Spring inspiration

The surprise snow storm this weekend did not exactly inspire me to ride my bicycle. That said, when there was more sun earlier this winter, I did go to work by bicycle one day, only to find myself in "less satisfactory weather" on my return. And all bad things coming in waves, I got a flat tyre when I still had 10 km to go.

The priest happened to see me walk with my bicycle in this terribly wet weather, and promptly offered to drive me home. Unfortunately, we did not manage to put the bicycle in the trunk of his car, so I "hid" it behind a bus stop. And me not picking the bicycle up within the following three weeks meant that the bicycle eventully took its own life and health in its own hands and strolled away, never to be seen again.

Now the snow is thawing, and my wish to go for a ride is increasing again. Indeed, it is time to start planning the two semi-local bicycle trips I have wanted to do for a while, in Haram and Midsund. I will write more about these trips in a little bit.

I'm adding a donation button on the side bar of the blog...

Research Oise

I finally got around to writing to the city of Clermont to which Cauffry is a suburb. It has been on my todo-list for a while

On May 16th 2011, I bicycled through Cauffry and came across some flowers on the east side of D916A at Chemin du Marais. The flowers are dedicated to a Francois whom I assume was killed there. As Francois was born in 1973 as myself, and he died on a day that to me is magic, I immediately felt a friendship. And I became curious - who was Francois, and what happened? Are there photos? Friends? Family? Anyone who wish to share the story of Francois?

This point of Paambi is an oddity when it comes to places to which I wish to return. Because I wish to return there not for the place itself, but for a person who is no longer there.

Who wants to ride my bicycle?

The world is trying to tell me - it's time to go on another bicycle trip!

There is more between Paris and Amsterdam...

...than Paris and Amsterdam

Limburg 2013

The bicycle trip for 2013 will be a revisit to the Limburg region (and a tiny bit outside, for logistic reasons). I enjoyed this part of the Paambi 2011-trip very much, even though I kind of "rushed through". This is one of the places I promised myself to return to.




View Limburg 2013 on Google Maps

I'll be working directly on my Google Maps maps for the physical trip planning, in addition to further research into weather statistics, yoga-in-the-park-events, business networking events, bicycle rentals, etc. Which brings me to another intersting tidbit about last year's trip: For the exact two week period the trip took place, measurements at Brüssel International Airport showed temperatures far above the average high, and there was an unusual halt in precipitation - it was raining for months before and after.

New bicycle projects

I should be doing one of these long trips at least every two years. Also, I need to do some shorter trips "in the neighbourhood" in the years I'm not doing long trips. I have therefore set up a map with approximate routes I'm considering. A bunch of these belong to the Paris-Amsterdam-bicycle project. Check out the map and stay tuned for the upcoming bicycle trips on a bicycle blog near me.

Summer 2012: Haram islands and/or Sandsøy-Aukra-Midsund
15.9.2012: Kvivsvegen
2013: Under consideration, most likely Belgium-Netherlands-Germany (Bocholt-Bocholt circle)

Start working on that book

One of the reasons I wanted to take so many photos, is that I also wanted to turn this into a book project. Alas, finding time to write a book is about as difficult as to find time to perform the trip. As I actually did find the time to complete the trip, however, forcing myself to write the book on a schedule should also be possible, using the same principles:

• Set hard dates and times for the project performance
• Subdivide the project in managable parts
• Do not compromise on the two rules above!