October 2011
26 posts
3 tags
Danny’s favourite cycling tunes: Part 1
Trans Boulogne Express – Birdy Nam Nam (especially when cycling through Boulogne!)
Monster – Kanye West
Power – Kanye West
Tiny Alien – Katie Melua
The Flood – Katie Melua
Once A Glimpse – Maximo Park
Something, Somewhere, Sometime – Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore
Danger of the water – Futureheads
The Fourth Way – South Central
Bionic – South Central
Heavy – Chase & Status ft. Dizzee...
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Day 31 (15/10/11): Campalto to Gorizia (136km)
By 7.15am I was up. I had hatched a diabolical scheme for the day in which I could watch the United – Liverpool match and make it to the Slovenian boarder. Its execution however, was the tricky part, especially after leaving later than planned because I idiotically thought it would be time efficient to eat my breakfast in bed.
With time to make up, I started trying to really push. I treated it...
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Day 30 (14/10/11): Padova to Campalto (50km)
I did not feel great when I woke up, and eating Nutella seemed to make the situation worse. The plan I had outlined required me to cycle to a border town called Monfalcone, which was at least 160km away. Now, cycling 160km is possible in 7 hours (which is what was left of the light), but I didn’t feel comfortable attempting to execute a day plan in which there was absolutely no room for error....
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Day 29 (13/10/11): Padova (9km)
Waking up unreasonably early, I lazed around all morning, drinking coffee and eating Nutella in an effort to reward myself for the effort it had taken to reach my destination. I checked my emails to find that my family were planning a visit to Belgrade on the 22nd October, in an attempt to intercept me. I began to scheme, and formed a watertight 9-day action plan. “Mwahahahaha”, I bellowed,...
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Day 28 (12/10/11): Mantova to Padova (127km)
The day began badly to say the least, but not perhaps for the reasons you might expect. I had to go for a morning crap, as you do, but was met by a rectangular squatting spot instead of a real toilet. “No problem”, I thought. “I’ll step up”. I completed my business, wiped, flushed and left as efficiently as possible, washing my hands on the way out. Twenty minutes later, the owner came over and...
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Day 27 (11/10/11): Pavia to Mantova (161km)
Ten hours later, at 6am, I awoke but dozed and wrote until the day was a little more mature, at 7.30am. The sunrise was beautiful, and I watched light begin to fill the sky from the porch of my warm tent. Minutes later, my quest for sustenance had led me to a café in the centre of Pavia. It was essential I topped up before heading towards Cremona.
But Cremona was some distance, and within an hour...
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Day 26 (10/10/11): Turin to Pavia (156km)
After having a morning coffee with Ago and looking over the route for the day, I left, beginning just after 10am. Within moments I was in a heap on the deck. My tyre slotted perfectly into the tram track, upending me in front of a van that screeched to a halt. I covered my head as soon as I hit the floor but I’m fairly sure my hands wouldn’t have offered adequate resistance had the 2 ton vehicle...
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Day 25 (09/10/11): Turin
I woke up with a raging headache. Clement woke up with an even worse one but he didn’t know why. I did: It was because I crushed his head against the wall with my bum.
But part of my problem was that I opted to sleep on the floor instead of the couch. I just didn’t sleep well, and I’m not sure that helped my condition in the morning. Morning coffee did however, and it was nice to share it with...
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Day 24 (08/10/11): Limone Piemonte to Turin...
I got up feeling a little rough. It wasn’t that I had slept badly, since in fact I had slept exceptionally (I actually dreamt I was given a crown for becoming switchback king), it was just that the physical and emotional expenditure of the day before had really taken it out of me.
I dragged myself downstairs to start working on the breakfast buffet, and sat with the two German motorcyclists from...
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Day 23 (07/10/11): Nice to Limone Piemonte (112km)
I had breakfast with Clement at a small café in the city, before saying goodbye. I didn’t feel too bad about it however, since Clement planned to come and meet me in Turin the following afternoon. Still, we commemorated the moment by grabbing some action shots of Clement on my bike. I thought he should take up cycling since he looked so at home in the helmet.
I set off knowing there was a big day...
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Day 22 (06/10/11): Nice
I sorted out photos, coordinated my blog and replied to messages well into the afternoon. At about 2pm, I left the house to send extra maps, my house keys and an extra towel I had, home. The mountains had me a little scared, so I was desperately trying to get rid of anything I could afford to, in order to save me hauling around any unnecessary extra grams.
There was a park right next to the post...
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Day 21 (05/10/11): Nice/Monaco
M
Clement had to leave early for work, so I was left to do as I pleased. I started by taking my sweet time to drag myself out of bed, before spending a long time stretching, and doing my core strength exercises. It was important I was all loosey-goosey before trying to take on the Alps.
I had such a relaxing morning, just lounging around and eating random abandoned bits of food I found in...
