The Travelling Fox

Hi, My name is Toby and I have just finished School. This year i have decided to take a Gap Year to explore the world before delving into the norms of real life (Work). Benjamin Franklin once said: 'you may delay, but time will not.' So i thought i better get on with it. First Stop - Australia and New Zealand Second Stop - Chamonix, France

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Day 25 (the end) | San Remo - Port - Grimaud (104 miles)

Day 25 (the end) | San Remo – Port – Grimaud (104 miles)

 We set off on what was meant to be our second to last day. San Remo to Cannes. We had a delicious pain au chocolate in the main square and set off heading to France.    The coastal road was very beautiful and we made good progress despite the heat which we have now become mildly accustomed to.    We arrived in Cannes at 16:00 after slowly making our way through Monaco as we gazed in awe at the…

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Day 24 | Varazze - San Remo (69 miles)

Day 24 | Varazze – San Remo (69 miles)

 We left Varazze in fresh and clean gear after a visit to the launderette the night before. Riding in clean gear is such a luxury as travel wash only does so much to hide the terrible cyclist smell.   We followed the beautiful coastal road for 69 miles and as expected there were several big climbs however nothing out of the ordinary. Since our trip is drawing to a close we decided to treat…

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Day 23 | Tortona - Varazze (61 miles)

Day 23 | Tortona – Varazze (61 miles)

  After only 5 hours of sleep, the alarm sounded. We forced ourselves out of bed and with our eyes half open made our way to the kitchen where the lovely old Italian lady had made us breakfast. She must have been trying to kill us with the amount of sugar we consumed. Everything was sugar coated.  Buzzing with energy we, skeptically and reluctantly set off in fear of the perilous hills that lay…

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Day 22 | Piacenza - Tortona (71 mountainous miles)

Day 22 | Piacenza – Tortona (71 mountainous miles)

 Where do I begin…  Today was the best and worst day of the trip so far. We awoke from our sauna like room and left the ugly outskirts of Piacenza as soon as we could. A quick 30 miles followed before the temperatures reached the high 30’s.   After the 30 miles, there were no signs of a shop let alone a supermarket and so we stopped off at a small cafeteria for a sandwich. What followed next was…

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Day 21 | Lake Iseo - Piacenza (66 miles)

Day 21 | Lake Iseo – Piacenza (66 miles)

WARNING: Blogpost by Sasha Bruml We awoke from an uninterrupted sleep in our old-fashioned hotel room with the air conditioning unit blowing cool air into the room. Reluctantly, we rolled out of bed and drowsely made our way down for breakfast. We were met by a lucky dip of croissants, each with a different surprise filling. After having our fill of chocolate, apricot and custard we clambered…

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Day 20 | Lake Garda - Lake Iseo (50 miles)

Day 20 | Lake Garda – Lake Iseo (50 miles)

 From one lake to the next…Today we left Lake Garda and cycled 50 miles west to Lake Iseo (just as beautiful as Garda however with zero tourists). We also passed through the sister town (Desenzano del Garda) of Wiener Neudstadt, the first town we passed through after Vienna, which was very exciting.    We had our first lie in today, which is strange considering we were staying in an 8 bed…

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Day 19 | Verona - Lake Garda (21 + 30 miles)

Day 19 | Verona – Lake Garda (21 + 30 miles)

 As the morning sun rose above the beautiful city of Verona, we were up and about in the middle of our daily routine of applying chammy cream to our battered and bruised derrières.       After a croissant stop for breakfast, we were off. It was only 20 miles to Lake Garda and so we were there in no time at all.     We checked into the hostel and ran to the lake where we jumped, flipped and dove…

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Day 18 | Venice - Verona 

Day 18 | Venice – Verona 

 Venice, Venice, Venice. What a magical place. Four years ago, whilst in Valencia doing an intensive Spanish course, I met two lovely Italian girls who studied in Venice. We kept in contact over the years and yesterday, we spent the whole day with one of them.   Venice is extremely busy, especially at this time of the year and so being with a local was brilliant. We walked around, visiting…

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Day 17 | Trieste - Venice (105 miles!)

