Nayburn Lock, York Camping

Didn't leave home while 5pm On what looked like a very busy weekend. The Leeds Festival and York Races both meant the roads would be very busy. With this in mind I decided to avoid the A64 / A1 and instead ure the M62 and A19, this was a good decision and we arrived at 7 30pm.

At the Railway Museum

Saturday morning and the kids made friends with the kids in a caravan next door. We decided to ride our bikes into York there is a really good bike route using a disused railway for a large par of the ride. Jack - and Finlay convinced our neighbours to go to York on their bikes. The Father of the kids was a little concerned about the distance into town. I said it was all flat and a pretty easy ride. We set off and within a few miles it was obvious that he was struggling, the kids found it easy, the ride went right part the race course which was very busy. we had to take care on the last stretch as we were at the side of a busy road. Our new fiends looked shattered. We headed to a nearby Pub and got some drinks.

After this we left our new fiends and headed to the railway museum. Jack used to be obsessed with trains when he was little. Weve visited the museum before, but it made sense to visit as several A4 Pacifics were on display. They are commemorating 75 year. Mallard, Dwight D Eisenhower and Dominion of Canada were on display. Me, Jack and Finlay thought this was brilliant, however Andrea sat on a bench and fiddled around with Facebook on her phone.

Once we'd seen enough trains we headed back into the town centre and had a late lunch at Pizza Express. From here we walked around the shops, Andrea enjoyed this but we were a little board. We re-traced our steps back to the camp-site and I put the BBQ on. Our new friends looked Shattered but admitted they they needed to do more exercise. After a few beers it vas time for bed.

York Races

Sunday was another busy day, Fiends came over to join us for the day. Again we rode our bikes into town, this time we spent time is the Park, walked around, this to we struggled to find a Pub that wasn't very busy, it was a bank holiday weekend. We ended up in a beer garden at a Witherspoons. Returning to Nayburn we headed to the''Blacksmiths Arms"for a meal. Steak was the order of the day, we all lived it!

Monday morning I went for a short bike ride with Jack, he'd made up his own route and wanted to show me around. After a look around the Lock beyond the camp site it was time to pack up and head home. Another good weekend. Decent weather and good company!

White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 8 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

We'd missed the 7th race when we were on holiday and the kids hadn't spent much time on the bikes while we'd been away!

First up was Finlay for his time trial, he did 1.53.1 which was good enough for 2nd. Jack had a tough race, ended up on his own, he ended up 11th, Jack finished really strong, it was a shame he didn't speed up one lap earlier as he'd have caught a couple of kids in front of him.

Finlay had a good race, I don't know how he manages to stand up all the time and not got tierd. Again Finlay came second is his class.

This was the last race for 2013, so next year Finlay will be moving up to the 'D' group. Jack will stay in 'C', so he should do better next year.

Finlays Time Trail Results - Under 8's
Round 1 - 2min 7 - 3rd Place
Round 2 - 1min 58 - 1st Place
Round 3 - 1min 47 - 1st Place
Round 4 - 1min 58 - 3rd Place
Round 5 - 2min 3 - 3rd Place
Round 6 - 1min 57 - 2nd Place
Round 8 - 1min 57 - 2nd Place

Finlay Under 8's race
Round 1 - 2nd Place
Round 2 - 1st Place
Round 3 - 1st Place
Round 4 - 3rd Place
Round 5 - 3rd Place
Round 6 - 1st Place
Round 8 - 2nd Place

Jack Under 12's race
Round 1 - 15th Place
Round 2 - 15th Place
Round 3 - 13th Place
Round 4 - 12th Place
Round 5 - 7th (not sure about this!)
Round 6 - 11th Place
Round 8 - 11th Place

Summer Holiday - Carnac

We headed north to Carnac, Camping Le Moustoir. The weather was red hot and for the first time we ran into some heavy traffic. the delay wasn't too bad and we reached the site by mid afternoon. The kids were excited by the slides is the swimming pool, so they got there trunks on and headed over to the pool.

When the kids came back we rode the bikes into Carnac, lucky for us there was a craft market in full swing, this kept everyone entertained, there was some unusual bits and pieces. We headed to a local pizza restaurant, sat outside and enjoyed the atmosphere. The food was nice and we relaxed with a few beers! By the time we headed back to the site it was pitch black, no lights 0n our bikes so we had to be careful.

Next day we headed dun to the beach, Finlay again spent time is the rock pools, I collected shells. We had ice cream and a few drinks at a local bar before heading back to the swimming pool. I joined the kids on the slides is in the jalousie Both Jack and Finlay thought it was good fun to do daft tricks on the slides when the life guards wern't watching.

All too soon it was time to move on, we were heading to our last night near Caen. Again the roads were very busy, but we pulled in at Domaine de la Baie des Veys mid afternoon. I thought this site was quite near to Caen, but it was over 60 miles away!

The site was next to the sea on Utah beach, however we were next to extensive mud flats. The kids went for  a bike ride and came back well mucked up. After tea l went for a drink at the onsite bar. I tried one of each of the lagers that the bar had and got pretty drunk!

We had to leave the site very early to get to Caen for the ferry, typically l got flashed by a speed camera!

We made the ferry on time, typical crossing, it look ages. Once we arrived in Portsmouth it was an uneventful journey home.

We'd had a great holiday, good weather and lots of variety. Thankfully the puncture and lack of a spare didn't come back to haunt us. Just hope I don't get a speeding ticket!

