Tandem Tour 2014: where we stayed
The August summer of 2014 was, to say the least, wet. It was also cold. I have to admit that these factors made us think carefully about camping. So, here, chronologically, is where we stayed: (I’m constructing this as I publish the pages describing the tour more generally).
 |
Farthingloe B&B. Inexpensive. Run by a couple who are friendly and very accommodating. Some of the rooms have shared bathrooms. Former base for Channel Tunnel engineers. Bed very comfortable. Free Wifi. Breakfast is ideal for cyclists – they aim to provide as much fuel as is needed, even for vegetarians. The Guest House is at worst 30 minutes away from the ferry terminal. No dedicated cycle parking. |
| Espace Loisirs is a chain of campsites. This one is located in Zuydcoote close to the Belgian border. It is on the upper-end of camping charges for cyclists, in this case, 24 Euros. The camping area is small relative to the mobile homes and situated well back from the entrance. It has a washing machine and dryer (uses tokens available from reception). It has a bar (where you might find the receptionist if arriving after 1900). The showers are mixed and cost extra. There are no toilet seats. |  |
 |
Youth Hostel, Brugges (Baron Razzetelaan, southern approach to the city). Private rooms or dorms. Breakfast included. Approximately 25 Euros per person for a room. Wifi in common room. |
| Camping Blaarmeersen, Ghent. Very big site. Reception open until 2100. Possible to hire a wooden hut. Space for tents generous. Does not drain very well in very wet weather. Washing machine, dryer and spinner. Bar/restaurant. Does not serve breakfast until 1000. Closes at 2200. Close to a motorway, so a little noisy. Easy access to the City on half-hourly bus. Around 25 Euros per night for cycles. Showers included in the price. |  |
 |
Hotel Domus, Boom. It is the only hotel in town. Former nunnery. It is fantastic, but not cheap. Big room. Bath, shower, washbasin, toilet. Breakfast included in atmospheric breakfast room at the rear. Free Wifi. Secure cycle parking. Easy access to Antwerp using train. |
| Hotel Lommelhof is a delightfully unmodernised 70s hotel. 90 Euros gets a double room and breakfast. The reception closes at 2000; but there is a key drop facility for late arrivals. So, phone ahead if you want to stay here and will arrive late.There is secure parking for bicycles. Free wifi. |  |
 |
Amrâth Hotel Du Casque, Maastricht. We kept the price down by not taking breakfast. Room right at the top had a fantastic view over Vrijhof Square. And despite the food festival, soundproofing kept it quiet. Really nice art decor hotel.Small garage (see picture, grey door on right) where it is possible to store bicycles reasonably securely.
Free wifi. |
What to do with an old tram shed in Berlin
Filed under: Design, Museums, Terminals, Vehicles | Tags: Berlin, Classic Remise
Leave a Comment The new academic year starts in a few days’ time. The time immediately before is conference season for us journeyman academics. I’ve been to two.
One way of judging (or being judged, if one is an organiser) is the mid-conference dinner. Last week, at a conference in London, this was held on a cruiser on the Thames. It cost extra. A nice spectacle, particularly those unfamiliar to London. A great opportunity for photographs (left), especially in balmy weather.
The food was a bit…
I’m now in Berlin, one of my favourite European cities. This is an academic corporate-sponsored conference. The venue for
the dinner was inspired. The entrance to the Classic Remise on Wiebestrasse in the North West of the city is modest. Once inside, it seems like a museum, but in actual fact it is one huge second-hand car sales showroom. Everything is for sale, at a price. The VW camper (right) is so valuable, that one has to request the price. It has been beautifully restored.
Clearly, these being vintage cars, supply is limited. But it does seem that, within reason, one could buy – and presumably sell – anything here. Tucked away on a platform, I saw a Ford Capri MkI. Naturally, there are many BMWs, Porsches and Mercedes of various vintages. But American cars also feature. There were three Ford Mustangs as well as a lumping 1930s Lincoln. Magnificent and obscene in equal measure. The resource that went into building it, to meet with GM’s ‘cars as disposable fashion accessories’ industrial design and business approach, must have been huge.
