The Anonymous Optimist

That's our bike up there, waiting for us over the winter.

It’s pretty cold here, the temperature hasn’t been above 5 degrees yet. On our first day we opted to do some shopping for extra thermal underwear, better winter gloves for riding and a few other bits and pieces for the bike. As we woke the bike from its winter hibernation and unwrapped it for the first time it decided to drop some dandruff snow on the event! Still we think it looks gorgeous.

We started it up and after a prolonged warm up, it settled into a nice burble, parked right behind our beloved “SB” from our 2009 trip.

We took it for a run up to Bedford to see Annie’s brother Pete. However Easter Friday morning wasn’t the best time to leave London, hence the 1.5 hour trip took us 3 hours in heavy traffic on the M1, at least we were able to go up the middle of the traffic on the bike. It was cold and there was still quite an amount of snow on the ground about the place. The heated hand grips on the bike were a welcome accessory. The trip back was much faster, although no warmer, and gave us a chance to give the bike a good fast run prior to our departure for the continent.

A few minor problems emerged, the engine management warning light was permanently lighted, which according to the the manual means that it was running in “limp home mode”; and the horn wasn’t working. It is Easter Friday and we are booked to leave on a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander in Spain on Tuesday. How the hell are we going to get this sorted before we leave Tuesday? Fortunately the bike is still under warranty so the dealer has agreed to have a look at it Tuesday morning, and if it is fixed by mid day we think there is time for us to get down to Portsmouth for the 5.15 sailing. However, our other obstacle is that we haven’t received the Greencard insurance for Europe yet, it was sent by courier from Germany Thursday, hopefully it will turn up by mid day Tuesday.

This morning I took a stroll around Wimbledon early before everyone got out of bed, to take a few photos, it was cold but nice and quiet.

We remain ever hopeful of an on time departure Tuesday, otherwise they could be a delay of up to a week, depending on when we can find another ferry to Spain. This would be a shame because it would mean a week less in Spain before we had to head for Greece. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

In the mean time you can help us out by suggesting some possible names for our blue bike in the comments field.

A big thank you to Allan, Teresa and Geoffery who have helped us get the bike sorted and taken us around to bike shops etc to get all the various bits and pieces we need for the months ahead.

Our next update will hopefully be from Spain some time next week.