Ambleside in the English Lake District

A walk in the North

Ambleside

As we were up in the north we headed off to the Lake District for a short break. Really cold and damp though. We did get out for a walk in the hills above Ambleside which was great. Soon away from all the half-term traffic. The bike stayed firmly in the back of the car but its not an ideal place to drive around as the parking is so expensive. 

Lake Windermere

Even the sheep have to grow their hair long up here and the horses wear thick coats! Time for this pair of southern softies to head back south. Some say its grim up North. Stunning scenery though, when the mist clears. Another positive was that we won the quiz in the bar and came away with a nice Rioja.

Track cycling in Manchester 2011

World Cup Cycling - That's the chap on my cereal packet

Sir Chris Hoy getting ready

We headed off to the Manchester Velodrome for an exciting day out. We had bought Day Tickets for the opening day of the World Cup meeting some time ago. It only costs £11 to see an international sport that the UK is actually rather good at. The Velodrome is a great facility. It was originally built for the Commonwealth Games. There was a big free Car Park a short walk away and a nearby Asda to pick up a cheap lunch. Only blot on the horizon is the Man. City stadium. We were there for about 6 hrs which sounds a lot. However, there is not much dead time as there many different events and multiple heats. You can get up and walk around the outside of the track so plenty of opportunity to stretch the legs.

Bit of a blurr...

TW managed to pick out Sir Chris Hoy, 'that's the man on my cereal box'!  Saw a few of the other stars, Geraint Thomas, Ben Swift etc.  Having tried out track riding we have a slight idea about how difficult and dangerous this sport is. The speed is just amazing and they ride within a cigarette paper of each other. 

Some events, like the sprints, are first across the line, others are time critical.

Geraint Thomas

For the time critical events a Swiss chappie drags out a stand and a hydraulic release mechanism. They hold the rear wheel with an external brake until the start when they release, in this case, our man Geraint and another guy 180 degrees around the track. 

The centre of the track is a hive of activity with teams bikes being prepared, riders warming up on rollers and cooling down on road bikes.

Track centre is a hive of activity

 Will definitely go again, maybe London next time?

Marlow to Chinnor to Marlow cycle route

Chinnor up (81.7km)

Off on a CTC ride today, thought I would find it tough – and I did. Downhill skiing is not an aerobic exercise but cycling definitely is! A spin around South Bucks to Chinnor and then onwards towards Thame followed by a long haul up the Chiltern escarpment and home. Teach me to get on the road with proper cyclists. Met at the Bourne End Garden Centre and then head off up the dreaded Harvest Hill. Really glad to get to lunch in Chinnor for a break. Very good lunch spot, the Chinnor Village Centre.  Chicken, Ham and Mushroom Pie with veggies for £4.50.

The coffee shop was packed with people of all ages and all the activity rooms looked full. If Mr Cameron’s Big Society brought a few more places like this it would be something! A lot of the workers are voluntary. Pots of home-made Damson Jam on sale but I didn't buy any as concerned about the weight.

http://www.chinnorvillagecentre.co.uk/index.html

The pace seemed pretty fast today, lots of hills. Glad to get home!

Henley ride on Valentines Day

The green green grass of home (46km)

Climbed back on my tourer for the first time since November.  The mountain bike and skiing are my excuses for leaving Rosinante parked up.  I headed off into the Chiltern Hills with the sun on my back for a winter warm-up. Lovely bright sunny day after yesterday’s rain. The hills seem to be a bit steeper than on my last ride out here though.

Struggled with the darn pedal bindings at first, nearly toppled when I stopped to let a car pass on a single-track road but hopefully I will be OK for the next Wednesday ride.

Footpath near Stonor

I pre-arranged to meet TW in the Henley Tea Rooms for a Valentines Day Fish and Chips lunch. I know, I’m just a romantic fool! Had a bit of luck as well, the Tea Rooms has changed hands since my last visit and isn’t set up for payment cards yet. So TW had to pay with a cheque! Amazing what Ladies carry in their hand-bags. Hopefully the new owner will not make too many changes. It will be dreadful if I come back next time and find it has been painted beige, reduced to minimalistic decor, the carpeted floor replaced with wood and the honest cuppa switched to Latte. Aaagh, please, not another Costa Starbucker! Mind you they should fix the flush and sort out the toilet seat, its one of those that will not stay lifted and business has to be completed with one knee strategically placed to prevent it banging down at a critical moment. 

The Fish & Chips were fine, would have had Shepherds pie if I hadn't passed these on the way there. There cannot be many better places in the world to be a sheep than the borders of Bucks and Oxon. The grass is so green.

Cross-country Langlauf in Bad Hofgastein

Gastein Valley

When the snow is good its possible to ski right up the valley, almost to Bad Gastein. It has been some days since we had fresh snow but we decided to make our way up there anyway. It was a beautiful sunny day. Where the tracks were good we could get a rhythm going.

Outside our place

Every now and then we would come to a bald patch where the soil was showing through. Slide and glide became stop and suffer. Anyway, we had a good time. Thirsty work though.




There is a nice cafe on our route but sadly Friday was their ruhetag (rest day).

Snow and thaw

Hobbit - the first day of freedom

I’ll cross that bridge.....

Standing on the bridge at Midday

GH is crossing the River between Eton and Windsor on 8th February 2011. Starting at the Dorney Walled Garden Centre we took the Jubilee River to Eton and Windsor. Our return was via the Thames Towpath and then through the Rowing Centre and back to the Walled Garden.

Checking the course - 'looks flat to me'

At the Olympic Rowing Lake for London 2012

GH’s believes his experience in Technical Support of steering others who then do all the physical work qualifies him admirably for the position of Cox to the Men’s Eight at London 2012. We feel that even though he possesses many of the qualities required, his physical dimensions would present something of a hindrance at this time. We feel a more realistic target to aim for would be Rio de Janeiro 2016!

