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Traffic in Amsterdam

07 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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adventure, Amsterdam, cyclists, transportation

I was in Amsterdam for the first time a few weeks ago, and I was seriously blown away by the city.  In addition to the brown cafes, which were everywhere and were so brimming with local character, and the food, which was delicious, the city had all sorts of distinctive characteristics that made it feel unique (when I was in Strasbourg, everything apart from the cathedral felt like “Generic European City.” Amsterdam felt like Amsterdam.)

As an urban planner, the first thing I noticed was the cycling infrastructure, and the people using it. It was on a scale I’d never seen before.  A friend who went to Amsterdam earlier this year complained that, actually, there were so many bikes that people on feet suffered – and I’m inclined to agree.  It was not a walker’s paradise.

The space reserved for cycles was unlike anything I’d ever seen.  There were cycle parking spaces everywhere, but there were still bikes attached to bridges, trees, and every other stationery object you can think of.  There were special bike lights incorporated into the stoplights, so that cyclists got a head start at intersections, and had special buttons for tripping the lights.  At roundabouts, cyclists were protected from cars with divided lanes and special entry/exit routes. In addition to the gazillion bike racks we saw, many houses with one or two steps had a small track (see picture above) to wheel cycles into and out of the house.  Every road had a bike lane, and many of them were segregated from the street and the sidewalk, even a few miles from the city centre.

Although the infrastructure was impressive, the attitude was clearly the biggest difference: everyone cycled.  I saw old people, children, young mothers with children.  Many houses had four or five bikes outside.  Furthermore, I could count the number of road bikes I saw on one hand. People rode clunky cruisers or cargo bikes, and most people pedaled along at a pretty stately pace.  And of course the sheer numbers of cyclists meant that drivers were always on their guard.

With so much to love about cycling in Amsterdam, I was surprised, therefore, when Karin and I finally rented bikes and I didn’t totally love cycling in Amsterdam.  For starters: there was traffic. All those people cycling…it was stressful.  If anything, I spent most of the time in the downtown area feeling like I could use a little more space.

There was also a weird thing where motorbikes were allowed in bike lanes.  The lanes were wide enough to accommodate two cyclists (for passing), but they didn’t have clearly demarcated lanes, and it was easy to slip into the middle of the path (this is probably something that stupid tourists do that drives locals nuts). But anyway, you’d be pedaling along at a reasonably brisk pace, and all of a sudden there would be a motorbike on your bum.  I’m not trying to be cranky, but if you are sitting on something that can go 70 miles an hour, you should not be in a bike lane.

Karin and I toodled around the city for a while on our bikes, cycling to the Het Schip Museum (where we harassed our poor tour guide for information about development projects in Amsterdam until he managed to escape) and then heading out to the newer parts of the city.  I’d insisted we go to the city museum, which had cool infographics about the expansion of the city, but the history of the city was pretty obvious from the urban design – and the Amsterdam School is my new favourite architectural movement.  The neighbourhood we started in was 19th century, but we moved pretty quickly to late 19th/early 20th century, and then into a 1920s neighbourhood that went on for miles.

We had nurtured the idea that we would rent bikes and ride out among the windmills, but in the end we ran out of time, so we’ll have to save it for another trip.

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Nights and Afternoons on the Town

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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adventure, Cambridge, My Friend Karin, Nights Out

So this should not in any sense be interpreted as an endorsement of irresponsible drinking, even though logic dictates that drinking pitchers of purple alcohol is not responsible. But I’ve been meaning to publish this collection of photos from Karin’s visit for a while.  These are all Cambridge photos – at the Regal, a club where we went to celebrate the completion of a friend’s Phd. at the Cambridge Blue, where we got some autumn sun, and at the Salamander, a cute and highly recommended pub in Bath where we grabbed a pre-dinner drink.

Planners in Amsterdam

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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adventure, Amsterdam, Europe, travel, vacation

image

Today:
– Museum of Amsterdam
– Oude Kerke (old church)
– Red Light District
– Jordaan
– pickled herring sandwiches
– grocery store
– speculoos spread (like peanut butter but worse for you)
– coffee and bike watching

…and some other stuff. This place is heaven for an urban planner, and I’m here with a friend from grad school so we can nerd out together. We may have stopped to admire the municipal composting stations.

