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Roger and Anne cross Europe on their bikes

4th December 2007 @ 3:03pm – by Audlem Webteam
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Regular Audlem Online readers may recall that a couple of years ago we reported on Roger Hulme's epic solo cycle ride across the United States. No longer in the first flush of youth, he pedaled from Oregon's Pacific coast over 4,000 miles to Virginia Beach on the Atlantic coast. It took 70 cycling days and included crossing 12,000 feet high passes over the Rockies. Incredibly, it was Roger's first ever visit to the States.

Although living across the Shropshire border in Longford near Longslow, Roger and his wife Anne are regulars at the Shroppie Fly folk jamming sessions on Mondays where Anne plays the cello. Now we can report on another epic cycle-ride – Roger and Anne have pedalled across central Europe from Trieste in Italy to Riga in Latvia.

The 1,300 mile route meant visiting many of the EU's newest members – a pedal-powered version of Michael Palin's recent TV series on Eastern Europe. Soon after leaving the Italian port of Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic Sea, it was over the border in to Slovenia, once part of Yugoslavia, and a small but beautiful country of mountains, lakes and vineyards.

The next country on the route was Hungary, where every dish seemed flavoured with paprika, including the famous goulash. Their route was up the west of the country, crossing in to Slovakia near the Hungarian city of Gyor and then heading for Bratislava, Slovakia's capital, sitting on the River Danube.

This stage of the journey saw a number of technical problems, including a snapped handlebar on Anne's bike that could have been disastrous in more hilly country. Yet, said Roger, on the three occasions serious repairs were needed, a bike repair shop was within 100 metres. Which either means their luck was in, or there are an awful lot of bicycle shops in central Europe.

Slovakia crossed, it was into Poland, by far the largest country en route. Despite being a relatively flat land, and downhill from south to north, it proved tough to cycle across with lots of heavy goods vehicles to contend with. It was a long haul via the beautiful city of Krakow to the north east of Poland, where the countryside was of huge forests and many lakes. They skirted round the isolated region of Kaliningrad, still part of Russia, before crossing in to the first of the Baltic states, Lithuania.

The final cycling destination was Riga, the capital of Latvia and now a favourite stag weekend city for the British, as well as Swedes and Finns. After a well-earned rest in Riga, with 1,300 miles behind them, it was time to travel onwards in a more relaxing way. Estonia and Finland just had to be visited, but bus and sea ferry were now the chosen modes of transport.

Not that this proved trouble-free. Twice Anne stepped off the bus to use the facilities at rest points on the journey northwards. And twice the bus set off with Anne left marooned. Roger had to be at his most persuasive, and twice the bus drivers were understanding, and turned round to collect their missing passenger!

Is another epic trip being planned, we wonder. In the pub last night, Roger kept saying: "I must go there sometime!" The many places he mentioned seemed a long way apart to mere mortals. But after cycling right across America and Europe, distance is clearly no barrier to Roger's and Anne's cycling ambitions.


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