We don’t really celebrate Valentines day much as a couple or as a family.  martin and I usually exchange cards – this year I made a card based on this circle activity.  I changed it to heart shapes and mounted them on pink and red cards. I didn’t manage to get up in time to give [Continue]

….is the plague of signs on our esplanades. I think they should all be removed, there are now so many that no-one pays them any attention and they are just a blot on the landscape. If we have to have signs lets have happy friendly ones that welcome people and invite them to have fun, [Continue]

We got back a couple of days ago from a lightening trip to Frankfurt. It was borne out of Ryanair’s 1p flight deal, discovered thanks to the most excellent Martin Lewis and his splendid Moneysavingexpert.com website. When I say 1p, that was it. One solitary penny per person each way (inc. taxes). So 7 of [Continue]

I was going to rant about car drivers not giving way to cyclist travelling uphill, but see the Weekly Gripe has beaten me to it. (Great title by the way!). I share their grievance. Travelling along National Cycle Network 23 I had the same problem the other day. In a car, stopping to give way [Continue]

The Dutch let us down today. Junction with signs to Breda in three directions for cyclists – not too helpful… Oh well, that’s not bad, that’s the first gripe to date. We followed a 25km ish route today joined by Aunty Jane on a hired (child’s) bike. They have a system of numbered junctions marked [Continue]

Just posted on the family blog about how good cycle infrastructure is in the Netherlands (after a slightly petty gripe about signage at one junction) and that improving ours in the UK would almost certainly see a modal shift from car to bike. What I’m not sure about is how you change an anti-bike culture. [Continue]

Cycled the 7.5km (5 miles or thereabouts for the terminally British) into Breda. Along the main road there was mostly a cycle lane on each side of the road, separate from the road and footpath. It was wide, well surfaced and had right of way over minor roads and entrances to premises. It’s illegal to [Continue]

The following few posts were written down while on holiday, so posted on block. Post dates correspond to time of original pen ‘n’ ink writing. After hours in the pouring rain on Sunday affixing bikes to the car, we actually got to cycle in the sun today! We’re on holiday in Oosterhout, just outside Breda [Continue]