Hello, long time no blog. I realise we have slightly neglected all of our non facebook friends when it comes to sharing our photos from the trip. They have been online on facebook for a while but not everyone can access these so I thought I’d put them online for everyone to see. There are over 100 of them so make yourself a cup of tea (or coffee if you prefer, who am I to judge), sit down and click the below web address to see the evidence of our ride!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allroadsleadtorome
Love Andy
So as Andy said, we’ve made it to Rome and having been here a few days we’re all agreed it’s an amazing city and a great end to the trip.
The only problem we’ve really had is with the hostel, which is probably the smallest I’ve ever stayed in and has a strange policy of throwing you out every day at 10.30am and not letting you back in until 4pm! A little annoying at first, but probably a good thing to a certain extent as it gets us up and out and seeing the sights and we’ve seen a fair few, including the Colosseum (from the inside as well now), the Palatine and the Piazza Venezia.
Sadly four will become two on Sunday when Jonny and Dan fly back to return to the world of work, but luckily for Andy and I we still have a few more days to eat as much pizza and ice cream as we can.
One thing we keep experiencing is people’s disbelieve when we tell them we’ve cycled all the way here from England! Most people presume we must have taken the train some of the way or something and think we’re crazy to have cycled 1400 miles to get here, which i guess is a little bit true, but at the same time I think it makes us realise what we’ve achieved by making it.
Thanks again for every one’s support and sponsorship. Knowing we were raising money for Bluebell Wood was a real motivation to get back on the bike all those days when our legs were tired and we knew we had hundreds of miles of cycling still ahead of us.
Well, we made it. Just over 1400 miles after setting off from Caen in Northern France we arrived in Rome in St Peter’s Square and the Coloseum just as the sun was rising and the streets of Rome were uncharacteristically empty. It feels pretty special to be here in Rome after all the miles we have done and everything we have seen. This is just a short blog just to say we made it really but I’ve put a few pics up to prove we did it! Overall it took us just 31days including days off so we’re pretty happy and now we get to enjoy Rome and all it’s sights.
I’m writing this blog from a campsite just outside the ring road of Rome and we’ll reach the major landmarks very early tomorrow morning. It has been an interesting last few days in which we’ve tried our hand at a bit of free camping for the first time. After leaving Siena there were no campsites on route so we decided to risk it and sleep in a picnic spot by the side of a road, a pretty miserable experiance, we all got very little sleep and I got eaten alive by the local ants!
The second time we went for a bit of free camping was also through necessity, we were all pretty tired and didn’t know of any campsites between us and Rome when a field for campervans came into view. We thought what harm can it do and pitched up for the night only to be rudely awoken at 12 30 being told we were on private property and we had to leave in 5 minutes or the police would be called! We of course packed up being the obidient tourists we are but then the guy reappeared with a complete change of heart and told us we could stay in the grounds of the campsites nearby ancient Roman springs. It was a massive relief, tired and confused we moved into the grounds and got a good nights sleep.
The following morning we were allowed to use the hot spring which was awesome, even if the local Italians weren’t too happy, we got a few funny looks!
Well that pretty much brings us up to the present, It’s Rome tomorrow!
Hello again, thought I’d get involved with a little blogging as well as it seems the fashion at the moment! I think it’s fair to say we’ve all enjoyed being a little touristy after what felt like almost rushing through France at times, but one thing we all miss is the lovely flat French roads! Since we’ve crossing the Alps things have never been so bumpy! I’m pretty sure we add a couple of miles to each days cycling just weaving around all the pot holes and bumps in the Italian tarmac and compared to the flatness of France they’ve put a really strain on us and the bikes at times. Andy in particular has suffered, breaking a couple of spokes on his back wheel and we’re all hoping things will be better in Rome, they are famous for their roads after all!
In other news we did a rough tally a couple of days ok and with the money we’ve raised off line as well as some off line donations still to come we are pretty confident of hitting our £3000 target so a big thankyou to everyone who’s helped us to get there, we really appreciate it. Dont’t forgot you can still donate at www.justgiving.com/allroadsleadtorome if you like!
So after a day cycling through the chianti wine region and having a few samples along the way we made it to Siena, unfortunetly no campsite and the hostle was full so we ended up in what was described as a 3* hotel that needed a bit of renevation. A massive under statement the place felt like a prison but was cheap and ment the first night in a bed for a long time. Thom and Dan even braved the free breakfast where everything was packaged.
