Andrew P. Sykes - Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie

Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie

Andrew P. Sykes

A CyclingEurope.org book

First published in Great Britain in 2011

Copyright Andrew P. Sykes 2011

Map Andrew P. Sykes 2011

Andrew P. Sykes has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This e-Book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the authors prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Contact details for the author can be found at CyclingEurope.org

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.

H.G. Wells

To Reggie, of course.

For more information on Andrew P. Sykes and his travels, visit his website at CyclingEurope.org

Follow the author on Twitter @CyclingEurope

Visit the Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie Facebook page to see the full set of photographs from the journey.

Although the cycle itself was a journey of only six weeks, the Eurovelo 5 adventure was two years in the making and has been one year in the telling. Countless people have helped me along the way with their advice and guidance via the website CyclingEurope.org. A full list of people can be found on the website itself, but those of particular note, I shall mention here as well.

First words of thanks must be to Basil & Liz Ford, my friends in the south of Italy who didnt recoil in horror when they first realised that I intended paying them a visit by bike. They offered support and encouragement and never once questioned my abilities to make it all the way to Puglia. If you are interested in finding out about the villa that is mentioned at the end of this book and which they rent out, visit their website at www.euronaissance.com .

Friends, old and new who welcomed me along the way and were willing to not only spend time with me but in many cases provide food and accommodation as I travelled south need also to be thanked most sincerely. Paul who calmed my nerves on the first day of cycling in London, Iain & Carly in Deal who welcomed me and provided me with a bed on my second night on the road and then Alain in Boulogne-sur-mer and his cousin Anas in Lille who did the same on the third and fourth nights respectively. Thanks to my fellow teacher & friend Claus who came across from Stuttgart to spend the day with me in Strasbourg. In Italy, I was ably supported by Simone and Elettra who moved out of their flat in order that I would have a comfortable bed for the night, Marcello in Rome and then Massimo in Benevento who both provided a friendly welcome as I passed through their home cities.

For the online support they provided while I was en route with technical suggestions and pointers as to where I could mend my bike, Jim & Sally and the man who followed in my wake, Chris.

And finally, many thanks to the man who has been the inspiration for many small-time cycling adventures such as this particular jaunt across Europe, Mark Beaumont, long-distance cycling guru. May you live long, continue to do lots of cycling and prosper.

Andrew Sykes, August 2011

There is a t-shirt you can buy that states that there are three reasons to become a teacher; Christmas, Easter and summer and although I dont subscribe to the cynical sentiment, there is a pertinent message for all teachers in the smugness; we are very lucky to have such a long period away from our workplaces every year so we shouldnt waste it. Unfortunately, thats exactly what I was doing in the summer of 2008. No plans, no adventures. In fact, nothing apart from a six-week period of sloathing from one unimportant activity to the next. The far off Beijing Olympics were successfully filling the gaps in between.

The previous academic year must have been a difficult one and for some reason I had resolved to do as little as I possibly could come the summer holidays. As I sat on my sofa watching the rain-drenched cycling events at The Great Wall of China, I was effortlessly working my way to achieving an A* in procrastination.

However enticing a period of six weeks of doing very little may seem as you are tearing your way through the corridors of a school trying to fit in all those tasks that clearly the person who originally designed the working life of a teacher had no idea existed, the novelty can soon wear off. How wonderful it must be to do something exciting. Really exciting. The kind of exciting that makes other people stop and want to know more. My eyes and thoughts returned to cyclists at the Great Wall. That was exciting.

Although never quite at the standard of an Olympic competitor, I had always been a committed cyclist. Through a combination of necessity and desire, I had been cycling almost without interruption since the age of ten and was proud of the fact that by my mid 30s I had disposed of my car and was an enthusiastic cycling commuter. Admittedly it hadnt quite turned me into the svelte, Lycra-clad muscle machine that I had once dreamt might be the knock-on effect, but my morning and evening efforts were keeping me relatively fit and healthy.

So the idea of planning an adventurous trip by bike didnt take a great leap of imagination. Seeing the cyclists pedalling in the rain at the Olympics in China merely flicked the switch that had been waiting to be activated for some time. The more difficult question was where to?

How could I challenge myself? I had never done any long-distance cycling before. The furthest I had been was down the Thames Valley to London and, on a separate occasion in the other direction to Oxford. Hardly the stuff of adventure. John OGroats to Lands End? Exotic? Perhaps not. Around the World? A bit too adventurous, especially on my budget. Somewhere closer to home but not too close seemed to be the compromise. Europe. OK. But from where to where? Who did I know on the continent? It would be useful to have not just somewhere but someone to aim for. That way I would have a friendly face in situ to help me celebrate upon arrival! Family in Spain? Friends in Germany? A former colleague in southern Italy... Yes, that would work. Cycling from my flat in Berkshire to my friends villa in Puglia, in the heel of Italy. Not a bad idea. It certainly ticked the box of being a little bit out of the ordinary. I could hear the staffroom conversations already

Any plans for the summer Andrew?

Yes, Im going to cycle to southern Italy to see a friend.

Oh!

A frenzy of planning ensued. I had no great delusions about what I was intending to do. There are countless numbers of people who have made their way from England to Italy over the centuries. Travelling from Canterbury to Rome, two of the great centres of the Christian world has been on the to do list of many a pilgrim for at least the last thousand years. And it was in this direction that my research first went.

The ancient route from Canterbury to Rome has become known as the Via Francigena and it was first formally described by Archbishop Sigeric in AD 990. Much of my time in August 2008 was spent looking into the Via Francigena, its origins & its history.

Archbishop Sigerics original manuscript now over a thousand years old is kept at the British Library so one morning I made my way to London to see it. I had to arrange everything in advance (it wasnt just a case of turning up at the desk and asking for the reference section) and I was ushered through corridors in the hulk of the depository next to St. Pancras station. Unfortunately an upstart like me wasnt allowed to see Sigerics handiwork which was a little bit of a disappointment but not altogether unsurprising. What I was permitted to look at was a copy on CD-ROM which I perused at my leisure in the corner of a room full of people wearing white gloves who did have the credentials to handle the real things. I contented myself with the (possibly erroneous) thought that I was only a few steps away from the original document.