocabulary and accent compared to a native from Liverpool or Manchester. At times I could only just understand what the occasional information centre officer was telling me but then I have been asked to speak slowly myself in several different European countries.

I left the flat country and Sherwood Forest behind me, through undulating country changing to hills and beautiful forests as I rode towards Sheffield, the home of stainless steel. Despite its industrial reputation Sheffield has more trees per population than other city in Europe.

Not far away to the left of me was the stunning Peak District. I continued on quickly through Sheffield and skirted the eastern edge of the Peak District on my way to Holmfirth.

Eventually after several long hill ascents I reached the high plateau looking north to Huddersfield with several villages nestled in the valleys below. I was so pleased to finally reach one of the most picturesque areas of West Yorkshire and stay as a guest at a friends villa with local Yorkshire hospitality.

The welcome view to Holmfirth and the region where the 2014 Tour de France begins.

 

My lovely host Christine took me on a road trip to Whitby on the East coast via York. We stopped for coffee at York and also walked along part of the city walls - a legacy of Roman occupation dated around the first century AD. York has the most intact fort walls than anywhere else in England. It enclosed the military fort and the city.

Our next stop was Whitby, a fishing and tourist village and known for the place where Captain Cook began his apprenticeship as a seaman. We both enjoyed a fantastic meal of fish and chips with a window table view overlooking the little inlet of Whitby.

It was also the setting for the film Bram Stokers Dracula based on the novel of the same name. Gary Oldman plays Dracula and his love interest is Wynona Ryder amongst the ruined Benedictine Whitby Abbey, once established in 657 AD.

Looking out the city wall - York

 

Original jousting armour for King Henry VIII

 

During my five-month cycle tour through Europe and the UK I have found myself in places purely by chance that have some notable connections or history - passing through the site of the ancient battle of Agincourt in Northern France, camping in the forest where King Henry VIII proposed to Jane Seymour and. something more contemporary for us Australians - the home village for Peter Falconio, an English tourist who was murdered in the Australian outback a few years ago while touring with his Yorkshire partner Joanne Lees both from Huddersfield. His parents owned a small business in New Mill, only a few kms from where I was staying in Holmfirth.

The village of Whitby and the Abbey ruins

 

Holmfirth would be the last stop for my cycling tour and the beginning of my final weeks in backpacking mode while I gave my riding legs a rest. After a nice rest as a 'local' I travelled to the spa town of Buxton nestled near the centre of the Peak District to meet my Australian friend Pip and do some walks in the hills near the Pennine Way which starts at Edale in the south and finishes in Kirk Yetholm just over the Scottish border. The Pennines are sometimes referred as the spine of England.

Pip planning her steps

 

Kinder Scout track

Heather - known as Erica in Australia

 

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The flat country, John Cunstable and Robin Hood

Sussex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were some of the last countys for my riding journey. You can cover a lot of kms in a relatively short time and with little effort on flat country like Norfolk and Lincolnshire but the terrain is not as inspiring as Yorkshire with it's moors, dales and hills dotted with green rural patches and villages along the valleys.

 

Piggy Boot Camp

 

But this flat country has a lot of little gems tucked away for a traveller to enjoy. I visited Monet's garden in France because of my love of gardening and impressionist/landscape paintings. The settlement of Flatford Mill offers such an environment and a favourite location for John Cunstable's (1776-1837) work who often painted this settlement and surroundings. This water mill in East Bergholt, Sussex was built in 1733 and one of many built in England to make flour from the grain harvest.

Significant location for Harry Potter films - Lavenham

 

The miller's cottage, known as Willy Lott's House is one of the painter's well known works and you can still see the main elements in this painting today although the vegetation has changed. My photo is taken from the very spot he stood to 'capture' the image. The day was just sublime with no wind, a misty soft and warm sunshine accompanied with nothing but the sound of birds chirping in the local meadows.

