mourningdove

Normandy Bike Tour: Part 6

This was the longest and hardest day of the tour but also in many ways the best, riding-wise. As usual on our way out of Granville, we were on a bit busier roads for a while (though I must say the vast majority of drivers we encountered on this tour were very respectful, and IContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour: Part 6”

Normandy Bike Tour: Part 5

We ended up with a beautiful room at Hôtel du Manoir Cunningham, a cross-timbered 17th-century mansion converted into an inn, so we were determined to make the most of our morning there. We biked into Saint Servann (originally another town, now glommed onto Saint-Malo) for croissants and coffee and brought them back to eat onContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour: Part 5”

Amicae Usque ad Aras: Fin

Dionysia It didn’t take us long to find the Christians in Thessalonika: everyone was talking about them, how they’d been meeting in the agora for days, how every day people with lame limbs got up and danced, lepers stretched out smooth, brown fingers, blind children smiled up into their fathers’ eyes for the first time.Continue reading “Amicae Usque ad Aras: Fin”

Normandy Bike Tour, Part 4

This was our final day on Guernsey, transitioning back to (where else?) Saint-Malo. Although clouds threatened in the morning, the weather continued to hold for us. We started the day out a bit cheekily with tea and Hob Nobs on a little rock point on the north shore of the island you can’t reach atContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour, Part 4”

Normandy Bike Tour, Part 3

I guess I’m doing this day-by-day: that wasn’t really my plan…but once I got into writing these posts, I realized we did more than I thought, and I don’t like writing realllllllly long travel posts. So, day 3, ahem…. We started with a nice Full English breakfast at Longfrie and then embarked on our planContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour, Part 3”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit C: Björk at Waldbühne

Sadly, I don’t have any pics of Björk performing because (a) she forbids it, and (b) I was so far away the pics wouldn’t have looked like much anyway. She promised that photos would soon be up on her website, so you can check there in a day or two (they’re not there now). ButContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit C: Björk at Waldbühne”

Normandy Bike Tour, Part 2

Before we caught the ferry from Saint-Malo to Guernsey, we absolutely had to get kouign-amann, so we trecked back to the intra-muros and stopped at a cute boulangerie we had seen the night before. To be honest, I was kind of let down by the kouign-amann I ate in Brittany. I think I just didn’tContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour, Part 2”

Scrambling: A Normandy Bike Tour, Part 1

Well, truth be told, this was a Brittany–Channel Islands–Normandy tour, the planning of which ended up being just as epic as it sounds. The biggest reason for this was the tour involved ferries, and one of those ferries (I’m looking at you here, Manche-Îles) abruptly changed their stated policy on transporting bikes *after* I hadContinue reading “Scrambling: A Normandy Bike Tour, Part 1”

Mauerradweg: Südroute

This was the final, longest, and hardest stage of my circuit of the Mauerradweg. I rode 70 km from Wannsee to Warshauerstraße and would not recommend doing that. Not because it’s boring or unattractive: there are stunning lakes and villas, sweeping field views, lovely forests, beer gardens, canals, parks, and interesting urban sites. But thisContinue reading “Mauerradweg: Südroute”

Tarbes and the Haute-Pyrénées

I visited my friend Marie this weekend at her new place in Tarbes, and since the weather favored us, we were able to take a drive up the valley to the Col du Tourmalet, alongside riders training for the Tour de France (either professionally or enthusiastically). Then, we went down the west side of theContinue reading “Tarbes and the Haute-Pyrénées”