Cycling to Graduation...

Rather than take the train to Penryn, Veronica used the journey from Exeter (where she had moved back to in September 2023) as her first long-distance training ride for her planned cycle ride around England in 2025 to collect data for her PhD. She and Brett covered the 150 miles (241 kilometers) over 4 days, camping along the way. It was exciting to be with her when she was interviewed by BBC Radio Cornwall, her first ever radio interview. 

After breakfast on July 25, they cycled the final hill up to the Penryn campus of the University of Exeter, while Jimmy and I took a bus. Here’s a short summary video that she made of the trip and her blog post with a lot of photos. 

The actual ceremony would take place in Truro, over nine miles away, so Veronica traded her cycling clothes for a beautiful dress and graduation gown...

…and took a bus with other grads to the ceremony.

Due to limited space in the cathedral, tickets were limited to two per grad. We were happy that we both rated the tickets and that the school provided a bus. We had to bring our bags with us as we had a tight schedule to attend the ceremony and then get to the train station for our trip back to London. 

 

Cycling Home...

While the rest of the group cycled back to Haarlem, we decided that we wanted to see some more fields so opted to cycle home instead. Along the way we saw some lovely fields.

Tulip Bike Hash...

A large group of hashers met up at Haarlem Centraal with bikes. Unlike previous bike hashes, this one didn’t have any trail marked; we merely followed the hares to this beautiful field. 

While it had rained when we first arrived in Haarlem, the skies were beautiful and clear for our entire ride, but it was still a tad cold.

Ahrweiler and Into the Night...

The only city we cycled through was Ahrweiler, which both Veronica and Ashlynn visited during a school trip, but Jimmy and I had never been to. The medieval gate was impressive...

...and the pedestrian area was quaint. We stopped at a wine bar to try some local wine.

Eventually our route led to the Rhine River where we passed the remains of the Bridge at Remagen which was captured by the US, but eventually collapsed in March 1945 after the Germans attacked it several times in failed attempts to regain control.

We cycled into the sunset and finally stopped at a riverfront restaurant for dinner. I wasn’t thrilled about cycling the rest of the way in the dark, but Jim loaned me his helmet which had a funky but very effective light.

As our group leader, Jim was relieved when I told him it was one of the best cycle rides I’ve ever been on.

Cycling Along the Ahr River...

That afternoon, us four adults set off for a bike ride. The cycle ride to the train station wasn’t far, but the walk up and down the stairs while carrying a bike was further than it should have been, especially for poor Jimmy who carried both our bikes.

We took the train to Dernau, a small village next to the Ahr River which is famous for its wines. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the two wine stores were already closed. Here we are at the start of our route.

The hills were full of grapevines.

I was nervous that the route would be very hilly, but it was actually flat. The scenery was lovely and I loved the entire journey.

Another 10,000 Kilometers...

On April 28, the odometer on my bike hit 9,999.9 kilometers (6,214 miles). Unlike the last time back in June 2010 when I discovered that it goes from 9,999.9 to 0.0, I took my odometer off my bike until I could take a photo. I don’t cycle as much since moving to Voorschoten, but when I do make the journey into The Hague, I get some great exercise.

Cycling the Local Fields...

I had high hopes to lead a group of ladies on a cycle ride from The Hague to the tulip fields in Lisse, which is approximately 25 miles (40K). It was threatening rain that morning, but two ladies were willing to take a chance with me.

I made a small detour through Wassenaar to see some fields that I’d happened upon the week before. The colors were vibrant and varied.

Unfortunately, the rains did set in and showed no sign of letting up. We detoured again and went towards Wassenaar Beach to have lunch. By the time lunch was over, it had cleared up but we decided it was too late to continue our original route. We took the dune route back to The Hague. We still managed to cycle 22 miles (35K), saw some beautiful flowers and had a nice lunch, so it was a good ride.

Valuable Lessons Learned on Our Cycling Adventure...

* Jimmy is not only a great pack mule, but he’s also great at hand washing laundry.

* It’s amazing how setting up a laundry line quickly knocks a few stars off of a 5-star hotel.

* I can actually survive being away for 10 days with just one small bag of clothes.
* Just buying maps doesn’t count as preparing for a cycling trip--you must actually open those maps before leaving town.

* We may be old, but we’re still able to be spontaneous.

* It’s not the end of the world if you lose a few prepaid hotel rooms or train tickets.

