Married life...And mountain bikes

I love my husband very much. He is so full of energy it is nearly impossible not to catch his enthusiasm. We go biking every weekend now - and I don't mean a nice quiet little peddle down the country lane...I mean far afield and over hill and dale! I really enjoy it a lot - all except the hills.

This past weekend we were in one of the royal parks in the Greater London (http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/parks/Richmond_park/) area. We took our bikes on the train and got off at Wimbledon - biked through the Commons (often in what seemed like a circle - but I am just the wife here) and eventually into Richmond Park. This is a mind-bogglingly big park in the middle of the city. It used to be a royal hunting grounds and still has roe deer (I saw them) roaming around, along with all sorts of other types of birds and beasts. There are fabulous bridle paths where people go riding - lots of horses were to be seen as it was a sunny day - and of course loads of bike trails. The only thing that is a bit annoying about the park is that it is well utilized - which is a criticism that is on the selfish side...I would have really enjoyed having more space to ride and be on our own a bit - but from a civic side it is glorious to see families having picnics and playing cricket, driving their bikes, runners doing marathon loops around the park and people sitting by the ponds (plus they do a mean bacon bap there - brown sauce please).

Hills in Richmond Park are pretty spectacular - there were several that could have been grounds for divorce/annulment - but luckily we made it through - and some of them definitely had the "weeee!" factor when you were whizzing down after slogging up! All in all a good day out!

We are off to the New Forest (yeah 1200s are "new" here): another royal hunting ground for the long weekend here. We are going car camping and are taking our bikes to get out onto some of the many paths in the park. I haven't been camping in ages and am looking forward to it - even though they are forecasting rain the entire time. I am going to buy some extra socks this week and rain gear to cut the whining to a minimum - another way of preventing divorce/annulment! (clever eh?)