Today was for getting to the starting point, so if you're reading this expecting dashing adventures, I'm sorry, but you might need to come back tomorrow.
Great journey into London: Putney Bridge, Chelsea Embankment, Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross Road - familiar after all these years. This time it was daylight too! Not much traffic, loads of cyclists.
Arrived at 8am for a 9:43 train so lazed around outside Euston with the sunshine and the smokers. Bought some snacks for the train, in addition to the food I'd bought from home. Lazed a bit more. It was already 8:15, so I repeated the above a few times before going inside to watch the departure board for about 45 minutes.
It was that sort of a day. I'd got a very cheap train ticket, but it was a stopping train: 15 stops in fact. By Birmingham I'd eaten most of my snacks, caught up on my sleep and was up to date with The Archers podcasts. Only ten stops to go. Blue skies and sparkling countryside formed the in-flight movie - a perfect day.
After Carlisle, the movie was more gripping. The landscape bore a resemblance to what I'd actually be cycling across. The cuttings were littered with bright splats of primroses, empty lanes meandered through fields of newborn lambs, shallow rivers splashed their way to the sea (I'm just guessing here).
Glasgow was sunny and warm. I cycled the few miles out to Renfrew on the south bank of the Clyde: disused shipbuilding yards mixed up with flashy regenerated areas, and others currently undergoing transformation.
I had a bike problem. Just before Euston, my chain started skipping badly. All that extensive testing of my new bike had worn out the cassette. Luckily Decathlon had the right part, and fitted it for me, so all was well.
Overnight in Renfrew enjoying the hospitality of Tim and Chris: the hard work of the adventure starts tomorrow.
Good morning, hope the weather is better than the forecast on the BBC this morning, I imagine you are probably on the road already or is that just wishful thinking, you do realise that you cannot go on strike at the beginning of the ride as you had with the Wayfarers, anyway all the best for the next two weeks and look forward to your write up and photos.
ReplyDeleteGeoff
Hi Simon, I'm guessing you've found a cake shop by now (start as you mean to go on) and look forward to update on that as well as the cycling. I will be cycling along on the motomed from here, not as far obviously...
ReplyDeleteCiao Carol