Day 1 in Amsterdam
Fay found an awesome house boat to stay in while in Amsterdam.
This is a footpath
"What I don't understand is why don't bikes pull over to get out of the way of my car when I'm clearly capable of going faster"
Pint and a read
It chucked it down just before midday, and it sounded like everyone made a beeline for the nearest eatery. By about 8pm the Harbour Inn was just calm enough for a quiet pint.
Screwfix on a fixie
I had a delivery to collect from Screwfix, simple, except I was on a single-speed (not quite a fixie) and Screwfix is at the top of the hill.
Getting there was puffing, but let's just say home down West Hill to the trail was fuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn!
Challenge - Padstow by train and bike
Challenge accepted, can I get to Padstow on public transport and a bike? Should be easy, what with our new Great British Railways (with both the words Great and British together it must be awesome).
Let's use the GWR app to book the ticket and a cycle reservation. Sorted. ish. It can't give me a digital ticket, instead I must collect the ticket from the station. OK, I'm leaving from a station so let's do that!
After 12 years of conservative government leadership the railways lack a guiding focus on customers, coherent leadership and strategic direction. They are too fragmented, too complicated, and too expensive to run. Innovation is difficult. Incentives are often perverse. Some working practices have not changed in decades. There must be single-minded efforts to get passengers back. In short, we need somebody in charge.
Eloquent words you say? Sorry, but those aren't my words. They're copied verbatim from the government's own Williams-Shapps plan for Great British Railways. You can read all about it here. And before you complain about my blatent copying, the 'Shapps' in Williams-Shapps is the beloved member for Welwyn Hatfield; also the previous chair of the conservative (and unionist!) party; the same Shapps named when "Google blacklisted 19 of the Shapps' business websites for violating rules on copyright infringement"; and, hysterically, also the same Shapps that used multiple made-up names in some pyramid scheme. You couldn't make this up.
Expectant
"It must be almost dinner time" said Yogi.
"In fact, it always must almost be dinner time" he thought.
Sailing!
Treated myself to an awesome couple of hours sailing on the Camel with H from Camel Sailing. It's been a while. The last time was also here, but back in 2005.
I could get used to the view from a Wayfarer, but maybe not following the views experienced by Frank Dye.
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