Hello Everyone, Welcome to June and may it be a successful month for you all. We have just heard the announcement that our short film "Being Martin" is on the Official Selection for this year's Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival under the documentary category. Screenings will be at the ICA and the Soho Film Lab, in London. Dates, bookings and information on the film are available on www.sohoshorts.com  Do come along and cheer Martin on if you are free!
Best wishes, [Lou Hamilton - Producer]

Hello Mum and Dad, get some pictures up please :) We officially have the most expensive and accident prone cats ever. Bob sliced open his foot last week and had to have an operation and is now in a bandage! Any hoo, hope your both OK, lots of love your favorite daughter and son in law xxxxxxxxxxx [Katherine and Phil!] - {Um . . .Photos have been up for some time and currently go into June - are you sure you've been refreshing the page? - Ed}

Hi parents, Congratulations on your progress so far. Glad you survived the saddle incident without too much damage. I have been cycling a lot as well. getting ready for the Dartmoor Cyclo-sportif. All is well in the Simpson house. george is becoming very mobile and very noisy. He is also eating solid food, well pureed food.
The vans are coming along nicely. We went camp9ing in them last weekend with George. The vans workd well but the bed was too small for the three of us (It was too cold for george to sleep outside). Trip is sounding very interesting - you obviously seem to be enjoying the food although glad to hear you are getting some camping in. Keep pedling, Lots of love, [Richy, Sue and George]

Sandy Gilly, Well done thus far and lets here it for 'Germanian' sense of humour and habits ! I chuckled at your account of demolishing 'pink bunnies'and camp site behaviour. Have had a few days climbing / camping down 'west',  called in at Richies to see them all.
They very kindly fed us and plied us with beer, though not George  !! They all seemed well with Richie commuting hard on his bike in training for our Dartmoor classic which is now looming on the horizon !!
Its been an amazing week down here and the sundrenched granite has been really lovely with almost mediterranean seas (in appearance only !!) We climbed at Carn Gowla too which is for me a daunting venue, the cliffs plunge into the sea and ones route identification has to be spot on, as one can abseil onto small ledges only to find that one  is in the wrong place and there are only E numbers to scale which for me means a long prussick !
Ma and Pa ailing a little so my little brother has come over, which is lovely but somewhat sad that he has , if that makes sense.
Had an excellent PTT week at Powdermills last week with the moors looking fantastic, the down side with all this day light is the night navigation starts about 9.30pm !!! Lots of love  for now, [Tim]

Sandy & Gilly, Sadly didn't see you in Vienna??????? I thought you were real cyclists and the thought of a free beer on Dan would have inspired you????? Oh well. Perhaps next time?????? Love to you both - don't get lost! [Dan & Chris]

Hi Sandy - am greatly enjoying the daily posts about the trip - as you say, if you missed the shows on the Reepbahn, age must be setting in! Delighted that Martin's film has been selected for the Short Film Festival.  Quite by chance, my step-son (Joe Bateman) is the Director of the Short Film Festival!!! Best wishes, [David Smith]
P.S I have contributed to Martin's appeal.

Dear Gill and Sandy, Thanks to yet again a great informative email all descriptions excellent I feel that I have been there with you. Hope the weather improves for you and the family next week…just waiting for the new TV to be delivered, extremely lucky to get it during the world cup!

Thank you for your lovely email we always learn something…still sounds like you are having much fun all the challenges and seeing something different every day. We are back last night from Italy half business half pleasure with three days in Navarra and Milan and five days holiday on Lago Maggiore which was absolutely lovely. We were treated to lots of great hospitality by the Italian company who are helping us put on our trade conference in Italy next year. Will tell you more about it when I see you. Geoff and Wilma had their first grandchild this week, Ise (EEser) mother and baby home and well. Keep on pedaling! Lots of love, [G+J xxx]

Dear Gilly and Sandy, Sorry for not replying before to your many and entertaining travelogues.  We do admire you and feel weak and pathetic in comparison!  Dan is more keen than I am on cycling and would have joined Lucy, Kevin and the little ones on their trans-pennine cycle a year or so ago if it had worked out - but I would rather walk!  L and K never had a trailer for Amy and Ella.  Amy was big enough for a tagger and Ella went in a seat on the back of Lucy - but this year they are both on taggers.  They often spend weekends on the trail somewhere.  Maybe I should get training and give it all a try.
All well here.  We have just returned from a week in Vienna (on account of my singing in the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus) which was great fun.  We gave two concerts, seemingly to some acclaim as we have been asked back and Dan enjoyed it too.  There were many other husbands and wives there as camp followers so it was all very sociable.  Vienna as a city amazes me as most of the very grand buildings (of which there are many) date from not that long before the whole Hapsburg empire fell apart.  Now they are all museums and concerts halls and government offices and the like.  The amount of money that was spent must have been incomprehensibly huge - a kind of last ditch effort on the part of the rulers to keep the family business going.
Before Vienna we had a couple of great weeks on the canals exploring the Caldon Canal which is very much a small and hidden gem of the British countryside (much like the River Weaver which is another of our favourites).  Lots of visits from family and friends while we were afloat so there were plenty of hands for the locks.
Now we shall be at home until the end of July waiting for the royal visit of my sister Judy and her husband Keith from Oz which will take up the rest of the summer with various journeys and activities. They fly back on September 21st at which point Dan and I will set off for the boat and an autumn cruise.
We look forward to seeing you later in the year too.Meanwhile we wish you a fair lookout and a following wind.  Enough of the gale stuff!  Keep safe. Have fun. love [Chris Nicholson]