Willy Lott's House

 

I could easily imagine John Constable painting on a day such as this. This is an aspect of England that I came for. Nice! A wonderful place for walking too, not just cycling.

Now we all know the legends surrounding the history of Nottingham with those merry men of Robin's company of medieval folklore fame and Nottingham castle but did you know its primary export during the industrial revolution was textiles and known as the best source of manufactured lace in the known world and unfortunately the worst slums outside India.

Robin Hood and his merry men could not been seen as they were hiding deep in Sherwood Forest but many of us will have seen or heard of the 1938 classic film The Adventures of Robin Hood with the leading role played by Errol Flynn (a Tasmanian actor export by the way). We know of his love interest Maid Marion and his disdain for the nasty Prince John, who with Guy of Gisbourne reaped havoc on the local shire.

 

 

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Trilogy of thorns, Finzi and Iconic places of learning

As I headed further north from Stonehenge towards Oxford the hills turned into to undulating meadows and creeks, which I think they call streams here. I met some headwinds that knocked 5km per hour off my usual average speed of around 20-25km per hour. Despite this I am enjoying the UK summer which just keeps on producing warm days and with little or no rain for the last five weeks.

Except for the obvious local vegetation I could easily be in rural Victoria or Tasmania In summer time. I call the local vegetation that is rampant everywhere along boarders of farmland and public byways the 'Trilogy of thorns'. The three grow quite happily together - everyhwere. They're occasionally accompanied by Oaks and Willows.

It's kept me company for some weeks now and very good at reminding you what if feels like to rub up against it when you're trying to navigate overgrown cycle ways (really goat tracks) narrow pathways that at time force you to walk on the road.
Any guesses yet? Well you're correct if you had English Hawthorn and Blackberry, the third one is not a thorn but just as uncomfortable when your bare skin meets it - Stinging Nettle. I drink nettle herbal tea which is quite pleasant but would not like it in my herb patch though. I am more than familiar with blackberry after spending an hour pulling a sheep out of gully full of it in Victoria several years ago and digging them out as part of my conservation activities near Canberra. The hawthorn is a popular hedgerow plant in Tasmania and no surprise when you consider the strong English and Scottish legacy of the first pastoral settlers. It's not a judgement, just an observation.
We inherited these from here and the British and Scottish New Zealanders inherited our possums so there you go.

Like Germany and France I wanted to track my route through places where my favourite classical composers lived and composed. Gerard Finzi is one of those in the English tradition and known as one of the first true English style composers. It was wonderful to ride all the way to Stonehenge and also experience the pastoral environment in this region where Finzi produced some of his works. One of his most sublime works that I was given for my 40th birthday music CD present included his chamber work Five Bagatelles for clarinet and piano and it's a favourite in the current classical music repertoire. At that time I had never been to England but the images I developed of it's pastoral scenery while listening to Finzi's music has been quite accurate. I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic!

I stopped overnight at a Foresty Commission campsite called Postern Hill just south of Marlborough after walking the bike up the steepest grade I have ever encountered, probably around 30 degrees but I persisted for a few hundred metres and thankfully it levelled off at the campsite entrance. Like mainland Europe there is a staggering amount of history around every corner. In this particular forest of several thousand acres, King Henry VIII proposed to one of his six wives. Jane Seymour - one that did not lose her head. This place was probably one of his summer homes west of London.

Cows grazing free range in the centre of Cambridge and no fences

I also stayed in Oxford and Cambridge to see what these famous place of learning looked and felt like. Great for cyclists and the history is quite staggering. In fact Oxford has the oldest university in the western world. And yes, if you break down the word into Ox and ford it will give you a clue for it's ancient Roman meaning.

Cambridge also in central southern England is famous as the home of the Kings College Choir - and Trinity College with the scene of the Great Court Run foot race in the court as portrayed in the film The Chariots of Fire. It was actually filmed in Eton College's School Yard.
Cambridge also has the highest number of cyclists in the UK, no surprise given the traffic congestion and flat terrain.

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