The Perfect British Seaside Holiday

24 Friday Aug 2012

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adventure, Great British Summer, Newport Sands, Typical British Seaside Holiday, Wales

In July, Ian and I went to Ireland and then Wales with some friends from the states  (and some new friends from the UK) for our first taste of a typical British seaside holiday, which involved bundling up to go to the beach, serious sand-castle building, and incredibly competitive couples bocce and sandal-wanging followed by some seriously unhealthy fish and chips, plus some excitement when Ian tried to ford a stream and ended up being rescued by the coast guard. You can tell ts a typical British seaside holiday from the photos because we’re all bundled up above the waist but wearing sandals and swimsuits on the bottom – the triumph of hope over common sense.

Anyway.  We picked a stretch of sand and started sand-castleing, but the tide was coming in faster than we realised, and so we dug frantically for an hour and then spent 20 sad minutes watching our hard work get washed away (and peed on by a passing dog).  Shortlived though it may have been, its safe to say that our sand-castle was the most magnificent piece of architecture on the beach that day, thanks largely to the quick thinking of our chief engineer, Dom (pictured above next to his creation).

When the castle had completely disappeared, we sandal-wanged (Sandal-wanging is derived from wellie wanging, which I think I’ve mentioned here before.  It is a classic English garden-party game involving throwing Wellington boots as far as you possibly can.  Whoever throws furthest, wins.  That’s the whole game.  It’s kind of awesome) before trying the more staid game of bocce, and while the game may have been low-key, the victory dances were not:

Day Trip to the Peaks, which is just nauseatingly beautiful

22 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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adventure, climbing, Froggatt, the Peak District, UK

As you may know if you’re a regular reader, I started trad rock climbing in April with a crazy trip to Cornwall.  Trad climbing is where you place pieces of safety gear in the rock as you climb, versus top-roping (where a rope is suspended from the top). The hobby has taken me to Cornwall and Wales, but also to the Peak District three times, and after a rain-soaked weekend in Wales, I’ve decided the Peaks (which is closest to Cambridge) is my favorite.

I think its pretty obvious that there’s plenty to like about it.

Wakeboarding?

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

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adventure, Great British Summer, wakeboarding

I’ve written before about ridiculous ways to get exercise – including trapezing, circus school, and trampolining (which I still really want to do!) – but I stumbled on a new method a few weeks ago, when Ian and some friends and I trooped to a pond in the middle of a cornfield to take a wakeboarding lesson.  Ian and I had an advantage, because we’d been waterskiing before – in fact, while everyone surpassed me in the end, I struggled at first because they were going too slowly.

The setup was pretty hilarious – we drove a couple miles on dirt roads, then ended up at a series on shipping containers neatly arranged in front of two giant pools (see photo above for sense of scale).  The employees lowered us into the water and gave us a handle to hold; the handle was attached to an overhead wire that ran the length of the pond.  We barely got as far as turning around, but it was a hilarious way to spend an afternoon, and Ian and I were both naturals, which was good for our self-esteem.

 

I Still Live in a Foreign Country

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

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adventure, England, foreign, mushy peas, pub, Valencia

So I’m back from Valencia.  The internet in the hotel was beyond awful, and the hotel room looked like a worn-down version of the Hilton that Betty and Don Draper stayed in when they went to Rome in season 2 (that’s 1961, y’all).

That said, the weather was sunny and warm every day and Ian and I had adventures all over the city when I wasn’t busy having adventures with my friend Robert (also a conference partner) or by myself.

Then we came back to England, and as glad as I was to be back, there are certain things that I find difficult.  For starters: WHY IS IT ALWAYS RAINING IN THIS EFFING COUNTRY?????

And let me tell you, it is doing something way more substantial than “misting” at the moment.  If you need a Celsius-Fahrenheit translation: 10 C is about 52 degrees F. It’s mid-June, and I am sick of this shit.  The temperature has barely cracked 70 in 2012.

