It's not all bad weather!

It was recently summer holiday time and Jan & I have been away cycling again to the Netherlands.  This time we took a ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam.  Cycling in the Netherlands is incredibly easy with its many miles of traffic-free, well-maintained routes plus its quiet country roads that are relatively free of traffic.  We usually saw more bikes than cars.  We cycled up the coast then back through Germany and across the Netherlands to Amsterdam.  Even cycling in the city is enjoyable and feels safe in a way I haven’t experienced in a UK city.  We find that cars in many parts of Europe seem to have more respect for cyclists.  The weather was also good so we had a great holiday.

These are all over the cycling network. ...

... but there's always a place for a bit of improvisation !

Fortunately we had no gales!

Apartment building with character.

Rural building with character - if you need more space, just raise the roof!

It was good to return to the Lakes though.  Back at work, one of my first tasks was to erect in Crowe Park the temporary installation you can see in the photographs.  It is a 10 ft by 6 ft ‘picture frame’ and, as you can see, it frames some stunning views across Derwentwater and down Borrowdale.   So far, feedback from members of the public is very positive and it is being well-used for some holiday photos with a difference.  I’m biased of course and think that Borrowdale is the best bit of the Lake District!

At the weekend I did more cycling with a couple of friends.  We managed to fit in one of the shorter routes from west to east coasts - 145 km from Gretna via Kielder.  We chose that route so that we could avoid busy roads.

And finally, the next stage of planning a wild-swim event took place when I with some colleagues actually did the swim as a trial run. 

  That’s another step closer to being able to organise such an event for members of the public.