2025 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

So it is the canola time in Scotland, too?
We call it rapeseed here, I'm not a fan of the smell but it sure looks pretty!
Wow! Just wow, @RabH !!!!! Your rides (and pictures, by the way) are unbelievably inspiring!
Thank you for your kind words, Charles!
Very nice bay with train shot! The many sheep you photograph on your rides seem to take great interest in you. Are they natually curious about passing cyclists?
They are definitely aware of your presence but it's more fear than curiosity I think, Jeremy! The lambs usually run to mom so... 😂
 
A pic from this morning's 20km ride:

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In Puławy

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Czartoryskis' Familia park and palace early in the morning.

I arrived in Puławy by an Intercity train last night. Met a cycling family who encouraged me to take a cycling trip in their "magical" area called Roztocze. (I will consider it!)

The hotel turned out to be just 300 metres from the train station. Wahoo refused recording such a short trip! 😃

Today, we celebrate the May 3rd, 1791 Constitution.

"Welcome, o May dawn
Shine upon our country!
We will celebrate you
Having a good time with wine!
Vivat May! Third of May!"

Some of us will celebrate Third of May cycling! 😊
 
Friends & Visits

If anyone wants to meet @Brix and me in England, we can be found in Dreamland in Margate on 23rd August 2025. We are coming to see and listen to:
  • Sex Pistols (with Frank Carter*)
  • Buzzcocks (with Steve Diggle**)
  • The Stranglers (with Jean-Jacques Burnel***)
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*) Unfortunately, the original frontman John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten went mental and he supports MAGA with Donald J Trump
**) The only surviving band member
***) He would be the only surviving band member if not the fact the original lead singer Hugh Cornwell left the band a long time ago and had a concert in Wroclaw Poland on April 25th this year :)
I think he went Maga when the homeless started shxxxing in his garden. 😂, its called getting old and caring for his dementia suffering wife at the same time.
Have a good trip, Im all long tripped out at the moment.
 
I guess I've been slacking on contributing to this thread so here are some assorted bits from the last 3 weeks of extended commutes.

4/16 - 42 miles. Cut across Seattle up and down cobblestone blocks to lake WA then north to home. I guess this was the Falcon's first "shakedown cruise" as I lost both bolts holding my Kiok display to the out in front mount and a trim piece on one of my cranks:) rode the last 20 miles with the display dangling by its cords.
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Maundy Thursday - sunset after church.

Looking north to Mt Baker - you can just make out the southbound BNSF freight train catching the sun while making its way down the coast.
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Good Friday
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A ride through Seattle Center. Folks are complaining that "they" got it wrong in The Last of Us.
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A stop at Golden Gardens on the ride home last week
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Not a bad month: 468 miles and >25k ft of climbing.
 
My loop ride on the hottest day so far this year, the heat that makes it feel a bit dreamy.

This is an old school swing bridge over the Manchester ship canal, the canal cut this part off from the mainland and created Wigg Island, which as so much
unused potential for a hair replacement factory.
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Its a strange place, full of bike tracks, derelict piers and high fenced factories
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There is a very thin part between the Mersey and the canal, probably only a 100ft wide, I though it might be a bit dodgy to ride, but its a well used path.
Though I didn't see a single person while on the Island, which made it a bit creepy, especially when something very large moved in the grass behind me.
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You keep passing these types of entrances
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There's lots of dirt bike trails and those helmets are little kid sized, I didn't read the cards because I didn't want to spoil my day.
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The new bridge passes over this point as I returned to civilisation.
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This is where you cross back over, that thin concrete strip is the barrier as the canal meets the river, you can walk all the way around the coast on it if you jump over the fence,
and yes we have a mini Sydney bridge.
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This is the original 1960s bridge, with the railway bridge next to it.
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I never notices that it is built in a mock castle wall style.
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There is a small community of cheap housing built under and near the bridges, they use the arches for car repairs and barbecues.
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Lovely peace garden with a large golden pagoda and a themed tunnel under the bridge.
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They've refurbished the bridge and given bikes and pedestrians half of it.
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The tide speed is incredible on the Mersey and it produces terrifying eddys and currents around the legs.
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This is the end of a disused canal that enters the river via a dock, there is a cute yacht club and many boats that presumably have to wait till high tide to get out.
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Crossing under the gateway bridge on the otherside, the cycle trails here are immaculate.
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Fiddlers Ferry boat yard further down the canal side cycle path, everything seems more magical in the sun.
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Nearly finished the loop with a drink at a popular cyclist tavern, nothing but ebikes 😂
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The red dot is where I was at the tin point, it looked a bit exposed on google maps, but in reality the path was clear and mostly driveable in an SUV.
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