World Tour

August 1 - Monday Chalfont St. Giles to Wolverhampton I was feeling a little bit better but still taking the Tamiflu and herbal throat rinses that Pam made for me with improving results. We decided to leave for Wales and just take our time getting there. The weather was perfect for cycling. Bright, sunny and not too hot. We doddled a bit. I was getting bummed because I knew I would miss Catherine and Pam despite the fact that we would be seeing them again before we left for Thailand. We had breakfast took some group pictures in the yard, said our good byes and walked the bikes down the drive. We road to Gerrard's Cross and stopped at Boots (it's a chain pharmacy/drugstore like Bartell's back home) and I bought some throat lozenges. We purchased round trip tickets to Birmingham - it was a good deal £15 for a return ticket. There wasn't a designated place for our bikes so they had to go in the entryway of the car. We went to the very front car which would block the fewest amount of seats but our bikes are just a tiny bit too long to fit in the handicapped area on the trains in the UK. The trip was over an hour and with each stop we would have to be at the ready to move or manuever our bikes to let someone on or off. Most of the time people would look in the window, see our bikes, and then move down to the next door. This system worked great until the train started getting full. The countryside was very pretty with the rolling hills, pastures, and passing villages. As we moved farther north the clouds became darker and the wind appeared to be picking up. We weren't especially worried and almost welcomed the change in weather after all the heat we'd been experiencing lately. We finally arrived in Birmingham in the early afternoon. The train pulled in right next to a gigantic mall. Our priorities were finding some lunch and making our way to Telford. It was overcast but the sun was starting to breakthrough the clouds a bit, still windy and definitely cooler. It was busy, we walked our bikes, tried to follow the signs and then double backed. I had been reading the map for the mall itself and saw the information booth. I tried to assure Jon that the information center was indeed INSIDE the mall - maybe I should go check it out. Then reality set in - that being the fact that Jon is (still) way better with directions than I am so he went in while I stood with the bikes as it started to sprinkle outside. He wasn't in there long and explained that the info center we wanted was back up the hill the way we came and to the left. By this time we had doubled back over the same area at least three times now. We stopped at EAT. And got a some food before hitting the information center. By this time I was feeling tired but not completely miserable. We knew there was a bike path along a canal in Birmingham that would get us to Wolverhampton before we continued on to Telford. Jon came out quite a while later. I could see him in the window - he was really putting that woman behind the counter to the test. There were maps and pamphlets being unfolded left and right, spread all over the counter - it was pretty entertaining to watch. Jon finally came out, having narrowed his collection of pamphlets down to about three. We walked our bikes through town until there were fewer people around before getting on our bikes. Birmingham is a beautiful city - a great walking city with lots of art. We definitely could have stayed longer and explored but the day was getting on and we were trying to get somewhere. Just as we found the canal the rain really started dumping down. We took our bikes under the awning of a building, put on our rainjackets and went back to the canal access, which was a set of stairs. No one had mentioned the stairs and we were in no shape to look for a new route on the road so we carried the bikes down one by one and started on the path. The canal was great and the canal boats were really quaint and had a lot of character, if I was feeling better and if it wasn't pouring down rain I would have taken a picture and really regret not doing so - oh well, we'll just have to go back one day. The other thing that wasn't mentioned in our bicycle touring book or from information was the gate we would hit periodically. The path seems more set up for pedestrians or people with bikes you could lift over the gate. There is a gate that opened for those in wheelchairs but you had to have a special key to open the gate otherwise you had to walk in the U or Z shaped path made by the metal gate. Our bikes barely, and I mean barely, were able to manuever around the U/Z shaped path. It rained nearly the entire time we were along the canal, some parts were really nice, green and lush with vegetation, riding under bridges for cars, trains or pedestrians, other parts were dirty and pretty ghetto with trash in the canal. The lockes we passed were old, unfortunately no one was using any when we passed them. We did have a near head on collision when going under a bridge. It was a blind corner and that little voice in my head told me to ring my bell as I approached but I was about 2 seconds too late. I had slowed down quite a bit, unclipped from my pedals and moved more towards the left side of the path rather than the middle. I could hear an oncoming biker and sure enough he was speeding right down the middle of the path and slammed his brakes on which only made him fishtail on the concrete. I stopped completely, not able to do much else, closed my eyes really tight certain that the guy was going to slide right into the back of my bike and push me into the canal. I heard him continue to slide past me which then made me worry that Jon was going to be hit. Everything happened so fast there was no time to even warn him although I'm sure the sliding of that guys tires was a little bit of a clue. Luckily the biker and regained control of his bike and kept on pedalling. That was close. "Are you ok?" - J "Yeah, are you ok?" - S "Yeah." - J That being settled and we were nearly at our destination, we kept going. When we got to Wolverhampton we stopped for a little snack and decided that we should just stop for the night. I wasn't feeling good and Jon wasn't feeling so hot himself by now. The rain was finally subsiding when we started looking for the information center. It was after 1730 so we weren't expecting it to be open - and it wasn't. Lots of times information centers will have maps posted with local accomodations listed, which they did. As we were looking at the crappy map in the window and deciding what to do two young early teenaged boys came over and started good-naturedly harassing us. I could tell that they were harmless but I was so not in the mood to deal with them. Jon of course was tolerant and chatted with them a bit while I found a better map across the square. Once I found a place to stay I got Jon's attention and we left those two little shits behind to harass someone else. We stayed at the Brittainia hotel which was right across the street from the bus station which we listened to for most of the night and then again early in the morning. The staff was nice and were very accomodating. We had to take our bikes through the lobby, past the conference rooms and out the back door to lock them up for the night. I only took out a small chunk of the wall while going through the maze of hallways - I don't think the manager noticed. By the time we got upstairs I was definitely not feeling well and was thinking that my cold was getting worse rather then better. We were both glad we had a warm, dry, place to stay for the night that didn't involve putting up a tent. We took our showers and climbed into bed and watched a little BBC before going to bed. We didn't pedal far but we were definitely on our way - closer to CAT (the Center for Alternative Technology).