Friday September 21, 2012

  Binghamton Chenango Point Cycles

            There were a few cycle shops in the Yellow Pages but most of them were between 10 and 65 miles from our motel so we settled on the nearest. The taxi driver that fetched us from Greene had left us his number and he came straight round this morning to take us to the bike shop. It was with considerable relief that we found a bike of the right type and size and the shop owner had the time to transfer all the necessary parts from Tim’s old bike (luggage racks, mudguards, wheels) to the new one by mid-afternoon. Richard, the taxi driver, even waited while this was all agreed and then took us back to the motel. That was it then until we got the call that the bike was ready. Tim is now the proud (but poor) owner of a Specialized triCross bike and once we were mobile we set off to do a bit of shopping and get the laundry done. A trip to the cinema to see the new Clint Eastwood film (Trouble with the Curve) followed by supper at Applebee’s nicely rounded off this successful but expensive day. I think the enormous Glenlivet that the waitress served made it seem like a wonderful day but then that’s just me.

Thursday September 20, 2012

Hamilton to Binghamton 75Km 350m climbed.

We had a nice motel last night, a little more expensive than the budgeted but it was the only choice. At least breakfast was included. It was a beautiful day, a cool start but sunny blue skies. We set off through the middle of Hamilton and headed south for Binghamton. We had been told to look out for the Colgate University on the way out of town. Neither of us had heard of it before but it is an Ivy League university and well worth looking at. Beautiful buildings set on a forested hillside. We rode around the campus and took some pictures and shortly before we left a student came over to talk to us. He gave us some background on the university such as: 2800 students, they are the number 2 earners as a group among US graduates, fees $55000 a year (where did I go wrong). He is there on a scholarship so we figured he must be pretty clever to be there. He has hiked across Lebanon and the Golan heights and used public transport to get from Ethiopia to South Africa, which we found pretty impressive for somebody so young. He came to talk to us because he wants to cycle across the US from Maine to Seattle or, if he can get the money for the air fare, from France to Bulgaria and he does not have any experience of long bike tours hence there were many questions. After a long and fruitful chat we had to leave and make our way south. It was difficult because we were both very saddle sore. Insufficient training and averaging over 70 miles a day was taking its toll so we were thinking about taking a day off in Binghamton. As it turned out we did not have to think about it. We made our way through Sherburne (where we had lunch), bypassed New Berlin and headed for Norwich. Norwich looked promising for an overnight stop but we really had not done enough (50km) so we pressed on to Oxford. Oxford was just as big a splodge as Norwich on the map but there was next to nothing there so on we went. We stopped on the side of the road for a break and TimB complained about his bike wobbling so we checked the steering etc and couldn’t find any loose bits so we carried on. At Greene (75km) we had to stop at some road works and Tim said his bike was worse and then he found that the down tube, just below the steering tube, was cracked three quarters of the way round. Now that was a showstopper. I can deal with a lot of technical problems on the road but I must confess to not having packed the welding kit. We pushed our bikes over the road (works) to the petrol station where TimB phoned for a taxi for the remaining 19 miles to Binghamton while I tried to cadge a lift off pickup drivers on the forecourt. TimB was more successful than I so we ended up with a taxi ride into town. Once we had checked into the motel TimB got to work with the Yellow Pages and Internet to find a bike shop in town. It is too late to do anything until tomorrow so we get a days rest anyway. I get to write the blog because Tim is still traumatised from the loss of his bike and the expense of replacing it. We will be posting bank details for generous donations to this calamitous loss. 

Wednesday September 19, 2012

Old Forge, New York to Hamilton, New York 128 KM   750m Vertical climb

Downtown Old Forge - Deer

Old Forge is a picturesque small village in the Adirondacks and its most distinctive feature is the deer roaming through the city.  They were visible last night, and this morning, as we came out of our motel room, we had 4 deer feeding on our lawn.  Nice friendly animals. 

We had a slow start this morning as we had to do the laundry first.  There were a lot of soggy clothes from yesterday.  We left Old Forge at 10:45. The road was mostly downhill and we covered the first 50 km in 2 hours.  We had a better than expected lunch at a roadside pub and hit the road again.  In preparation for the trip I had mapped the route using Goggle Maps.  So far the road has been so straightforward I have ignored the maps. In the afternoon we had to navigate around Utica and goggle maps failed us.  Because the street signs do not always match the maps (ie. route 69 instead of Oriskaney road) we didn’t know if we were lost or not so we reverted to using major highways instead of scenic byways.  We ended up at a hotel that didn’t rent rooms and had to hop on our bikes and pedal 25km to the next town that had some motels.  We arrived just at sunset.  We are in Hamilton, New York where Colgate University is situated.

