Saturday 10 July 2010

A busy week...

It's been a busy week work-wise, with a business trip to Edinburgh on Tuesday/Wednesday immediately followed by another business trip to Dublin on Thursday/Friday, so there was no chance to get on on my bike (though I did catch up on the Tour de France highlights, and it was great to see that Cav had won two stages, after making a poor start to the tour).

The weather has been really hot - in the 30s - so perfect cycling weather. Despite being knackered from a long week, I woke up quite early this morning and decided to get out for a ride.

I have two bikes - a mountain bike and a road bike. For my trip to Spain, I'm going to have to take the mountain bike for two reasons: there are no lugs on the frame of my road bike for attaching a pannier rack; and I don't expect that the roads in rural Spain will be very smooth, so I'm going to have to use my mountain bike for my solo rides between now and when I go. The mountain bike is a fair bit heavier than the road bike, and will be heavier still when it's fully loaded. Still - that's all part of the fun I guess!

So off I went this morning on a 40 mile loop through Blackmore. Blackmore's a proper country village with a village green complete with stocks. There's a tea shop right by the green, so I decided I would stop there for a break. It was already hot out when I left, and by 8:30 I could feel the heat reflecting off the tarmac. I made it to Blackmore just before 10:00, really looking forward to a nice cup of coffee and some home made cake, so was really disappointed to see that they didn't open until 11:00. As you can see, I wasn't a happy bunny!
Fortunately I did have a couple of cereal bars on me, so I was able to eat something. I stopped off at Mountnessing on the way back, where there's a windmill.
I had planned to start booking up accommodation this weekend, but with Spain being in the world cup final tomorrow, I think I had better leave it until next weekend. I heard from my contacts in Madrid that everyone went completely mental after the final whistle of the semi final, with people driving around the city with their horns blaring, or letting off fireworks until 4AM. God knows what it'll be like if they go and win the final. The omens are looking good, with Paul the psychic octopus picking Spain to win. I've been invited to watch the game at my favourite Spanish tapas bar, the Barcelona in London, so I shall be watching the game there. ¡Vaya EspaƱa!

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