Geo: 51.3213, -0.279418Sorry Blogees! We are home safely and cannot recommend highly enough a small cycling trip to Belgium. Small in length as opposed to small Bicycles! which would have been ridiculous.Great food, people and scenery. Do go to Lissewege near Brugge and stay in the luxury B & B Lissode (Bull Rush in Dutch). Eat fantastic food in near Michelin Rosette restaurants only a few hundred meters away. Pedal into Holland and use thee brilliant cycle networks that take you all the way across Belgium to Holland if you feel energetic.Since my last entry the harvest has been gathered in by The Muscles from Brussels!... read more

Geo: 51.2946, 3.19956I am always amazed how parts of your body that normally keep themselves to themselves can suddenly become the focal point of your attention!! Just like teeth, you don't notice them until they hurt. Well that is the same with the old " pink cycling cushion" if you know what I mean......Up and staggering at 0700hrs. As usual, I am in charge of coffee production. No more miserable instant for us on holiday these days ...we have invested in the full the full kit worthy of a "Barista" in Rio de Janeiro. Concerned about waking our fellow guests, I have muffled our coffee grinder with a towel but it still sounds like a chain saw in the Yukon as I grind the beans over our bathroom sink!Disappointment! We arrive at breakfast and Lore our ... read more

Geo: 51.2948, 3.19941Status report:Up at 0545: A "hot" night with bizarre dreams brought on by the Haddock and Chips consumed at the rather good adjacent carvery.It was an epic 10 minute drive to the Tunnel and we opted for the 0725 crossing enabling more adventure time in the land of chocolate and funny men in bars sipping beer all hours of the day.Arriving at The Terminal we were greeted by a cheerful chorus of "...ckin hell just behave yourself' from a car load of oikes fresh off the M20 and in need of their daily fix of beans on toast. No more cheerful school kids as the holidays are over. The clientele this morning were elderly bikers and frog faced OAP's dutifully queuing at Costa Coffee and off to swig Vin du Pays in the Dordogne ... read more

Geo: 44.5144, 34.1757Status: Up and about but we feel different. This is the last day and to be frank we have done more than enough arriving at stations at 0600hrs, checking tickets, humping bags and working out how to fold down cots and origami sheets in hotel bedrooms.........for the time being!!!!.Our last morning of official sightseeing culminated in walking up to The Swallows Nest, a small "Folly" perched high on an outcrop of rock with a fantastic viewing of Yalta Harbour. Then on to The Vorontsov Palace a magnificent structure opened in 1846 and designed by the British Architect Edward Blore for Prince Vorontsov of the celebrated Russian family. A cross between a Scottish hunting lodge and Indian Palace, we were lost for words as we meandered through stately rooms (where Churchill stayed during the Yalta ... read more

Geo: 44.6, 33.53Status report: Up chirpy and all set to a full day trip to the Battlefileds of The Crimean War (1854/6). Florence Nightingale - Charge of The Light Brigade etc etc. Breakast: More pink eggs and smolked salmon with "Hunters Sausuages"Weather: Sunny again (yawn). The wet weather in The Carpathians seems a world away... probably because it is....Dimetri: We are getting on well despite his driving.... HE IS FAST and I mean KGB getaway driver speed and don't forget to take your own plasma FAST.. The roads around Yalta are 3 lane mountaineous and are frequented by a range of Ladas, Blingtastic Range Rover Evokes and farm trucks all overtaking at once at twice the speed limit. Demetri is the STIG or better still THE STIGSKI!!!! He also has a square head...so square you could ... read more