We’re spending some of today exploring Siena then heading off to make our way down to the Italian lakes so we’ll hopefully have a few days sun bathing with cold beers, if its not to hilly!
So i’m sure your all wondering “its over a week in and we still dont know the name of Jonny’s bike… what can it be… how can i sleep at night not knowing”. Well to put all your minds at rest its named Bandit.
So today we went to visit david in all his glory and i was very impressed at the size of…. the statue. After a carfull map meeting over a few beers we worked out we’re only 4 cycling days away from Rome so are planning a stop in Siena and maybe a early arrival into Rome with a F1 style champagne finish (with fizzy red wine of course).
Hi all just thought I’d update you all on our progress since Andy blogged.
So we managed to make it down the hilly Itallian coast to Forte dei Marmi just North of Pisa. The views were spectacular, the going was tough but we’ve made it and had a well earned rest day.
We’ve embraced the Italian diet with lots of pizza, pasta and ice cream has become a one a day habbit. Also out of the 6 bottles of red wine we’ve bought three we’re fizzy, whats that all about?
We managed to buy a 10 euro bottle of beer each which managed to out rage us all but apart from that we had a good night out and a lazy day walking along the beach as every time we stopped they tryed to charge us.
We then cycled through Pisa got our pictures and made it to Florence. That was a massive 80 mile day but got us to Florence a day early were weve had a couple of days exploring the city and meeting fellow travellers.
The guys have reached there 1000mile mark after a nice guy straighted a couple of buckled wheels for free which was very kind of him.
So since joining the guys they have thrown me in at the deep end with some of the thoughest days riding so far but all is good and Ive clocked up over a 500 miles. After the biggest week of the trip with 430 miles.
Jonny
Ciao, well we’ve had a busy few days since we last blogged. Jonny met up with us on Saturday evening in Bourg d’Oisans and since then it’s felt like it’s been all up hill. We’ve climbed over 3 Cols, the Col du Lauteret at 2058m, the Col de Montgenevre 1850m and highest (and the most fun) the Col du Galibier at 2650, we were so high there was ice and snow on the side of the road! The Alps have been amazing, but it’s a relief to leave the massive climbs behind, if only for a few days!
We made it to italia yesterday and after becoming near to fluent in french it’s taking a while to get the hang of things in italian, but we have figured out the basics like non caspico (I don’t understand). We’ve only been here for a day and we’ve already embraced ourselves in the italian culture by having pizza as soon as we could.
The next few days, should be quite long and hard but we hope to hit the coast within the next 2 or 3 days, legs permitting. Below we’ve uploaded a few pics from the mountains for your pleasure and the reason I am standing on top of the alpe d’huez podium is because I climbed it faster than Dan!
I hope you are all well and wish us luck for Italy by sponsoring us!!! www.justgiving.com/allroadsleadtorome
Andy (Thom, Jonny and Dan)
P.S we are just west of Turin/Torino x
Hi there,
I am writing this blog from the beautiful surroundings of Bourg D’Oisans in the French Alps, a ski resort pretty much enclosed by vast snow topped mountains. All is well in the camp and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our fourth member, Jonny, tomorrow evening.
It almost went wrong, however, on our ride to Grenoble where due to a misunderstanding over a rest point and broken spokes for me and Andy, Thom got separated from us and with no way of getting in touch with him it was an extremely worrying hour or so looking for him. Andy returned to the previous town and I rode onward incase he had stopped ahead of us, on cycling back to mine and Andy’s rendezvous point Thom appeared, it was such a massive relief.
After getting to Grenoble it was just a short ride to our present location (Bourg) where we await Jonny. Given that we are at the base one of the most infamous tour de France climbs (Alpes D’Huez) we thought what better way to spend a day off but have a little bike ride. Off came the heavy luggage and both myself and Andy completed the climb this morning in about 1hr 20 (Andy being slightly quicker although I did get a little lost). The ascent comprises of 21 hairpin bends, 1100 metres of climbing over 10 miles, exhausing but absolutely awesome. The altitude at the top was over 1800m, a very special place.
Well, I better sign off as this place costs a fortune, hope all is well in sunny England,
Dan, Thom and Andy
