Category Archives: Travel

The Intensity

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14°C, started bright, but it’s drizzling now.

Sore muscles

Ride later: but perhaps I need a rest-day. Various muscles ache, need stretching or steadily burn a bit: hamstrings, quads and trapezoids. Another muscle is giving trouble too; the one that beats against the wall causes so much damned trouble.

I’m going away now to s t r e t c h.

Leonard Cohen, "Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye"

 I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm,
Your head upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm.
Yes, many loved before us
I know that we are not new,
In city and in forest
They smiled like me and you,
But now it’s come to distances
And both of us must try,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.

I’m not looking for another
As I wander in my time,
Walk me to the corner
Our steps will always rhyme,
You know my love goes with you
As your love stays with me,
It’s just the way it changes
Like the shoreline and the sea,
But let’s not talk of love or chains
And things we can’t untie,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.

I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm,
Your head upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm.
Yes, many loved before us
I know that we are not new,
In city and in forest
They smiled like me and you,
But let’s not talk of love or chains
And things we can’t untie,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.

Is this how it works?
On Youtube, Solimorphus wrote:

when i was a boy i adored this man with a kind of desperate infatuation
which, i guess, stems from loneliness. now that i am a grown man, and
have a family of my own who love me, i feel we are kind of friends who
meet very occasionally but have an intense relationship regardless.
maybe one day when i am old, and there is no love and hope for me in
this world, i will finally understand him.

Beautifully put; there are writers making gracious contributions on YouTube.

norepinephrine, adrenaline and glucagon

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20°C, clear, warm and still; Cycle 64.8 miles.

Feels like the last day of summer; the air is warm, smells sweet and the sunlight warm. Any passing clouds reminded us that the autumn is only so far away and there is little growth in farmland apart from those rich velvety berries glimpsed within hedgerows.
Feels like I could go for ever on that bike, just like last Sunday, no tiredness, no lapsing into poor cadence, just rolling mile after mile, comfortable, unstoppable.

I’ve got work to do, I’m relishing it because I feel more alive than years have seen.
The fronts of my arms have picked up an unfamiliar scent. It’s not mine, but a startling and welcome surprise.Smile

88 miles.

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19°C after the rain stopped and the sun came out.

Cycling: Niiice long ride at a fast pace. I only came home because my concentration was fading. The roadspeed was steady- a comfortable but quick pace even once the tiredness came on. My eyesight became slow, and that is bad & unsafe. My legs were happy to continue but I really could do without any injuries from crashing right now.
Five hours of cycling is quality thinking time. Some decisions are made, some are just clearer. Mind you, the last hour usually turns into a fudge, as your body starts to run out of calories.
The portrait I started yesterday is just too big, that may mean getting a spirit soaked rag and wiping it back. Drastic but not a problem at this early stage.

Tapping on the wheel

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Cloying, milky air, warm & very humid. 19°C,

Only 32 miles but I must be careful. Last year I was bugged by a persistent chest infection that cut so many miles off cycling. This summer’s rides total 1,000 miles on the bike. So I have answered my home-life-falling-apart with exercise to keep myself sane and sleep through the night. The result is that is I am as fit as I can remember.
Enough of me, let’s talk of something interesting.

 
….that is less humid.

Home by lunchtime

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16°C. Cloudy,

On getting home: I had every intention of cycling my restless feelings away. Now all I can see is torrential rain outside. Dammit!
Taking a solo holiday is revealing. Normally I can open conversation casually with strangers without any effort. But this trip I was largely in a bubble isolated from others & I think I know why: perhaps folks mistrust of single blokes travelling alone.

Day 2: Van Gogh Museum

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19°C, heavy showers forecast, it’s sunny right now.

2nd full day: more walking planned but I have a blister- let’s see if wearing two pairs of socks helps. I didn’t sleep very well so now have a mild headache; perhaps when I was in Japan blaming my poor sleep on the earth-quakes- I may not have slept anyway.
This certainly is a beautiful city, as expensive as London though.
 
Later: VG museum was far busier then the Rijksmuseum. I had to queue. The tone of the labels was interesting, interesting to anyone learning to paint I’d imagine. It’s clear that various phases in his work were deliberate attempts to learn skills he had identified as shortcomings himself. It’s sad to reflect that he never felt that he’d "arrived" in the sense that he became a professional artist.
 
Anyway; My feet hurt so much from blisters that I am only comfortable in my running shoes. Now is the last part of my stay, tomorrow will be consumed with the journey back and the desire not to miss my flight. Shipol is one of the biggest airports in Europe, I need to get to the right place.
Now, I’d better go and pick up some foodie souvenirs to take home.

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.