Copenhagen

A few months ago, as a birthday trip for me, Frans and I booked flights to Copenhagen to visit Line and Peder for the weekend. We were desperately disappointed when the outbound flight was cancelled due to 'bad weather' by the carrier and we had to reschedule it for two weeks later. We had already made our way to the airport when they announced the cancellation and had to endure the journey back home by drinking the wine we had bought Line and Peder as a gift. Anyway, we got to Copenhagen in the end and had one of the most enjoyable weekends away we have ever had. I think there were two reasons why it was such an amazing time: 1. we had no expectations of Copenhagen, everything we saw was better than imagined because we hadn't imagined anything, 2. Line and Peder were such generous, welcoming and hospitable hosts, 3. we had spectacularly good weather. I'll tell the rest of the story with pictures.

Nyhaven - Copenhagen

A Danish birthday cake (albeit 2 weeks late), decked with Danish flags, as is the Danish way!

Enjoying the sun in Copenhagen

Christianborg Palace resplendent under a clear blue sky

Frediriksborg Have and the Palace in the distance which is now the Officer Training School for the military

Classic Scandinavian decor

The tamest ride in Tivoli theme park was too scary for me. Frans loved it!

 

A view of some converted warehouses from our river boat cruise

We cycled everywhere we went. What a revelation! I wish more cities were bicycle friendly.

A classic Danish meal to end off an amazing two days in Copenhagen

Tour de France

The Tour de France

My love affair with watching cycling started in 2015 quite unexpectedly. It was images of French countryside, chateaus and panning shots of immense war memorials which gripped me at first. As I started to watch the racing unfold, the TV commentary pulled me in still further; I was learning about the multiple minor prizes which are awarded every day, I was learning the meaning of the words 'peloton', 'breakaway', 'domstique' and the way that riders overcome the laws of physics to out compete their rivals. By the time the day's racing came to the finish line, my heart rate was up, I was at the edge of my seat, willing the breakaway rider to stay away and take the stage. In short, I was hooked!
When Frans and I decided to move to London, I immediately imagined the possibility of watching the Tour de France in person, being one of the millions of fans on the roadside waving flags, wearing polka dot caps and cheering the riders on with shouts of allez, allez, allez! (go, go, go!)
Once I started investigating the prospect of visiting France specifically to watch the race, I realised that it wasn't going to be quite as easy as I had initially thought. Unlike a pitch-based sports match where you know the location of the game and can easily plan accordingly, the Tour de France takes place over 3500 kilometres of general roads over 21 racing days. It is possible to know the route of the following year's stage about 10 months before the race occurs, but when I started to investigate a little further, I realised that it is actually just the start and finish town for each stage that is published, the route its self is still a mystery until much closer to the Grand Depart (first day of racing). I read multiple blogs and websites dedicated to advice for watching the race in person and began to develop a picture of how the experience would be. This would be an important part of managing my expectations for the trip. Some important lessons that I didn't have to learn the hard way:
1. You will spend a long, long time waiting on the roadside to see the riders flash past in all but a few seconds
2. You cannot see more than one spot on any one day
3. Roads are closed hours before the race starts, sometimes even the day before. And there is no centralised way of finding out the details of these road closures!
Now that I had all this good advice, I needed a travelling buddy. Enter Philippa, the perfect person to travel to deepest France with, stand on roadsides with, drive multiple car journeys with and watch a few precious moments of cycling with! We decided that stage 16, 17 and 18 would be the best to watch as they were close to Grenoble where we had an accommodation contact. Flights booked, car hire sorted, South African flag packed and we were on our way!
Fay and Alan Barrow were our exceptional hosts for the 4 nights. It is not really possible to describe how perfect our stay there was, but I will try. Fay collected us at the airport and had to recognise us from a whatsapp photo as she had never met us and only knew my mom from when they were 12 years old. Alan is a trained chef and we had hotel-level meals every evening on the patio overlooking the mountains while the sun set, enjoying conversation with two of their daughters who were home at the time. Their home is large, beautiful and comfortable with a spectacular kitchen and the cutest dog, Honey. Every morning we woke up to gentle breeze coming through the window off the nearby mountains and the chiming of the bells from the Saint Martin d'Uriage church.

