2022.04.21 – London ==> Kingston upon Thames (48 kms | Total: 48 kms)

Jenny and I were up by 7am and promptly packed our tandem luggage. After a small breakfast, we brought down all of our equipment and loaded the tandem. Jessica took our photo before bidding us a safe journey. We were weary about our cycling day as it involved crossing most of London from the east to the west. Our first hurdle was having to haul our panniers and tandem down a long circular flight of stairs on the north entrance to the foot tunnel crossing the Thames River. We had discovered on one of our previous cycling outing that the lift was out of service. Thankfully, the lift on the south side was operating correctly. This was the first below water tunnel we had ever crossed with the tandem. Surprisingly, the directions from the EuroVelo(EV) Route 2 loaded onto our Maps.me app guided us very well through a series of bicycle paths, residential streets, bridges and yes – a few busy streets. Nonetheless, the journey to Kingston up Thames was much less stressful than we expected. Our past cycling trip experience to NZ/Australia served to cycle on the left side of the road. Upon our arrival at our hotel around 2:15pm, we were relieved when the reception staff found a safe storage on the ground floor for our tandem – even though their reception office was on the first floor. We had a late lunch from Sainsbury’s supermarket supplies. Later, we posted our first blog entry. We finished our day with a Thai evening meal.

2022.04.22 – Kingston upon Thames ==> Maindenhead (54 kms | Total: 102 kms)

We could not help ourselves, we had take-away breakfast at McDonald’s. During the morning, we cycled along the Thames River on various bicycle paths. We had our first ferry crossing of the trip. It lasted about 3 mins which was half the time it took to load the tandem on the small foot ferry. We also walked our first hill over a rough single track. The remainder of our cycling route to our hotel was very enjoyable. Again the storage of our tandem was accommodated by hotel staff. Unlike during our cycling in Cuba, it was quite easy here to find ready-to-eat lunch items to devour after our cycling day. We visited a noodle/stir fry restaurant for our evening meal.

2022.04.23 – Maindenhead ==> Newbury (59 kms | Total: 161 kms)

After having some pastries for breakfast, we loaded the tandem and cycled out of the urban area on different roads. Later, we cycled on a bicycle path along a busy highway. We finally bid farewell to the Thames River after reaching Reading – our mid-point of the day. We were looking forward to cycling along the narrow Kennet River for much of the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the cycling path was often made up of a single dirt track – better suited for mountain bicycles. Along a gravel road, we encountered our first tire puncture which was promptly repaired with a new inner tube. In addition to the rough track, we had to navigate over a dozen restrictive gates and crossed the canal/river more than 15 times over small bridges. We were relieved to arrive at our hotel for a good rest.

2022.04.24 – Newbury ==> Devizes (65 kms | Total: 226 kms)

We’ve changed our morning routine by buying our breakfast supplies (e.g. yogurts, pastries, etc) the evening before. In this way we saved some valuable time in the morning by not having to run to the local grocery store. We started our cycling day along the Kennet and Avalon Canal for a short distance and then moved onto sealed roads the reminder of the day. Leaving the canal area was reassuring knowing that we would not be encountering any challenging towpath as yesterday. The downside of the sealed road itinerary was the rolling hills along country pasture fields. Thankfully (and surprisingly) we had a tail wind pushing us most of the day. Cycling through the small villages on Sunday easily made up for the modest climbs. We had lunch at a Subway outlet beside our Travelodge hotel while waiting an hour for the 3:00pm check-in time (any attempt to check-in earlier entails a fee of 10 £). Sundays were a bit more challenging for us as most grocery stores open only at 11am while many pubs/restaurants closed by 4:00pm. Needless to say we ate take-way this evening.

2022.04.25 – Devizes ==> Bristol (63 kms | Total: 289 kms)

Breakfast in the room had been working well for us. We were a bit nervous this morning about having to cycle over 30kms along the canal again. It turned out that the towpath was in reasonable good condition and the surface kept on improving the closer we got to Bath. In town, we stopped for our first coffee break since we started off from London. We met a group of avid cyclists along the way with whom we exchanged a few travel stories. The remainder of the day ride into Bristol was done on a repurposed sealed train track. We went through our first tunnel. We were amazed to see at some point a highway going under the canal and later on a river going under the canal! We were not sure whether it was the thought of arriving into Bristol for our first two-nights stop or whether our bodies were already getting acquainted to our riding, but either way, we both found the cycling easy/easier today. Our Bristol Premier Inn hotel, our favorite hotel chain, had large storage facility for our tandem. Our arrival in town marked the end of our ride on the EuroVelo (EV) Route 2, also known locally as National Cycle Network Route 4. After some minimal clothes washing, we set out to find a small Korean restaurant for our evening meal.

2022.04.26 – Bristol ==> Bristol (0 kms | Total: 289 kms)

Although we had hoped to sleep late this morning, we were awake by 7am – our usual time. We dropped by a branch of the Wetherspoon Pubs for a hearty traditional breakfast – one of the best deal in town. Later, we visited two bicycle repair shops in search of a small part for one of our wheels quick releases in addition to a new inner tube. Back at the hotel, I did some maintenance on the tandem while Jenny did some travel expenditure recording. In the early afternoon, we started to make hotel reservations for our upcoming stop-overs. In order to avoid skyrocketing hotel prices and/or sold out rooms in one of the popular towns we were expected to stay in on Saturday, we modified our itinerary to avoid the expensive stay due likely to the May 2nd Bank Holiday long weekend. Our memories of Bristol from our 2015 visit were one of a vibrant city, but this time around we failed to bring back the same feeling even after walking more than 12kms along the floating harbor. Finally convinced Jenny to have pizza for dinner.