Summer Holiday - La Rochelle

We headed south to L'Houmeau near La Rochelle. The Au Petit Port de L'Houmeau camp site was a 2 minute cycle ride from the beach, however there wasn't much sand just thousands of barnacles and oyster shells on rocks. This made for great rock pooling but no good for sun bathing. Finlay was in his element and we spent a couple of evenings looking for crabs Finlay, is quite happy to grab anything he can get hold of, some of the crabs he was going after were bigger than I would have liked to pick up!

We rode into La Rochelle on the bikes, it was about 4 miles, some of the route was on protected cycle routes and other parts were on cycle lanes on the roads. Both kids are pretty safe now, even on the right hand side of the road. We headed through the Parc Charruyer and left our bikes next to the beach.

Heading into the old town we got some food and enjoyed the atmosphere. Andrea and me visited La Rochelle before we had kids, on one of our motorbike touring holidays. So It was interesting to go back with the kids. we took lots of photos, walked around the shops and walked around looking at the boats and ancient buildings. When we arrived it war sunny and hot, but as the day went on it clouded over.

The kids were getting board so we got back on our bikes. In the park the kids found a small off road mountains bike track, this kept them occupied for a while. We then headed back to the camp site.

We ate out at a sea food restaurant on the sea front at Le Plomb, we were made welcome by the owners, even I enjoyed the food. Normally I struggle with "fishy feasts". Finlay and Jack both had muscles and Andrea had some weird fish which she enjoyed.

On our final day on the camp site we had our first Lazy day, the kids played on the camp site and both Andrea and me read our books all day, pretty unusual.

Summer Holiday - La Barre De Monts

We'd had a long drive out to the west coast but soon found or camp-site Le Grand Corseau. After some confusion about deposits we got set-up.  I was happy to sit down and grab a beer.To my amazement a family of red squirrels appeared is the trees in front of the van. I got my camera and spent 30 minutes photographing and watching them run around, feeding, playing and fighting in the trees, really cool!

The site is well placed for the beach and a 5 minute cycle ride from Fromentine. We had a lazy few days using the beach and site swimming pool. In the evenings we rode our bikes into town and had ice creams watching the sunset and generally relaxing. The weather was red hot, happy days.

There was a small pond in the trees near the beach Finlay enjoyed taking his net trying to catch frogs but everything in the pond was well used to little boys and Finlay struggled to catch anything other than tadpoles.

One night we cycled onto the bridge that joins the main land to Noirmoutier we had fun on the beaches collecting shells and building sand castles.

Summer Holiday - Paris

Whenever you mention driving into Paris the first thing people say is "your not insured when driving around the Arc De Triomphe . So heading into town I was a little nervous. Thankfully the route was pretty straight forward and I didn't have to deal with 8 lanes of Crazy French drivers.

Once we got settle I took the bikes off the rack and we went for a ride in the Bois De Boulogne park next to the camp-site  My idea was to do a reckie mission onto the other side of the park near the centre of Paris. We headed off in a random direction, being under the trees meant that we couldn't see the city, by luck rather than management we found or way across the park, crossing several busy roads on our adventure, also skirting around the lac Inférieur.  We stopped at an artificial waterfall for a break, had a coffee and then to my amusement rode past a photographer in the middle of a pornography shoot!! we zoomed past on our bikes and the kids didn't notice the young girl spread eagled on a tree stump!

Back at the camp-site we had takeaway pizza before heading for bed. Early up and into Paris using the bus from the camp-site  it dropped us off at Porte Maillot, from here we headed to the Arc De Triomphe  We used the underpass to get into the middle it would be impossible to walk across the road! The queue for ticket was pretty short so we soon were heading up the spiral staircase, through the innards of the monument and out onto the top. The views were pretty impressive and we spent quite a long time walking around looking at the famous monuments that are known the world over.

We headed back down and walked along the Champs Elysees the kids looked for all the posh car showrooms that were everywhere, Andrea spent time looking in the perfume shops. I was happy to admire the views. After lunch at McDonalds we continued onto the Louvre, it was pretty hot, the kids got ice cream and we headed for the shade.

From here we headed down onto the Seine crossing on the Pont des Arts bridge, covered in padlocks, Andrea and the kids got scammed by a bloke making friendship bands, they were very expensive!

Next we headed to Notre Dame, to be honest the cathedral at Amiens was more impressive. The kids were sick of walking so we got me Metro back to Porte Maillot. This was the highlight of the day for Jack and Finlay, typical kids. We soon found the bus stop and headed back to the camp-site.

After tea me and Finlay went for a bike ride and found a cool waterfall opposite the Longchamp racecourse in the park. This was Finlay favourite place is Paris.He loved running around, under, behind and over the waterfall. For something so simple it kept Finlay entertained for ages.

Our second day in Paris started by our pre booked visit to the Eiffel Tower both kids were Unsure about how high it was, they thought it was unsafe! The pre booked tickets worked well and queuing for the first lift took only a few minutes. When we got out of the lift on the second floor it was petty busy.We took some photos and admired the . already impressive view, it was a really nice day, perfect for taking photos.

Queuing for the lift to the top was a bit of a bun fight, it was very busy. The ride to the top was pretty amazing and you really got the feeling of how high the tower is. The lift stops on an interior room, steps then take you to the outside observation walkways. It was well worth the effort, even the kids got into everything and their initial fear disappeared  On the way down we used the steps between the 2nd and - 1st floors, Jack really didn't like this, he felt very unsafe.

Back at ground level we had some lunch at a nearby cafe then headed to the Seine for a river trip on one of the many tourist boat trips. We sat back and enjoyed listening to the on board commentary. The bot went a all the way to Notre Dame and bouts again, lots more photos.

We headed for the tube station and ended up waiting for ages, cancelled trains! However me were soon back at the camp-site.

I started preparing for our journey over to the west coast, nearly 300 miles. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.