On Sept. 15, I had time to go for a longer training ride, and I chose to head out east to Gilbertville (part of the town of Hardwick). Instead of riding on route 202, which is the way I went in the past, I took various side roads that roughly parallel that highway. Some of them were roads that I had not been on before, and one thing I discovered is that the route I took involved more hill climbing to get to Belchertown center, compared with 202 (followed by some downhill, of course).
Sometime soon after I crossed the Belchertown line, I came upon a snake enjoying what warmth the pavement had.
I was worried that it was far enough into the road that it might get run over by a car, so I moved close enough to it that it slithered off into the grass. Satisfied that it was safer, I continued.
From the center of Belchertown, I went east on Route 9, but soon diverted off into the Quabbin Reservoir reservation. It was a beautiful day at that point, and so I could not resist taking some pictures of the water from Winsor Dam:
Here I’m looking along the dam:
I rode across there and then up the hill that goes to an observation tower. I didn’t go all the way to the tower this time, as I’ve been in it many times before, and wanted to make time. It’s a long uphill anyway, but then one is rewarded with a lot of down hill before exiting to 9 again.
There are a couple more hills that I climbed in the town of Ware, before I came out on Route 32 and headed north into Gilbertville. I stopped off for lunch at a bakery/cafe that had been recommended to us – Rose32. Had a very nice sandwich and a strawberry ginger ale to drink, and then got a box of various pastries to take home.
I retraced my route back to Belchertown, but then headed west on Bay Road, followed by going north on Warren Wright Rd. to pick up the Mass Central Rail Trail (Norwottuck section). I wanted to make sure to get a significant enough number of miles in, so didn’t want to head home the way I came (taking the trail was less direct). I rode the trail all the way to Northampton, and then turned south and followed Route 5 back to Holyoke.
My total distance was 70 miles, and despite some of it being bumpy, the pastries survived the trip.
Next post: Bikefest 2018.
In mid-July I went for a ride down to Connecticut, riding on the Farmington Canal Heritage trail. I’d done the ride twice before, and mostly saw the same sights I photographed the first time. Hence, I didn’t take many pictures this time. Like the last time I did it, I rode all the way from our house in Holyoke to Westfield, where the trail begins, and then followed it all the way to Farmington.
I ate lunch there (at this place again), and then headed back. Overall the ride had been pretty uneventful, but when I was passing back north through the town of Simsbury, a cyclist ahead of me came to a stop, and then I noticed something on the trail quite a ways ahead. At first I thought it was a large dog, but then realized it was something else:
It was a black bear. As you can see, it was holding up bike traffic in both directions. I moved forward slowly, and the bear started to move away (that far cyclist backed off to give it room). After a bit of this, the bear turned off and headed into the woods, and I was able to continue toward home.
When I had just gotten back into the Holyoke city limit, I was climbing a hill, and found a snake lying on the side of the road. It did not move at all as I took pictures of it, so I suspect it was dead, though there was no obvious trauma to it (and it was far enough to the side of the road that I’m not sure a car would have run over it).
I got home without incident, completing what was then my longest riding day of the year (88 miles, just a bit longer than the day I rode up to NH).
The first weekend in June this year, I went on my first 50-mile ride of the year. Much of the route was roads I’d ridden on before. I rode from Holyoke east into Chicopee, then south through Ludlow and a bit of Springfield into Wilbraham. I then went southwest to East Longmeadow, rode the Redstone Trail again, and then made my way due west into the town of Longmeadow.
I had not biked through Longmeadow this way before, but my objective was to head to a part of Springfield that I hadn’t previously visited. Heading north into Springfield, I rode into Forest Park. I’ve known about this large park in the city for years, but only finally got around to visiting.
I didn’t ride through all of the park – mostly the western section. There I found a large pond:
The pond, as you might expect, attracts waterfowl:
Apparently that one goose prefers the company of ducks to that of its own species. Birds, like humans, have different orientations, it would seem.
I passed by the old carriage house that is now used as an event space, and walked up a little hill to view the fancy mausoleum of the Barney family.
It’s fenced in, so the general public can’t climb all over it (or to keep people from defacing it, I suppose).
I exited the north side of the park and went to have a burrito for lunch. I then, as a couple times in the past, rode up Springfield’s riverside bikeway, though that path currently has a discontinuity. The portion of it that traveled on a bridge over railroad tracks is closed and under construction – part of the larger reconstruction being done on Interstate 91. So I had to ride on downtown streets for a ways, then go back to the path.
