Shunpike shenaniganery

After leaving Howden, I took myself along the M62 and the M18, bound for the A1(M), and 45 miles later I reached my meeting point with bestie, a nondescript little Starbucks with a very descript and unusual roof. It was originally the A1 southbound's Markham Moor petrol station and its curved concrete roof is a hyperbolic paraboloid – a continually curved surface like a Pringle but here they made it more pointy. We first learned of it while watching a video from the highly entertaining Auto Shenanigans on YouTube. You have to say it as "HYPERBOLIC PARABOLOID!!!" while jiggling your camera about.

After looong hugs we headed inside for elevenses and a catch up for a while. Eventually duty called so we saddled up, finally hearing each other through our helmet intercoms again, and we powered down the motorway for a bunch of miles, eventually going off piste in search of our next coffee stop which was at a little grass aerodrome and flying school called Fenland. We enjoyed a couple of rather good lattes and some time to close our eyes for a bit.

After watching a little plane take off from the field, we took minor roads to our first proper objective. For this holiday bestie had originally suggested visiting all the Greenwich Meridian marker stones that stretch from about Hull in the north to the south coast, and that seemed like a perfectly sensible, perfectly niche and perfectly ridiculous kind of thing for two curious biker gals to do. The first one we visited was a stout sandstone pillar with its coordinates, latitude 53°43' and longitude 00°00'00"!

All markered out we set off for our hotel in Cambridge where, after a little bit of dodgy navigation, and then failing to operate the hotel's lift correctly, two hours later we had our feet up with cups of tea in hand. We finished the evening with a wee swim in the hotel's pool, and a lovely Chinese takeaway for a late and much needed tea. :⁠-⁠)