Having begun seriously to spread the word about the bike trip, including newsletters to EMDR colleagues and the Cantores Choir mailing list, I guess I need to start registering how the preparations for my own journey starting early April are coming along. Curious how looking back helps with the looking forward. As I peruse Google Maps … Read more …
Cycling
Guinness is not always good for you…
The last moments seen right of nervous good health back at the end of July… I’ve been waiting to post these thoughts for four months as my left arm and hand’s ulnar nerve has begun, at last, to heal from a very nasty uncharacteristically (honest) alcohol-related, zero miles-per-hour crash in Dublin at the end of … Read more …
Tandeming through the Berlin Wall, anno 1978
As Europe remembers the opening of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago this week, I can’t resist posting a picture of what it used to be like in the old days – as Jutta and I cycled through Checkpoint Charlie on a tandem. I was working for Reuters at the time, and we lived in … Read more …
Home At Last… Older and Nicer Perhaps?
So – home at last. This final blog needed to wait a few days since, as computers do, my mainframe took one look at me after three months away, 10kg the lighter and as fit as I’ve ever been, allowed me briefly to copy all my pictures off the camera on to the hard drive, … Read more …
Raven’s Seat
And I couldn’t resist either a further almost-final shot, taken in Little Venice in Central London today, of Raven’s Brooks B17 leather seat after 4000 miles of intimate massage… It looks, and feels, a whole lot more comfortable than when I set out at Easter. Cycling into London from the English South-East, I have to … Read more …
A Final Word on Climate Change
My name is Mark Brayne and I am a Blogger. An addict, clearly. But Dorie said she’d appreciate some final, final thoughts, so, unable to resist another tipple, here’s a first batch. Climate Change. Take a deep breath. The picture illustrates, from Dunkirk, the quandary we’re in. Oil refinery in the background – the real … Read more …
And Finally, Aboard the Ferry Home
As I cross the Channel from Dunkirk to Dover on my conclusive way home, this probably will be my last substantive blog post (though I might be tempted to indulge once more on climate change) . Pic of Raven to illustrate, with rather bleak Dunkirk terminal and appropriately-named Norfolk Lines ferry (Norfolk being my home … Read more …
Bye-Bye Belgium
On my last evening in Europe – well, on the European mainland, anyway – I could post some pretty pictures of Bruges, which is indeed Very Pretty, and say, Dear Belgium, all is forgiven. But I won’t, as all isn’t. To the bitter end, Belgium’s road surfaces were s**t, often consisting (see pic) of lumpy … Read more …
Wet Gent and the Colonial Past
I’m afraid Belgium – and roads/cycle tracks/pleasure-at-being-in – isn’t getting any better. The rain doesn’t help. The view above is of beautiful, tourist-magnet Gent this afternoon and the charming square in front of the cathedral here. Drenched, and as seen from a café to which I have repaired for some waffles en route from Brussels … Read more …
Brussels at last
I can’t say the experience of sorting Raven’s tyre problems out has entirely redeemed Belgium, especially after 40 miles yesterday into Brussels along some of the worst cycle tracks and road surfaces I’ve yet encountered. But Kevin and Joey and their bosses at Jupiter cycles in Antwerp went a long way to reassuring me that, … Read more …