A load of old cobbles

 Hello my dear friends....we have finally got our blog working again....(*also possible issues with a defective typist)....and so I am back with a few of our recent adventures....Hurrah!...


So, last weekend, we headed of to France so that the typist could be allowed to cycle his bike and watch a bit of cycling too.....

...so, for border issues don't forget to take your border terrier along....*chuckling*....

....there were lots of other folks heading our way from the UK....we were off to a town called Roubaix where there is a very famous bike ride every year...it is called Paris-Roubaix and is one of the highlights of the professional racing season...although they let the amateurs ride the same course the day before...

...there are plenty of compensations with going to France of course....

....we travelled by Eurotunnel...a dog in a car in a train under the sea....

....we drove all the way to Roubaix, which is near the border with Belgium....and we had a very nice little hotel...they were very kind and accommodating...

...they even allowed the typist to park his "precious" bike in our room....

....we wandered through Roubaix to race registration in the afternoon...here is the Hotel du Ville...Town Hall to you and moi....

....we saw the huge cobble outside the famous velodrome...the race is famously run over very rough cobbled roads across farmland....its known as the Hell of the North....not all the cobbles are this big!...

...and we had a little snoop around cycling's most famous velodrome....many a cycling legend has been born here....*yawn*...typist will get to finish his race here tomorrow....

....what a long day it was.....(*i am told this was all part of the training...i am not so sure)...

....but what a beautiful spring day it was too.....

...although for some reason the nitwits (Surely "neetweets" Ed.) gave the typist his trophy BEFORE the race....pfffft

...*yawn*...cycle cycle cycle etc...this went on for most of Saturday...some of it was HARD ...apparently...*yawn*....try googling Paris-Roubaix to get some sense of what they went through....

..that afternoon I went in search of some real culture....they have a nice museum in Roubaix....spoiled only by a tired typist groaning and moaning about his 90 mile ride....

...and they have found a creative use for their entry tickets.....

...the museum is in a swimming pool!....

...see?...in a pool....these French dudes are strange.....

...but they do know a thing or two about pastries!....

....we all did our bit....I don't know what he's moaning about...it seemed easy to me....

...and in the evening we went to Ypres for dinner (juts over the border into Belgium) and saw the famous Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate...it was very moving and and we thought about typists grandad who served on the Western Front during WW1...

....and we saw this at the Gate...a reminder of some real suffering on a bike....typist looking sheepish and toning down his whingeing...

...on Sunday we went back out to the fields and saw the professionals riding...that man in red in second place was the eventual winner of the race....he's Belgian...the Belgian's are good at this sort of thing....

...we had such a super weekend......we highly recommend Roubaix in the sunshine in the spring!....

Le woof!