Hey, this is fun!

 It could be argued that both of us have got into this depart at 6am thing. We chose to do so again this morning despite the fact that cooler weather was assured and the journey was a reasonably short 50 miles. Having said that, last night was the hottest so far for us. Of course, having the en suite radiator kicking out heat sporadically won't have helped. But our night was also hampered by laying on a mattress where you had to weave your body carefully round the springs... We weren't sorry to leave this house. When we stepped out on to the landing, we were greeted with a significantly cooler temperature. 

The start of our progress ever southward was somewhat featureless very much like the previous day when much of the time was spent cycling through nothing... the lack of interest was compounded by quite a strong headwind. 

However, after about 10 miles, things changed. The scenery became very pretty. Countless villages with their thatched roofed cottages and picturesque village greens. The villages generally tried to play to the interest of passers by, by announcing on the village name that a market had been granted to that village in 1257, or whatever, in determination to show that their village was jolly old and therefore more noteworthy. 

And another thing. The weather! It was warm, sometimes sunny, sometimes overcast and most of the time, the wind did very little to thwart us. 

We enjoyed bowling along and were amazed at how too much heat and sun can affect your energy levels.

As well as villages, we went through more significant places. The first was Baldock. The trouble with being so early is that we keep arriving at places before much has opened. We found 'café plus' which seemed very popular with all. A bloke who looked like he was still a member of some hard rock band from the 70s started chatting. I have him down as the guitarist. He owned a wonderful moped (Vespa?) - which he was happy for me to photograph - festooned with everything that you can festoon a moped with. We threw caution to the wind and had our second cooked breakfast in as many days. Rock and Roll!

Other places of note included Stevenage. But we remain ignorant of any claim it may have to justify noteworthyness because we missed it. We're quite good at missing great big towns. Mind you, we were mightily impressed by the wonderful cycle lanes through Stevenage. Great surfaces, weaving under roundabouts then popping up in the middle, offering a choice of well sign-posted directions. In fact, it's difficult to imagine that Stevenage could have had anything more to offer, other than these cycle lanes, in the way of excitement. 

We were determined not to miss Welwyn Garden City, though. We plunged down a hill on a forest track and suddenly found ourselves in the city organised by Sir Ebenezer Howard in 1920. We agreed that he'd done a good job. There is certainly a feeling of space and calm with bits of garden interrupting the process of looking at shops or finding a coffee shop. I'll leave you to work out our quest but it did have something to do with Gail...

As we stopped outside Gail's, an older lady came up to Kate to reminisce about her tandem days when her husband was alive. It was poignant to listen to and certainly tugged at Kate's heart strings. Feeling tired, as she was, the encounter almost got the better of her.

We are now in an air conditioned hotel in Hatfield, as promised yesterday. 

It's bliss. Of course, the air conditioning would have been even more appreciated on any of the past four days, but we're still very happy about it. 

There are countless food outlets and shops nearby. Google tells you all about them. If you have a car, you can access them. There are pavements. They look like they are there because the planners insisted. There are road crossings all over the place. But walking to any of the shops is a challenge as you constantly bow to the superiority of the car. We live in the world of the motor car. Walking is out-moded. As for tandems, well the paths that we have negotiated today prove that they never have been a thing. 

            Rock and Roll geezer's wheels 

                One of the better tracks....

             Resting in the Welwyn Garden

The man responsible for greater distances between coffee shops

The tandem enjoying a spot of Midsomer Murders