Category Archives: Travel

Day 1: Rijksmuseum

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up to 21°C, some heavy showers predicted.
Hotel: like staying in an Art gallery, the room is a bit pokey though. There are shared bathrooms, which are worth a photo in themselves. (Wait & see).
I shall have to task some shots here before I go to the Rjiksmuseum today.

The light is ideal. Talking of Light- I will get to see at least some Vermeer & Rembandt today.

I didn’t get here early enough to look around yesterday, all I did was have a meal at a nearby bar washed down with a pint.

Evening: has turned sunny but the town was plagued by rainshowers in the day- a lot of my photos look almost black/white. Even I am amazed at the numbers of bikes here, but the machines are all situp& beg, often piled up with loasdf of luggage.
I’m off now to see some sunshine.

Amsterdam

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16°C, rain

The weather forecast is terrible- rain all week. Worse weather than is due here.

Map image

This M$ map feature is good don’t you think? I will be staying near the top-right, just where the S100 meets the yellow road.

45 miles

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19°C, sun & a few showers, amazing cloudscapes.

I’ve worn myself out. 170 miles so far this week. An advantages of recent upheavals is that I am burning off nervous energy by cycling, the spinoff- my fitness is the highest in ten years. Maybe I can sleep now.

Amsterdam

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18°C, lots of short showers on the wind

Confirmed: I’m off for a few days to Amsterdam next Monday. The booking failed at the last moment on the first attempt so I didn’t get the hotel I really wanted, no disaster- the one I did get should be OK. The idea is to do the galleries, and walk and walk. If there is net access in the hotel, I can post more here next week (it’s more likely that they provide wireless access but no machines).

Turned out “lush”

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19°C, sunny with strong SW winds. C=67 miles.

Gorgeous day after a grotty start.
Passed Chartley Castle on the way to Stafford. See photo below
Russian: I have been having fun with an online language translator:

"Я имел забаву с языковым переводчиком онлайн."

St. Kilda: 513 downloads in one day!. That’s faster then the Chernobyl scenery in its first day. I’m really surprised at that since it seems like a more obscure area.

He returns

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14°C, rain

Dorset: I came back early, the weather was poor and the county rather crowded at this time of year. I wasn’t quick enough to get a video like this, but here is Portland lighthouse’s for horn. They switched it off just as I was getting the camera out.

Indistrial brownscape

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18°C, strong winds (West); 56 miles cycling

Very strong Westerlies all day, though warm & dry. It must be tough in the northern apporaches, sinkings happen on days like this.
Oh what now- another picture of Mugwort. It’s becoming more obvious which are mugwort and which are wormwood. As the mugworts mature, the top surfaces are getting darker, while the workwood keeps that silvery green on both sides. they will flower soon, one is white the other yellow.
/unramble.

Wormwood in Staffordshire

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25°C, 1/10 cloud; light NE; C=79 miles

Absinthium: after stopping by the road for a bike adjustment, there it was – a clump of Wormwood. It really does like sandy soil, by the roadside away from other plants; or is it stiffling the others with that Thujone? I brought a piece home to make sure of the identity. You know what it’s like, after spotting one, seeing them everywhere is easy. I want a sample in the garden.

Willington Power Station: only has 5 cooling towers, and nothing else, no generator hall, no chimneys no other buildings. No wonder it looked so ugly last time I passed it- it’s being demolished. It looks like there are plans to put housing on there (as there is everywhere in the UK).

Beautiful day; 79 miles but not very fast.