Lunch Time Pub - Barneveld

 

White Lake - Adirondacks

Tuesday September 18, 2012

 Tupper Lake to Old Forge  112Km, 1157m vertical climb
The forecast for today was for showers followed by continuous rain after midday with strong winds developing in the afternoon. When we started to leave the motel it had already started to rain so we went back and put on the rain jackets. It was just as well we did because the weather gods decided to skip the showers bit and give us continuous heavy rain for the whole of the 112km to Old Forge. The village with restaurants after only 30km was too soon so we carried on, only to find that, thereafter, restaurants and cafes were either derelict or only open at weekends. That meant we had to do the whole stage on an egg McMuffin and coffee plus a couple of granola bars, and we had run out of Gatorade so to say we were hungry and thirsty when we arrived in Old Forge is a bit of an understatement. This situation has, in the meantime, been suitably rectified. Despite the rainy weather we had, we were lucky in the end because, five minutes after checking into the motel, the serious bit of the storm hit.

Monday September 17, 2012

Malone, NY to Tupper Lake NY  97Km 750m vertical climb 

First on the to do list was a visit to a local store for phone cards and a memory card for TimB’s (wife’s) camera.  Despite being the tour IT expert he managed to make the card unrecognisable for the Notepad AND the camera. The weather was excellent and the clear sky forecast meant that I had to cream up a bright red face from the first stage. The stage started off tough and stayed that way. The first 15km were uphill and thereafter each decline was followed by a hill a bit higher than the last one. There were no opportunities to pull in for a tea break so we targeted a place call Paul Smith’s that was signposted about 35 miles away. It turned out that Paul Smith’s is a college and we stood outside the entrance with no apparent place to go for lunch. TimB stopped a motorist leaving the college and asked if there was a restaurant in the area and he was told that there was one a few miles towards Lake Placid. That would have meant a big detour that we did not want to do so we decided to try the college on the grounds that they must have a restaurant of some sort and we could only be rejected on the grounds of ineligibility. We followed road signs through the grounds and parked the bikes outside the St.Regis Café where many students were entering the building. Well, we went in and nobody batted an eyelid so our confidence rose and as the students queued to turn left we turned right into the St. Regis café. That is where we stopped for a second because the cloth covered tables, uniformed waitresses and panorama windows overlooking the terrace and Lower St. Regis Lake made us both think we would at least be turned away if not arrested. Far from it, an extremely attractive sophomore student took us to a table and gave us her utmost attention for the next hour. We had smoked pork and red bean soup, crayfish and shrimp pie and finished off with banana slices in a hot caramel sauce on a bed of vanilla ice cream all for ten dollars. Yep 10$!! TimB busied himself with his camera to take a picture of our waitress while I tried to figure how to tell him we should forget the tour and check into the college for a month. In the end he pointed out that his wife was only about 2 hours away by car so it was much safer to carry on the tour. Duly fortified were continued on to Tupper Lake where we found a lakeside motel and a restaurant (with the all important liquor licence) just down the road. Unfortunately, several bottles of 5.4% Blue Moon beer rendered us both unable to write the blog afterwards, hence the delay. 

Sunday September 16, 2012

            Pointe Claire to Malone, New York  130 km

We left Pointe Claire at 9 AM and headed west to Vaudreuil, the Soulange Canal and Valleyfield.  At the St Lawrence Seaway we waited for 20 minutes for a boat to go under the bridge.   We passed through the village of Huntington, under a covered bridge and then through the metropolis of Elgin, Quebec.   We tried crossing at Jamison Road, but we were refused entry because Euro Tim is an alien.  We trekked 15 km down the road to Trout River and entered the USA legally.  We then rode just 18 km to Malone but it was uphill all the way.

            We found the first day to be tough.  Somewhere around the 100km mark we both were wishing for a shower, supper and a beer.   This being Sunday we had to settle for a shower and supper.

Saturday Sept 15 - test ride

Tim Goodall has arrived in Pointe Claire and assembled his bike.  We did a test ride today to check out the bikes and the riders.  A small 50km ride around the west end of Montreal island went well and no major problems arose.  We are set for the start tomorrow.  The plan is to ride from Pointe Claire to Key West in 32 days.  We do about 100km per day and will take a rest day in Washington  and Hilton Head.  Our host in Hilton Head is Don Palmer.  We all 3 worked in Germany and played squash together in the 1970's.  After we reach Key West we will fly back to Montreal from Miami.