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Day 20 (04/10/11): Sainte Maxime to Nice (93km)
I rose with the sun. It climbed out of the Mediterranean and got to work on warming the cold world up. I however, left while it was still chilly.
I stopped 10km in, just before Frejus, to get a proper breakfast from the supermarket since I had proactively decided that I wanted to put a bit of extra energy in the body before the serious climbing got under way. Not-so-shockingly, I gave myself an...
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Day 19 (03/10/11): Aubagne to Sainte Maxime...
I awoke, and within moments (I was still in the underwear I slept in to make myself feel better) a man strode over to me angrily. “Monsieur, monsieur”, he bellowed. “Are you alright?”, I replied, still a little groggy. “You have money?”, he snarled. “Yeah! Of course!”, I said, as cheerily as I could. “Why you not pay then?”, he retorted, a little less aggressively this time, seeing that I wasn’t...
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Day 18 (2/10/11): Avignon to Aubagne (129km)
Breakfast with Monica and Florina was swell. We had this strange Romainian specialty where bread was fried in egg and milk and eaten with various condiments on it. It was actually amazingly moreish but it was much, much too heavy to eat loads of it. While we ate Monica and Florina tried to teach me Romainian swear words, though Florina was a dead weight, laughing pretty much start to finish. The...
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Day 17 (1/10/11): Avignon
Monica’s boyfriend was in town but leaving the following day, so naturally she wanted to spend time with him. I was left to my own devices, but Monica kindly allowed me to use her place as a base in Avignon.
I began the day with a breakfast picnic from supermarket, which I ate sat on a wall in a cool, cobbled Avignon backstreet while passers-by gave me shady looks. After wandering around town for...
Picture Time!!!
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5908742/2/Danny%20Cycles%20Gallery/10-05-11%20France%20III?h=5d54d3 Again just paste this into the browser X
Day 16 (30/09/11): Valence to Avignon (138km)
I left just after sunrise, and stopped within a few kilometres to have breakfast. I had eaten nothing since the strange cake-tart thing I had for dinner the night before. I pulled over at the café I had asked for directions a few hours earlier, and it turned out to be really great value. I had a quiche, pain au chocolat, chocolate doughnut and an orange juice, all for just over 3 Euros.
Most of...
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Day 15 (29/09/11): Lyon to Valence (121km)
Despite entertaining a bit of as hangover, I got up at a fairly reasonable time to go and buy sunglasses and headphones from a nearby shopping-mall. I had lost the bud from one of the earpieces on the set of sporty headphones I had stolen from Martin, my brother, before leaving. The sunglasses had disappeared, like a wedge of my cash, in the black-hole hotel back in Fountainbleau. I had actually...
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Day 14 (28/09/11): Lyon
Maxime had classes at university, but agreed to come back at 11am so that we could have lunch together and I could borrow a key to go out with. After a much-needed lunch, I arranged to meet Julie at 3pm, giving me enough time to head into town a little early, relax in a Starbucks near Bellecour and write some notes on the events of the last few days.
Once I had met Julie, we went to see the...
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Day 13 (27/09/11) Varennes-le-Grand to Lyon...
Surprisingly I slept well, but the smells I mentioned had festered, and I’m certain had begun to support their own mini eco-systems inside my tent. I bolted out and began to pack immediately. I had wanted to leave before dawn anyway, using the night as my cover.
I needed my bike lights at first, but soon the glorious sunrise lit my way. I was struggling to shake the cobwebs and felt distinctly...
Day 12 (26/09/11) Vermenton to Varennes-le-Grand...
I woke up, and I was moist. Never great. I assumed I had experienced some sort of raunchy dream, but it was in fact because it was just exceptionally misty and the water had settled on the tent. Looking outside was like peering into a grassy steam room, but much colder. It gave the surroundings an enchanting quality.
I left early in the knowledge that it would probably be a fairly long day, and I...
3 tags
Picture Time!!!
My uncle has very kindly created a folder where a more concise gallery of photos from my trip is available. To have a ganders, go to the link below. The actual link is being a bit Fred West but it will work if you just paste it into your browser. Peace!! http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5908742/1/Danny%20Cycles%20Gallery?h=116990
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Day 11 (25/09/11) Fountainbleau to Vermenton...
I woke up later than I hoped and packed quickly. I did, however, manage to get on top of 61km before breakfast, fuelling my efforts with Lion bars every 25km to keep me going.
As the day wore on a little, I started to notice real changes in the scenery for the first time. The terrain was much rockier and much less green than at home. The land had obviously been exposed to a hotter climate and...
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Day 10 (24/09/11): Paris to Fountainebleau (107km)
I rose early to say my goodbyes to Yann. In true birthday style he got up to make burgers in MacDonald’s. What a hero. After I had got my things together, I repeatedly thanked his family in both English and shocking French before leaving for Paris city centre. They had been so kind, and I hope I can repay them and Yann some way in the near future.
I had arranged to meet a friend from Lille who...
