Personal Best

Friday morning (I use the term "morning" loosely, as we arrived back home at about 3 pm) bike ride with Technophobe. We cycled to Stratford today, along a back road, then past Anne Hathaway’s Cottage at Shottery and into the town. This was our goal - Carluccio’s. I was wearing my new fluorescent yellow “see me in the dark” cycling shirt. Advantage? You can see me coming miles away (as Tp pointed out through her hysterics). Disadvantage? The flies seem to find the colour most attractive and whilst trying to land sometimes get almost into my mouth. Yeuk! You might wonder why I'm cycling with my mouth open. It could be for one of two reasons:- 1. I'm having difficulty in breathing or 2. I'm laughing so much. Sometimes both of these simultaneously!

Carluccio’s have some really lovely soups and fruit juices and coffees which was exactly what we wanted. They also serve lots of other scrumptious items, but we were on our bikes don’t forget.

There are several places at which we can tether our bikes here, and it was warm enough to sit outside too, so perfect. We took our seats at a table, and the waiter immediately brought us two glasses of iced water, explaining in his Italian accent “You are on your bicycles so you need water” which was extremely kind of him. A cynic would think they didn’t want two old biddies collapsing at their outdoor tables, as it would clutter up the doorway somewhat and deter other customers - especially as one was in day-glo workman yellow, and couldn't be hidden easily. Anyway, the water was very welcome. We enjoyed our lunch, and then returned to Wilmcote via the canal towpath. There were lots of barges on the canal today and also quite a few walkers / runners / cyclists too. The weather was fabulous.

On reaching Wilmcote we then took a couple of long-cuts (as opposed to short-cuts) back to our village in order to add a few more miles onto our journey to beat my own record. Final tally was 17.7 miles (previous best 15.6 miles). Going up! Still didn’t manage my nemesis hill though, although I did get further up it than I have before.