Yep, its just a day until i set off on my Weihnachtsmarkt adventure!

The weather this week has so far been 'seasonal', that means cool but essentially dry, weather you can do stuff in without being over encumbered with waterproofs etc. So on Monday i took a walk along the local river, i've been doing this fairly regularly, there are various tweeks to extend / shorten the route and a kiosk selling hot food and drinks - always a winner for me. This time it stretched to 6km - nothing major but a decent work out even if it is still quite urban. For most of my life i've lived just a couple of hundred metres from open fields, here in Brizzle its best part of two km to the river, closer to five for open fields so without hopping a bus or other motorised transport, country walks are not so easy to do. Anyhow, i enjoyed the walk, enjoyed the pork sandwich and felt satisfied with the exercise.

Yesterday, Tuesday was to be my first ride of December and my last ride pre Germany, the forecast looked okay so i set off for one of my regular food stops at Chippenham. Going clockwise you do most of the day's climbing in the first 20km which is how i started the day, making my way onto the Cotswold massif before taking the lanes eastward to the opposite side. The stop provided sausage an' chips (well fries really) and a cuppa then i set off for the return hoping to double the 50km outward distance.

Conscious of the limited daylight i didn't want to head too far around but more lanes took me south before i started the westward leg towards Bath and the 'safety' of the bike path. It's not that traffic really bothers me but its not enjoyable mixing it with drivers intent on getting home or on the school run so if i can avoid it i will. Anyhow the timing worked out well and i finished the ride with 101km recorded although the 660m of up was a little disappointing.

And so to today, another day with similar conditions, cool but dry but with a dampness to the air. Not sure what i'm doing really, other than getting ready for my trip although i probably won't finalise packing until the morning! Whilst taking my case, i'll be travelling quite light, i don't need fancy stuff for restaurants, no its mainly about keeping warm and dry, clothing wise the case is excessive but i do expect to buy stuff so its capacity won't be wasted on the return!

As its not an organised excursion, its split into three legs, Brizzle to London by coach which i do tomorrow afternoon, then its London to Aachen on another bus with a ferry crossing arriving at @ 9.00am Friday. I'll get some breakfast, fruhstuck, then take a train across to Dusseldorf where i'll be based until Tuesday when i'll start the return journey. Why not get the bus all the way i hear no one ask? Well whilst that would have been nice it would have involved a bus change in Brussels, Amsterdam or Paris (go figure), taken a lot longer in part due to multi hour waits for said changeovers - you do not want to be hanging about for several hours in the cold, in the middle of the night at an interchange with limited facilities, oh and it would have cost more too!

I have fine tuned my plans a little more now so i can get as much as possible into the trip, not just the markets and shops but a couple of 'museums' too for some variety. Not sure what interweb i'll have but i won't be able to post Gaby on Sunday as i'll be on my phone (i'm not lumping the laptop about!)

Well that's it for now, so until next time,
Tschussie,
Mads.

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