Day 4

Today has been a very eventful day. We covered 117 miles and have reached a small village just outside Royston. We left quite early this morning after a hearty breakfast from the b&b we were staying at. The owners Bill and Ellen were very hospitable and they had two impressive Alsations - one of them, called Monty, was the size of a baby bear! The weather was scorching and we all got a little burnt - at times it felt like we were already on the continent. The terrain was also very flat as we passed through the Fens, so we managed to keep our speed between 15 and 20 mph for most of the day. There was one mishap however...we broke our first spoke. Oresto and Dino broke 34 - let's see if we can match that! On a more postive note we made a very interesting acqaintance today. At about three o'clock we stopped at a stall on a layby to get some strawberries. The chap that owned the stall was very friendly and it turns out that he is Padre Pio's great nephew! (posted 01/07/09 at 01:50)

Day 3

Today has been the best day yet. We covered 113 miles without too much trouble, and we have arrived at a small place just outside Lincoln. We've had really good weather all day - very sunny and warm. We had lunch at Scarborough and because of the sun the town had a great atmosphere. There was also some good scenery as this morning we passed through the North Yorkshire Moors National Park - however this did mean some very serious climbs - the phrase 'harder than the barracone' springs to mind!

(posted 30/06/09 at 00:13)

Day 2 (Alnwick - Skinningrove nr. Loftus)

Despite a late start we managed 102 miles today. The weather was mostly good but it started to get very misty this evening - we were grateful for our lights and high visibility vests! Tonight we're staying in a small fishing village near Whitby, in a coffee shop/nightclub/b&b - it's called Tim's Coffee Shop, but they have rooms and tonight is their 'loud night'! We tried to get a place in a village called Loftus but the two hotels we tried said they didn't do rooms...interesting. There were 4 tanning salons in Loftus though - so if you go on holiday there you'll definitley leave with a tan, but you might have to sleep in the street. Tomorrow we plan to leave a bit earlier, so hopefully we'll get a better distance. Goodnight from Lorenzo, Riccardo and Gianluca. (posted 29/06/09 at 00:03)

Day 1 (Edinburgh - Alnwick)

We did 90 miles today and are staying at Alnwick. It's a nice, quaint town. We're all very tired and fell asleep at the restaurant table - the food was good though. We filled up on risotto and steak. The waiitress was shocked by how much we ate. We're just going to go back to the room now to sleep...we'll get up early and hopefully cover at least 100 miles tomorrow. Bye for now, Riccardo