We did not sample any of the Garden Centre Cafe’s excellent selection of cakes nor did we stop at any pubs. I think GH is taking his training far too seriously!

The Sounding Arch

 Of course, yours truly had to cycle home via Maidenhead and Cookham. This is where the Great Western Railway crosses the Thames at Maidenhead. The right span is known as the Sounding Arch because of the great echoes, great for yodel practice. The bridge was built by Brunel in the 1830's. It will carry Crossrail to Maidenhead and Reading so they will have to put in electrification. Hope it doesn't spoil the look of the bridge!

Ski Amade Tour - Wagrain, Flachau and Kleinarl

Seven Villages and 4 Valleys in a day

Our Route for the Tour

Even though there is plenty of skiing in Gastein we thought it would be good to make use of our Ski Amade passes. We took a tour of some of the surrounding mountains and had a look at some of the local villages in the Salzburg region. Our route took in Dorfgastein, Grossarl, Alpendorf, Wagrain, Flachau, Flachauwinkl and Kleinarl.

Profile

Up bright and early. Bus down the Gastein Valley to Dorfgastein. We took the Gondola up to Fulseck at 2033m and then skied over to the Grossarl side and down to the Grossarl valley station of the Panoramabahn. We did not need to hurry so we made the most of the freshly bashed corduroy.

We were aiming for the PostBus L4 leaving at 09:45. The bus was on-time, as usual, and we headed off down the valley road to Alpendorf, a village above St Johann in Pongau. We were there in about 15mins and took a ride up the Gondelbahn to 1574m. At the top we dropped to the left for the 4 seater chair Gernkogel Panoramabahn* and climbed to 1763m. 

* this chair can get busy and a new alternative would have been to go down to 1004m and then ride up on the fast Gondola - Buchau Gipfelbahn to 1783m.

Once off our chair we turned left and headed down for the Sonntagskogel 6 seater. The approach to this lift and the subsequent two lifts is a bit hairy as a number of pistes cross and it gets a tad hectic. Anyway, we negotiated the human hazards safely and we took the lift up to 1808m.
The snow was perfect and the views absolutely stunning. Because these are relatively small mountains the lifts go to the very top giving a 360 degree panorama. Is that Radstadt over there?

Pushing on, we skied down to 1615m and Sonntagskogel I which deposited us at 1807m.  Another red run took us to another 6 seater chair – Hachau - that lifted us from 1645m to 1710m and the top of the Grafenberg. Below us was Wagrain and we headed on down a blue and then a red to the valley lift station at 862m. A shuttle bus was waiting to take us across Wagrain to the Flying Mozart Gondola. This is a bit of an odd contraption that takes eight people at a time but sped rapidly up to the peak at 1814m.

Flachau now stretched out below and we headed off, stopping briefly for a cuppa at a pleasant Alm, down towards Hermann Maier’s hometown. Blue dye was still showing on the floodlit piste. The ladies tour visited recently and they had a night slalom. Didn't think Lindsey Vonn was a blue rinse kinda girl! 

We now waited about 10 minutes in town for the 12:10 PostBus up the valley to Flachauwinkel. The bus stopped on the way to allow skiers to embark for Zauchensee on a new Gondola - now that’s a job for another day!
We continued to Flachauwinkel. Three chairs saw us up to the top of the Mooskopf.

The Sunshine Shuttle: 1030m to 1313m, the Family Shuttle: 1310m to 1793m and then finally the Powder Shuttle: 1713m to 1925m.  From the top it was a stunning run down to Kleinarl. This the hometown of a former Ladies Champion Annemarie Moser-Proll.
One o’clock and time for a lunch!
Berwyn tried out his German on the waitress which left her totally non-plussed, anyway the service was quick. Maybe she wanted to get rid of us.

Looking down the valley to Zell am zee

Towards Bishopshofen

After a 25 min. break for soup we took off for home and the ten minute journey by bus down a pretty valley to the Grafenberg lift centre in Wagrain.  We had skied down to this centre earlier so we were now starting to retrace our steps. A fast Gondola, the Grafenbergbahn, rushed us up to the Grafenberg at 1713m from where we descended to 1601m and the SonntagskogeI II four man chair. Having reached 1732m we then skied down to the 4 seater Gernkogel Panoramabahn. This is an odd lift as it goes up one side of the mountain and then carries on down the other. So you need to make sure you get off at the top otherwise you miss out on some skiing! We took the same lift up to 1763m on the outward route to Wagrain.
A great detour was then taken down Route 60 to 1004m and the new Gondola - Buchau Gipfelbahn. After a magnificent run and superb lift we then got back on-track and headed down to Alpendorf in time for the 15:16 back to Grossarl.

The bus driver was on a mission and we were soon back in Grossarl where we climbed on the Yellow Gondola, the Panoramabahn, up to 1849m. We needed to get to the Kreuzkogel sixer lift before it closed at 16:15. We skied down with 15 minutes to spare – no problem. Missing this lift would have meant skiing back down to Grossarl and then getting a bus to Sankt Johann and then a train back to Gastein.

All that was left was the ski down to Dorfgastein. However, we could not resist a quick run up a favourite lift, the Gipfelexpress Fulseck.. We then skied down through the trees to the valley bottom for a well-earned Weiss Beer.

Now that was an excellent day out with Berwyn and IG, 106km covered, good company and lots of laughs.

Note:
It is important to check the Kreuzkogel sixer lift closing time. It closes at 16:15 in March but when the days are shorter it closes earlier.

Link to SKI AMADE