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On to Germany

I tried a few brief conversations in German and was reminded that I had forgotten pretty much all of the German that I had learned 50 years ago. Crossing the border from Holland into Germany, the most important change noticed was the sudden presence of bakeries with elaborate pastries - fruit tarts and the like.  Nothing like it in any of the other countries so far.  Compared to Britain, Belgium, and Holland, the houses are bigger, plenty of new construction of homes, set back from the road, large yards with grass lawns.  Larger gardens, and flowers even on the second floors.  Bike paths are no more extensive than in Holland, but with more extensive maps and signs.  Lots of wind farms and solar farms, as well as solar panels on roofs - rare along the North Sea coast - perhaps because there is so little truly sunny weather there. Northern Europe continues in a heat wave.  Hot and sunny near 80.  And steady headwinds the last 2 days and forecast for tomorrow. Today was a pretty
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Through the Netherlands to Amsterdam

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We rode from Belgium across Netherlands.  Saw a couple hills in the distance, and the big climb of the day was over a bridge.  The flats are largely "polders" - land that is at a lower level than surrounding water and protected by those dikes that we learned about in grade school.  The land reclamation goes back at least 1000 years,   As you might image, land that used to be marshland is particularly firm for building, so buildings in Amsterdam tend to be more than a little crooked.  And, since the buildings have been taxed on the width of their street frontage, they are quite narrow with very narrow stairs.  So, many have beams with large "eye bolts" sticking out of the top of the building.  And, the front of the building are built sloping forward over the street.  Then, to get furniture in and out of the house (remember those narrow stairways), you attach a block and tackle to the eye bolt, and hoist up your couch, refrigerator, whatever.  Or, on a nice sunny da
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To Dover and the English channel

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Banksy art in Dover.  When I walked around the corner, I had a moment of thinking that someone was actively working on the picture.  Recommended viewing for some politicians:  chip away at one star (Brexit) and watch the cracks spread over the whole sky. Garish driveway and statues for a house. Hillside art in the chalk "downs."  Unfortunately, not of the Stone Age sort - this was to commemorate the crown placed on King George in 1902. The downs are rounded hills of chalk in southern England. The cliffs of Dover really are white. A most extraordinary man I met today, 97 years old and survivor (though severely injured) of 27 bombing raids over Germany in WW II as a belly gunner  in Bomber Command (where mortality in crews was 44%).  For more, see below. Old guy with a cane, pretty old but vigorous looking.  Asked about our bike ride and bemoaned his inability to still do that.  97 year old on an outing with a veter
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London

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120 km ride from Cambridge into heart of London.  Rolling green farmland, increasing density of small villages (some with interesting names), found a delightful tea shop, then along canal paths to get us into the heart of the urban area.  Last 5+ km was full on urban street warfare.  London is as bike friendly as you can make a city of 10 million.  "Congestion Pricing" helps limit car traffic, and bike lanes are everywhere - the challenge is getting from where one bike lane peters out, to the next bike lane.  I suspect that a few days of getting familiar with the layout would make it much less hair-raising, and avoid events like Nate had:  missed the turn onto the "cycling superhighway" and ended up in a high speed tunnel with heavy traffic.   Went to a London musical.  I gather that it was pretty good, and from the laughter must have been funny.  But, with my hearing, I had no idea what was going on. One could spend a month here browsing through the museums.
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Pomp, Circumstance, Cod, and an impromptu organ concert

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A hand painted seal of some king from a long time ago.  Band playing at birthday party for Prince Philip Accidentally stumbled into the senior organist rehearsing for an upcoming wedding Little models of the fighter planes that "saved" Britain in WW II No surprise to have a kids area in a little church - but in a big cathedral? They also raise money by selling "bricks" for a Leggo model of the cathedral - if you buy a brick they let you put it on the model. While in York, I stumbled into Prince Phillip's 97th birthday celebration.  5 places put one on each year.  Marching band, lots of spit and polish, and swords, and fancy marching and a 21 gun salute.  Highlight of the trip. Grimby, the next day, looked like a town past its prime.  I'm old enough to remember the "cod wars back in the 50's and 60's, but with no recall about what they were all about.  Seems the Brits were fishing close enough to Iceland to piss on
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Big rollers through the North Yorkshire Moors

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Pretty green rolling green highland country with lots of sheep, few small towns, and numerous short and seven longer climbs.  It's rolling land, but with short steep drops and climbs for each stream. Every one of them had segments of at least 15 percent.  The photo is of the "official" gradient of a climb that we had just come up. As always in Europe, a castle  Sunset on the North Sea  Steep
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Fun facts from Scotland

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Male swans get into fights over territory (presumably with female swans that go with the territory), and try to kill each other by holding the others head under water to drown it. Scotsmen can be frugal:  a small town was offered a nearly new bridge  on the river Esk by a company who had built it for moving building materials to a new construction site.  The town turned down the offer because bridge maintenance would cost too much.  The bridge sits unused except two days a year when it is opened for access to horse racing. Scotland and northern England has more than a few hills - mostly short - with gradients of 15 to 20 percent.  These get your attention as much as the old castles - many dating back well over a thousand years - that are scattered about. The bridges of Newcastle (OK, we're in England now) are nesting sites for Kittiwakes this time of year.  Late summer they fly across the Atlantic to see the tourist sites in Newfoundland and Greenland, then return in March. 
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