While I have my frustrations with England, I am surprised by what now seems normal. Ian and I met up for drinks with a new intern at his office yesterday (she’s a friend of a friend) and we talked at her for hours about all the things she’d need to know and all the things that had gone hilariously awry when we moved.  But on several occasions she said “I just love how…” or “I can’t believe how…” and I just kind of blinked at her.  Of course the pubs close early – that’s how pubs work.  Of course there are no gridded streets.  Of course the weather is cold and rainy (I have to say, that last one is the only one that really floored me.  She didn’t bring a coat or waterproof clothing.  The most cursory check of weather.com would have cleared that up for her).

What was even more startling to realise is that I had a similar conversation with English people at a pub recently – they were talking about their wacky experiences in the states (“you can’t buy electric kettles everywhere! they all have clothes dryers! they’re so nice!”) and while I was curious to hear it, I couldn’t come up with rejoinders until later (“you eat mushy peas and use date sauce instead of ketchup, for fuckssake”).  Most of England just seems normal, or normal-ish, to me now, and I have to give it some thought to come up with things that I think (or thought) were strange when I moved here last autumn.

Mountains, Cuckoos, Stone Roofs: Just Your Average Thursday in Locarno

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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adventure, hiking, Locarno, nature, outdoor sports, Switzerland, travel, vacation, walking

Locarno is in the Italian part of Switzerland, a four-hour train ride from Basel.  On the way there, we sat next to a little Swiss German couple in their seventies.  About 8 seconds after the train pulled out of the station in Basel, the woman started commenting on the landscape.  “Beautiful! Amazing! Fantastic!” (in German, of course; Sarah translated for me).  Basel is a nice city and the countryside is nice enough, but we were about 90 minutes away from the really pretty stuff when she started rhapsodizing.

We channeled her through the whole excursion, though, crying “amazing! perfection! beautiful!” whenever we felt particularly moved.

Originally the plan was to stay 2 nights in Locarno, but we spent longer in Freiburg than we planned and weren’t willing to give up on Strasbourg, so we decided to just go breakneck speed: we took an early train, speed-walked to the hostel, got a sandwich and started exploring.  Locarno is surrounded by mountains with a complex and very well signed set of trails.  If you’re lazy, though, you can just take a series of funiculars and gondolas and chairlifts to the top.  The transpo nerds in us wanted to take the gondolas, but the hard core sportsters in us said “gondolas are for suckers! We’re going to sweat our way to the top of this hill like a boss!”

And then we sweated our way up the mountain, like bosses.

The trail system really is amazing, though.  We took the funicular (cause seriously, who can resist a funicular?) for the first leg of the journey, and then we just followed the yellow signs to San Bernardo, a destination 2 hours away (amazing: they said it would take two hours, and it did.) We walked with no real sign that we were getting close, and then, out of nowhere, we were in a town (and in fact, walking across people’s back gardens) while cuckoos sang from nearby trees.  St. Bernardo was the first in a series of beautiful mountain villages with staircases running through them, the occasional jerry-rigged home-built funicular, and honest-to-goodness stone roofs.  SO. INCREDIBLY. COOL.

From there we went to Cardada, where we took in the view, and then we headed back down the mountain on the western edge.  All in all we hiked for about 8 hours, stumbling onto the Piazza Grande just as dusk was settling in.  We got bread and cheese and ate it, dirty and smelly and disreputable looking, on a bench while meticulously dressed people spilled out of an art opening next to us.

The next day we didn’t quite recapture the magic, but we did find our way to the river, which was breathtaking, and to Ascona, another town about 4 miles away with a beautiful little high street and harbour.  And then we took the train back to Basel (“amazing! Wonderful! too pretty!”) and joined Annie, our host, at an impromptu street party on the river before Sarah caught a 6 am flight to Amsterdam.

Big Night in the Big City

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

adventure, England, entertainment, London, Nightjar, Scorpion bowls, travel

A few weeks ago, I had what for me amounted to an epic night out in London.  It began at 5:30 in the evening and ended roughly 11 hours later, as the sun was juuuust beginning to rise over Hampstead.

