August 6, 2024
Royal Tunbridge Wells to Tonbridge.
Journey’s End
We take a leisurely approach to our final 15 kilometres, enjoying a coffee and breakfast on the terrace in front of the hotel. It’s really a very pleasant early morning scene, quiet and surrounded by beautiful Georgian and Victorian buildings. The suns up, but the large umbrellas provide cool shade.
Breakfast over, we wheel our bikes down the Pantiles enjoying looking at the various buildings lining the arcade. We came here back in the days of our twenties OE, (Overseas Experience) and I remember the black and white buildings then.
Further down are some interesting shops. One has a display of the orange covered Penguin editions of novels and I have a chat with the shop owner about how bookshelves made to accommodate paperbacks this size, will no longer fit any of today’s paperbacks , should one want to keep them. He commiserates, saying he has the same problem.
Finding the way back to the Tunbridge to Tonbridge cycle way is relatively easy, as we came down this hill yesterday. Until the turnoff we are on a path shared with pedestrians on one side, us on the other.
A left turn off the main road, and we’re on the cycleway where all is quiet and green. The track runs downhill and for a second we wonder if it’s going to finish at the expressway. But no ! - Lo and behold, there’s the bridge we are assured exists by Komoot. It takes us up and over the motorway and onto a beautiful asphalt cycleway, as good as anything we’ve experienced in France.
We’re conflicted a little- eager to meet Rosie, our new granddaughter, and reluctant for our trip to finally end. Distraction comes in the form of the blackberries lining the path. Kent is supposedly ‘The Garden of England’ and these blackberries are fully ripe. We fill a plastic container and continue on our way to journey’s end in Tonbridge.
Through the front gate and around the back and we’re done. It’s a long way from our start in Munich, it’s warmer, the language has changed and we’re with family again.
Rosie’s feeding but it’s not long before we’re holding her, the real, living presence we’ve thought about so often on this trip.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 3 | Link |
2 months ago
Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 1,782 km (1,107 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 2 |
2 months ago
Cheers, Michael.
2 months ago