Hi Sandy, We just got back from four weeks in the UK and France – hadn’t seen Claire or Mike since October which is waaay too long – so a lot of time with them.  Now catching up on correspondence, and finally made my contribution to your Boma appeal – I hope you raise a ton for Martin.
Very much enjoying your travelling tales – glad to hear the vikings are still hard at their training! The leg’s progressing well now thanks – had to spend the last six weeks on crutches again, but saw the doc yesterday and was given the green light to ditch them – still another month in the monster boot though, so no road biking for me yet – I can’t wait to get back on my bike.  Stayed with Hingstons in their new place in Gascony for three days – very nice old farmhouse which they’re doing up.  Poor Di was “sherpa” for the whole trip as the quack had given me strict orders NOT to carry anything – she’s threatened divorce if I break anything else!
Looking at your photos on the website you’ve had more than your share of rain – I hope Denmark is kinder with its weather for you.  Can you two fit side by side in the Hogan without touching the sides and causing runnels down the tent skin?  I wonder whether  you’ve trained Gilly to eat shrimp cheese for breakfast as part of her viking intro class?!
Enjoy the cycle with the family, Copenhagen’s a lovely place.  We’ll be back in the UK for Claire’s baby (due Sept 12th) and will try and get down to see you as we’ll be there for six weeks or so.
Love to Gilly, and happy trails! [Pat]

Keep going you two. You'll get to be Vikings one day! [GUNS]

Hello you two, what an exciting time you are having and thank you for the emails - very interesting, entertaining and informative!!  I do feel for you with all the weather and punctures but knowing you two as I do you really thrive on a challenge or two.  I am not sure what to make of the Germans and their staring - it might be something to do with their living in such an out of the way place.  I reckon you wouldn't find such strangeness in a buzzy city like Hamburg or Berlin.  I do remember our trip in northern Germany about 10 years ago.  We visited Schleswig-Holstein and the weather was terrible.  Of course we were being wimpy using a car and staying in hotels!  But we did find it had a certain charm.  I also remember staying in Ribe where I bought a fleece in the market!  and there was a very bad band entertaining us at supper time in the hotel.
Good luck with the next stage of the trip and I am sure it will be fantastic to see Jo Ian and the little ones.
No news on the house front with our two as yet.  Oscar and Henry are both going on school trips next week, Oz to France and H to a local activity centre.  Also Oz has his grade 1 piano exam soon!  They are quite excited about the world cup and we have a family sweepstake going.  John has the best chance with his teams - Germany, Algeria and Brazil.  I guess it has passed you by?
We are off on our adventure to Armenia.  Leaving in about an hour.  Trying to travel light but not quite in your league of course.  John has bought some magic socks and pants which dry in 5 minutes or something!  Our flight is at 3 and we arrive at Yerevan the capital at 2 am or something because we change at Prague and have a long wait there.
Entonces as they say in Spain, Hasta la vista, besos
PS. The Queen came to Capel Manor last Friday- where i do volunteering - to open a new garden.  It was a lovely occasion and she stayed about 2 hours looking round and then walked down a path flanked by the gardening staff and us volunteers.  So, Sandy, that is 2 royals I have been close to! very exciting, love, [Chris x]

Hi Gilly and Sandy, I am having so much fun reading all your trip updates - I alternately feel cold, wet, weary, enthralled, elated, envious - what a wonderful experience you are having, and what an excellent cause.
While you are pedalling away out there, I am up to my neck in arrangements for the Warsash Midsummer Ball next Saturday - the fourth I have organised during the last 8 years. It has been quite a headache this year getting "bums on seats", mainly because of the *!*!*! football. If England get through to the semi final, it will be on the day of the Ball, and local football fanatics are not prepared to give up their ringside seat for anything. Anyway, we have, at last , 100+ committed Ball goers, so I am heaving a sigh of relief. Every time I do this I say "Never again!", as we are a committee of three, and no one else seems to do anything to help / promote the Ball.
Naomi's Mini Sprog Mk II is due on 7th July, so only 2 1/2 weeks to go - really exciting, as we don't know the sex this time. Barbara Clift's Seb, and partner Rowina, produced Minerva Ann a couple of week's ago - their first grandchild. Rowina already has a five year old daughter. Think I forwarded her email and pics to you.
Well, keep fit, keep healthy and keep pedalling - and thanks for all the news. Love [Gretl xxx]

Dear Simpson convoy!Lovely to hear all your news - keep up the good work towards being a Viking and, when you get to Copenhagen, blopw a kiss for me to the little mermaid. One of the prettiest monuments I know. Love [Dan and Chris]

Watching England and D is very sad - we've just done it in the van on a dutch station - in Slovenia. what a mess. Perfect revenge for 1966!!  [Mike & Jenny Cooke]