Category Archives: Musings

Is this the finest railway station in the world?

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It’s been a bit of UK week. Speaking about UK cycling at a public enquiry by video link on Monday, then the slightly odd feeling of being a returning visitor to London on a lovely spring day yesterday. Only six months away, but it did feel strange.

I’ve got a couple of posts that will come from both those experiences but first a travel thought.

So many visitors that arrive in London by Eurostar train just head for the underground (the Tube) so they leave their arrival station without ever stepping outside. Because I walk and cycle I always get to take in the wonderful Victorian buildings of St Pancras station which I regard as the finest railway station I know, an opinion apparently shared by travel writer Simon Calder who apparently called the redeveloped terminus  “the world’s most wonderful railway station”.St Pancras Station London

Yesterday the low afternoon sun picked out the gothic detailing almost perfectly. I have never stayed at the Renaissance Hotel which took over the refurbished Midland Grand Hotel in the main frontage but one day I am going to treat myself. However even if you are just visiting London don’t dash off to the West End or the City without appreciating London St. Pancras.

For the history of this great station the Wikipedia entry is here

When a bike is too good to be true, it is almost certainly not true

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Replica Francesco Moser Hour Record Bike

I walked onto my host’s stand at the bike show I was visiting in Budapest this weekend and the hairs almost stood up on the back of my neck.

Right in front of their stall was one of the legendary bikes of cycle sport – the extraordinary bike ridden by Italian star Francesco Moser in 1988 to break the “the hour”, one of cycling’s most extreme records.To anybody immersed in cycle sport at the time this was the stuff of legends. It even had a photo indicating authenticity.

I couldn’t be true. I just couldn’t make out how this groundbreaking machine wasn’t in a museum or the collection of the man himself.

So I poked around on line over the weekend to see if I could authenticate the bike and I came across a fun new blog I haven’t seen before  – the Lo Pro Cycling Club, a site dedicated to the whole generation of aerodynamic bikes that became super fashionable in the racing scene of the 1980s.

I this great post the blog tells the story of how former professional track rider Kiss Ferenc from Hungary built a Moser replica for fun. I can only assume this is the beast.

The replica is a bit naughty, but what a designer – one of the bike companies should give him a job.

“This is a town that’s fallen down the back of the sofa”

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Bungay

The Guardian newspaper carries a weekly series about British towns that people might think about moving to.

It’s usually slightly tongue in cheek but this week’s article has caught those of us from the small Suffolk town of Bungay by surprise as we are portrayed as coming from somewhere distinctly odd.

“a peculiarly Suffolk version of the Bermuda Triangle” among other statements.

The Wikipedia entry is a lot more sober. And boring. I like being from somewhere different..

Spring at last – a beautiful day in Budapest

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Danube Budapest Hungary

Searing bright light, forcing me to squint, making sightseeing almost painful.

And it was absolutely wonderful. After weeks of overcast cold weather this spring day in Budapest was like a huge injection of life.

I wrote on Friday how much the Danube always impresses me. But now in the stunning sunlight with the architecture of Budapest on either side I just didn’t want to stop wandering and taking photos. Almost a shame that I had to go and talk cycling!Parliament Building Budapest Hungary Danube Budapest Hungary Church by Danube in Buda Hungary

Last time I was here was December 2008. It was freezing, overcast and we spent quite a bit of our time cycling in the dark. But even then I remember being impressed by the buildings and bridges of several eras overlooking the water, but today they were resplendent in spring sunshine.Chain Bridge and Buda castle Budapest Buda Castle, Budapest Hungary

 

As well as the riverside I had a short time to go into the centre too and I enjoyed the quiet squares just beyond the busy thoroughfares. These grand buildings and statues are typical of these central European cities that were once part of one of Europe’s greatest empires.

Budapest Hungary

Hungarians are a warm hospitable people too, with an extraordinary compulsion to fill visitors with enormous quantities of food. It doesn’t get much better for a hungry cyclist.

If you’ve not been, go.

Can anyone tell me how this is supposed to sell bikes?

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At bike shows there are rules.

Fixies must be bling.Bringaexpo

Electric motors must crop up slightly unexpectedly.Electric MTB Bringaexpo Budapest

And somewhere there must be a lovely Bianchi in celeste blue.Bringaexpo Hungary

These are given.

The company will remain nameless for discretion’s sake, but I have to say this is the very first image as you walk through the door at the Bringaexpo today in Budapest. Another rule – at every show there must be one piece of marketing that makes you go “what were they thinking?” Bringaexpo Budapest

The Danube always makes a huge impression on me

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Margit Bridge

Even  though I am stepping out on a cold misty morning today the Danube never fails to excite me.

