Wight Weirdos

The Gibson Family Blog

Cycling in the Netherlands

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Cycled the 7.5km (5 miles or thereabouts for the terminally British) into Breda.

Along the main road there was mostly a cycle lane on each side of the road, separate from the road and footpath. It was wide, well surfaced and had right of way over minor roads and entrances to premises. It’s illegal to cycle on road if there is an adjacent cycle path. Some people think this should be the same in the UK. I could go for that, but only when all our cycle tracks are up to Netherlands standards.

Breda has a population of over 150,000, yet we managed to cycle right into the heart of the town with young children without ever feeling unsafe on the bikes. Can we inject some of this into UK transport planning, please?

The sun shines on the righteous… and the Gibsonclan

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The following few posts were written down while on holiday, so posted on block. Post dates correspond to time of original pen ‘n’ ink writing.

After hours in the pouring rain on Sunday affixing bikes to the car, we actually got to cycle in the sun today! We’re on holiday in Oosterhout, just outside Breda in the Netherlands. We rode the 15km return journey to Breda, visiting the excellent tourist information centre (VVV) where the kids got free drinks and biscuits(!) and we picked up soem cycling maps. Fantastic cycle paths and much better driver attitudes than in the UK.

In the afternoon we headed for the pancake house (discovered on our last visit 6 years before) along a nice tarmac track through the woods. The pancakes were great as was the beer – so much better than the tasteless fizz the Dutch export to the UK.

Rebekah showed her true colours eating like an animal, some people will do anything for chocolate sauce…

Great play area for the kids too – if you’re ever in the area, we highly recommend Het Pannekoeckershuys, just to the South of Den Hout.

Offline for 10 days!

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Worried about withdrawal symptoms. Anyway, have decided to “blog” on paper (I guess that makes it a journal really…) and type it up when I get home.

Drove across a bit of France, Belgium and the Netherlands today. Their motorways mostly put us to shame with two exceptions, the woefully inadequate signs and the corkscrew junctions followed by 6″ long slip roads. Hair raising.

N.B. The dates of these posts will reflect the time of writing rather than posting online!

Topsy-turvey youth night

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Took the kids to youth night at our church this evening. Ruth was demonstrating her skill/lunacy on the bouncy castle – the picture below is 100% genuine, and correctly orientated. Unlike Ruth who is, obviously, upside-down. This is in fact true in so many ways… Strange children…

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Socks

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I am very pleased with myself. I have knitted my first sock. Not a pair yet you understand just one.