We've made it to Romania. This was one of the countries I was most looking forward to when I was planning to cycle this route. I had heard of great mountian chains, bears and dracula. It is so beautiful here and we are here in a heat wave, this part is not so good for cycling so we are rested up in Sighisoara, a beatuful UNESCO recognised medieval citadel and the bitrhplace of Dracula, aka Vlad the Impaler. We finally managed to leave L'viv after struggling to fit the new local tyre I had bought there. The road out of town [View Full Entry]

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We've finally reached Eastern Europe. Robin and I had thought we would spend my birthday in Budapest, but we decided Hungary is too developed and in the EU, so visitable at any time. After meeting another intrepid Scottish Cyclist who was heading here we decided to follow his example and we are now in L'viv! Ukraine!!! Everybody in Poland looked at us in horror and said 'ohh Ukraine it is impossible!' when we told them that we were thinking about coming here. I can understand why they have this reaction and I think I would find L'viv very shocking if I [View Full Entry]

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Well the bears didn't get us. In fact they heard me coming for miles and were nowhere to be seen, but perhaps it was not just me being characteristically chatty- it could have been the thousands of polish tourists who take the cable car to the polish -slovakian border everyday! Yes the Tatra National Park on the polish side was absolutely heaving with visitors. However we had a great tactic (not really intended mostly because of having a leisurely large breakfast) of starting quite late and therefore being on the mountains when most of the tourist were leaving. The weather was [View Full Entry]

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Djen Dobri from Polska!! Although I said that the Czech Republic was my favorite country of the trip so far, it has been far surpassed by Poland, but who knows, maybe every new country we cycle into will be better then the last? Slovakia will have a lot to live up to... But enough about Poland for now, this blog must start where the last one finished, in Praha. After an annoying and expensive afternoon on computers doing the last blog and making a mess of downloading photos form the camera on a Czech language PC (we succeeded in copying the [View Full Entry]

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Well We thought it was about time you all heard from me and some of my thoughts on the journey so far. The cycling has got a lot easier even though i will never catch up with Robin, he does stop quite a lot to look at birds and this gives me the chance to catch him. My legs have got much stronger and my calves will never look the same again. I think we are eating enough too which is great and we have really enjoyed German bakeries and chocolate, but unfortunately last night I bought some non chocolate from [View Full Entry]

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Hi there everyone, sorry for lack of recent updates, we have been enjoying ourselves too much to be bothered to find and use a computer! Also sorry for no pictures on this blog yet as the internet cafe we are using is not geared up for such things and the only other one in town will not let us!! Trowbridge - Dover We left my brothers in Trowbridge after a weekend of fine food and beer (and some DIY - both on our bikes and my bro´s new house!) along the canal and then south across Salisbury plain, being careful to [View Full Entry]

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We got here! It seemed so far away on the map and we took 7 days to get here. I did not really believe that we could get there until we were crossing the Severn bridge towards Bristol, when finally Wiltshire seemed close. Robin was quite stressed with our progress or lack of it for the first couple of days after Kendal But it was hilly and we made up the time once we hit Staffordshire (my favourite county so far as it was downhill!) I now have a better idea of the geography of England-well the bits I cycled through! [View Full Entry]

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After a nice long 8 night stop at my parents (with a few day trips over to Bute on the ferry, and to Edinburgh by bus) we finally left on a hot and hazy morning heading south into the wind along the coast. The wonderful views of Arran that we had been enjoying all week were non existent in the hot haze, but we had eider duck and cormorants to accompany us and we cycled on. We found ourselves on national cycle route 7 and planned to stop in Irvine for lunch, however the cycle route took us in a roundabout [View Full Entry]

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After years of saving, months of planning, weeks of researching and buying the bikes and various new equipment and gear Erika reckons we needed, then trying to sell/give away/store all of our personal possessions, finishing work and sorting out all the red tape that somehow seems to be involved with becoming an unemployed vagrant, we are finally ready to start our journey! Many thanks to my folks for generously donating a large part of their attic to all the stuff we really couldn’t throw away or convince anyone to buy from us, and for putting up with us in the final [View Full Entry]

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Some photos from our leaving party - thanks to Steve for donating his house for the night and to all his neighbours for not complaining about the noise!!! Cheers to those who made it, for those who didn't here's what you missed..... [View Full Entry]

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