The weather was so good this weekend we didn’t need much persuading we were out Mountain Biking yesterday, then I went out on the tandem with Veda today while Ria was hiking in the nearby countryside.
Veda and I covered 91km and 900m of ascent, which was actually too much for this early in the season and our (my) fitness, but it was a beautiful ride and I don’t regret a second.
Wind park Amel
Veda and I were out mountain biking on Sunday and we came across 2 rare things.
Frogspawn
On top of that we had a good ride apart from Veda slipping and falling on a slippery wooden bridge. Luckily no lasting damage. 🙂
Veda admires the old town
Today we went for a ride in Germany with Veda. We drove to Plein, left the car there and rode down the old railway line to Bernkastel-Kues.
Passing through Wittlich, which isn’t anything special, the rest of the route is beautiful. 3 tunnels on the way quite near the start of the ride where they have found a way of protecting the bat community by placing a false roof between the cyclists and the bats so both can use the tunnel together. Shame they couldn’t do that on the route from Burg-Reuland to Troisvierges!
It is a gentle descent all the way, about 250m of descent over 27km. We then rode along the Mosel to Ürzig where we took the road up through the vineyards back to Wittlich and back over the way we came.
The road to Wittlich was not fun with too much traffic but climbing up through the vineyards gave us great view of the Mosel valley.
Good ride and quite an easy one
Jack at home with MAC
Anyone who knows us, knows that we are an ‘Apple family’. There are no PCs in our house. It now seems that our 14 year old Jack Russell has joined us!
I was at home for New Year’s Eve due to a heavy cold and we, Fop, Veda and I, watched some TV series and a film. Jack made herself comfortable on the settee behind Veda with there head on Veda’s mac. It can’t have been very comfortable, but maybe a little warm from the heavy mathematical calculations it has to perform for Veda.
A British citizen, a Belgian citizen, a Nepali student studying in Aachen driving a Luxembourg registered car going from France to England. This was a bit complicated for the border control ☺so we got questioned at French customs, British customs and the border control.
Still everyone was polite and satisfied so we are off the Adam & Ying’s wedding
Today is Independence Day for Veda! For the first time in his life he is fully independent, he is staying in his new digs in Aachen, cooking for himself and free to do whatever he wants.
Cool!
Veda discovers the pleasures of snow shoveling
Ria and I were at the Ortis Christmas Party yesterday in Ovivat last night and the we just about had to dig out the car! nearly 20cm snow fell in just 4 hours!
Of course we had a bit less here at home, but still enough to warrant shoveling it away (there is more forecast for today and tomorrow so we may just take Veda cross country skiing.
Anyway, today Veda got his first taste of shoveling snow!
After loads of hassles I have, at last, managed to get Veda’s blog on-line 😉
He will be putting the last 3 months info on it whenever possible
Winter forest
After breaking my pelvis in the Annapurna this summer my plans for 10,000km and 100,000m of ascent are completely out of reach, I’ll be lucky to reach half of my target. Nonetheless we have been blessed with some cycling weather in November and December; something we didn’t get last year due to all the snow.
Yesterday Ria spent all day cooking for our dinner party so Veda and I were joined by Johan and Brigitta for a ride. I wanted to see how far the Ravel goes towards Luxembourg. Every day I drive past where it crosses the N62 and have been curious to see if the tunnel into Luxembourg is open or not. Of corse we didn’t just follow the Ravel, we are Mountain Bikers after all, so we went cross country to Lengeler Bahnhoff, joining the Ravel at Burg Reuland. Unfortunately the newly surfaced part was covered in a layer of ice so we turned back.
I’ll find out about the tunnel another day!
Today just Veda and I were out to look for some good downhill trails, Wr found the one I wanted and it was perfect. Through the beech trees and about 400m long. 400m is not much by Alpine standards, but here in East Belgium, it is quite good.
The only problem was the temperature, around 1°C is quite cold for Veda’s feet so I think he will join Ria in not riding when it is too cold in the future. 😉
Anyway the weekend gave us 2 rides of over 2 hours each and a good chance to be out in the saddle in winter.
11.11.2011 is Remembrance Day for the over 17,000,000 people who lost their lives in the First World War. It is also a date that Veda won’t forget in a hurry.
We applied for his UK visa on the 3rd November and it was issued on the 7th November so we went to pick it up on Friday 11.11. It is good to see that the UK consular division work slightly better the Belgian one, who took 6 months to end up refusing his visa because he was studying in Germany and not Belgium.
We will now be able to celebrate Christmas in the traditional English style with my family, quite a big new adventure forVeda and a chance to see another European country during the week between Christmas and New Year.