Partly it is the huge size, partly I can look down river and catch a first glimpse of the buildings of Budapest along the banks. But it has always done this whenever I have come to it on trips.

But also I think about this amazing corridor that links so many capital cities and countries, running from Germany to the Black Sea. How much human history has been seen along these waters. Something of the exotic perhaps? As a Brit we are often far removed and sadly uneducated about much European history, but when I get the Danube I always feel I should know more.

It is a long standing ambition to cycle the eastern section. Today I will have to content myself with this first view and some cycling along its great cycle paths later.

I am so over snow (the sequel)

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Snowy saddle

Couldn’t work out why this is so frustrating for me but doesn’t seem to bother anyone else here.

Then as I wobbled back home through the slush and the blowing flakes tonight I realised. List of wants. Dry bum, dry feet, warm face, stable road surfaces……..and more covered bike sheds in Belgium.

30 years of work. 3 years as a student. 7 years cycling to school. Not once have I travelled anywhere where I had to leave my bike outside daily. The dear old UK might be Europe’s cycling dunce but I must have struck lucky with our legacy of bike sheds, some of them probably dating back to the 1960s or even earlier in the case of at least one factory bike shed I can recall.

I mean those saddle covers I see at the bike parks are awfully naff, but now I know why they are so popular everywhere else in Europe and its not just for advertising SRAM.

Saddle cover MalmoSaddle cover SwedenSaddle cover DordrechtSRAM Urban advert

Man’s best friend makes it every rider for himself

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One of the pleasures of being out in the snow today was to see the many wheel tracks in the snow that indicated that several local clubs must have taken to mountain bikes for the morning.

Club VTT BelgiqueThis provided my comedy sequence of the day.

I was perhaps 300 metres away across the fields from some farm buildings when I heard a commotion – dogs barking, people yelling. When I looked back I saw a nice compact group of about a dozen riders just heading towards the buildings. They ducked out of site briefly and I got out my camera hoping that I might get a good image of riders against the snow when they came out.

Instead there was a further commotion and two groups going absolutely flat out shot along the track with one man suspended in between. I clicked off a couple of shots rather in hope because it was clear the blowing snow and their determination to race away meant they would be rather hazy. It was only as I took the camera from my eye that I spotted a  further shape behind the final group which explained the split.VTT et chien Belgique

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea how far the angry pooch followed them, but he was still going well when I lost them in the haze. Only doing his job I suppose, but I was awfully glad I had turned short of his territory. I don’t think I would have got away as quickly as the group I was watching and I would have been a much easier target.

Hey dude, somebody moved the country

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Walloon Brabant Belgium

We were pottering about last weekend trying to learn a bit more about our new home area, Brabant Wallon (Walloon Brabant in English) and we ended up in the pretty town of Ittre.

It is a small and charming rural town with a long history back to the time of the Romans and an impressive chateau which disappointingly has private grounds.Brabant Wallon BelgiumBrabant Wallon Belgium

But one of its main claims to fame is that it is the recognised geographical centre of Belgium, for which it has a pair of grinding stones topped by this proud marker right in front of the town hall.Ittre Walloon Brabant

However there is a catch. Sometime around 1990 the geographical institute noticed that they hadn’t updated the official geographic centre since 1919 when the German speaking communes of Belgium were added to the east of the country.

And dear Ittre discovered that it had been living on false pretences for nearly seventy years and the centre was moved. However the monument seems to have puffed out its chest and decided to carry on regardless and nobody is going to challenge civic pride by demolishing it. So Belgium has retained two geographic centres, the sort of compromise that makes this country work.Brabant Wallon Walloon Brabant

Duel at dawn

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As I was riding through the forest on my way to work earlier this week another rider swept on to the path from a side track about 50 yards ahead of me. As I normally have this track to myself I was immediately interested and I did the quick cyclist’s snapshot of man and bike. Looks like a rigid mountain bike, he is in cycling clothes but not full on racing gear, woolly hat not helmet and a backpack no doubt containing clothes or work.

Pretty much like me in fact.

As he turned the next bend and began to drag up into the trees he briefly looked back and I knew he was making exactly the same audit of this unexpected cyclist behind him. And then he sent out a signal. He hunched forward and pedalled harder.

A challenge! The hundred and fifty year old sign that says “Don’t catch me”, a signal between stupid men conditioned to think because we ride bikes it is some sort of competitive act.

