Bristol - cycling city

From a BBC article

Bristol will receive a share of £100 million in order to

Create the UK's first on-street bike rental network

Establish a 're-cycling' scheme that repairs bikes and provides them free of charge to deprived communities

Build state-of-the-art facilities for cyclists commuting to the city centre

Create a dedicated cycleway to link the suburbs with the city centre

More than double the number of children receiving cycling training

Develop a Personalised Travel Plan programme, focusing on changing the way people conduct short journeys to work.

Excellent news for the city which started Sustrans, and well done all those hill-climbing cyclists in the town. It will certainly encourage me to cycle more when I'm there. Last week's score - 2 rides of about 30 - 40 minutes.

Other areas which will receive funding for cycling include York, Stoke, Blackpool, Cambridge, Chester, Colchester, Leighton, Shrewsbury, Southend, Southport and Woking.

I reckon that Leicester should be in there. They're pretty keen on encouraging cycling as well.

For further interesting comments on Bristol and cycling look here

Aspects of Bristol June 5th-6th

A pub on Gloucester Road The observatory? and camera obscura?
The Clifton suspension bridge
Looking down to the river. Then over the bridge...to the Leigh Woods area where there are some unbelievable houses. Hmm - Victorian Gothic?...You can travel from the heart or rural England on a grand scale... ...to a Swiss chalet, an outsized cuckoo clock or a gingerbread house called Alpenfels.
When I feel inspired I must correct the lean - it's the photographer's fault, not the builder's.

A country walk in Bristol

My niece invited me to go along on a health walk with her and her son, with a group of people, meeting up outside a supermarket at ten in the morning and following a couple of leaders. It was an interesting route, past the Barton Hill Settlement - a local community centre which has lots going on, along a path by the Feeder Canal, to the river Avon.

We passed this tree with a wall in the middle of it, and lunched at a bar and tea-room by the river. Unfortunately the river was too high and fast for the tiny ferry to be running.

Then we had to give up part way through as Finn was not well. One moment he was fine - the next refusing to eat and too quiet for a three-year-old. One minute he wanted to be held upside down, the next he was miserable. Turned out he was developing an ear infection, though it was almost two days before this was clear. He's fine again now.

Since we were with a group we hadn't bothered to bring a map, so our return walk on our own was not the most direct route.