Now I am a white van man (there were a few vintage Citroen vans in various stages of refurbishment), hence prioritising an image of a VW camper over a Porsche. More interesting, however, was the building. I would not have guessed its origin without a trip to the toilet. And, there, on the wall, were some pictures of the very same building with trams peeking out like horses in a stable (left). When first built in 1901, it was Europe’s largest tram shed ‘Wiebehallen’. It is the work of the Berlin architect, Joseph Fischer Dick, who seemingly specialised in these structures. The current owners have been faithful
to the building. Whilst the tracks are no longer there, the entrance arches are all numbered. The roof glass and steel frame remain. As do the authentic lights (albeit with modern bulbs).
The food was also good.
Marlboro persists with Maybe campaign
Filed under: Cigarette advertising | Tags: Don't be a Maybe, marlboro
Leave a Comment 
Marlboro seems to be capitalising on cleaner packaging design. It started in the summer with the “Red is here” announcement (left).
This has now migrated to the “Don’t be a Maybe” campaign which has a new impetus with the “I changed the Game” man. Which game, we might ask? It looks like some sort of desert endurance. The brand is global, so there must be easier ways of getting a fix. A shop, perhaps!
With the new packaging, clearly, endurance man is not always necessary. It is enough to push for more nicotine, tar, carcinogens and cold outdoor shelters (if you are lucky) outside pubs, offices and hospital waiting rooms.
Tandem Tour 2014
Having previously done the Rhine and Elbe, sort of, this year the tandem takes another ferry, this time from Dover, England to Dunkerque, France, in to Belgium taking in the cities of Brugges and Ghent. Then onward to Maastricht and Aachen. From there, who knows? We have limited time.
We are armed with a new tent (Octane 3 person tent, pictured left). It weighs in at 3.5kg, but it is generous in terms of space and has two layers. It is worth the extra weight so we discovered on our first tour with a very light single-skinned tent. Last year’s tent was a bit old and did not make it back from Holland.
The tandem has been serviced. The two tours so far (both are recorded in the cycling tab, right) had taken their toll on the chain wheel and the chain. Both have been replaced. We look forward to trouble-free cycling.
Wasted time
Filed under: International, Journalism and News Reportage, Uncategorized |
Comments (1) I regret the time that I have wasted in my life. Time that I could have used productively. But did not. Sitting on the train yesterday, as I often do, heading to my workplace (one hour), I glanced around and saw maybe two-thirds of the people on the train engaged in no activity other than looking around or out of the window. Immediately opposite me was a boy about 12 years’ old, I presumed with his mother. Both were, how I would describe, under-stimulated. I remember being that boy.
Each Class 171 train has 124 seats. The train was full for the whole journey. For sections of the journey, there were people standing. So let us say there were 150 people on the train. If two-thirds were under-stimulated, that means 100 people. That is 6000 minutes going spare, 100 hours.
What could I do with 100 hours? I know that they are not mine to claim. I also realise that it is not for me to tell people what is good for them. However, I wonder whether this issue is not what is good for the individual, but rather society. Not using time productively, arguably, is anti-social?
The obvious activity for this sort of available time is reading. The boy in front of me had no visible reading material with him. He sat there patiently, commenting periodically to his mother about something that he had seen out of the window. I remember being that boy.
When I talk about society benefitting from those lost hours, I do so against the backdrop of what seems to be an almost global breakdown in
human reason. The situation in Gaza, for example. It troubles me not least because the mis-information is so completely assimilated by our news organisations. It takes a bit of decoding when one is aware of it, let alone when reporting seems ‘balanced’. We are many of us under-informed (I include myself very much in this). Rectifying that would strike me as a good use for those 100 hours.
Picture of Class171: Mackensen
Gaza situation
Today there is a 12 hour ceasefire in Gaza. It is safe, briefly, to enter outside, survey the damage to the infrastructure, reclaim a few possessions, whilst the Israel Offence Force watches over.
The scene on the left is the devastation meted out to the Gazan neighbourhood of Shijaiyah (picture sourced from Media Lens) in the name of ‘right of self-defence’. Proportionate? By contrast, the image, right (from the Israel Defence Force). This was the damage to an apartment block in the Israeli town of Ashkelon from a Palestinian rocket. Proportionate? Proportionality is a bit of a red herring. The issue is the siege of Gaza and Israeli settlements.
It is time for Obama to get on his plane and tell Netanyahu that he is on his way to the to the ICC in the Hague.
