Saturday, 28 May 2016

LONDON TO ROUBAIX

I will just try to give an account of my travels to date as I have a bit of catching up to do! I caught a 6.00am flight from Kingsford Smith and on Friday May 20 and arrived Heathrow at 8.30pm the same day. I caught the Heathrow Paddington Express and after 30 minutes found myself standing on the concourse of Paddington station.  Some things just don't change. On the concourse were a couple of London bobbies. I asked one of them directions to the hotel I had been booked into (You've guessed it; "The Caesar"). He wasn't certain, but with a smile pulled out his phone and looking it up then gave me step by step directions. I hate to say it, but that just doesn't happen in Sydney.

On Saturday, we had a leisurely ride through Hyde Park to sort out any problems with bikes etc and then had a late lunch in the Park itself.

The following day, we rode from the hotel to Buckingham Palace and then started the long 160 km ride to Dover.

We rode by the Houses of Parliament and then crossed the Thames on Lambeth Bridge with my old hospital, St Thomas's, lying on the south side. After a coffee stop and lunch we were in the Kent countryside. Part of our ride took us along the old Pilgrim's Way.

The term the "Kent Downs" are to my mind a bit of a misnomer, some of those hills for an old fella are a bit steep. Rain was forecast, but we were lucky and although the country lanes were wet and at times a bit treacherous, we made it ok to our hotel just outside Dover. The next day we rode into Dover passing close to Dover Castle and caught the ferry to Dunkirk.

Leaving England and those white cliffs of Dover brought back memories of my early childhood  and Vera Lynn's song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAaxkAgVkHQ

 Dunkirk, famous for the evacuation of the BEF is a far cry from what it was in 1939 and is mostly industrialised.

Getting off the ferry we rode 70km to Ypres, where we stayed the night. The Menin Gate was just a short walk from our hotel. It is a monument to all those who fell in the Ypres salient in WW1 and for whom there is no known grave. At 8.00pm every night the "Last Post" is played floral tributes are placed, followed by "Reveille" The arch contains the names of 54,395 servicemen. There is another memorial at Tyne Cot for 34,984, who fell after August 17 and there are other memorials to New Zealand and Newfoundland servicemen.




The Cloth Hall was one of the largest commercial buildings of the Middle Ages, where it served as the main market and warehouse for the Flemish city's prosperous cloth industry. Completed in 1304, it lay in ruins after artillery fire devastated Ypres in WW1, but was meticulously reconstructed between 1933 and 1967.

Departing Ypres the next day, we rode the 119km to Artres. We rode via the old velodrome at Roubaix, which is still the finish for  the Paris Roubaix classic. A good portion of this race is along cobbles.


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