Getting Caught Up

Monday, June 10, 2024
London, England, United Kingdom
For those of you who don't do Facebook, a quick update.  Greg and I recovered, Greg a day after me.  Whatever we had sure knocked us down for a couple of days, but we are back to 100%.  And thankfully nobody else got sick!  Staying away from the group for a couple of days was a good idea!
We took the train from Newcastle to York, where there was a rest day.  We did almost nothing that day, aside from a grocery run and eating soup.
The next day the ride was from York to Lincoln.  Greg was in the van, and I rode a partial day, until lunch, then took the van in from there.  It was another cool and cloudy day (pretty much all we've had on this trip!).  The group found a nice coffee stop part way through the morning, and as more people rode up, we ended up with 16.  It was fun!
We had never heard of Lincoln, and it was lovely.  The cathedral there is the 4th largest in England, and besides being huge, it is a dog friendly cathedral!  Our favorite thing about it was the "National Table" housed there.  It is a 40+ foot-long table made from a 5000 year old black oak tree trunk uncovered in a peat bog.   These trees are found periodically and are always used for something special, but this specimen was exceptionally long, so the decision was made to make a huge table out of it.  It was too big and heavy to move, so a sawmill was made on the site to mill planks, then a special kiln was built to dry the wood out.  Over 18 months, over 1.5 tons of water was removed.  The table was built out of 5 long planks, and is just spectacular. 
Lincoln also has an old castle, which was never used for living quarters, but instead was a military garrison.  It is now a seat of justice, and the courthouse is in daily use.  There are 2 old jails there, 1 Victorian, then 1 slightly newer, but both have been replaced by a more modern jail out of town.  The castle grounds has a large installation of dragons, coming out of the castle walls - so whimsical!  There was a constant rumbling, muted roaring sound, and periodically one of the dragons emitted smoke.  Can't imagine who thought that up, but it was pretty entertaining!
Our next day of riding was pretty flat, on quiet country roads through the lush, green English farm lands.   Another chilly and grey day, a couple of hours of light rain in the morning, then sunny off and on in the afternoon.  Still chilly and windy, temps in the mid-50s.
Our next day into Cambridge was also cool, windy, and grey, imagine that, but no rain.  We had lunch near a town that had many thatch-roofed houses.  We noticed that many of the roofs had an animal statue near the ridge.  They are made of straw, and originally were to ward off evil spirits, but today are an artistic expression.  There are companies that will make them to order, of course.
We had at least 10 miles on a beautiful, wide, smooth cycleway that paralleled a guided busway.  The busway consists of concrete "tracks" with a deep curb on each side.  The buses are kept on the track by small rubber wheels that press against the curb.  The driver takes his hands off the wheel, and the buses are designed to run up to 55 miles an hour.  It was pretty interesting to see them speed .
Cambridge was overwhelming - extremely busy, old and gorgeous.   Everywhere you looked were beautiful old buildings and we had no idea what any of them were.  We would have needed a guided tour to make sense of anything, but no time for that on this trip!
Our last day into London was also cold.  It started out raining and windy, and we were riding with bicycle commuters who know where they're going.  We saw 1 guy in shorts and a T-shirt, and we were in 4 layers!  We also saw a guy in a lilt and T-shirt.  Hardy people here! Everybody is wearing the same warm clothes over and over, and we're decided summer will not be arriving any time soon!  It was a long day, with a lot of slow going over narrow, bumpy canal tow paths. There were lots of stops to put clothes on and take them off, depending on if there was sun or rain!  2 people in our group of 5 had flats, 1 of them in Hyde Park, 1.5 miles from the hotel, and there were 10 flats that we know of in the group as a whole.  None for us, knock on wood!  The ride in London to our hotel was pretty amazing - almost on marked and/or protected bike lanes.  We rode by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, past Buckingham Palace, through the Wellington Arch, and through Hyde Park to our hotel.

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