2011-09-11 Sunday Bike adventure

We (Caroline, Barb, Tim and I )decided to rent bikes to ride along the Avon –Kennet canal which runs alongside the Avon River. We took a taxi to a little village outside of Bath to rent our bikes. The cab driver stopped en route to show us his favourite view of the valley, which was very beautiful.    

After having our bikes fitted for us, we set off in sunshine. The canal was full of canal houseboats, which are long and very narrow in order to fit through the locks and the canal bridges, which cross the Avon in places. We found it really interesting that the canal was built on high ground above the river and that along the bike path you could look at the canal on one side or the river down a long slope on the other side. We biked to the town of Bradford-on-Avon, a town which had caught our eye from the train as we passed. We even biked a few kms further as we were enjoying the ride so much. We returned to Bradford for lunch and browsed through the town, which was another pretty spot.

Canal Boat

On the way back, I had the unfortunate luck to tumble sideways off my bike as I was coming to a stop. I did a fairly soft landing but somehow managed to cut my leg either on the pedal or the fender. It was a long and deep cut which landed me by ambulance in Bath hospital needing 28 stitches to close it up. As a result, I am now on crutches until next Wednesday when I have my stitches removed. We had to cancel our trip to Germany unfortunately.

Charlotte, a friend of Caroline’s, has lent Tim a bike so that he is happily riding each day. I stayed put with a good book for the first 4 days but am now venturing out for short trips.

2011-09-10 Saturday: Trip to Bath

Roman Bath

Pulteney Bridge

Bath Abbey

Clapham Junction Rail station is the busiest in Britain – it seems every train going South from London stops here.  So 5 minutes from the door we were at the station and on the 9:30AM train to Bath.  Bath was a Roman Spa around 4AD and parts of it still remain today.  We toured the archaeological dig and ended up in the original spa area.  The tour was very well done with great audio-visual support.   Walking around Bath was a revelation.  The architecture is Georgian and whole city blocks have been done in the same style.  The Avon River runs through Bath and the bridge over the river is lined with shops on both sides. The city has many green spaces all with lovely gardens.

2011-09-09 Friday travel to London.

York Minster

The Shambles

We woke up to pouring rain but by the time we headed to the train it had stopped.  We decided to stop over at York since it had received rave reviews in the guide book.  We got off the train and walked into town.  Within 200meters we had passed through the city gates and the Minster (Cathedral) was in sight.  The history of the Minster goes back to 900 AD, but when you see the window that has been there since 1150 you realize how old it is.  There is more stained glass then I have ever seen before.  The size and height of the Minster impressed me. I walked around looking up.  Barb and I walked up the 280 steps to the top of the tower.  We only had to pay £4.50.  The narrow steps went up in 2 sections.  My legs were a bit rubbery when I got to the top.  The view was worth it. After the Cathedral we wandered the streets of York.  There is a large area of pedestrian traffic only. The lane called The Shambles was very appealing with old half timbered houses over-hanging the narrow street.  

 

2011-09-08 Thursday: Edinburgh

< span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">We started the day by climbing the Scott monument in the middle of Edinburgh.  We needed to by fresh since we climbed over 200 steps to go up.  The steps are so narrow in places you cannot pass people going down – so someone has to back up.  At times I had trouble making it through the narrow tunnels and my backpack was rubbing against the roof.  We went up in three sections so we could stop for a breath and sightseeing every 65 steps.  The views were magnificent due to excellent visibility.  We have been blessed with good weather in Scotland – any rain has been followed by sunshine within the hour.   After the Monument we split up - Tim to visit churches and the girls to shop.  We met for lunch in the Princes Street gardens and ate in the warm sunshine.  The girls then did a marathon walk to Holyrood Castle and the Scottish Museum before our next reunion.  Holyrood was very interesting but the Gardens and ruined Abbey behind Holyrood were impressive.    We reunited in the halfway house pub  and after dinner we walked the university district, which showed us another side of the interesting architecture in this city. 
We all agree that Edinburgh is a dramatically beautiful city.

2011-09-07 Wednesday: Stirling

We started our day at a very tiny breakfast place owned by a delightful grey haired lady in tartan skirt and long white apron. Her room is long and narrow and filled with tea cosies, Scottish mugs, pictures, copper etchings etc. The food is good and she is interesting company.

