The Fridays Tour

[dellzeqq]

Mr Legg sir, please sir, would-ya could-ya perhaps maybe PM me your bank account details so I can partake of the splendid electronic funds transfer apparatus embedded in the interwebs of a taxpayer owned bank I subscribe to?

Cos cheques are just so last century.

I'll be sending out a message in a couple of days, but, in the mean time, please do all of you bear in mind that I need cheques for the coach

 

[Gordon P]

coachies and potential coachies - you have mail

A cheque will be in the post tomorrow but, thinking aloud as it were, I just want to raise a couple of things - including first that I am just digesting the idea of 25 hours on a coach... However, I shall be practising on similar journeys in eastern Turkey beforehand, although there people come round with eau-de-cologne at regular intervals....
Will it really be possible to retrieve bikes from the van at Victoria Station? The packing will have to be conducted with top Fridays efficiency! & then there may be the question of carrying across London the baggage deposited some 10 days before... It requires some thought.
But still my favoured option so as I said, cheque on its way.

 

[dellzeqq]

A correction has been sent out Gordon - we leave at 7.30 am, not 7.30pm

apologies

both coach and van will go to somewhere near Victoria - possibly Buckingham Palace Road

Simon

 

[Gordon P]

A correction has been sent out Gordon - we leave at 7.30 am, not 7.30pm

apologies

both coach and van will go to somewhere near Victoria - possibly Buckingham Palace Road

Simon

Phew! I thought that maybe they use old coaches in Wick like they do in the far flung reaches of Armenian Turkey plus drivers who like a regular snooze!

 

[dellzeqq]

Thank chr*st for that, I was thinking it was a v e r y s l o w c o a c h

or a very, very fast one

 

[mmmmartin]

Cheque (made of paper that is from a sustainable forest) and in envelope (made of paper from a sustainable forest) written by hand (hence not using electricity generated from a coal-fired power station generating greenhouse gases) and will be posted tomorrow and delivered by a postie onna bike, I hope.

the electrical interweb is sooo last century.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

A correction has been sent out Gordon - we leave at 7.30 am, not 7.30pm

apologies

both coach and van will go to somewhere near Victoria - possibly Buckingham Palace Road

Simon

I got the correction. but I never got the original email. could you resend please?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Cheque (made of paper that is from a sustainable forest) and in envelope (made of paper from a sustainable forest) written by hand (hence not using electricity generated from a coal-fired power station generating greenhouse gases) and will be posted tomorrow and delivered by a postie onna bike, I hope.

the electrical interweb is sooo last century.

You so don't want me to deconstruct the CO2 footprint of your cheque, pen, envelope, postal van, etc..

 

[rb58]

I got the correction. but I never got the original email. could you resend please?

I'm afraid I got neither the original nor the correction.
Cheque is on its way Simon - you have mail too.
Cheers

 

[redflightuk]

Cheques in the post.

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm afraid I got neither the original nor the correction.
Cheque is on its way Simon - you have mail too.
Cheers

Ross - I have you down as a no-coachie but a possible bike in the van. The e-mail (and correction) was to the coachies only.

 

[mcshroom]

Cheques in the post.

Same here

 

[srw]

I was thinking more of Rickmansworth or Amersham! And I'll warn people who want a hard ride - these are likely to be reasonably leisurely, and mutual encouragement (not least to get out of bed in the first place) may be needed.

There aren't enough bike rides that look at big houses, so here's a draft route that does just that.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/72532558/

Starting from Amersham railway station, we go first to Chequers to wave at Dave. Then it's along a private estate road (which I need to check out) to the first of several Rothschild properties - Waddesdon. From Waddesdon we go past the railway museum at Quainton to the Verney family residence at Claydon. There is, apparently, a teashop there outside of the National Trust enclave.

From Claydon we skirt back down to Wing, past Ascott and Mentmore (two more Rothschild houses). I've the routed the ride back through Wendover Woods - it wouldn't be a Chiltern bike ride without a long hill, and this is the most pleasant in the area, not least because there's an ace little café at the top. Finally, there's a quick and not-all-that tortuous ride back to Amersham via smaller, but still rather lovely houses in The Lee - including the most surprising bit of public art.

It's about 66 miles. It could be made longer, and still on-theme by including a loop out to Stowe Landscape Gardens (which would mean a picnic in the carpark or by the side of the road unless everyone's an NT member). It could be made shorter by starting at Great Missenden. There are bail-out points a-plenty - the whole route is within a few miles of the Chiltern line out to Aylesbury. Most of the ride is on B or unclassified roads, and there's almost nothing on a busy road. The road up to Chequers is a bit of a drag; Wendover Woods is definitely a hill. The rest is basically rolling.

I'll do some recces, and propose a date.

 

[dellzeqq]

you might want to reconsider this. Poor Andrij did a Thames tour and some muppet kept on popping up and saying 'yeah, well, I'll tell you a very tedious story about this building.....' you're in line for 'yeah, well, this is the farm on which I shovelled pigshit for six years...'

the gated road east/west through Quainton is sweet, though!

 

[srw]

None of them are gated any more, as far as I know.

I see cycling as a way to see interesting and beautiful things and be in interesting and beautiful places, so I'm willing to put up with the odd architecture bore (I forgot to mention the Anglo-Saxon church at Wing and, if there's time, the mediaeval wall paintings in Little Missenden, and I'm sure there's some railway architecture to be boring about too). If I'd chosen a different route up the escarpment, civil engineers ("see boring") could have a whale of a time with the Rothschilds' batty pumping station outside Tring.