The spectacular Barrow home with sun soaked patio in the foreground.

We rented a car while we were there and that came with its own challenges of driving on the right-hand side of the road, but even more difficult was driving on the left-hand side of the car, with the gear stick and the rear-view mirror on the wrong side! But I got used to it surprisingly quickly and soon began to enjoy driving again. We dealt with a few super narrow, twisty and scary mountain roads and also some lovely wide freeways (where the speed limit was 130 kilometres per hour, what a novelty! Not that we could actually go very fast in our tiny and tinny little rental car!)
Over the three days we saw the finish of one stage, a climb on the second day and the start of the stage on the third day. Seeing the finish of stage 16 in Romans-sur-Isere was exciting; we were in the middle of the crowd and couldn't really see the riders coming over the line, but we did see the presentation of the prizes, as well as some of the team busses afterwards.

The highlight of stage 16 was seeing Marcel Kittel slowly riding back to his bus sans helmet so we could get a really good picture of him. 

Spectating on the mountain climb gave us the opportunity to experience the riders passing us at a slower pace and fairly strung out in smaller groups. It was quite a drive to get to Col de la Croix de Fer and we had to park a few kilometres away from the race route due to high volumes of traffic. From there we walked up the race route until we found a spot to set up on the roadside to set our selves up for the hours long wait in alternate blasting wind and sprinkling rain. It was a bizarre spectacle to see this really remote mountain road lined with people calmly waiting with their flags and picnics. From where we were sitting I could see hiking paths on the mountainside opposite us and I imagined some unsuspecting hiker coming over the hill on their otherwise lonely and secluded hike to see this spectacle. About an hour and a half before the riders comes The Caravan. This is a convoy of marketing floats with music blaring and people on board throwing freebies into the crowds. It is a total of about 70 or 80 vehicles and you get a variety of fun stuff; we got our coveted polka dot caps, souchon sausages, madeleine cakes, many many key rings, rubber bracelets, cone shaped shout enhancers, blow up cushions, I could go on!

One of the floats of the Caravan with music blaring and freebies flying

About an hour after the caravan came the riders led by the so-called 'Sky train', a line of riders from Team Sky who ride in the front of the race to control exactly how it unfolds as they had the yellow-jersey rider Chris Froome in their team so they have the unwritten right to ride at the front.

The Sky train - Photo credit to Philippa, a truely awesome shot!

The third day of spectating for us involved a long drive to Briançon for the start of the stage to Col d'Izoard. The route from Grenoble to Brainçon was absolutely spectacular and I would recommend driving it to anyone who is visiting that part of the country. Brainçon is a wonderful little town in the High Alpes with a medieval quarter with a steep cobbled street where we had lunch after watching the riders pass. The day out was thoroughly worth it even though we only got to see a small part of the race. On our way home, after fighting with a petrol dispenser, we stopped multiple times to take photos of the incredible view which included snow-capped mountains, in the middle of summer!

Medieval Briançon

Snow capped Haute Alpes

And so my Tour de France experience came to an end, here are some more pictures.

Tourist at the top! Col du Glandon is where we parked and Col de la Croix de Fer is the climb we watched.

Proudly South African. The sweet French family next to us lent us there umbrella pole as a makeshift flag pole. They didn't speak any English but asking someone to take a picture of you waving a flag is fairly easy using sign language. 

WE GOT THE POLKA DOT HATS! 

The finish podium at the end of stage 16 in Romans-Sur-Isere.

On our first day we stopped in the little town of Pont-en-Royans and had a picnic next to the beautiful river which runs through the town. Our SA flag served as a table cloth.

Honey! 

This was all Fay had to recognise us! She found us though, thankfully!

