England

 Lovely as it was to spend time relaxing, we had to push on with the task at hand – to reach the West Coast of Ireland before the weather became too cold and to be back in England for Christmas. The trees still had their autumn colour, unusual for this time of the year but the summer had been a warm one and the weather was milder than usual.  We rode on the fairly busy road the first day and while the motorists were considerate we were a bit nervous as the roads were narrow and had no shoulder to give us space to get road off the road. The weather was fine but cold and we were rugged up to keep warm. When we got to Winchester we stopped off to see the cathedral, a very impressive building with interesting history. It has magnificent ceilings and stained glass windows, and is quite different from the Roman basilicas. In the grounds was a large Christmas Fair so we explored this. As we travelled around we found most towns and cities had Christmas fairs. We had trouble getting accommodation a there was something happening in the city and places were full.  As we stood in the street pondering our plight, David, a man who was born in Winchester but migrated to Canada, only to have his daughter marry a local man from Winchester and he now spends half his time in each country, approached us and invited us to stay at his place.  We were both pleased and surprised by his invitation which we readily accepted.  He sent a text to his wife who was babysitting “ Joseph and Mary have arrived, there is not room at the inn” .  We had fish and chips for dinner and a great night talking about travels, his and ours.

We had no option but to stay on the very busy road the next day so we were glad to find a small old pub off the beaten track and recommended by a women where we had lunch. We had dinner in the bar and where a couple of dogs sat with their owners, one sitting on his owner’s knee with his head resting on the bar.  No one else took any notice so it must be normal in these parts.

The next day we were able to ride for part of the way on a small, quiet country road which was much more enjoyable. Up and down hills all day, we saw many pheasants flying or in the hedges and also as road kill. We arrived in Oxford to find our hosts Caitlin from USA and Francis form South Africa, students and keen cyclists. We spent two days here exploring the city. Another Christmas fair to investigate and we joined a walking tour of the city taking in Exeter College.  Oxford university is comprised of thirty eight private campuses so of course there are lots of students everywhere and more bikes than we ever saw in China. It is also the most multicultural place we have seen in England with takeaways from every imaginable part of the globe.

Evesham was our next stop, a town on the Avon River which in the summer is packed with tourists but we have the place to ourselves in the cold winter.  We stayed in a lovely five hundred year old pub, “Ye Old Red Horse”, had dinner in the bar and helped a table sitting next to us who were competing in a quiz night. Mike also likes these hotels as they all serve a full English breakfast.

At long last we were able to take a quieter road riding through small villages and a bike path along a river for a while. We had a warm showers host in Bwedley, a small village on our route. We paused in the town to ask directions and spoke to Chris who told us he had ridden from UK to China in 2000 and that he had written a book, “Why Don’t You Fly” about his journey. He was quite chuffed to find out we had read his book as part of our preparation for our trip and we were delighted to have met him. We found our hosts Bernie and David down a small lane; David had a roast in the oven and was making bread. It is always so nice to arrive at the home of hosts where a warm welcome is much appreciated and the opportunity to exchange “tour” stories abounds. David and Bernie were touring in the mountains of USA earlier this year and had a great time.

Lots of hills for the next few days. We had lunch at Northbridge, a small town with a nice café, the kind you see in Miss Marples, then we stopped at the Iron Bridge, the first iron bridge built and hailed as the beginning of the industrial revolution. We walked over the bridge which is now pedestrian only and walked through the pleasant little town.  We rode along small country lanes lines with hedges which kept the wind from us and had very little traffic, it was good to be off the busy roads.  We had to venture out onto a bigger road as we neared Shewsbury. We were fortunate to have another warm showers host here, Jon and Angela. Jon had cooked dinner and made sour dough bread, there is a bit of a theme about hosts and bread making.  We were keen to learn about sour dough making being bread makers ourselves. Jon and Angela are seasoned tourers and are planning a trip to Germany.