After reaching the northern end of the bikeway, I headed through Chicopee and back to home.
Next: a weekend bike trip to another state.
Another post involving pictures from this past spring – this time from early May. Around that time, a few bird nests got built on and around our front porch.
There were some finches who initially were determined to build a nest inside a light fixture on the porch, but every time they tried to bring twigs and stuff inside, the materials would just fall out the bottom. We ended up hanging a small basket from the light, and eventually they successfully built a nest in the basket.
Here are the eggs that were laid, which were a pale green color:
Eventually we saw 3 baby birds that had hatched and who eventually left the nest.
In a couple of bushes by the porch, robins nested and laid eggs. Here is one of the robin nests:
Some of the ones in this nest were successfully hatched and raised, though I don’t recall how many. Unfortunately, the other nest, which was in the holly bush, ended up being abandoned with a few eggs in it.
In this case the still life was the bird. Back in the late spring, I looked out on the deck one day and saw a mourning dove just hanging out. It was, in fact, a juvenile dove (you can tell it’s not a full adult because it’s all gray, and not the slightly brown color of adult doves).
It just sat there while I took its picture through the glass door, and for quite a while afterward. Nothing better to do, I guess.
Second day in London: I took the bus to Westminster, getting off right near the houses of Parliament. I first walked around looking for breakfast, and ended up getting pastries (including a pecan roll) in a sandwich shop. Then I took pictures of some oft-photographed stuff.
Like this place:
I took pictures of it from the other side, as well, standing on Westminster Bridge:
Here’s the view upriver, alongside Parliament:
And here is the London Eye, on the downriver side of the bridge:
There are various statues in this area. Of course, in England you would expect to find a statue of Abraham Lincoln:
There seem to be a few leaders from other countries there, actually, such as Mandela:
And there is the obligatory statue of Mr. Churchill:
This memorial has an interesting way of depicting its subject (click to enlarge):
I also wandered by Westminster Abbey, and thought about going in, but it would have cost £20, so I contented myself with taking pictures of the exterior:
This column was near the abbey:
After walking around there, I took the underground a few stops west, and then walked to the Museum of Science.
On the way there, I spotted this sign:
which I thought was an odd name for a hotel.
I spent most of the afternoon at the Science Museum, as there was plenty to see. It included several early steam engines. This is an early locomotive:
This began a long hall that followed the development of technology over the past 2 centuries. Also in the beginning of that hall was a piece of Charles Babbage’s difference engine:
(more Babbage stuff later)
A lighthouse lens:
Planes and cars:
There were a few computer exhibits near the end, including an Apple I:
The NeXT machine that was used as the first world wide web server:
and a Cray supercomputer:
On an upper floor was a hall of math and computing, and it included a larger difference engine model:
As well as a model of the analytic engine:
with punch cards for programming it:
In another display case was a portrait of Babbage, some of his notes…and his brain:
When I had finished at the museum, I got dinner at a nearby Mediterranean place (lamb with couscous, and an orange-almond cake for dessert), and then rode the subway back to Westminster. I walked north to look around St. James Park, since it was still light out. This park has a small lake in it, and has many, many waterfowl, some of which were imported to it by the royal family.
Here are a number of the denizens:
There were black swans:
and gray swans:
And coots, which have neat feet:
I don’t know what these red birds are (and did not get a good picture of them):
I thought this bicyclist was topiary at first:
but it’s actually some kind of vine on a frame.
As it got dark, I saw a fox bound across the path I was walking on, so I followed it for a bit, but could not get a good photo.
I made my way back to the Thames, and took a night picture of the London Eye:
As well as this walking bridge (the Golden Jubilee bridge):
I’d had enough walking for the day at that point, so I hopped on a bus and headed to the airbnb apartment and bed.
On my second day in England, I returned to Oxford and took a boat tour of the Thames River (the waterway also known in that city as the Isis).
I walked down to the tour place a bit early and bought my ticket, and then walked around until the departure time. Here’s the river, seen from Folly Bridge, right near the tour boat launch:
I walked down near the river and saw a bunch of geese feasting on bread someone had thrown there:
I walked south from there, away from the river, and in front of a house I saw some birds I did not recognize. I found out later that these are magpies:
I noticed a path that went off the road alongside some athletic fields, and saw that the sign indicated that it was a public path that went through to the river. So I walked through there and came out on the Thames Path. Looking up river there were several University boathouses:
Here’s the view downriver from the same spot:
I followed the path upriver, back toward the tour place. On the way, I saw several houseboats that were moored by the side:
Some of which had a lot of plants on them:
Apparently there are a lot of river sections where the public can moor for a few days at a time.
