Category Archives: travels

Bruce and Elly’s greatest hits tour: days 13 to 16 (31 August to 3 October)

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Thursday 31st

I have no photos from today, probably due to lack of sleep on the train. (ÖBB still hasn’t contacted me, almost a week later, to tell me whether or not it has found my laundry-bag.) However, cyclemeter reminds me we did a bus-tour. We didn’t go north of the IJ on that trip, but we did take the metro as far north as we could on the next excursion.

Friday 1st

Our first visit was to the Stadsarchief (city archives). It’s very worth visiting, not least because it appears to be on ‘Weasel Street’. (Here’s the tram-journey.). Then we took another tram as far east as we could get (IJburg) and watched boat-traffic along the IJ. Then Elly took me to a wonderful place. (here’s how we got there and back.)

Amsterdam was filled with LGBT+ flags.
Gemeentearchief building
The building is a former bank HQ.
Maria Austria institute?
pink elephant
architecture
more architecture
along the IJ
IJ-IJ sailor
where we were
ground-level diversity
propaganda
more propaganda
You must do this!
my spiritual home, says Elly

Saturday 2nd

So today we went west, and happened on a brand-new, very friendly restaurant. (Here’s that journey.). Then it was time to come home: bus to IJMuiden and ferry to North Shields

tram terminus
There’s a familiar name.
Where it is
untranslatable
open-air gym
She blows!
I wonder what they sell here?
We went in for a drink, and they place was lovely.
Elephants are everywhere.
Yes!
ready to leave – and ready to go back.
Why is this boat taking in water?
land’s end
where we were
aquatics

Sunday 3rd

Bus from North Shields to Newcastle, then train back to Edinburgh

Libraries are cool.
almost home

Bruce and Elly’s greatest hits tour: days 4 (continued) to 6 (22 to 24 August)

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Tuesday 22nd continued

Berlin baby! Here’s how we got here. First, a train from Zaandam to Amsterdam Centraal; next, a train from Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin Haupbahnhof. (I have no idea why Cyclometer stopped recording before we even got to Hanover.) We arrived in the late evening, so don’t do any more than install ourselves in a hotel, then go back to the Haupbahnhof to eat at Hans im Glück. (Eating at Hans im Glück is one of the Deutsche Heilige Dreifaltigkeit: the others are shopping at a DM and doing laundry at an Eco-Express Waschsalon.)

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My bug-out kit

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As some of you know, I may need to go to the parental abode with very little notice. So here’s what I have with me almost all the time.

In my pouch/bumbag

In my pannier or rucksack
  • tobacco, cigarette papers and at least one lighter
  • passport
  • iPhone with attached short USB to lighting cable
  • wallet
  • regular medications
    • fast-acting insulin
    • long-lasting insulin
    • glucose tablets
    • amitriptyline
    • aspirin
    • atorvastatin
    • sertraline
  • irregular medicines
    • nicotine patches
    • e-cigarette
    • ibuprofen
  • pens
  • spork
  • tooth-brush
  • Napier ID and business cards
  • waterproofs
  • laptop and power-cable
  • paper notebook
  • electronica pouch
    • laser-pointer [1]
    • USB 2/3 to ethernet adaptor
    • miniDisplayPort to VGA, HDMI, DVI adaptor
    • USB-C to USB-2/3, VGA, HDMI adaptor [2]
    • two USB-C to USB 2/3 adaptors
    • USB 2/3 power plug
    • HDMI cable
    • car cigarette-lighter to USB2/3 power adaptor
    • two pairs of Bluetooth headphones
    • high-capacity USB battery
    • bluetooth mouse
    • 2-meter USB to lightning cable
    • UK to EU, Australia, US power adaptor [3]

Before you ask, I have spare clothes at the parental abode.

[1] because I’m an academic, not necessarily to aid bug-out

[2] because a visiting lecturer once needed such an adaptor to connect his laptop to a Napier projector

[3] mostly because it also has 4 USB 2/3 power-ports

Family misfortunes encore

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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)

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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 →