Martin's Mag.

My mate Steve organises a bike ride once a year. Here we are about to set off along the lanes and paths south of Bristol to Chew Lake and Stanton Drew (Steve on extreme right)…

A memorable trip canoeing down The River Wye with Fiona and Paul. Starting at Ross and finishing at Symonds Yat. All rapids safely negotiated.

Had a day on Bantham beach, in Devon. Tried out new wet suits and I canoed up the river (Avon) to Aveton Gifford. Here’s a picture of part of the support team!

Bristol gets better and better. This weekend it’s the Harbour Festival. Just an excuse for boat people to get together and the rest of us to eat and drink a bit more than usual. Good fun, though, and good weather.

Bristol Harbour Festival, 18 July 2015.

Eye of whale sculpture.

The Millenium Square, Bristol. I’m in there, somewhere.

Ashton Court, the mansion and park, is a fantastic resource for the city of Bristol, and I/we have been walking in it, along with various much-missed dogs, for decades now. We still visit it often, today on the “Festival Way” cycle route.

A couple of nights overlooking Caerfai Bay near St Davids. We also cycled to Abereiddy beach, a few miles up the coast, and the previously-undiscovered (by us) “Blue Lagoon”.

“Home”.

last year we took our cycles to Bruges for one of the wettest weeks of the Summer (pictures HERE). We thought we’d try again, but, just in case, took the car (via Dunkirk) and stayed in a hotel this time. We also drove to Ghent, Ypres (Ieper), Antwerp, some of the coastal seaside towns, and we caught the train to Brussels.

Street cafes, Bruges.

Bruges art installation.

Bruges Gallery

Lunch on Sal’s birthday, Bruges.

Bargain chairs at a Bruges re-cycling shop. I bought some Belgian beer glasses.

Ghent flats.

Tourists’ boat trip, Ghent.

Ghent wool shop.

Ghent graffitti.

The Ham Hall, Ghent.

Flock of sheep, complete with shepherd and dog, on the banks of river, Ghent.

The Old Fish Market restaurant, Ghent.

The Menin Gate, Ypres, marking the route taken by thousands of men to the fields of Flanders in The Great War. We drove there in time for a memorial ceremony, held every night at 8:00pm. The town of Ypres (officially “Ieper”) is rather larger, and grander, than expected.

The Menin Gate, Ypres (Ieper).

The Menin Gate, Ypres (Ieper).

Reflection in window of passing train at Bruges railway station.

Sal on train to Brussels.

Fellow train traveller.

Brussels, including Anti-Austerity march in support of Greek people, and some graffitti.

Brussels trompe l’oeil.

On the coast: As we had the car, it was easy to drive the thirty or so miles up to the coast. We went along to Holland and Antwerp, but mostly around Blankenberge, a slightly-faded town, still with some vestiges of its fin de siecle glory, and some well-preserved German WWII coastal defences. The Belgians do sea food very well and we had a magnificent viszooiyje, a Flemish fish stew, in a restaurant on the end of the pier.

Baffling cycle path sign on coast at Westerschelde.

Beach huts at Knokke-Heist.

Pier at Blankenberg, with great sea-food restaurant at the end.

Blankenburge end-of-pier sea-food restaurant.

We walked up the Brecon Hills from Abergavenny. Fantastic scenery, from the green valleys and woods below to the more barren and very windy peak.

We had a crab craving, so went to Beer, on the Devon coast for lunch in a pub. Then we walked to Branscombe for tea and cake. It’s hard, retirement.