Here’s a view of a park across the river:
I got back to the boat launch and soon was able to get on board the small boat. There were about 8 other passengers, and fortunately there was a canopy over most of the boat, as it was quite sunny.
First the boat headed downriver. Here’s a building near Folly Bridge:
We passed the boathouses I had seen from the shore, and a few more. These are the oldest ones, apparently:
We turned around at Iffley Lock and then headed upriver for the major portion of the tour.
This included going through a lock, where the boat pilot got out and operated the controls to close the doors and fill the lock.
Here we are heading into the lock:
As the water filled it, there was a duck floating there with us:
And here is the lock open for us to continue upriver:
At one point, a person on the shore was taking our picture. I tried to get a photo of him while he was doing so, but I wasn’t quick enough:
Some other views on the sides of the river:
The north end of the tour was at Port Meadow, which is common land in Oxford (and also a floodplain). There were a whole lot of birds there:
Also horses grazing and drinking:
That swan kept dunking its head when I wanted to take its picture.
I did get a closeup of this heron, though:
Here’s a building I thought was neat looking as we were headed back downriver:
An obelisk along the bank:
I think this is a train bridge:
After the tour ended, I walked back toward the train station, happening to pass Oxford Castle on the way:
And this is a canal that flows through the city:
I took the train back to Didcot, where I collected my luggage from my friend’s place, and then boarded another train to head to London, where I would spend the next 5 days.
Another quick post. A month or so back, I was out mowing the leaves (and a bit of grass), and I saw something moving quickly out of the way of the mower. It was about the same color as the grass.
On closer inspection, it was a large praying mantis:
When I say “large,” I mean it was about 3 to 4 inches long. Some might be grossed out by this, but I am a fan of mantises (manti?).
Next post: back to the England trip.
On my last morning in Iceland I got up somewhat early so I could return my rented bike (Óli Stef). I headed for the Reykjavik waterfront along the city’s bike paths, and partway there, I noticed geese in the median strip of the road (click photo to embiggen):
I also encountered this little bird at the waterfront:
I believe it’s a starling. In this photo it’s poking into a seawall, presumably trying to get some food.
After dropping the bike off, I walked back toward my lodging, taking in some more of the city on my way, as I did not have to hurry.
A couple of days earlier, I had visited the home of the original Althing, the gathering of the country’s leaders to make law. The Althing still exists, but it meets in a building in Reykjavik – this building, to be exact:
It’s labeled on this side section:
As are the spaces on the street in front of it:
That third letter is the letter thorn, by the way, which has a soft ‘th’ sound. I’ve been transliterating it to ‘th’ in Althing and Thingvellir, among other words.
I thought this fountain was neat looking:
And yes, that is a hot dog stand in the background – it’s supposedly quite popular.
I came across some interesting sculptures on my way east through the city:
Not sure what to make of these folks:
or these polar bears:
I saw similar stuffed bears in chains in front of other stores. It’s some kind of thing…
At the far end of the street was one sight I wanted to make sure to go by:
It is Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Iceland, and of unusual architecture:
There is a statue out front of Leif Ericsson out front:
This inscription is above the door:
The side view:
I did not go inside, but I did encounter another friendly cat outside the church before I moved on:
I got back to the apartment and packed up my stuff, then took a city bus to the bus station. There I had some lunch (more lamb) and waited for the bus to the airport.
It had been dry that morning, and for a couple of days before, but it started raining by the time I got to the airport, just as it had been raining when I arrived in the country.
Getting my bags checked required waiting a while in line, because the luggage conveyer belt at the check-in counter had broken down. Eventually some carts were brought to move the luggage through, and I was able to head for the gate.
On the flight to London, I watched an Icelandic documentary called Electric Reykjavik, about the electronic music scene there.
The plane flew southward over the British Isles, and I was able to glimpse some thin white things in Scotland or Northern England. I took as best a picture as I could with my phone:
They’re right in the center of the image. I was able to figure out pretty quickly what they were, because I could see blades turning. Apparently, windmills are visible from tens of thousands of feet in the air.
