Stockholm to Helsinki

In Finland just over 74% of the land area is covered in forest. There are over 50,000 lakes longer than 200m (but no-one has actually counted them all) and the Finns love to swim in them. The population is around 5 million and there are 2 million saunas, roughly 1 per household. So it seemed …

Copenhagen to Stockholm

The standard response when anyone noticed our route took in Sweden was to adopt the international sign of being cold by wrapping both arms across the chest and making a brrrr sound. So when we stepped out of the train just outside Malmø we were ready to brace ourselves against the Arctic winds. But of …

Lübeck to Copenhagen

30th August to 5th September 2014 Like Jenson Button, having the right tyres is critical for a touring cyclist and in Lubeck it was time for a pit stop. Although the Schwalbe Marathon Mondials that we’d fitted should be good for at least 10,000km and we’d only used them for a 1/10 of that they …

Bristol to Lübeck – The First 2 Weeks

16th to 29th August 2014 All bike rides have to begin with a single pedal stroke and on 16th August we finally turned the cranks and rolled away from Roll For The Soul in Bristol to begin our trip. It was a fantastic send off with a peloton of purple and gold LVIS jerseys escorting …

Pack it up, pack it in

I thought unemployment would mean lots of lounging on the sofa in a slanket eating pot noodles while watching Jeremy Kyle but the last 3 weeks have left barely any time for sitting around at all. The day after walking out of our respective offices we drove straight up to Glasgow so that I could …

1 Month to Go

e·ra /ˈɪərə, ˈɛrə/ [eer-uh, er-uh] noun 1. a period of time considered as being of a distinctive character; epoch 2. an extended period of time the years of which are numbered from a fixed point or event: the Christian era 3. a point in time, esp one beginning a new or distinctive period: the discovery …

Mille Cymru 2014

Any miles in the legs up until our departure date next month can only help so last weekend I took on the Mille Cymru Audax: a 1018km self-supported and self-guided ride around some of the most scenic and spectacular (i.e. hilly) roads that Wales has to offer. Kirsty is far too sensible to take on …

2 Months to go

It doesn’t seem like long ago that we were sat in Yo Sushi! watching coloured dishes going round and round. We pondered whether this was what Japanese restaurants were really like and the idea began to form of cycling there to find out. Five and half months later and that spark of an idea has expanded into …