A bright sunshinin' day up to Oxford

Friday, 19th of August. Woke up quite early from the warm sunray, so cycling was pleasant. Once again: People can't believe, other people do long distance cycling. I asked one man in Camden (or Barnet) about the direction up to Oxford and he asked back if I meant Oxford Street and when I negated he wanted to explain the route to the next railway station.

I cycled lots of bike paths and A roads – they are so different! In the village areas the A roads are just great. Cycled the first 50 kilometres very snugly, then I told myself to do some real cycling. A good, relaxed day, where I was constantly surprised how easy all these kilometres were done, suddenly I reached kilometre 60, also suddenly kilometre 70… although I didn't do anything. I just felt somewhat weary, but there have to be some side effects from the last view days… At kilometre 80 some problems with my left calf started. I got off my bike and suddenly for no reasons my muscle was pretty hard and aching. One will see how this feels tomorrow. Apart from that I'm somehow uninterested in gathering new impressions during the cycling. It's good to be involved with something during the day, but on the other hand it's kind of always the same respectively I'm not able to inspire myself.

From London (Camden) up to Oxford I cycled 110 kilometres this day. Had a warm welcome at my couchsurfing host's place. Alison had made some tasty food and we had some nice chat about politics and education and social system in England, Scotland, Germany and Australia, talked about Australia at all, 'cause she is a big Australia fan and wants to go to this country after finishing her PHD. We also talked about long time bicycle tours as she is very experienced in that, too. It's not always easy to understand her Scottish accent, but she is able to speak common English, too… When it went dark she showed my around. Oxford (that means the University area) is so lovely, so many nice old buildings, so much young people, so much life. And the Oxford urban planner know how to work with light.