OUR PROPOSED ROUTE

We arrive in London on 20th May and plan to spend a few days looking around seeing as we haven't been there for twenty five years.  Then it's time to get on the bikes and go visit some friends and relatives in Sussex, Somerset and Suffolk before catching a ferry from Harwich to Belgium.  Then we cycle towards Helsinki with our only firm plan being that we will be flying out of Helsinki on the 13th of August.  Not exactly sure where we'll go between these points.  Firstly however, we have to unpack two rather large mountain bikes in the terminal at Heathrow and leave two bloody great boxes in the middle of the arrivals lounge, without attracting the attention of the British terrorist squad.  Once done, we pedal off at a great rate of knots to our hotel, with police cars in pursuit, where we will stay whilst checking out the sights and sounds of old London town.  As someone who has lived in London, the best way to take it all in, is to walk everywhere. I hope to catch up with an old friend who I haven't seen for 15 years.  He too, tortures people for enjoyment at a gym in the suburb of Ealing.  London is a fantastic city and I look forward to re-acquainting myself with the old haunts and visiting the new attractions which have been developed over the past twenty years.
Julia and I had our friend Matt over last weekend who took us over some bike maintenance procedures and gave us some good tips for life on the road.  By necessity you do learn a lot about your bike while on the road, but we have forgotten all we learned last time as once you're back in civilisation it is just so much easier to take your bike to the bike shop if something needs fixing. 
Our only form of correspondence in those days was Poste Restante, whereby a handwritten letter from a friend or relative was delivered to a post office anywhere in the world that you had chosen. If you changed your plans and never reached said post office you missed out on communication from home. Nowadays, we pull our phones out and instantly talk to whomever. Great in many ways, but sad if you are hoping to get away from it all. In the space of a minute you can be admiring the beauty of a particular scene, the next you could be referreeing an argument between your kids as to who did the dishes last night 12000 miles away.  To keep a little of the illusion that we are getting away from it all, we have decided to forego a phone, but keep in touch via tablet, with the likes of a blog and e-mails. Skype is also an option if we wish to see anyone. 
We are gradually working through our list of things to do and trying to catch up with friends and family before we go.  It's been lovely having eldest daughter Briana home from Wellington for a few days but she heads back tomorrow and we won't see her until mid-August when we get back.  
We will then need to make a concerted effort to get all those last little bits and pieces taken care of..........only five days to go!