Owens L'ill Slice of the Web

My bicycle is totally immune to volcanic ash (at least while it is high in the atmosphere), and my travel plans have not been disrupted at all.

The bandwidth is terrible, but it’s free, and the view of the coast of France is good.. though not deeply exciting.
Looks like they only open a few ports though, no SSH session to my server, and Instant Messenger (MSN) protocols are blocked too.. which is not so good.  Google came back in Swedish/Danish by default, but this is a Scandinavian owned ferry, and Google is no doubt detecting that the request comes from Maersk’s IT department.

Still, full cludos to Norfolkline for giving some access anyway.. and for not charging me when Belgian stupidity forced me to miss my booked crossing, they just smiled and put me on the next one.

Edit: On the way home I noticed another passenger using MSN (Windows live) quite happily (I didn’t peer too closely over their shoulder, but it was definately working for them) so maybe I caught them on a off day.. or aMSN on linux has particular issues.. I also had a meal in the restaurant and it was not exactly great value for money, SeaFrance is much better for food.

Off to the UK  for a few days, a good break for me and some family stuff to do too. Pretty happy with my Ferry ticket, 56 Euros all-in from Norfolkline, Dunkirk to Dover and back. I used them earlier this year too and it was a good crossing, I even had internet access on board

is a lovely city. I’ve had a great few days in France, starting at my parents place near Cahors and ending up in Paris. In particular I was delighted with the Hotels I found through the Logis hotel guides, and with the ANWB (Dutch auto recovery service) for sorting out my problems when the exhaust fell off my car!

is a very nice city, beautiful sights, great food and nice people. I just got back from a friends wedding there, it was great. I particularly recommend the Vasa museum.
Some photos are online too..

My first ever visit to Spain, lots to see.

… is a very pretty place.

Going skiing next week.. to Val Thorens! Looking good.

First time from Eindhoven Airport, and also first time to Stanstead. Plus it’s my first time with RyanAir, for the excellent price of 82 Euro, return.. Strange to think that I only flew for the first time about 10 years ago (ok.. I’d done some gliding and light aircraft flying before that). No I hardly think about catching a plane, I do it so often.

So I’m in Greece, and very nice it is too here on Kalymnos. But infrequent internet access, so this blog will look even sparser than it usually does.

..some days away from all this depressing news will do me good. So It’s off to Kalymnos tomorrow.

I just went there, and had a great little camping holiday.