This is my opportunity to have an adventure touring and exploring in France, Spain, Portugal and who knows where else.
Henrietta is a lovely beast. She has 2 solar panels to boost her energy levels, plus a satellite dish, bike rack for 2 bikes, and lots more. She is well equipped to go off the beaten track.
davehutton 
She looks lovely, especially with the trusty Dawes Galaxy on the back. Have a great trip!
Paul
Dear Dave, We haven’t met – I’m the Andrew that Shaun Newman kindly wrote to you about and you kindly said you’d help me set up a website about the restoration of the Thames barge ‘Vigilant’. Many thanks for that – it can certainly wait until you return in Feb and I’ll look forward to meeting you. In the meantime I’m thoroughly enjoying following your blog! I’ve travelled very little, never to Spain or Portugal and only once to Rome for a few days, not elsewhere in Italy, but I’m very keen to visit all of them when the opportunity arises; I enjoy architecture, photography and birdwatching so your blog is both educational and entertaining! The photographs are great and I’m particularly impressed by those of the birds (I rarely try to photograph them because my longest lens is 300mm ); it must have been very exciting to see and photograph the Purple Swamphen! It’s really interesting, isn’t it, to see birds that are familiar but just a bit different from ‘ours’, like the sparrow and starling you photographed.
Keep up the good work, go carefully on the bike and best wishes for the New Year.
Andrew