The night began near the American Embassy, where my friend Erin and I grabbed some tapas and then rendez-vous’d with embassy employees.  In the two minute walk between embassy and tapas, I had my friend English celebrity siting: Mark Francis, from Made In Chelsea.  And I freaked out a little.  If you’ve read the blog much, you know I regard Made in Chelsea as the ultimate guilty pleasure and I’ve been a regular watcher since arriving in this country.  So the night kicked off with a little thrill.

We went to a club called Amber, near the Barbican Centre.  It was a sprawling nightclub complex, really, which three different dance floors.  We stuck to the one that had a light-up Rubik’s Cube dance floor and go-go dancers (some on roller skates) wearing orange legwarmers.  For me, though, the highlight of Amber was the giant disco-ball drinks – the only other place I’d had communal drinks like that was at Asian restaurants, where they’re typically called Scorpion Bowls.  But these came served in the bottom half of a disco ball.

We were among the last to leave the club, around midnight, when we went to a bar a few blocks away (it had a sort of vintage feel and a big booth for all of us, but I forget what it was called or where it is).  And then around 1:30 am, we went to a Bar Nightjar.  I am obviously unschooled in London nightlife, but Nightjar is apparently a big deal.  By showing up at 1:30, we were able to waltz right in and get a booth in a little alcove in the back, and then we each got an incredibly complicated, lovingly-crafted cocktail.  When they kicked us out hours later, we paused at the little stage (pictured above, although the picture is an advertisement) to play some Beatles tunes. The waitstaff was so bemused by this display that they just stood there and waited for us to finish.

I didn’t realise until later, but when I told my friend Robert we’d gone there he said “And you just walked in? No waiting? No crappy table?So lucky!”  So my advice is, if you go, go really, really late at night.

The next day, having not really recovered, I left for Switzerland and had a mercifully wholesome holiday, with lots of looking at cathedrals and brisk walking and bread and cheese, but not a lot of copious quantities of alcohol.

 

Book Review: Adventure Britain and 52 Great British Weekends

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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adventure, book review, books, holidays, travel, UK

I’m taking my first British getaway this weekend  – a climbing trip in Cornwall via Southampton – and I’m really excited to see some more of England, eat some pasties, and add to my very modest repertoire of outdoor climbing experience.  After ten days of absolutely gorgeous weather, I’m thinking about summer adventures, and I checked out two books from the library to get ready.

The first book, Adventure Britain, gives a summary of various adventures opportunities by region.  It lists hiking (“walking” in UK parlance), climbing, surfing, and mountain biking, which are fairly obvious activities to include.  It also lists parasailing (yes please) and wild swimming (really? that doesn’t seem that adventurous) and coasteering, which I’d never heard of but is basically cliff jumping and floating around in the ocean.  I was surprised that it didn’t include sailing or windsurfing.  It also had a couple opportunities for foraging, but didn’t include birdwatching, cross-country skiing, or any of a variety of other adventures I haven’t thought of.

Each activity listed is presented very cogently and comprehensively, with resources for more info plus nearby hotels and restaurants, and there are a whole lots of activities covered in the book (stand up paddle boarding, whitewater rafting, and paragliding, among others).  My biggest complaint, though, was the lack of maps.  There was not a single sodding map in the entire sodding book.  My biggest frustration with being in a new country is that I don’t have a mental map, and I hoped the book would help.  But no map!

The next book, 52 Great British Weekends, takes a more sedate approach to adventure, but neatly breaks the weekends up seasonally.  Each season has a variety of activities – from walking to serious eating to amusement parks – and covers a variety of regions.  I learned some things about the country that I hadn’t known.  I now really want to go to the Hebrides, for example, and I learned that I live near some really great birdwatching.  But as with the previous book, it was seriously short of maps.  As in, there weren’t any.  I really wish they’d thought to include some, but instead I read both books and then had to spend some time googling to figure out where everything was.  That being said, I’ve included some mobile-phone pictures of the books below; both made me really excited to be in England and to have all this new stuff to explore.

Hebrides: I want to go to there.

Fort William too, please.

**Note: I’ve started a new series of Fantasy Holiday posts.  You can see them all by clicking the Category to the left. Wheee!

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