After what seemed like an age the date has dawned and Ross, Nick and Stewart arrived on Friday evening raring to go. We had a pleasant evening catching up and then were joined by Matthew and Robin on Saturday morning. Bike loading went well despite a minor issue regarding symmetry, (it's always difficult coping with people who are slightly OCD) and we hit the road at exactly 9am as planned.
The journey South to Dover was very relaxed and we hardly touched our brakes, rolling into the ferry terminal in plenty of time for our ferry.Robin managed to attract the Police's attention as he struggled to fit his headlamp protectors and then shocked the group with his revealing of his Man Bag.
After lunch on the ferry we departed Calais and without any real problems knocked off about 160 miles before stopping in Laon overnight.
We passed our time discussing very interesting philosophical issues such as do bird have accents and how do trees know when to stop growing? As you can imagine with our combined intellect we solved many problems for the world.
Laon looks impressive with a huge Cathedral dominating the horizon atop a rocky outcrop way above the rest of the horizon. Sadly we are stuck out on an industrial estate about 3 miles from the centre so we didn't get to see much of it.
The lads have presented me with a cycling top and a very nice bottle of whisky to say thanks for organising the trip which was very much appreciated and no doubt won't get home unopened.
Dinner was a pleasant affair in the Ibis restaurant and we settled in to watch the football over a few beers. We continued our philosophical discussion although Matthew didn't really buy into the process and started actually answering the questions rather than discussing the broader issues which buggered things up a bit.
Tomorrow we have about 350 miles to cover but hopefully we should get a short ride in once we've checked into the accommodation.
Onwards and upwards.
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