Guilty as charged your honour. 50 years spent around racing cyclists takes over and of course I do exactly the same thing to see if I can catch him and within seconds we are both dashing along the tracks at massively higher speeds than is sensible for the time of day, the terrain and in my case my body. And had you been an observer you would have noted that both were trying to maintain a pose that says “Trying? Oh not really, I’m only riding to work”

For about ten minutes the distance fluctuated between 30 and 50 metres, me climbing a bit faster but him pulling away on the flat, neither of us changing pace or style. I was just so desperately relieved when he turned off though, honours even.

Why – why do I do that? I spent the rest of the day desperate for a quiet nap somewhere. It would have been so much better if it had worked out like most of the rest of my time so far in Belgium. I see another cyclist, they ride off, I watch. I keep convincing myself that all those people passing me at apparent high speed are actually refugees from Belgian cycle racing culture and they just commute on upright bikes in day clothes so I shouldn’t be upset that I can’t keep up. It really amazes me how well those ex-top racers can disguise themselves as little old ladies on shopping bikes, quite remarkable.

Will I ever learn? Probably not I am afraid. Sorry to all those who believe that Middle Aged Men in Lycra (MAMILS) are the death of daily cycling, I am who I am, I just need a few slower Belgians to keep me company.

Reminding visitors why water controls matters in the Netherlands – in three photos

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Travelling around the Netherlands you are rarely far from water. Looking from train windows, cycling or walking the drainage systems are often evident and to my eyes they always seem to be brim full of water, even in the summer. We grew up on stories of the drainage and polders in our 1970s geography lessons.

But when I was in Dordrecht last week I captured three images that really brought home to me how the development of land and housing are all wrapped up in this system.

A row of houses.Dordrecht

The same street forty years ago – the floods coming down the same street. Impressive juxtaposition.Dordrecht 1953 floods

But look again at the original. There is a gap in the houses to the left where those yellow signs point. So turn left to look back to the street we have just come from on our bikes.

Dordrecht

I suddenly realise that the street we have just cycled along is way below the level of those 1953 floods and every house we have passed is in effect outside the protective barrier. The 1953 floods would have come almost to the roofs.

How comfortable would I feel there? No idea, but my discomfort tells me I’m definitely not Dutch.

A tale of two sheds – or why my great new bike shed suddenly feels inadequate

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/bouval/8474784196/in/pool-platform-duurzaamheid-dordrecht

Photo RienVal (All rights reserved)

I have never given a talk in a stables before.

But at the Dordrecht Sustainability Café (Duurzaamheidscafé) last week I was speaking in the former stables of a rich merchant’s house which is now the Weizigt Sustainability Centre. Next door was an even bigger and grander room which used to park the carriages when the house was built in the 19th Century.

To keep the integrity of the space there were even two fibreglass horses in the end stalls.Dordrecht Weizigt

Dordrecht Weizigt Sustainability Centre

And how those horses must have lived. Look at this place! Expensively tiled walls and each horse has its personalised drinking trough. I’d hate to say that these were from marble, but this was a carved solid stone trough out of something impressive. If you wanted to carve a trendy modern work surface for your designer kitchen then this is the sort of stuff you would use.

It was a great environment for the informal and interactive series of sustainability talks (the café) held each quarter where local groups can come together and hear presentations and discuss topical sustainability issues.

Dordrecht Duurzaamheidscafé

But I couldn’t help but think of my own animal shed. I have been over the moon since I moved to Belgium because the house I am renting comes with old farm buildings, including a milking shed with the cow stalls still in place.

So my bikes have been given their own stalls too.Kevin Mayne's Bike Shed

Only problem is that in this one the roof leaks and there is a howling wind blowing through the space, but it is the best bike shed I have ever had. I even had this sneaking temptation to start giving the bikes appropriate names like Daisy, Buttercup and Ermintrude.

However now I have seen the Weizigt centre all that is behind me.

How could I possibly match up when those Dutch horses each had a personalised brass name plate over their stall. Now that would be some bike shed.Flora's Stall Dordrecht Weizigt

 

When I see a postie on a bike I do not despair for the future of the human race

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Just over two years ago I was involved in a series of protests about the UK’s Royal Mail deciding to give up on its 14,000 cycling posties and go over to cars and foot trolleys.

I always believed that the arguments they put up at the time about security, capacity, speed and safety were complete rubbish, but rather they (and unfortunately some of their union leadership) had a deep seated prejudice that bikes were part of a backwards postal service.

So it always gives me the greatest of pleasure to see a proper, efficient, modern postal service that really understands the potential of the bike.

Take a bow Deutsche Post.Deutsche Post Berlin