The Adventure Continues...

Greetings!

We’re alive and well and finally got a chance to get to internet again, hopefully you saw our previous post on the blog, we only had 10 minutes and needed to try to reach a bunch of people so thought that was the best bet.

Anyway, it’s been extremely interesting. London took us 7+hours to get across, then there was a huge fire somewhere which shut down the train so we had to figure out how to get to Greenwich on the bus, which turned out to be way easier than we ever expected.

We spent the afternoon in Greenwich which has an amazing cool sailor’s hospital, queen’s house and of course the Prime Meridian, or as Ashley likes to say Time = 0. It is where time begins as well as the place that is 0 degrees longitude. Cool place thanks to my Dad and sister for giving us that idea.

The next day was wonderful, lots of awesome bike trails and fun places to ride. The bad news was that the campground we were headed for didn’t take tents, we found this out before we left Rochester so we asked around and found an reasonable hotel. It was a little like staying in a brothel but probably wasn’t in as good of shape. The roof and wallpaper were falling down and we had to use my Gerber to control the cold water. Sounds bad but it was a place to stay and worked fine, 15 pounds/person. We were psyched the next day because about 15 miles away was Leeds Castle and there were multiple campgrounds both on the map AND the information center in Rochester found them there as well.

We got up early, got breakfast and did a tour of Rochester Castle, which was really quite nice, one of the ruined ones so it was fairly inexpensive and really fun for Ashley and Trevor as it is their very first Castle! It also had an amazing view from the top of the keep, which is always great. We did have to share it with 30 French teenagers but it was worth it. We wanted to check out the cathedral, it looked amazing, but they were having a university graduation ceremony in it! Can you imagine how cool! I might even enjoy them if they were held in such cool places!

After that we looked at the cycling map and noticed that it wanted to take us over the top of the North Downs on an A-Road and that there was a series of C-Roads that skirted the North Downs. Seemed like a no-brainer to us so we headed out around the foothills of the Downs. Turns out this was a brilliant move, not many hills and beautiful! We happened down this small road and found a thatched farmhouse. As we were admiring the house a guy came out and told us the history of it, it was built in 1743 and his family has lived there the whole time. It has no modern conveniences, like plumbing because it’s an historic house and they aren’t allowed to mess with it. His blind uncle still lives there and the guy was born there. Anyway, it was REALLY cool!

We ate lunch at a great little café in a park and road on gleefully for the last 3 miles to the campsite, which was closed! It was still there but they were doing some kind of upgrades or something and they were going to open in 2008, apparently not by May 2008! Anyway, we weren’t too worried because just 2 miles away was another campground on the map so we headed that way. From a distance down the road we saw a tent symbol! Yay! As we got closer we realized it was crossed out! Boo! Now we were getting a little worried, there weren’t any other campgrounds on the map and we asked a guy and he only knew about the closed one, not a good sign. Rachel had had enough and went to the Ramada Inn to get a room for the night only to find out that all the hotels in the area are booked for some kind of car rally! Yikes. She coaxed and begged and he made a call to the Travel Inn. Yes they had a room, a small one with 2 single beds but a room! We took off only to find that the tandem’s back wheel is flat! We’re afraid we’re going to miss the hotel room so Rachel switched spots with Ashley and her and Trevor started riding towards the Travel Inn. Ashley and I fixed the tire and started following them. It wasn’t long until we saw them on the way back, they didn’t know where they were going and they were worried we would get lost and we would never find each other again. It was a good thing they came back because we were all headed the wrong direction, we found this out because of the amazing GPS my parents let us borrow for the trip. I typed in accommodation and it found the Travel Inn and showed us how to get there. It’s a good thing too because it was actually on a travel plaza for the M-6, which is the British equivalent of an Interstate. We would never have gone that way because it looked like you were actually getting onto the Motorway, not a good choice on bikes!

Anyway, it all worked out great and we’re safe and comfortable, not sure where we’re going to stay tomorrow but... At least we’re going to see a really cool Castle tomorrow! Leeds castle is supposed to be the most visited castle in England, hopefully it’s as amazing as it’s advertised.

One last thing is that we are all getting heat stroke and sunburnt, yes I said sunburnt! It has been in the 80’s, muggy, hot, and we’re seriously not packed for heat! We have rain gear, long underwear, jackets, gloves, warm hats and socks and very little for riding in the heat! Can you imagine! Who knew we’d get a tan in England!

Anyway, I’m still having a great time. I think Ashley and Trevor are doing grand. Rachel is having a nervous breakdown from now being able to find campgrounds two nights in a row but hopefully we can work this out for tomorrow by getting online today. Write more when we have internet again!