Author Archives: dipidydoo
Two Cities and a Dangle Train
You may remember our excursion to Enoshima in Japan, where we rode a suspended monorail, aka the Dangle Train. There are only a handful of these trains in the world, and three of them happen to be in Germany – at Dusseldorf Airport, Dortmund University, and Wuppertal. Of the three, Wuppertal is easily the longest […]
A (Long) Walk In Cologne
Having relocated to accommodation much closer to the centre, we decided there was no need to take the metro, so we set out on foot. First stop was Isabella’s Patisserie, a dedicatd gluten free bakery with a range of savoury baked goods, and a colourful display of sweet treats. From there we followed Ehrenstrasse, a […]
Photos from Belgian Sprints
Here are some photos from the EOC Tour website:
Sprinting in Belgium – the Grand Finale
All of a sudden we found ourselves waking up on the final day of the European Orienteering Champs. We drove to Lier, the closest of the four locations to Antwerp, on a relatively quiet Sunday morning. For the first time, we were sharing the arena with the elites – and we found out what we’d […]
On My Last Legs
Although my garmin said my recovery time was 13 hours, I think it will take me 13 years for the mental scarring to subside from last night’s Indoor race. Today we were back outside, for the second City Race in Herentals, another typically Flemish town. At 5.1 km, it was the longest race of the […]
Torture With Maps
Before we went in search of enclaves, we completed race 3 at Geel. This was a fairly standard sprint in a mix of residential streets and parkland. The first few controls were very simple, lulling us into a false sense of security. After a handful of controls in a park, we had a long leg […]
Fun With Maps
Being map nerds, we couldn’t pass up the chance to visit one of the world’s oddest geographic quirks – the enclaves within enclaves that make up the town of Baarle. Baarle is within the Netherlands. However, within its boundary there are 22 Belgian enclaves – tiny pieces of one country, completely surrounded by another country. […]
Sprinting in Belgium (Part 1)
Finally, the time came for some “serious” orienteering. The European Champs are being held in Belgium, and there is a series of 6 races for age groupers (ie us). We have 3 sprints, 2 city races, and 1 indoor race. These events are all in Belgian towns east of Antwerp. Luckily, Ted is driving us […]
Antwerpian
We’ve been in Antwerp for two days now. We get our daily step count just walking around the apartment. It’s above a kitchenware shop, which is owned by our hosts. There are identical white doors everywhere; Margi was very amused when I tried to find the laundry, and ended up on the landing outside the […]
Not Enough Room To Swing a Captain
It’s been two days of solid travel, finally enacting the logistics that we carefully planned months ago. Rather than fly, we decided to take an overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, then a train to Antwerp. It all sounded simple on paper, but the proof would be in the execution. Luckily the traffic was light […]
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