The Story of my Journey

Hello everyone, I kind of disappeared for a while after coming back and I apologize for that. If you’re reading this than you are still subscribed to my blog! Lately I’ve been working on making a journal of my adventure through the UK, complete with photos and funny (or uh tragic) stories. The blogging was a bit hard to maintain due to lack of necessary equipment, so I hope you’ll check it out

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/billstour2010

Stage 1 completed

It’s official, I’m flying back to Pittsburgh on the 28th. I’m proud that I succesfully completed the challenge of cycling the United Kingdom. It’s been a eye opening experience and I even surprised myself at how I was able to find a place to sleep every night with little or no planning! the UK isn’t cyclist friendly, although it’s getting better. I cursed and shook my fist at Sustrans for their often misguided, or confusing signage along the routes yet just having national bike trails is something to be proud of. I’ve endured bad weather, rough terrain and other unfavorable conditions but also met some really great people and saw really beautiful things. I’ve also had days where the cycling was wonderful and actually fun. I’m thankful that I had this opportunity to grow a little as a traveller, cycler, camper and person. I’m also thankful of the support of my family and all of my friends.

I am afraid that with the days getting shorter, the weather turning colder and other obstacles in my path that going to the continent without doing some very intensive planning would be rather stupid, especially given my financial situation. I would really like to take my time and enjoy the places that I want to visit which will not be possible at this given stage.

I’m heading home to face other obligitory challenges and I look forward to seeing all of my friends and family! thanks for reading my blog. I will do a mini travel journal when I get home, complete with photos!! something I really wasn’t able to do with the blog

Cheers from London

-Bill

London

People think of London as quintessentially English, but it’s not – In another way, it is indeed the heart of England. The diversity amongst the people is staggering – at any given times you can see people from every country, all walks of life coexisting. You can also see architecture from all periods of history, even though the older stuff largely remains hidden beneath skyscrapers and modernist buildings. London has endured a large complex history from the times of the Romans to the present day. The great fire of 1666 unfortunatly destoyed the largest part of Medieval London and the bombing blitz during the second world war destroyed most of the rest (including the structures that were rebuilt after the fire, namely the Christopher Wren buildings) even though I’m into medieval and Elizebethean style architecture, I find London’s modern structures facinating.

It’s a facinating city and even though this is my third time here, I’m still finding new things to see and do. It’s also a very expensive city, so if you decide to come set some money aside!

Cycling The United Kingdom, an Important announcement

So everyone – all the readers of my blog, I am safe in sound in Cambridge. I’m not really sure if this is a good time to announce this, as I’m not 100% positive but I might call this a first stage of my trip and head on back home, but not before visiting my favorite city, London. My biggest problem is the UK is incredibly expensive and I spent probably twice as much as I planned on. Now that I am unemployed, money is going to be tight for a while and even though I could push ahead, the financially sensible thing to do  might be to postpone the rest until I’m in a better position.. There are other things that are influencing my decision such as back problems, fatigue, uncertainty of where to sleep each night (a bit of rushed planning), my ipod getting ruined, no internet access to help me plan my trip, etc… Not that everything has been horrible or even bad – I’ve had some great experiences, saw some beautiful places, met some great people and overall became a better cycler and I can say that, with a few exceptions, I cycled the better part of the United Kingdom!!

At any rate, I’m heading to London and possibly the coast. I will keep everyone updated when I can.

The shard the cost me 3 days, senseless amusements and back in the saddle

Since my last post I made it to Scarbrough rather well, using a disused railway line made into a cycle path. The next two days however were much of a disaster. On my way to Filey I got a flat tire. I’ve never been really good at changing flats but I had a spare tube and a repair kit, what could go wrong? I changed my tube and soon got another flat. I looked at my tire – it seemed fine! Thus I patched it up, and again got a flat. I inspected my tire again, nothing! At this point I knew I had a defective tube so I had to walk my bike a couple of miles to an overpriced campsite, One equipped with a burger king, arcade, swimming pool, etc… Is this really camping?? The next day I had to walk a couple of miles to filey. Take a bus back to Scarborough to get a new tube. One bus trip and back until I realized I had bought the tube with the wrong valve, so I had to make trip number two. I was forced to camp in Filey, but this time it wasn’t so bad, the campsite only charged me a couple of pounds and the next morning i was on my way…almost. I changed my tube and low and behold another flat…This time I knew it was the tire. On very close inspection in the sunlight i noticed a tiny piece of glass that looked like a pebble. After I fixed that I was on my way. I made my way to the town of beverley, nearly 40 miles away – The terrain in this part is great and flat! Today, my goal is market rasen, a town 50 miles south near a campsite – I have to get peddling!!

Scarborough

A bit disappointed there is no fayre here in Scarborough but there are tourists and those mini seaside casinos/game places the Brits seem to install on every seaside town. The plan was to set off today from Scarborough but I spent some time at the library doing research on my route. I’m going to try hard to cover some serious ground so I can be in London in a week. This of course depends on the terrainand the English weather.

English hospitality

yesterday when I was looking for food I stopped at a pub – the locals took an immediate interest in me and my journey. I got a free pint. Today when I got lost an old couple gladly invited me on for tea and biscuits. Tonight when I finally found a campsite I was charged nothing. Not to mention all of the wonderful people who were amazed at my cycling plans and the ones who happily helped me with directions. Today was a wonderful day as I cycled the north coast. It was a bit windy but the wind ws mainly blowing from the side. The sea is beautiful though.

Seaham

Im in a little town called seaham. I biked through cumbia from Carlisle to north shields in northumbia. At the present I’m tring to follow the north sea cycle route 1 all the way to Dover on the coast. I’m still traveling without knowing where I’m staying each night which is getting a bit old but exciting in a way. Next stop might be whitby. Sorry for the the lack of photos nothing I can do

Goodbye Scotland

The original plan was to cycle all the way from Inverness to glasgow but since a bit of a slow start I’m simply going to take a bus to Carlisle where I’ll cycle about 3/4 of
Hadrians wall across Britain from west to east. From Carlisle to newcastle. I know there’s a few tough points along the way but I don’t think it be as bad as what I have experienced here in Scotland.

Arrival at Inverness

i’m going a bit slow everyone perhaps I packed too much but everyday seems tougher than the last. So for today and tomorrow I,m chilling in Inverness to contemplate my next move. There are train and bus services that might take me from Scotland into England and it will certaintly give me a chance to rest. I’ll try and keep everyone updated