Day 1 - Tuesday 22nd July.

Skelton/Wigton to Newcastle ferry port.
24.9 miles

Off we go!

Fantastic weather for Le Grand Depart. Not a cloud in the sky as the rendezvous at Carlisle station went to plan. God bless Northern Rail for allowing the transportation of two bikes and riders to Newcastle.

On the train met ex pupil from 40 years ago. She said I hadn't changed a bit! Lunch on the Quay side included our first beer of the day (Marston's EPA). 

Thus lubricated, the next 9 miles to the ferry terminal went by in a flash.

After two hours of baking in the sun finally boarded, found cabin, booked meal for 20.45 and then got stuck into our second beer of the day (Grolsch).

Countdown - Monday 21st July

Tomorrow is the great day. Route planning and packing are all but done.
Derek will set off from Wigton and I'll set off from Skelton and we'll hopefully rendezvous at 10 am outside Carlisle station.
Our route to Copenhagen starts with a train journey to Newcastle, short cycle to the ferry terminal and overnight trip to Ijmuiden. From there we cycle north through Holland and Germany eventually reaching Putgarten on the Baltic coast. A short ferry trip takes us to Denmark and eventually our destination. Overall we expect to cover about 1000km cycling roughly 100km a day.
The planned route takes us through vast areas of little cultural interest so Derek should hopefully be able to concentrate solely on his cycling.