Home sweet home

---

Well I'll have to admit it. I got lazy and kept pushing aside the need to update the blog during the last few weeks in the UK. And so, here I am back at home trying to sum up what was an amazing end to a fabulous adventure.

If memory serves me right, the last thing I wrote about was being up north with family and was taking the time to relax. Well, thats exactly what I did. I spent a week with Aunty Val, Uncle Graham, and Craig-o in Barrow-in-Furness. Didn't do a whole lot (which I loved), just relaxed and spent some time hanging out in the pubs. Craig and I drove around the Lakes one day. We enjoyed the lovely Cumbrian sunshine (rain) the whole time. That was pretty much it before I set off towards Lincoln where my dad and his choir were busy singing their hearts out at the Lincoln Cathedral. Now, because of the lack of communication between my dad and myself during the few weeks before he set off, we both had different ideas of when I would be heading down to Lincoln. He thought it was going to be on the Tuesday while I was thinking more on the lines of Thursday. Tuesday came and went, as did Wednesday and so he thought that I wasn't coming at all. So it came as a wonderful surprise when on Thursday I came up behind him just outside the local pub and tapped him on the shoulder to say hi! I'm sure he can tell you more about how he felt just right then and there if you ask him.
For the next few days I was in Lincoln, hanging out with the choir and doing some sight-seeing on my own. Days were spent walking around then attending the afternoon church service. Nights were spend in the pub...enough said! I have never in my whole life seen a church choir put away so many drinks. On one of those days I took the time to go up to York for a few hours. It would have been a great day if it weren't for the on-again off-again rain, and the fact that I lost a contact almost as soon as I stepped off the train. Therefore the first hour in York was spend walking around half blind, trying to find an optician. I finally found a place that specialized in contact lenses and was able to sweet-talk my way into getting another lens free of charge. Quite the adventure if I do say so myself.
After Lincoln, I travelled with the choir to Windsor Castle where they had the privi of singinglege in the royal chapel. After Windsor it was off to London for 2 days. The weather was terrible so perfect sight-seeing wsa out of the question. My dad and I did the bus tour and were able to see a large number of the major sights in one bang. We ate at the original Hard Rock Cafe (which was delicious) and spent a large part of the day just wandering the streets and stopping from time to time for a pint or two. Later on that night we returned to the hotels to hang out for a bit and much to my delight, in the hotel bar we had the opportunity to meet the band Great Big Sea. They were in town for the night, playing a gig in Soho and by coincidence we unwinding in the hotel bar! Very cool!
Thats about it for London...would have loved to stay a bit longer and really take in the city but the weather was terrible and I was longing to head back up to the Lakes and go for one more nice long bike ride before I went home.

So, thats what I did. I spent the last few days back in Barrow. I went for a nice long ride throughout the Lakes and loved it. The weather was perfect! Craig and I also did another drive, this time to Cartmel for sticky toffee pudding and to Kendal just for kicks. We ended up taking the back roads home and came across a few sweet views of the Lakes.
I was able to spend some more time with some more family (Keith, Caroll, Daniel, Katie, and Anna) and again, just relax before heading home.
And so ends the adventure. Six weeks of travelling and many many memories. There were ups and there were downs but I am glad to have taken the time to enjoy it to the fullest. Although, I wouldn't recommend trying to combine a cycling trip with a backpacking trip...way too much luggage to hual around!

Thanks to all who took the time to read along.
This will be the last entry until the next adventure..where and when that wil be I don not know but hopefully sooner then later!

---