“Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy, and now…

 Me!

Of course I have not officially heard from King Charles yet so you can still call me “mister”.  I need a little more practice before I can enter the Tour de France.

It’s been 50 years since I last rode a bike. So I was not surprised when I had a fall when I started riding yesterday.

But you will be pleased to know I was not hurt and I managed the fall with all the balletic grace of Rudolph Nureyev. And I got up quickly and carried on riding despite the laughter coming from my supposed chief trainer (whose contract I will not be renewing). But plainly I need to build up more confidence before subjecting the lovely Dutch public to my somewhat basic skills on their roads and cycle paths.  

So over the next few days I will practice more and plan to venture further afield in the near future. As a boy and young man I did a lot of cycling in Yorkshire  where there are many steep hills. So the flat terrain here in The Netherlands will be a treat for my old legs.

At this point I must give a special “thank you” to John, who is Elizabeth’s sister Lucia’s husband. He kindly gave me the bike.  It had been his father’s bike and unfortunately he is no longer able to cycle but is apparently pleased that the bike can be used. I’m very grateful to him and John. Once I get more confidence I’m sure I will get much pleasure from it.  

Once I had finished my training session Elizabeth and I took a walk through Wormer and paid a short visit to Yolande and Leo.  

We were treated to a tour of their beautiful garden - full of a big variety of beautiful flowers and some vegetables. I particularly liked the tomatoes and was able to sample a couple. A lot of hard work had obviously gone into preparing such a lovely garden. Just like at home in England, the lady of the house is the head gardener and similarly she also has a willing assistant. This garden is a perfect place to sit and enjoy the sunshine which was what this horticultural couple were doing before we interrupted them.

After our visit we walked back home through the village and spent a relaxing evening together. 

Tonight we are looking forward to meeting up with Elizabeth’s brother Theo. He has kindly offered to cook us an Indian meal.  Like most English people I am very fond of Indian cuisine. The most popular dish of all in England is Chicken Tikka Masala - not fish and chips!  So I’m very interested to try Theo’s food. Elizabeth is not too keen on very hot spicy food so I hope he will tone down the heat for her. I’ll let you know how we get on tomorrow.

More news then