I love beer and I love pizza.

Luckily for me I live in Oswestry, Shropshire which boasts of The Stonehouse Brewery and Amber's Pizza.

I started to wonder - could the beer in Germany possibly match up to Stonehouse's award winning ales? And what about Italian pizza - yes, Italy has a bit of a reputation for it but I rave to everyone about Amber's and can't imagine any other pizza being better.

So to see for myself I decided to work up a thirst and an appetite by cycling to Rome via Munich to find out. My journey begins on the 5th May.

There's absolutely nothing award winning about my cycling and I don't own a sleek lightweight racing bike. I will be riding my flat handlebar bike (the one I use for shopping) complete with rack, stand, mirror and two large panniers stuffed with all I need for a month on the road.

The cycling part of my journey will consist of an average daily distance of 65 miles (coincidentally, my age this year) for 24 days with my longest days being a little over 85 miles. I will also be staying in Munich for 5 days to properly check out the beers.

As well as satisfying my own three quarter life crisis I would love the journey to do some good. I'm hoping to persuade people to part with a little of their money to raise funds for an incredible charity.

And this charity is Hope House Children's Hospices, one of which is based in Oswestry and from where my adventure begins.

Hope House Children’s Hospices provide specialist nursing care and support to more than 750 children aged 0 to 25 years and their families who live in Shropshire, Cheshire, North and Mid Wales.  Their dedicated teams support families from diagnosis, throughout the lifetime of their child and beyond. 

At the end of a child’s life Hope House are there to make sure the their final moments are pain free and that their family says goodbye in their own way and in their own time.  They are also there to comfort families and offer bereavement support, whether they’ve cared for their child during their illness or they have turned to them after their child’s sudden death. 

Hope House need to raise over £6.5 million each year to keep their hospices doors open and provide their services.  Only 1 months’ worth of funding comes from statutory bodies so public support is absolutely vital.

I'm trying to raise £5,000 for Hope House and every penny of every donation goes directly to them to help with their amazing work.

Please, please donate and share this page with family and friends.

I will endeavour to update this page as I travel with thoughts and conclusions on beer and pizza.

Thanks for your support.

Ken Smith