Rome

In the last post I wrote (here) I promised that I would dedicate another write up to our holiday in Italy. However, as I go through the photos and memories, I realised that it is going to have to be two entries. To maintain interest, I do want to streamline the posts to some degree, but these are just as much a way of recording memories for us as entertaining readers. As I look back through previous blog posts, it is amazing to be able to remember the events as I remembered them then and it already feels like a long time ago that we arrived in London, visited Sidmouth and Dorset and had friends and family to stay in our own little flat. This trip to Italy was our first European holiday and I don't want to forget any of it!

The main part of our holiday was planned for the Amalfi Coast, near Naples, but as we started to look into flights and train rides, we decided to start our trip in Rome and spend two nights there, and we are so glad we did. I will write about Amalfi soon but we'll focus on Rome this time. 

Staying in Rome was a surprisingly special experience, albeit extremely exhausting. We planned not to put too much pressure on ourselves to see everything and spent most of the two days walking the streets and taking in the sights that we came across, and even this took its toll on our feet. 

Our map of Rome, provided to us by our trusty local, Rich, formed the outline of where we decided to go. But it was the app called Rick Steve's Audio Guide Europe, also suggested to us by Rich, which really brought the city to life for us. If you are ever travelling a city in Europe, take the time to download this free app. There are options to listen to podcasts about a city or country around some themes, but even more useful are the walking tours of certain sites. This proved invaluable when we were at the Pantheon for example.

We stayed in an amazing AirBnB hotel between the Roma Termini station and the Colosseum which was the perfect mix of local suburbia and tourist attractions. From here we walked everywhere we went in the city. After two days in Rome, we caught a train to Amalfi and continued the Italian adventure.

The classic Rome street where our hotel was situated

A charming park, Parco Del Colle Oppio, between where we were staying and the Colosseum.

These stone pine trees are everywhere in Rome and create such a regal atmosphere. They are so tall and deep green.

Our first sight of the colossal Colosseum

Colosseum in the background and the Arco di Constantino in the foreground

As you are wandering through the city, you stumble across places like this. Circus Maximus, the green space in the foreground, is an ancient chariot racing stadium which would have been used as long ago as 700BC. In the background, Palatine Hill and ancient imperial palaces. 

at The Monument of Giuseppe Mazzin over looking the Cicus Maximus we had the obligatory tourist couple photo when we could request a kindly stranger to take one. And return the favour of course, as is the way in very tourist areas. 

The Victor Emmanuel II Monument, also known as the Altere Della Patria is a relatively new building (completed in 1925) that dominates the skyline of Rome. It is built with bright white marble, contrasting with the generally brownish and terracotta colours of the city.

The Victor Emmanuel II Monument is visible from most parts of the city. Many Italians dislike its ostentatiousness and it is referred to as la torta nuziale (the wedding cake)

At night the Victor Emmanuel II monument is lit up and still visible from almost everywhere.

What struck us about the river Tiber was how much lower it is than the city. It is much less conspicuous than the Thames in London because of this.

We found somewhere high to have sundowners on our second evening in Rome

This inconspicuous brown brinck church crouches behind the enormous  white marble Victor Emmanuel II Monument and is easy to miss. We went inside while exploring the area and were awestruck by the amazing baroque decor inside. 

The characteristic domes of Rome

There are spectacular fountains everywhere in Rome. This is just one of the encrusted statues in the Fountain of Naiads in the Piazza Della Repubblica

Classic modern Roman street

We had lunch overlooking the Bernini Triton Fountain in the Piazza Barberini 

Overlooking the Piazza del Popolo and St Peter's Basilica on the skyline

The spectacular Trevi fountain. It is hard to believe that this huge and dominating structure is tucked away in the regular streets of Rome.

This is to show how many people had come to see the same Trevi fountain. In this picture, it is possible to see the streets around the fountain and how it is tucked away among regular buildings.

Our favourite attraction was the Pantheon. We used the Rick Steve's Audio Guide Europe here and it made the experience unforgettable. 

Using the audio guide and hearing fascinating information while gazing upwards at the incredible domed roof of the Pantheon meant that we could appreciate the more than 2000 year old architecture without competing with the thousands of other tourists in the building.