We set off around 11 by train for the town of Stirling to visit Stirling Castle. The castle is spectacularly located on top of a crag with a view in all directions for miles. The castle was interesting to visit - as we were walking the walls, we could picture ourselves as guards keeping watch for, or archers firing on, approaching armies. But it was the beautiful views from the castle that we were most enthused about. Tim was fascinated with the ceilings with painted heads

2011-09-06 Tuesday: North Berwick

Joan and I went out for our morning walk at 7am, while Tim enjoyed taking pictures from Colton Hill where we walked last night. When we had our first coffee of the day, we found out we were on the most expensive street in Edinburgh – even though it looked quite ordinary compared to the surrounding neighbourhood.

Later, we all took a train out to North Berwick (pronounced ‘Berrick’, as we have learned to drop the ‘w’) and walked for three hours – a short walk for us now - on a beach along the ‘Firth of Forth’, through a glen and also through the very picturesque town.

Joan and I have had many laughs ‘helping’ Tim remain ‘consistent’ at two beers per day, usually in two different pubs. It’s medicinal of course!

2011-09-05 Monday: Edinburgh

Today we had a train trip to Edinburgh so we started early. This is the first time we have faced commuter traffic in London. We squeezed into the train with our luggage and pretended we were sardines. The trip to Victoria Station was quick, but getting to the underground was hectic. Thousands of passengers squeeze through 10 gates to get into the underground. When the tube came we couldn’t get on the first one, we were too far from the door. We got on the second train but we had no seats and at every stop we juggled suitcases and backpacks to let fellow commuters off and on. We made it to King’s Cross Station safe and sound.

The six-hour train ride was picturesque throughout particularly when we went by the coast in the north. We walked around Edinburgh in the afternoon since the sun was out. The Architecture in Edinburgh is impressive: the Royal Mile and Princes Street especially.

2011-09-04 Sunday:

Just like the Tour-de-France everyone needs a rest day. Today was a quiet day around the apartment and we did our laundry and shopping. In the evening we went to the pub for a drink. After that the girls power walked home while I did some more night photography.

2011-09-03 Saturday

The girls wanted to shop and I wanted to see the Victoria and Albert museum so off we went our separate ways. The museum is impressive for it's theme presentations. I was surprised to see so many young children running about - until I went into the courtyard for lunch. After visiting the museum I went off to take pictures of the Battersea Power Station. The Battersea Power station was commissioned in 1929 and decommissioned in the 70’s. It is so big and ugly it’s a landmark.

After supper I decided to try London at night photography.

2011-09-03 Friday Great Tew

We decided to go to a quiet country hamlet to see another side of British life. I found a write up about Great Tew ( pop. 250 ) which said the village had many lovely thatched cottages. We phoned the one and only eating establishment (The 16th century Falkland Arms) to find out the nearest train station. The pub owner said to go to Charlbury and take a taxi to Tew. This almost worked perfectly except that Charlbury is also small. It took us almost an hour to get a taxi. However, the driver was great, took us on a little side trip to Little Tew and arranged for a taxi to pick us up after we had spent a few hours in Great Tew.
Great Tew was indeed very, very picturesque and we enjoyed our visit.

On the way back, we stopped at Oxford for a few hours. We were absolutely amazed by the old but incredibly beautiful university buildings in the city centre. Everywhere you looked, there was beauty.
Today was another fantastic day which we finished off at the local pub, The Falcon, which has become Tim’s favourite!

2009-09-01 Thursday: Kew Gardens

We took the train to the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens and spent the whole day there. We all considered it our best day so far.

2009-08-31 Wednesday: London

We saw more top ten sights of London today. We went to St Paul’s Cathedral first. Somehow we ended up taking a tour with Christopher Wren himself (he built St. Paul’s after the great fire of London). We thoroughly enjoyed his presentation and after 2 hours we wanted more, but we had a date at Buckingham palace so off we went. The queen had invited us for a palace tour and we went through her state-rooms and enjoyed her garden. We were quite busy so we didn’t stay for supper.

2009-08-30 Tuesday: London

We did London today. We toured Westminster Abbey in the morning. We had packed a lunch which we ate in St. James Park. In the afternoon we visited the National Gallery and then went shopping on Regent Street. I got tired first and needed a beer to revive me, and then the girls hit the wall. We made it to Oxford Street and then took the bus home. The London transit system is good – we can go from anywhere to anywhere and it doesn’t cost much with an Oyster Card.