May 22, 1975
Youth Hostel
Grantham

Today has been a bit colder & cloudy all day except this evening when all the clouds were gone by sunset. As soon as I got out of Peterborough this hills began & I've been riding through soft, green rolling hills. I was more that half way to Grantham when I stopped for lunch at Swayfield in a beautiful little pub with those black beams in the ceiling. Just after lunch I was dive-bombed by a biplane which was spreading fertilizer on the fields near Burton Coggles (one of the nicest names I've come across.) In the afternoon I tried to find Grantham Castle but couldn't, then got lost trying to find the youth hostel (I'm fine on the country lanes but lost in the towns.) I saw the church here with a very tall steeple. After a bad supper at a cafe (this hostel doesn't provide meals but is very cheap) I read ancient National Geographics for a while than met a student from Ottawa staying here. He has been hitch-hiking around Europe since February.

Tomorrow I'm heading for Nottingham.