Why Chirac didn’t get on his bike at the 1997 Amsterdam summit

Not many people know this, but apparently (background) he went up to his host Patijn and demanded something that better reflected France’s phenomenal contribution to European society. “What kind of thing had you got in mind?” asked the mayor. “Well,” said Chirac, who had noted with envy the PR points scored by Mitterrand with the…

Denominación de origen 4-lane highway

The excellent Catavino is upset that the authorities want to tarmac over 100 hectares of vineyards in the Duero. I’m a bit more blasé: the Spanish only buy their own product because the Chinese don’t make it cheaper, and I cherish little hope for green open spaces in a country where the most popular form…

Camel trammel

RMF over at Fum i estalzí has the lowdown, with before and after pics, on the death of a camel (or is it a dromedary?) at Ataturk International Airport. Grey Wolf would not have been chuffed. (More on Google in English.)

Walking Kennedy to Manhattan

I’m not a big fan of his writing, but this is cool. Once somewhere similar I used to walk to work to burn off beer and pizza reserves and ended up going cross-country, cross ditch and thru hedge, to avoid car-bound colleagues who would stop and ask if I was OK.

Non-existent roads on Spanish maps

I’ve cycled south from Albacete via Yeste twice. On both occasions it would have been really nice to have had a direct road or track from Parolis / Parolix to Los Arroyos, but there just isn’t one, whatever all the maps say. The road from Miller up to the sierra does exist, but those extra…

Ling’s Cars

Ray Girvan has found a rather special car lease site. I particularly enjoyed her robust views on the FT. If only she’d start doing bikes.