Oldies Gap Year

Having realised eventually that the world was rather bigger than first appreciated, we felt the need to condense our rather grandiose plans a smidgen. First off, and a kind of trial to get things right, was Europe. Specifically, to follow the route from the source of the river Rhine in Switzerland, all the way to the Hook of Holland, surprisingly, in Holland. This is quite a well known trail, known, again surprisingly as the Rhine cycle route, or if you like numbers, Euroroute 15. The guide book sold this to Sian, as in the introduction it boldly declares that this “mostly downhill route” is very spectacular. Quite what the word “mostly" entails we have yet to find out. I had initially planned to fly out to Zurich, and use rail to reach the start at the Oberalppass. However, and my Scottish heritage is showing here, at more than £200 for the most basic hotel room , I decided against that notion. So we are flying to Basel ( a strange airport that is essentially in France, but has a...

  I'm Roddy Reid, who qualified as a Veterinary Surgeon in 1985 and in 2005 sold his practice and retrained as a teacher, specifically teaching Physics. I'm married to Sian, who has had a career in horticulture and now works for a seed company in Surrey helping to produce more mildew resistance lettuce, amongst other things. I'm the one on the left............ We've been married since 1988, and have two children; Jamie, who is a trainee accountant working in London, and Ellie, who is graduating in Chemistry from Southampton University this summer. So, effectively, our children are "off the books". Incredibly fortuitously we have both been granted a year's sabbatical from our employment. Our original intention had been to do voluntary work overseas, but it proved exceptionally difficult to find an area where both of us could be gainfully employed, and we had to rethink what we were going to do for this year. I've been running for man...