Originally built as a temple to the multiple gods of the Roman times, the Pantheon is now dedicated to Catholic worship and a few noteworthy Italians

One Winter, Two Weddings and The Big Bike Ride

It would be remiss not to acknowledge the incredibly long break between blog posts, for which I must apologise. For various reasons, I have not written a post in about 10 months and it was thanks to a few enquiring texts and emails that I am sitting down again to write another snapshot of our lives here in London.

As the summer approaches, and spreads its long evenings and bright sunshine on our days, there is more space for taking time out of the daily grind for some reflection and sharing our lives with friends and family. Although we have survived the winter, looking back retrospectively, it was not without the customary semi-hibernation that many UK residents tend to slip into during those colder and darker months. Aside from a 3 week holiday to South Africa over Christmas and New Year, we let winter slide by and are only now starting to wake up, blinking and stretching.

Chantal and Matt's wedding in South Africa this January was the highlight of our otherwise wintry months. It was the most special day with throngs of the closest and most special people, lashings of rain and moody mist that nobody noticed because they were all having such a good time. And when we got back to icy London, we put our heads down and held out until the next exciting trip, as the British tend to do.

During the spring we took our first trip to Europe and visited Italy. Starting in Rome and ending in Amalfi, we did a fully tourist holiday and loved every minute of it. But details of that holiday will take an entire post to themselves, I'll leave that for another day; I am only just shaking the cobwebs and mothballs out of my neglected blog-writing trousseau and I'm not going to start over-ambitiously!

It was then a nip back to South Africa for Vicky and Dylan's wedding at the end of April. We were so grateful to be able to share this most special day with our Virasamy's. The weather came to the party too and it was a cool sunny day ended off by a major party; I don't think the bride left the dance floor even once. After spending the following two days catching up with family and friends, it was back to London and back to work. And one week later, a Big Bike Ride

A few weeks ago I took part in a long cycle ride in Norfolk and Suffolk, called The Big Bike Ride. I was invited to join the fundraising ride by my friend Elyse and her husband Ed after she noticed that I had ridden to school a few times on the mountain bike lent to me by my Aunty Margaret. Being brand new to cycling, I don't think I quite realised what I was letting myself in for when I agreed to be Elyse's riding buddy over 170 kilometres of cycling in two days. But, as it was to raise money for a good cause (St Elizabeth's hospice) and, since I was planning on getting myself a more suitable bike anyway, I agreed and we started training in earnest. Unfortunately, we only had about 5 weeks to get any training done and I had not yet received my road bicycle so I was training on the tractor bike as it has come to be known. We attended a few spinning classes at the gym and after my road bike arrived, we did a few longer rides. But not enough as we found out the hard way!

Day one we rode for about 120 kilometres and it took us almost the whole day, both of us ended up with painful knees and were walking funny by the end of the day. But it was day two where the 'injuries' really showed up. That's when sitting down on the saddle was a real problem, but standing on the pedals was not an option either, due to the aforementioned knee trouble. The catch 22 was eventually solved once we had warmed up and by a large dose of Ibuprofen - dosed up and ready to take on the Tour de France. After 50 kilometres we finally arrived at the finish line at a local junior school, along with the other 50 or so riders who had also completed the distance. The countryside and company were the real highlights of the weekend. The route took us along the Norfolk coast so there was an ever-changing vista of seaside and farmlands. Luckily we had a personal second, Philippa from Johannesburg, to drive along behind us and provide us with any food, tire pumps and general merriment as we cycled endlessly along.

Elyse and I with Ed and Phil. Our small team taking on a Big Ride

Elyse and I would not have managed without Philippa, our brilliant second. South Africans are the best.

She captured this highly staged shot of us 'flying' down a country road

The scenery was really special

Only 14 miles to go on day 1. We really needed that rest stop!!

We made it! 

Leg rubs to ease the knee pain

Strava map of Day one - 120km

 

Strava map of day two - 50km of cycling

Still smiling at the end