1 June 2025

Up early.

Washed sheets, folded towels and put away and as Julia was finishing her yoga, I began mine.

Sheets out to dry, time for shave, haircut and shower (which I also cleaned), before sitting down to a lovely breakfast, which Julia had prepared. 

Before we knew it Shaz had arrived with the Jeep, to take our luggage, including bike boxes, to the airport.  At the same time, I climbed in with Brody and Aimee for the journey out there. 

Check in went smoothly and the girl dealing with us, was heading to Athens in a couple of weeks, so was interested to hear our plans.

Bike boxes weighed 23.9kg and 24.3kgs, but she waved us through.

Qatar airlines limit is 25kgs, so no issue tomorrow.

We are carrying both panniers as on board luggage, plus my sleeping bag strapped to my bag and we both have another smaller bag, for phones and such like. 





In total, 12 people came to bid us farewell.

Brody and Aimee, Margaret and Dad (Jimmy), Jack and Briana, Irena And Tony, Dave and San, (with baby Kiwa, their grandson) and Roger and Shaz.

Great having everyone there, except Toff and Linda, (as Toff is sick and Linda is away at a dog show) . Too soon, it was time to say our goodbyes.  After visiting Karel ( Julia's dad) at Summerset Retirement Village last night, I found it quite emotional saying goodbye to my dad.

Flight was great and brilliant landing.

Picked up gear and waited 15 mins for Sue, then loaded the bikes and bags and back to Sue and Ned's for a great afternoon and evening.

Sue, as usual cooked up a storm and we chatted until 9pm and bedtime.

Comments

  1. Georgina DolanJune 1, 2025 at 5:20 PM

    Wow what a massive send off (although I wouldn't expect any less with you two). Hope the long haul flights go as smoothly as they can, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed for you - G and J

    ReplyDelete
  2. St Toffa June 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM

    Hi guys,was bummed we couldn’t get to see you off at the airport Sunday,but great so many did.
    Hope your flights have gone well and you managed to get some rest in Doha airport. Look forward to an update from gay Paris! Would love to be there for Roland Garros right now. Pete I think Novak could benefit from some tips from you on that backhand. Take care

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pete DolanJune 2, 2025 at 8:58 PM

    If you think Novak could benefit from Pete's advice, you're obviously way more ill than we realised. Get well soon mate!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Here we go again!

It's hard to believe that we are nearly half way through 2025. It's scary to think that 40 years on from my first bike tour, I possibly only have half that amount of time left to be able to ride a bike, let alone tour on one. As a fitness trainer, my mortality was given a shake up at the end of last year, when two of my long term clients (and lovely people) died, out of the blue. They were 54 and 63 years of age. I t really opened my eyes and made me realise that the life that we have led will change, no matter how fit or adventurous we are, the clock is ticking. Forty years ago, life was endless, now we need to think carefully about what we take on and how we go about it.  So, with that in mind, this tour, all being well, will start in France and end in either Greece or Turkey. It will include the French Alps, Swiss Alps, Italian Alps and Dolomites, Austrian Alps, Julien Alps( Slovenia) and other beautiful scenery in between and beyond.  After a 1985 tour which took me t...
Read more

2 June 2025

Image
Had a great night's sleep until 4am when we got up to the loo. Had just got back into bed when Sue's burglar alarm went off. Sue got up to check things and turn off the alarm and said she was going to have a cup of tea. I was wide awake so got dressed and joined her in the kitchen while Pete went back to sleep until 7am. Sue and I had a great chat with numerous cups of tea and chai latte until the boys got up. After saying goodbye to Ned, who was off to work, Sue made us delicious bacon and eggs and then we grabbed showers. A final coffee before heading out the door to the airport.  Thank you Ned and Sue for hosting us again and for dropping us at the airport, which was a seamless operation.  Getting the boxes through the bollards on the trolley however was not quite so seamless as we couldn't fit. Had to unload the boxes outside the bollards and push the trolley through and reload the boxes on the other side.  Had the same challenge with the bollards right outside the ai...
Read more