Kathy,

I'll give it a go. First markers. This enables you to place and save markers anywhere on the map, but note that these do not transfer to your Garmin, Wahoo or other cycling computer.

Viewing the cycle.travel web page, right-click where you want to place a marker, and the "Add a marker" menu pops up:

Select a symbol, and fill in details:

Then click Save, and your marker is dropped onto the map:

A Private marker is only seen by you (when you are logged in): an example might be a friend's house. I think that a Public marker is also not seen by others, but could in future be used by cycle.travel to modify the base map to show popular locations such as a cafe. There is a third option "This journey only" which appears when you have planned and saved a route. I have not tried this, but I believe that the associated markers will then be visible to others. See Richard's earlier posting on Markers and Privacy:

https://cycle.travel/post/5836

Markers you have created can be deleted by clicking on the symbol, and selecting Edit, then Delete.

Part two. Tiles.

The cycle.travel source of everything, Richard Fairhurst, could give a better explanation, but he has enough to do. You may be aware that C.T is largely the work of this one man.

This is a hexagonal grid of places you have ridden using the cycle.travel app. As you pass through one of the hexagons, it changes colour and gradually you will see the regions you have visited, and perhaps most usefully places you have not ridden. See if you can view this from Richard:

https://bsky.app/profile/cycle.travel/post/3lleb4slngc2f

Chris