In something of a change from the usual Netherlands, in 2023 we arranged a two leg trip to to the Finnish and German capitals, Helsinki and Berlin for our summer holiday. We chose Helsinki as we have friends who moved there a couple of years ago and we were keen to visit them.
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Our trip to Bath really wouldn’t have been complete without a ride along the famous Bristol and Bath Railway Path. The history of this trailblazing traffic-free route is very much tied up with the history of Sustrans, who initially developed it back in 1979 and active travel campaigning in the UK.
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The Bath Two Tunnels Greenway wasn’t something we knew about before arriving in Bath. It was thanks to a couple of helpful suggestions on Twitter that we came to find out about it. On reading more about the route, it sounded perfect for us and wasn’t too far from where we were staying.
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At the end of May 2023, we travelled down to Somerset, to spend a week in a lodge on the outskirts of Bath at the Bath Mill Lodge Retreat. We had been due to stay in Bristol at the same time of year in 2022, but ended up cancelling, after I somewhat foolishly broke my foot skateboarding 🤦
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After spending 24 hours in Bremen, we arrived back in Berlin, for the final leg of our trip to Germany in 2022, following a very small part of the band Pavement’s European tour. It was late afternoon when our ICE train pulled into Berlin Hauptbahnhof, as the sun was beginning to set on a sunny Saturday in November.
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As I mentioned in the first post Walking, cycling and drinking in Berlin, we’d arranged to spend an evening in Bremen as well as Berlin, so we could fit in a second Pavement gig, during Germany trip.
Continue reading “Germany 22: 24 hours in Bremen”
When the group Pavement announced back in 2021 they would be touring again in 2022, it gave my friend (who now lives in Helsinki) and I an excuse to meet up somewhere, to go and see them.
Continue reading “Germany 22: Walking, cycling and drinking in Berlin”
The final day of our Netherlands 22 trip came around and we packed up the car, saying goodbye to our holiday home in Zaandam. As with previous trips, we weren’t due to board the ferry back to the UK until the early evening, so we looked for something to do with the day, before we headed to Rotterdam.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: A day out in Delft”
As I mentioned in Around Zaandam, our holiday home was conveniently located on the Hanenpadsloot canal and we had access to two boats, which gave us opportunity to get out on the waterways in Zaandam during our stay. So once we were shown how to use the it, we were keen to take the boat out on the water, which we did a couple of times.
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Located on the North Sea Canal, facing Amsterdam and below Zaandam is the area of Hembrug or Hembrugterrein. The name Hembrug originates from a train bridge that used to connect Amsterdam to Zaandam across the North Sea Canal, which was eventually replaced with the Hemtunnel and removed in 1985. The bridge was located next to the ferry, which we took when we visited Amsterdam.
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Dom Cycling 