We have booked our flights, the bike tour, and our hotels in Edinburgh and London.  It looked like it would be a bit dicey finding accommodation because my favourite B&B in Edinburgh, Fraoch House,  and others nearby were full.  TripAdvisor came through with a good alternative.

London proved a bit more difficult but I remembered that I often got hotel bargains using the Air Canada website and I was able to find and book a very affordable and well-rated hotel.

My Virgin Mobile SIM arrived and I immediately tested it in my cell phone where it worked perfectly.

A few small details remain; the exchange of Canadian Dollars to Pounds Sterling for pocket cash, booking the house sitter, etc.  We'll wait until we get to the train station in London before purchasing Oyster transit cards for all our city journeys.

Now it behooves me to improve my cycling on the trainer in the coming month and a half.  The route profile and distance is not arduous so, even in my present state I could probably do it.

The web yielded a very-detailed GPX file for the full Hadrian's Route.  I trimmed it to the portion we would be cycling, reversed it to begin on the west rather than the east coast and loaded it into my Garmin Forerunner 305 as a training course file (.crs).  Courses are so much more fun to follow than waypoints or tracks because they show every tiny twist and turn in your track giving warnings as you approach them. All you need to do is keep the arrow on the line.

We'll start our trip with four nights in Edinburgh after which we will take a train to Newcastle and check in at the first B&B of our cycling tour. The next morning we'll be picked up, fitted with our bikes and driven to Bowness-on-Solway on the west coast where we will begin cycling immediately.

We hope to have a YouTube cyclist buddy ride part of the route with us somewhere near Carlisle. Day one will end with us at Brampton.  The next evening we arrive in Twice Brewed (I have to determine the origin of this name and it's nearby town Once Brewed).  Corbridge marks the end of day three and the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle is the finale.  We are advised to call the tour company for pickup once we reach the bridge and they will bring us back to our Newcastle lodgings.

The next morning we depart for four nights in London.

Jim

Preparations

A friend and I have just begun preparations for this year's trek; a few days in Edinburgh, four days of cycling across Northern England on the Hadrian's Cycleway, then a few days in London.

This late planning start is because I wanted to be sure I'd be sufficiently recovered from my mishap of September 2011.

I'm very happy to report that my broken hip socket (acetabulum) has healed well, physiotherapy has been very effective in strengthening the joint since surgery to the point where I am able to cycle on my trainer close to one hour.  This improves daily so two more months of the same should put me in good stead.

The first company we approached was booked up but we were pointed towards another which looks as if it can accommodate our plans.

We should hear shortly, whereupon we can make arrangements for our air travel and stays in Edinburgh and London.

Later,
Jim