Now That's What I Call Music

By -
In The Middle of The Night

At our campsite in Abbeville we had carefully chosen the perfect pitch (technical term for a piece of grass).  It was next to a bench and handy for the washrooms.......just the job.

What we didn't know was that it was also slap next to the meeting place for all the local herberts.  It all kicked off after we turned in at about 10pm and it was gone 1:30 before they finally followed our loudly expressed advice to shut the f@#k up. 

Why Does It Always Rain on Me?

No sooner had the hoons gone to bed than the thunderstorm started.  It absolutely hurled it down all night.  For most of this time I lay smugly thinking about how fantasticly waterproof my new tent was.....until I discovered that my open bar bag was only half covered by it.  In the morning I removed several inches of water, a very soggy wallet and passport and several items of landfill that had previously been electronics.  Bugger.

The ride to Gisors was pretty pants.  Cool with some rain and plenty of hills I just never really got my mojo; and when I picked up my first puncture in over 7000 miles I just lay down on the road and sobbed.  Ok, I didn't..... but I wasn't happy!!!!

Money's Too Tight To Mention

We treated ourselves to a hotel in Abbeville so we could start to get stuff dry (A day later and my passport is still wet).  A bit expensive but not terrible. 

We arrived too early for check-in so went to a crappy little bar next door for a cold one.  Two large Leffe.. ........FIFTEEN SODDING EUROS!
How do the French put up with this?  Why aren't they blockaiding Calais with their tractors like they do when anything else isn't to their liking?  I can live with the lack of toilet seats and I have come to terms with shops always being closed but 14 quid for two beers is taking the piss.

A Lad In Seinne

It's nearly a  song title!  Today we had a much better day as we rode across Paris.  The route in is damn fiddly but the route out follows a magnificent canalside path and we are in Villepinte, out to the north west and close to GDG airport.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rage Hard

By -
Image
Leading a tour down the US West Coast isn't the worst way to spend 4 weeks and it has many compensations.  The weather is lovely, the scenery is off the scale and you get to drink magnificent craft beers and eat well.  Putting out the odd fire and springing pillocks from jail is all part of the sport. BUT, and it is a big but (you get a lot of big butts in Merica), the daily hotel check-in is absolutely the worst thing.  Regardless of how carefully you have checked the reservations there is a clenching of the buttocks as you approach reception.  Today the first contact was good....they had all 15 rooms and cats were allowed.....but they weren't ready.  No problem, I was 30 minutes early.  30 minutes later.....still no rooms.  Cyclists were arriving; hot, tired grumpy cyclists.  The receptionist had run out of fucks to give several years ago.  I asked to see the manager.  Out walked a thing that was once the manger but was now a barrel of lard with a head.  We exchan
Read more

Now That's What I Call Music Volme 4

By -
Image
Won't Stop Running/Golden Brown The 24-hour dysentery that has been working through the group has now reached me.  Bugger. Invisible  When making any on-line transaction in Merica is necessary to provide a telephone number and a valid zip code.  If paying by credit card this must match the zip code the card is registered to.  There is absolutely no provision for anyone without a US phone number and a card registered to a US address.  It's like non-Mericans don't exist or, maybe, just aren't worth bothering about. Some hotels and supermarkets have devices to scan photo-id. You've guessed it....these only recognise US driving licences.  For hotels you have to piss off and find your passport and in stores you have to wait while the manager is called to authorise the purchase.   We should retaliate and only serve Mericans in the UK if they can correctly pronounce Leicester Square. Wonderful Copenhagen Today we have ridden
Read more

Drinking in L.A

By -
Image
We are starting to entertain the very remote possibility that we will make it to the Mexican border! It continues to be an uphill struggle with mechanical and logistical challenges but we battle on. On Tuesday night our hotel was several miles from restaurants so we cleared a few seats in the van and sent out the simplest of instructions......form yourselves into a group of 6 and another of 7, decide whether you want to go to the harbour or downtown and pick a time.  What could possibly go wrong?  We had groups of 4, groups where most wanted the harbour but others wanted downtown, both groups wanting the same time...........I finally got off duty at 9pm, another 14 hour day! Yesterday we rode down through Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, the latter portion on a superb bike path through the beach.  Despite some heavy traffic in Malibu everyone enjoyed the day and we all arrived in Redondo Beach in high spirits.  Despite an already very high bar in terms of hotel in
Read more