Is Summer here?

Well I certainly hope the good weather lasts longer than a few days.  Gregor and I took advantage of the sunshine yesterday and went out on the bikes.  I was persuaded that my bike was too much of a tourer to be taken out to do technical stuff (even though she still has the mountain bike tyres on - we've both been busy recently so she's still not properly converted) so I teamed up with Gregor's Orange to have a go at lumpy bumpy bits, narrow bridges, hills and corners.  I was a bit nervous at some things, mostly going down hills where there was either a tree at the bottom or a steep drop to one side..  but that aside I enjoyed having a go at different things and already feel a bit more confident on the bike.

Bike bling!

In a week or so the knobblies will be off and the new wheels and new tyres will be on,
as will everything else.. eee!  But for now, a little bit of flower power for my favourite bike :o)

What I'm looking forward to about touring

1. Exams and uni being finished - I can finally read exactly what I want when I want :)
2. Food - we'll get to have to try new things; new cooking methods on the camping stove as well as new ingredients from the countries we visit
3. A new view every day - falling asleep to and waking up to lots of different scenes
4. Exercise!  I haven't been doing a lot of that recently so I'm hoping being on the bike everyday will prove beneficial
5. Spending more time with Gregor - we haven't seen each other as much as we'd like this last year
6. Carrying everything we need with us, even the kitchen sink!
7. Visiting different countries, especially as it will be in the summer
8. Belgium and Beer :o)
9. The Netherlands and Windmills and Tulips
10. Knowing that, although when it's over I'll be a bit sad, there are exciting prospects for me to come back to
11. Camping!  How could I forget!  The beauty of sleeping outdoors (and as mentioned earlier the views to go with it)

(..in no particular order..may be added to later!..)

Progress

It's a lovely sunny morning here in Scotland and I woke up feeling happy and excited as last night I ordered the last lot of things I needed for the bike!  Once they arrive I can take them over to touring partner Gregor (whose latest post appropriately discusses the question 'to buy or build') where they will join the box of other new parts (shiny new wheels, eek!) and we can then start the re-assembling process.

As well as spending my pennies I did some re-designing of the blog last night.  I'm now using one of my own photos for the background which, although not tour related, shows one of my favourite summer views.  I'm not sure how it will look - this will depend on your screen size.  As I'm posting from a netbook with a small screen I can't quite get the measurements right so it may look a bit small on normal screens - if it's particularly skewif please do let me know!  You can do this by leaving a comment on the post, or you can try out my new contact me page on the blog.

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Testing, testing.. 1, 2, 3..

Evening all! I've decided to follow Gregor's example and set up a blog of my own to share my touring adventures. Whilst we could share a blog, it will be nice for both of us and our readers to see different perspectives on our activities whilst we tour - we might both blog about the same thing but in very different ways!

At the moment I'm borrowing a background from the blogger design page (which seems appropriate as our first stop will be the Netherlands) but will eventually customize it with one of my own photos. When I'm away I'll be blogging a variation of thoughts, photos.. anything else interesting we come across.

I'm excited to be getting everything together and thoughts organized. Nearly all the new bike parts have been bought and I hope to start assembly soon - before and after pics will follow!