A day in York: Bars and walking the York ruin walls

When I am travelling alone I can cover many things quickly mainly because I love walking. When you walk a lot, you see a lot. However, I also tend to spend my late lunches really slow, like at least 2 hours. Another perpetual habit is sitting down in a cafe terrace with a spirit in hand watching the world go by.

Anyway, after visiting the York Minster Cathedral, I went to check out the Roman wall ruins. I was not really sure which part of the city wall ruins to start exploring with, however, I noticed that it doesn’t really matter because all over the city I can find the ‘bars’ connecting the ramparts.

In England, bars are portcullis, a fortified gateway usually made of stone. Nowadays they are a medieval attraction but in the past they served as the city’s defensive stronghold from invaders.

I climbed the portcullis of High Petergate and walked on the stone walls to the rear direction of York Minster. Although I did wander a bit in the gardens of the cathedral I was quite curious what lies behind it. My curiosity was met with a beautiful scenery. I lingered a bit here taking fotos and enjoying the green views. At the end of the fortification I reached the Monk Bar, another portcullis and a famous one in York as well.

The Monk Bar is now a little historical museum. There is a statue of the short-lived King Richard III (King of England 1483-85) wearing black tights. Wow, what can I say, he was a very fashion forward man, considering I am wearing the same thing! Haha

High Petergate.

Walking the stone walls.

Here are the views from the ramparts:

Above foto is the Treasurer's House I believe. Pretty!

Here is the Monk Bar:

Inside the Monk Bar, King Richard III was fashion forward wearing the same black tights I am now wearing. The velvet fabric of the coat is also an all-time classic trend while those shoes, I see lots of teenagers wearing them now.

Monk Bar and Goodramgate.

North Xigia Beach: Underwater Sulphur Springs and Spa Collagen

The milky substance is sulphur coming out of the rocks.

North Xigia Beach: Sulphur Spring and Spa Collagen.

So, the title of this entry sums up everything.

As mentioned in my earlier post on South Xigia Beach Cove, there are 2 Xigia Beaches and the northern one is the famous Sulphur Beach that everyone wants to experience. This beach is located about 500 metres from the Xigia Tavern where we had our delicious lunch with accompanying spectacular views.

This Sulphur Xigia Beach is a favourite of mine as well. I like it that its small, very cosy, gorgeous of course and not crowded. It’s got real character, as I always say about my favourite beaches. Nothing commercialised at all, there are no facilities, it is simply natural—just exactly how I like it to be.

Between the crack of the rugged rock walls is the sulphur spring that produces milky white substance in the water. The sulphur sends off a distinct sharp whiff in the air. Sometimes, the smell is very strong, it lingers, but sometimes not. They say sulphur is good for muscle and bone ailments, and for skin problems as well.

We had a great time here for the rest of our afternoon. The beach is pebbly but the beach bottom turns into sandy as you walk further deep into the water.

There is a cafeteria located at the overlook landing area where one can view the beach. This landing area serves as a small parking lot as well.

Here are the rest of my pictures:

Cycling Lessons From Miss Brodie

Don't know whether others have seen the classic film, The Prime of Jean Brodie, based on the novel by Muriel Spark. It ends badly, and the main character - a deluded school mistress in 1930s Scottland - is not somebody one would strive to emulate. But I do admire her beautiful cycling skills! In fact, the opening scene of the film - where Miss Brody is shown gracefully cycling to the school where she teaches on a loop-frame bicycle with a basket - has no doubt influenced my own choice of bicycle and my notion of what "riding a bicycle" should be like. So here are some stills from the sequence that inspired me.

Miss Brodie mounts her bicycle with ease using the proper Sheldon Brown method. Her long, narrow skirt does not seem to impede the mounting maneuver one bit.

Notice how straight her leg is on the pedal as she cycles: completely extended. She would definitely not be able to reach the ground with her toe in traffic.

Ah, here she indicates that she is about to stop. Look at all that stuff on her bike! Rolls of paper in the basket, and what looks like a wooden trunk strapped to the rear rack. You can hardly tell due to the bad quality of these images, but it looks like her bicycle has all blackout parts on it. Does anybody know what year they began doing that?

To get off the bicycle, she takes her right foot off the pedal and swings the leg over the frame while the bicycle is still in motion.

Then she coasts for a bit in this standing position - with the left foot on the left pedal and the right foot supposedly in the air next to it? - until she hops off and the bicycle comes to a stop. Impressive! - and no way can I pull that off.

In the film, one of Miss Brodie's catch-phrases was that she was "a woman in her prime" - even though she was distinctly old-maidish by 1930s standards. My theory is that her cycling is what kept her feeling young and beautiful.

Being lost in the woods…

...when it’s getting dark is not fun at all. Thankfully this section of Austerlitz forest is relatively small and we have the option to go back and take a different route through a nearby village. To prove the point, we had to retrace our tracks twice because we could not remember seeing the fallen pine tree on the road. It was getting dark and in another 10 minutes it will be pitch black in the forest. You never know, there could be a serial killer sheltering behind the iced bushes and trees waiting for his chance to slay. I know, macabre thoughts always come into the equation eh? Can’t help it, its automatic pilot when dire consternation is involved, plus it’s freezing cold, definitely not my choice of place to be stranded.

So trusting our instincts we followed the path we thought is best and indeed after several minutes we saw moving lights from a distance. Must be the main road! Ah, thank goodness we are almost there, we just need to figure out which side of the road the car was parked.

Here are a few fotos I took before nightfall:


Later we comforted ourselves at a bar café restaurant in the local village—De Jonck Vrouw, which reminds us of typical Dutch bruin cafes—traditionally styled with dark brown wooden interior and fixtures. This café has its own fireplace as well and we are lucky it was lit and a table in front was free. Nice! And so we had a snug place in front of the fireplace while outside is dark and cold. It’s not even half past 5 in the afternoon and it is already black.

