‘Brandweer ‘ – Texel’s miniature fire engine. I noticed the key was hanging in the ignition, ready for any emergency. May all their fires be small fires.
Excuse me for harking back to last weekend’s cycling trip to Texel Island. There were a few little things worth mentioning that I missed in my previous post.
What makes Texel so attractive to Dutch people and to a handful of knowledgeable German visitors is its small scale and its olde worlde charm. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling, Holland
Riding with the wind for a change.
This island is 20 kilometres long, 10 kilometres wide and has more than 135 kilometres of cycle paths. It’s not hard to guess which country we’re talking about.
Texel, the most southerly of the Dutch Wadden Islands, is flat. Mostly. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling
The RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride – fabulous organisation, great routes and rather a lot of company. I’ve done this one twice, but there’s a new route every year.
Damn you, RIDE ON magazine, for publishing this list of Australia’s Top 50 Bike Riding Experiences. Now I want to do them all.
I’m able to say I can tick off a few of your selections, but still have about 45 to go. There are some MTB routes which are out of my comfort zone, but also many road rides that look fantastic.
Meanwhile I’m chained to my desk for a few more weeks, with only the occasional morning ride in Sydney to keep me sane.
Have a look at the list, and if anyone has other great Aussie routes to recommend – let me know, while I still have some knee cartilage left.
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling
I’ve just ridden across France, up the Alps and then the whole length of New Zealand. It only took me a couple of weeks and I hardly raised a sweat. Because I did it by reading.
My own cycling recently has been limited to gentle rides to the rehearsal room.
I’ve been pleasantly tied up working on a couple of new theatre shows. You’ll doubtless hear more about them on this blog as the time to buy tickets approaches.
In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying reading about two other people’s cycling feats and had the pleasure of meeting the writers. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Writing
Halse smokehouse. So where’s the smoke?
It’s an island with a rocky, wild, windswept coastline, but every man-made element appears to have been meticulously designed.
In my original post about Bornholm I wrote about the colours, though I could just as well have focussed on the shapes. Continue reading
Filed under Art, Cycle touring, Scandinavia, travel photography
Distance runner Craig Mottram gets cycling tips from Simon Gerrans.
So every time I visit I get a sponsored pop-up ad telling me about the ‘Alpine Ascent Challenge’. It intrigued me enough to click on it. I was inspired.
I have keen cycling friends in Holland who challenge themselves by riding the mountain stages of the Tour de France. Mont Ventoux, Col de Madeleine and ‘the assassin’, the climb up the Col de Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, attract thousands of amateurs every year. They’re not for the faint-hearted or weak-kneed, but I cherish the hope that some time in the not-too-distant future I’ll put in the training hours/days/weeks and have a crack at one of them.
I didn’t know there were rides in Australia as tough as the European classics for those who want to give their legs and lungs a serious workout. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling, Travel-Australia
