WNBR Manchester 2018

photograph © 2018 Gerald England

photograph © 2018 Gerald England

photograph © 2018 Gerald England

photograph © 2018 Gerald England

photograph © 2018 Gerald England

photograph © 2018 Gerald England

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

A contribution to Wordless Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: R is forRoad Train at Rest And Be Thankful

From Llandudno there is a Road Train you can catch that will take you on a tour of the Marine Drive a road that goes around the side of the promontory known as the Great Orme. At the top it breaks the journey with a 15-20 minutes stop at "Rest and be thankful" where there is a small café.

The view looking west ranges towards the island of Anglesey with the smaller Puffin Island visible just off shore.

Looking slightly east of north the view shows the top of a former lighthouse that has since been converted into a guesthouse.

Looking east rain can be seen coming over the wind turbines in Liverpool Bay whilst on the right is the Little Orme.

This shows the rear of the Rest and be Thankful where most people from the road train and the red car in the car park are partaking of some refreshments.

And finally a look at the road and two riders tackling the climb on their cycles.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday
and Wednesday Waters.

ABC Wednesday: B is forBicycles in Oslo

In 2006 I visited Oslo and took a photograph of these bicycles.

According to Oslo Daily Photo

There are approx. 1200 bikes to be found in different places of the center. To use them you have to register and pay a small annual fee. Then you use your "smart card" to release a bike from the rack. The bikes are financed by advertising and is therefore an environmental-friendly and inexpencive offer to the public. You must return the bike to the stand within 3 hours thus to make sure that there are bikes available to everyone who's interested.

These were advertising the services of the Oslo Blood Bank. Their services will have been of vital importance following the recent atrocity there.

My heart goes out to all the people of Norway at this time.

For more B posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday V is for Vladimir Yarets

Walking through St Helier, Jersey, I came across this motorcyle and thought to myself, "I've seen that somewhere before".

The motorbike belonging to Vladimir Yarets, a native of Minsk (Belarus). He is aiming at a Guinness Book world record to be the first deaf person to do a round the world trip on a motorbike. In 2007 he was in Auckland, New Zealand and I remembered it from the post on Auckland Daily Photo.

His round-the-world trip was started on the 27th of May 2000. Currently he has traveled through more than 69 countries and covered a total distance exceeding 302,279 km. More information on Vladimir Yarets' website.

More photographs from my own trip can be found on Jersey 2010.

Visit ABC Wednesday for more V posts.

ABC Wednesday - C is for Cycling in Copenhagen

These are just a few of the cyclists we encountered when visiting Copenhagen in 2006.


Cycling is so popular in Copenhagen that there is a blog Copenhagen Chic specifically devoted to the activity.


For more C posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - V is for Vroom Vroom

I wasn't sure what I was going to post for V until I saw Babooshka's Flying Bike. It reminded me of the motorcycle display team I'd watched two years ago. Vroom vroom, I thought, hearing the sound of roaring engines in my head, time to get those photos I took out there.


In 2006 we took a cruise visiting the Baltics. I started a blog to publish pictures from the trip and recount our adventures. See Baltic 2006. Half the journey has been recorded but I got busy with one thing and another and hit writers block with it. Bits and pieces of the story have appeared elsewhere including two posts here about Oslo.

At the end of the cruise we stayed overnight in Southampton before flying home to Manchester the next day. You can read my Trip Advisor report on the hotel.


The hotel was about a fifteen minute walk from the village of West End to where I went to buy some sandwiches and other provisions for lunch. I discovered it was Carnival Day, so later in the afternoon I went back to enjoy looking around the stalls. Highlights were eating strawberries and ice-cream in the refreshment tent, being invited to sit in the shade by members of the organising Hamble Valley Rotary Club and watching the No Limitz Motorcycle Display Team in action.


The displays were excellent and these photos don't really do them justice and I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get around to thanking them for providing an enjoyable end to our cruise holiday.

My other ABC Wednesday V posts this week are ~~ Village Fete at Hyde Daily Photo ~~ Video Footage of Hyde 1947 at Old Hyde ~~ Vintage Cars at Sithenah

To visit more ABC-Wednesday V posts go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

Today in Chester

We went to Chester today on a day trip. It looked fine as we were setting off but showers were forecast so we took our macs and umbrella just in case.

The coach dropped us off near the Chester Ampitheatre where we met our friend Maureen.



After briefly watching the mock Roman soldiers we made our way into St. John Street where we had tea and sandwiches at the Wesley Methodist Church There was an art exhibition on inside the church but the best art in our opinion was the stained glass window.



Later we made our way into Grosvenor Park. It seemed full of very playful squirrels that were not afraid of venturing up close.



We followed a path that we thought would lead down to the river and went past this little building with a fish on top.



Instead of going towards the river it ended in four steps too steep for the wheelchair to negotiate. We had no option but to back-track. It was then we spotted this squirrel in a waste bin.



We found the path that did lead down towards the river under an old stone archway.



As we got past there the heavens opened and we quickly donned our coats and unfurled umbrellas. We thought we'd try for a river trip but unlike the last time we came they didn't have a ramp to allow access to the boat.

We went along to The Boat House for a late lunch. It is a large pub and has a splendid setting overlooking the Dee. The staff were friendly. The food was very expensive. Fish chips and peas cost £6.99 and we split the one meal between the three of us. The chips were luke-warm. To be fair they offered us some more chips but we made do. They didn't have pots of tea, only small cups at more than a pound a cup.

Nevertheless it was a good day out despite the mixed weather and a few disappointments.

Up in town I took a photograph of this toilet. I wanted to compare it with one posted recently on Cologne Daily Photo. It may just be the angle, but this looks larger than the one in Germany. That is a Royal Mail cycle parked outside it.

one line haiku

The theme this week at One Deep Breath is one-line haiku.

Here is a selection of haiku written during our visit to Tenerife in February 2006.

1. lift music wafts down the corridor into our room



2. two palm trees a ladies old bicycle parked between



3. purple flowers opposite burnt-out remains of mini-golf



4. skateboard park iron bars at the entrance to the church



5. on the roof outside the nudist zone topless sunbathers



6. among dunes across the old crater snow and stones



7. hillside terraces hang uncultivated between land-slips



8. overcoats strewn on hotel lobby cases the weather back home



9. red sailboat at the side of the motorway by a bus stop

## 2 & 6 were published in Time Haiku (UK).

## 4, 5 & 9 and the above charcoal were published in The Sons of Camus Writers International (Canada).