Day 17 | Trieste – Venice (105 miles!)

  Our time in Trieste was wonderful. I have a classmate who is from there and funnily enough she flew into the city the day we arrived. So after our night in the hostel (with two very weird guys), we cycled to her apartment and spent the day with her and her friends.  Visiting a city with a local is always far better than aimlessly wandering around trying to spot all the main sights. Ilaria was a…

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Day 16 | Ljubljana - Trieste (70 miles)

Day 16 | Ljubljana – Trieste (70 miles)

 We spent a wonderful two nights in Ljubljana and grew very fond of the small city. We spent our ‘free’ day doing a walking tour and spending the afternoon with a lovely Canadian couple that were staying in our hostel.   After wondering what to do with our last few hours in the city, we finally decided on one rather odd activity; a mind maze (a seemingly regular thing to do in Ljubljana). You are…

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Day 15 | Celje - Ljubljana (53 miles)

Day 15 | Celje – Ljubljana (53 miles)

 The alarm clock sounded, and after dreaming of a palm beach with mojitos in both hands, I quickly realised that I was not in fact in paradise, however, was in a peculiar hotel in the middle of Slovenia, and that another day of cycling followed.    We had our daily stop at the supermarket and were on our bikes by 11am.    We cycled very fast for about 20 miles with beautiful countryside all…

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Day 14 | Maribor - Celje (43 miles)

Day 14 | Maribor – Celje (43 miles)

 We had another short day today, cycling only 43 miles. After having a buffet breakfast and stocking up on bananas and jaffa cakes, we set off. We had travelled south up until now, but today we turned the compass on our bikes and started heading westward towards the centre of Slovenia, however not before one last breakfast stop at the famous maribor ice cream shop.  Full up of ice cream, we left…

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Day 13 | Tieschen - Maribor (35 miles)

Day 13 | Tieschen – Maribor (35 miles)

We had a very short day today and so woke up a leisurely 15 minutes later than normal. After our breakfast of bread and jam which we are becoming very accustomed to now, we set off, direction Slovenia.   Crossing into another country is always exciting and so we hurriedly cycled to the border. We found a path only for pedestrians and cyclists to cross and were greeted by a big Slovenia sign. We…

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Day 12 | Hartberg - Tieschen (58 miles)

Day 12 | Hartberg – Tieschen (58 miles)

We said goodbye to Hartberg and continued South. Our morning was fairly flat and so we did a quick 20 miles before stopping for a break.  The bicycle path had been so well signposted up until now, however, they quickly faded away and Garmy came to the rescue correcting our route many times.   Temperatures hit 30 degrees today and our first tan lines emerged. We also had some very fast descents…

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Day 11 | Wiener Neustadt - Hartberg (60 miles) 

Day 11 | Wiener Neustadt – Hartberg (60 miles) 

We left our lavish Thai accommodation early in the morning and bought croissants from a local bakery for breakfast. Assuming our day would not be too long, neither too difficult, we took things easy. However, shortly after leaving Wiener Neustadt we realised we were very wrong. A day of hills followed.   Spirits quickly turned from good to grumpy, hills quickly turned into mountains, sun turned…

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Day 10 | Vienna - Wiener Neustadt (41 miles)

Day 10 | Vienna – Wiener Neustadt (41 miles)

After the best 9 days cycling with dad from Berlin to Vienna, the time had come for him to leave. The time we had spent together had been truly special, however, it was time for part two of the cycle trip with my friend Sasha.   I had two days to explore Vienna before he did arrive and so I spent my time visiting the city and more importantly cleaning the bikes and making sure they were in…

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Day 9 | Znojmo - Vienna (62 miles)

Day 9 | Znojmo – Vienna (62 miles)

We left Znojmo after another altercation with the Penzion which would accept either cash or credit card (but not a combination of the two). As I wanted to get rid of my remaining Czech Kroner and pay the balance on credit card, we were set for a stand – off.   Leaving Czech was a bizarre experience. The road near the border was lined for a few miles with casinos and “gentleman’s” clubs. Are these…

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