January will be the month with the shortest daylight and the longest night time. The winter solstice has truly begun.

I had port and Dutchman had hot chocolate milk with whipped cream and a kransjes cookie (typical Dutch Christmas cookie). Very tempting to order a plate of cheese but settled instead for some nachos.

So that was our 26 of December, the second day of Christmas.


Visit Period: December

Destination: Austerlitz (Zeist - Utrecht), The Netherlands

Preparing for Long Distance Rides

They say a good rule of thumb when working up to a long distance ride, is to ride in a week the number of miles you plan to do in a day. This morning I looked at my wall calendar (which now resembles a numerology chart) and realised that I've ridden around 200 miles over the past week, Saturday to Friday, distributed over the seven days as 16-60-0-0-24-40-60.




Today I feel all right. A little beat up, but no more than usual. Still, I am not convinced that doing this milage over the course of multiple days means that I can ride even 100 miles in one go. After a 60 mile day I am depleted to the point that in the end I cannot imagine being in the saddle a second longer.




And I take too many breaks. For instance, yesterday's milage was divided into: 8 easy miles alone/ break/ 20 hilly miles with a fast partner/ lunch break/ 24 hilly miles with a fast partner/ break/ 8 easy miles alone. Is it even fair to call that a 60 mile ride? The longest I've done so far in a group without breaks has been a measly 35 miles.




I don't like the idea of "training," and prefer to think of these rides as preparation. I never want to get to the point where I hate being on the bike and have to force myself to ride. What I like about the past week is that I've managed to not only put in 200 miles, but to feel good about it. What I don't like, is the limit I am sensing: After 60 miles I just don't feel that those remaining 40 are in me.




How do you prepare for long distance rides? Is it normal to feel a daily milage ceiling past which you can't seem to advance?

Change of Venue

After leaving Picacho Peak State Park, I stopped in Tucson long enough to use the wifi and check weather reports. It really didn't look good anywhere. It seems that those winds that blew in from California and wreaked havoc in many places also changed weather patterns. There has been a cold spell in southern Arizona the past few days. I checked weather in southern New Mexico and it didn't look much better.



So, I headed toward a place where I've stayed several times. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best of decisions. But it is what it is.



On Saturday, December 3rd, I arrived at Kartchner Cavern State Park (south of Benson, about 10 miles from I-10) and decided to spend the weekend, knowing that the temperatures were going to be cool. At the time I just didn't realize how cold it was going to get! For the next three days the daytime temperature did not get much above 40 degrees and during the night it dropped into the mid 20s.



Actually, I was quite comfortable as long as I stayed in the van! Since being on the road for so long, I've learned a few things – like how to run a heavy-duty extension cord through the window so that no outside air enters... It's quite cozy in the van with a little heater on. So in spite of the cold weather I enjoyed my stay here. It's a great little park. I didn't take advantage of the nice trails but did take several short walks daily to help keep the blood circulating ;-)





This was the view from my campsite at about 8:15 on Monday morning when the temperature was about 28 degrees! I thought that the clouds might be clearing, but Mother Nature had other ideas.





Less than 15 minutes later the dark clouds rolled in. We even had snow flurries for a short time Monday afternoon.



Tuesday, December 6th - - I've left Kartchner Cavern State Park and am making my way further east. I'll be taking my time, and a meandering route, through New Mexico and Texas to northeast Louisiana to spend the Christmas and New Years Holidays with my friends (who are also distant Joslin cousins). It will be nice to spend the Holidays in the company of family and friends.



Below is the temperature map for the time this post was actually written... looks rather chilly everywhere in the U.S. except the southern-coastal areas!! Yuck.





One advantage of staying in one place for a few days is that I was able to get some genealogy posts written and scheduled. So for the next few days that is what you will see here at kinexxions...

Two of My Favorite Guys

Karen sent this picture to me, of Josh and Ken. Are these some good looking guys, or what?

A meeting at the Belgian Beer Museum in Brussels

Last month I was in Brussels for work and we had a meeting at the first floor of the Belgian Beer Museum (no. 10—the ‘den Gulden Boom’ building) on the Grote Markt (Grand Place). It’s a gorgeous building, it’s façade adorned with gilded elaborate designs.

I’ve been to Brussels many times and I’ve seen Brussels at its loveliest. January wasn’t the best month though as I was met with rain and overcast.

After the business meeting, we had a short beer history lesson in the basement of the building. Like many beer museum visits, I was really expecting a beer tasting session afterwards but unfortunately that did not happen, well, not at least right away. In fact I was quite confused on what's next on the agenda and I accidentally followed the women who were going to the chocolate making session held a few blocks away. I did not know that the beer tasting session is at the same building but at the first floor where we earlier had the business meeting. Oh well.
If I was to turn back the clock, I would have stayed for some beer. Anywho, I was able to taste a locally brewed trappist beer during lunch though.

And to be honest, I don’t think I will recommend quickly a visit to this Beer Museum. There are so many notable beer breweries and outstanding abbeys where a grand beer tour and tasting, are in my opinion, better experienced.

Here are a few pictures of the Grote Markt (Grand Place) on a gloomy January day.

View to the Grote Markt / Grand Place from the Belgian Beer Museum building

Belgian beer history lesson

More buildings on Grote Markt / Grand Place.

The Belgian Parliament.

One thing I would like to add... traffic in and around Brussels is HORRIBLE. The only advantage in going by car to Brussels is parking. A whole day parking costs only 14,50 EUR. For this amount you pay under 3 hours parking in Amsterdam and Utrecht.