I arrived fine in Heathrow airport, and took a bus from there to Reading train station. From there it was a short train ride to Didcot, where I was staying with a friend for a couple of nights. The next day, she’d be showing me around Oxford.
On my third day in Iceland, I had a quick breakfast of yogurt and granola, or rather, of yogurt drink and granola. It turned out that the stuff I thought was yogurt, Skyr, is more like a thin smoothie. It still worked fine, as I even like having granola with plain milk.
Outside, before getting on the bike, I took a picture of Héradsskolínn itself (click any picture to see it bigger):
And here is Óli Stef up close:
And here is the peak across the road, without its summit obscured by clouds:
I started riding west, back up Route 365. When I say ‘up’, I mean that there is a long hill that I had to climb as I headed out of Laugarvatn. Here’s a view of that same peak from a ways up the hill to the west:
This is a view looking downhill at the town:
While I was paused at this point, there was a pretty stream off to the side of the road:
As I rode along 365, I took pics of mountains that I hadn’t stopped for when I came through earlier in the week:
I also saw some more sheep, including a variegated one:
When I came within view of Thingfallavatn, I could see what looked like a geyser on the other side of the water:
Soon I got to Route 36, and headed north into the Thingvellir park. A little ways after getting into the park, I turned off on a side road that goes west along the north side of the lake. There I was able to get close to the lake, as at this parking area:
The lake, complete with a fisherman off to the left:
I walked along the water a bit, and observed some interesting seaweed, which was very brightly colored:
It was also very stringy:
The plant life on the ground was mostly low-growing stuff, and not all of it green:
Continuing along toward the center of the park, I soon came to the odder parts of the landscape. Namely, various geologic fissures:
Iceland, and the national park in particular, sits on the divide between the North American and European tectonic plates, which are moving apart very slightly each year. It’s this action that causes much of the ground breakage there.
Around these fissures, I also saw my first view of this long rock wall:
That wall borders the parliament plain (the Althing Vellir) itself. This is where the world’s first parliament met, established in the 10th century by the Viking settlers of Iceland.
When I got to the plain, I locked up the bike in a picnic area, and headed up some steps toward the rock wall. Here are some views of the plain from most of the way up:
There was a path in front of the rock wall, which went slightly downhill to the north:
And uphill to the south:
I followed the line of people uphill, and came to the top of the wall, with a viewing platform, and a good view of the lake and plain:
I could also see Óli Stef from up there:
At the top, there was also a parking area and visitors’ center. I went in and watched a few videos on the history and geology of the place. Apparently, the land in the plain is slowly sinking, which is why water flows over so much of the places that people once camped for the annual assembly.
Here is the view back down the path along the wall, just before I headed down that way:
More of the wall:
Here, marked by the flagpole, is the Law Rock, where the Law Speaker would recite the country’s laws:
Looking down at the plain from here:
Further along the wall, I came to water flowing down from above:
Looking down from a bridge over the stream:
And here the water flows onto the plain:
I headed down onto the plain after that. Here’s a view looking south:
And looking back up to the Law Rock:
I wandered through the little collection of buildings on the plain, including a small church. There is a graveyard there:
And behind the buildings is this mysterious tree:
A wider fissure:
And here there is a diver getting ready to swim along the tectonic divide:
I headed back to the bike at this point, and noticed the lava rocks found around the picnic area:
On my way away from the plain, I saw some geese – a type that I don’t generally see in the US:
Riding eastward, I stopped to check out a couple of hiking trails in the park. The first one took me through some tundra:
There was a cable running across the ground, for some reason:
I came to a waterway which had more of the neon seaweed, as well as a much stranger growth of stuff on and in the water:
The other trail I hiked took me through a stand of evergreen trees:
And then up a hill which has a neat gully cutting across it:
There was another pleasant view from up there (looking west):
Once I hiked back down from there, I rode out of the park, back toward Laugarvatn. At the park exit, I stopped and took this picture to the north:
I had a rain-free day this time, but still wanted a shower when I got back to the hostel.
I met this individual in the hostel parking lot when I arrived back:
It was very friendly, and must belong to someone, as it was wearing a collar (but no tag).
After cleaning up, I had dinner in the hostel cafe, this time getting an item not written on the menu. It was local trout, baked with a cheese sauce, and with fried potatoes and salad on the side:
It was quite delicious, and a nice end to the day.
Next: back to the city
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