Family misfortunes encore

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Bruce Ryan

Some of my reader might know that my mother has been in hospital. She was taken into Worcester Royal hospital on Friday 24 January due to severe abdominal pain, and had some procedures on Friday 31 January. These had to be delayed while various routine medications were still active. She was then transferred to the Alexandra hospital in Redditch. The Alex is the home of the specialist unit in Worcestershire that is best placed to handle my mother’s conditions.

I’ve been in Worcester since the afternoon of Monday 27 January. I’ve had to leave a lot of work in the very capable hands of colleagues at Napier, £eithChooses, Leith Central Community Council, Leith Harbour & Newhaven Community Council, New Town & Broughton Community Council and Community Councils Together on Trams. (I am doing some CC work remotely as I get snippets of time.) Huge thanks to all concerned! Continue reading →

Bouncing in Bucharest (part 1)

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

Elly has been in Bucharest since very early on Tuesday. I flew out to meet her yesterday (Friday). My flight was due to take off at 19:00 but took off after 19:30, after a sudden gate-change from 4 to 18, because the place was at gate 17. A 3 hour 30 minute flight landed me in Bucharest Otopeni airport around 1am Romanian time. Here’s what happened since… Continue reading →

photos from 12 September

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

view from our hotel	tugging
weird boat	bow of weird boat

photos from 10 September

Posted on September 10, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

There were whale paintings on the road, and many whale-flags.

ferry approaching

Lelystad to Zaandam; zedding in Zaandam

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

We had decided to finished the holiday with a few days in Zaandam. We came here in late 2016: here’s our stories from then. So yesterday (Sunday 8 September) was taken up by a relatively long (42 miles) trip. No rain, little wind but much wiggling: https://cyclemeter.com/dd47ea6f33590baa/Cycle-20190908-1049-80348. I’d been keen to see the completely reclaimed countryside of Flevoland, and got it.

street-names en route	Miles of straight, smooth tarmac made this a pretty smooth run.
crossing from Flevoland to Muiden (mainland)	Crossing from Flevoland to Muiden (mainland)

Today has been a deliberately lazy day: breakfast, shopping, coffee, more shopping, more coffee, dozing, cinema, sleep Tomorrow we might be energetic!

Our hotel in Zaandam

Lelystad looping

Posted on September 7, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

Hello from a cafe outside the Batavia Museum! There is much on how they are rebuilding old sailing ships here. Not a surprise that this is a lively area. We are in a city, a city on land reclaimed from water. Cycling through wiggly suburbs is such a change to cycling through countryside! Continue reading →

photos from 6 September

Posted on September 6, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

setting off along the dike	streamlined recumbent
approaching Lelystad	approaching Lelystad

Around the Zuiderzee museum at Enkhuizen

Posted on September 5, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

street-name	Enkhuizen marina	about de Taanhuis	inside de Taanhuis
about the smoke-houses	inside the smoke-houses	about a house from Merken	inside the house from Merken
about a corner-shop	inside the corner-shop	inside the corner-shop	random building
around the museum	about a house from Marken	inside the house from Marken	about a fish-auction
inside the fish-auction	about tanning	more about tanning	more about tanning
more about tanning	more about tanning	about the Aeronef	the Aeronef
about a dike-house	the dike-house	about chalk-ovens
museum layout-information	museum layout-information	about the Zuiderzee museum	more about the Zuiderzee museum
looking back at the museum	I was intrigued by the ride of this thatched hut.	another view of the thatched hut
about the bronze-age hut	bronze-age hut	bronze-age hut
about the brush-maker	outside the brush-maker’s	inside the brush-maker’s	Elly is not an exhibit!
Shy sheep	flounder	boiler-room(?)	about the boiler-room
steam engine	boiler and steam-engine	about the steam-laundry	laundry
about van der Kamp laundry	more about the van der Kamp laundry	about Zuiderzee tastes	What to use for polishing your stove!
forge	about the high street	painted radiator	about the pharmacy
Enkhuizen marina	sailing	Drommedaris (more on Wikipedia)	about Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter sketching a goat…	… and his model.	Note the weathervane	view of Enkhuizen
view of Enkhuizen	view of Enkhuizen	Bookbinder Street

2nd September: to den Burg, then de Koog

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Bruce Ryan

Today was a shopping and sightseeing day. Cyclemeter map for now, photos below.

Den Burg sheep-market

Sheep in Den Burg market

The White Angel – sells all manner of Texel wool

how to use a sheep

At the ‘Flora’ shipwreck and beach-combing museum

A nation of cyclists!	Hope to auction fish	Elly gaming	outside exhibits
Jutter boat, previously used by Texel jutter Sil Boon. (A jutter is a beachcomber or scavenger.)	about the next few photos	lifeboat capsule	inside the lifeboat capsule
lifeboat capsule pilot’s station	inside the lifeboat capsule	about the lifeboat capsule’s air supply	ship interior
mammoths!	mammoth tusk	wine, women and song?	rubber gloves
penicillin	whiskey galore	Aye-aye captain!	snail-flour!
de Koog beach	de Koog beach	de Koog beach

1st September: round Texel