It is also time that the media get their reporting proportionate. Too much sourcing from 
official Israeli authorities. Too many platforms given to the likes of Mark Regev (http://t.co/mNkP57gpKf). Too easy. Lazy. If you do have the mis-fortune to sit through Israeli propaganda, decode with this guide: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/israelgaza-conflict-the-secret-report-that-helps-israelis-to-hide-facts-9630765.html
Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIP)
This piece of legislation, pushed through the UK Parliament in 3 days, is wrong in so many respects. Enacted to protect innocent people against terrorists and paedophiles (nice juxtaposition) and supported unconditionally by all three main parties in the Parliament, including the Labour Party, unforgivably.
In this country the police can now demand from suppliers of internet services and mobile phone network operators details of all of my transactions. The police will legally be able to access details of my searches, sites visited and my emails – and all those with whom I engage. They have access to the duration of my visits, conversations, times of those conversations and my location.
So often, one is confronted by the trite response from politicians that if one has nothing to hide, one has nothing to fear. One has everything to fear. I am no libertarian, but the state has no right to enter my private space, and that includes my email inbox. I know now that if I, or any others, seek to become a whistleblower against corrupt public or private organisations, including the police, they will be able to find us.
The Open Rights Group is challenging the legislation. They say: “The European Convention of Human Rights, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and our own Human Rights Act – all exist to defend are rights and are where we will be able to challenge DRIP.” They intend to challenge the legality of the legislation in the European Court of Justice. The UK remains a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights for the time being. The Conservative Government is currently composing legislation to undermine its authority over UK legislation – a move that is thought to precipitate the UK’s withdrawal. In Europe, the only non-members are Ukraine and Russia.
Even God…
Filed under: Journalism and News Reportage, Religion, Uncategorized |
Leave a Comment I’ve decided, after considerable thought, to follow God. On Twitter. One of the reasons for this, is that there are times when the world is incomprehensible, and some explanation is needed from afar. God is as far afar as is inconceivable.
A few days ago, after one particularly incomprehensible event, he tweeted the following:
https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/489862399264952320
It made me feel marginally better after 300 people were blown out of the sky by a rocket over Ukraine and a plane load of people murdered in Gaza, with more literally promised this evening by the Israeli Government.
If God has lost control, essentially he is saying, if I read him correctly, that humanity has to do something about this. What do I hear? The BBC doing its lazy ‘balanced’ reporting and my Government sticking to the tired and wrong ‘right of self-defence’ argument. This is obscene.
Extraordinary moment
There I was, minding my own business, when a bird flew into the house. They quickly panic and the concept of the window does not compute in the small songbird world. Thus this tiny creature – a Great Tit – at the very least concussed itself enabling me to catch it with my hands without too much struggle.
Holding such a creature is amazing. I think it had resigned itself to some grim end, only to be surprised that it was being granted liberty. It took a while to recover sufficiently to fly off.
Marlboro ‘relaunch’; Lucky Strike in a tin
Filed under: Cigarette advertising | Tags: Lucky Strike, marlboro
Leave a Comment ![download_20140710_111039[1]](https://weiterzugehen.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/download_20140710_1110391.jpeg)
These are heady times in cigarette advertising campaigns in Germany. I assume this has something to do with the World Cup with its healthy lifestyle promotion of beer, fast food and lethal nicotine dispensers. Clearly, Marlboro has been conceding ground to Lucky Strike on the ‘all American-ness front (see posts under this tag). So, the advertising agencies suggest a relaunch. And here it is, ‘Red’.
It is true that cigarette boxes have always been wonderfully designed, fit-for-purpose, artefacts. Beautifully engineered. I have always found smoking to be pretty repulsive, but the boxes have consistently fascinated me. Largely unchanged for decades. The clean design here is seductive. That I can see. The pinnacle, as I understand it, is when the actual brand does not need to be spelled out.![download_20140703_193114[1]](https://weiterzugehen.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/download_20140703_1931141.jpeg)
As reported earlier, Lucky Strike has been promoting previous times before technology when people met and talked over a cigarette. I have reported elsewhere how Lucky Strike’s characters are now into books rather than social networks. Here is another one (right). Pure unadulterated manhood.
![download_20140710_111048[1]](https://weiterzugehen.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/download_20140710_1110481.jpeg)
But to add a certain confusion, here is the latest. “Luckies kann man nicht selber machen” [one cannot make Luckies by oneself]. When applying the strike-through magic, it becomes “Luckies selber machen” [make your own Luckies]. At first, it looked like a tin of tobacco soup. I realised that was stupid. Actually, it is Lucky Strike going into roll-ups. In a tin. Collectable and beautifully engineered, but let us see how a Lucky Strike roll-up goes down. Watch this space.
Be informed 