* Don’t forget the bungee cords!

Day 7: Flat, Like I Like It...

With superior navigation skills, Jimmy managed to find a relatively flat route back to Reims. Much of the 41 miles was along canals. There were quite a few locks, one of which of we stopped to watch in action. Unfortunately, our paved path gave way to gravel and then to dirt. I toppled off my bike after hitting a slick portion. My pride and knees bruised, I managed to continue on for the 2nd half of the route. Once in Reims, our timing was perfect to catch the last train to Lille. After three hours on trains, I couldn’t bend my injured knee. My bike made a good crutch and I managed to walk to the hotel. When I woke up in the morning, I still couldn’t lift my leg enough to mount my bike, so it was time to change plans once again.

Day 7: One Last Champagne House...

As hard as it might be to believe, we’d had enough of Champagne. That is, after we toured one last Champagne house, Castellane. There were only four of us on the English tour, which was really nice. This is the only house that takes you through the production areas (which clearly means it isn’t too dangerous and that the other houses just don’t want to lose the mystique of how mechanized the production actually is). Unfortunately, we came at the wrong time of the year to see anything in action. After the tour, we climbed the tower; Epernay definitely looked nicer from above.

Day 6: More Grapes...

The skies had cleared, so at 3:30pm we set off for a few hours of cycling. Only did 17 miles, but it was hilly and slow going. The down hills scare me and I spend a lot of time pumping the brakes in an attempt not to go too fast. Finally stopped in Pierry to see the world’s largest Champagne flute and get some further education about Champagne. Had a traditional French dinner back in Epernay, a surprisingly uncharming city.

Day 6: More Champagne...

Thanks to an Internet connection, we upgraded to TripAdvisor’s top choice in Epernay. Luckily we could check in early to the lovely small inn, which was the former home of the founder of Mercier Champagne, which we toured next door after lunch. It was a very different tour with a laser-guided tram ride through the cellars, although we only saw a small portion of the 11 miles of tunnels. The giant cask above took 15 years to build; it can hold 200,000 bottles of Champagne and was used for blending until 1947. As the world’s largest wine cask, it was brought to Paris for the World Fair in 1889. The journey took eight days, destroying two bridges and several houses along the way.

Day 5: Happy to Arrive in Epernay...

When we finally pulled into Epernay, the tourist office had just closed. After a frustrating attempt to find a cute inn or B&B, we settled for a functional Ibis. We splurged on a nice dinner in a former bank with a bottle of, you guessed it, Champagne.

Day 5: In Search of Food...

Silly us, we purposely didn’t bring a picnic with us because we thought we’d have plenty of opportunities to stop along the way. We went through most of our snacks as we slogged up the hills, eventually walking the steepest one. We finally came to this farm that sold jams and apple juice. The sweet farmer sold us the bread off her table so we could picnic amongst her chickens.

Day 5: Champagne & Grapes at Every Turn...

We didn’t start our 43 mile ride until noon. Jimmy found a GPS track to take us along a ridge of the forest and down through the vineyards to Epernay, the heart of the Champagne region. It was an especially challenging ride through the hills since village after village were completely shut. Apparently, despite it being high tourist season, most of the region goes on holiday for the last two weeks of August in anticipation of the harvest in September. We found the Maille Champagne tasting room open, which we really liked, but couldn’t find food.

Day 5: A Visit to Mumm...

There was a bike shop not far from the hotel. It was huge, but had no touring supplies (only one double pannier!) After playing some charades, we managed to buy two bungee cords that did the trick to tie the front bags to the back. Stopped by a patisserie and headed for a tour at Mumm, one of the world’s largest producers of Champagne . We visited the cellars containing 25 million bottles of Champagne and had a glass afterwards. We were unable to see anything of the actual production, supposedly because it is too dangerous.

Day 4: Hurry Up and Wait...

We woke up early to catch a 7:30am train to Reims, home of many famous champagne houses. Unfortunately, our 3.5 hour journey turned into 6.5 hours due to train cancellations and heavy delays. After a nice lunch, we went to GH Martel for a tasting. On the way to the hotel, I had a major scare when I heard metal crunching and turned to see a Volvo right behind Jimmy. Luckily, he hadn’t been hit, but instead his front luggage rack had fallen off. We were especially lucky that this happened in a city rather than in the hills and that he was able to carry the bags to the hotel. It had started to pour, so we were glad there was a good restaurant just across the street.