Let's get started.

Peter and I have travelled down through the country in search of answers to the big European questions?  Big questions, like, why didn't David Cameron demand that the rest of Europe should drive on the left side of the road if they really wanted the UK to stay in.  It works perfectly well in England!  If the rest of Europe really valued our membership surely they would have agreed to changing the ridiculous practice of driving on the wrong side!  It's such a small compromise!

We drove down to Portsmouth parked the car, loaded up the bikes and wasted no time getting into the nearest waterfront bar.  Amazingly the sun was shining.

We were notified that the ferry would sail a couple of hours late, so we took the opportunity to eat in Portsmouth.  Peter chose a restaurant called Cheese and Cheers at Southsea which had a distinctly French feel.  It certainly smelt of cheese as we entered.  We had snails and a mixed plate of cheeses....

Did I forget to mention that we had a carafe of wine or two too!

We managed to cycle the last couple of miles in darkness in a very wobbly fashion to get to the ferry.  We followed signs to the ferry and almost ended up on the ferry to the Isle of Wight.  That would have been a bit embarrassing if we woke up in the wrong port!!  I'm not sure if we could have managed to spin out a whole week's cycle holiday around the Isle of Wight and I don't know how we would have explained it to David.  

Getting on the ferry was going well.  We thought this would be a good test of UK border control standards.  We weren't frisked or searched in any way but a member of staff had the presence of mind to stop Peter videoing his entry onto the ship for security reasons.  He was obviously looking rather shifty.  We deduced that it would be fairly easy for a terrorist to travel from the UK into Europe without a search.

As we are on the ferry we are reading the newspaper and read that a new campaign has gone viral for Europeans to 'hug a Brit' to let us know that we are really valued within the EU.  I look forward to receive hugs and cuddles throughout our week of cycling, I hope I'm not disappointed.  I don't just mean the kisses that David will give us tomorrow, he has developed some continental habits already, he must have forgotten he is from Burnley!

We are very much looking forward to a good nights sleep and getting into St Malo in the morning and meeting up with 'big bro' to get the cycling going.