In the Iberian peninsula, yellow comes from Latin amarus, a word that meant bitter. Some theories say that the relation between the color yellow and the bitterness of the bile or the effects of liver diseases on the skin.
Are there any good software/websites that let you add notes to a map?
I'd like to write down notes of places in China where friends live or I have visited, to help me learn the geography.
Welcome to my fantasy realm. 😊
This is my first drawing on brown paper. At first I wanted to do something in style of papyrus, then I thought of a burnt page effect...and quickly decided to try to achieve it without using fire. 😉
Everyone sees something else in this picture. I wonder what catches your eye first. 🙃 #art#drawing#fantasyart#map
Charles Owens was a prolific mapmaker and illustrator that conveyed the international complexities of WWII in a way that was accessible to the average person. People at the time even saved his maps as a point of reference, such as this for the perils of the submarine warfare of the Atlantic and beyond in 1943.
Either I missed it in school or forgot about it, but TIL about the Province of Quebec that for a brief time extended to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers
Planuję zrobić listę lokalnych sklepów spożywczych (czyli Biedronki czy Lidle itp. odpadają), prowadzonych na terenie całej Polski. Pomożesz? Daj boosta, i wypełnij poniższy formularz:
@slavistapl Zakładam, że nie chodzi o lokalne Biedronki :) Nie widzę w formularzu możliwości podania po prostu współrzędnych. Warto robić listę, dość szybko teraz giną, sądząc po informacjach ze sporej hurtowni obsługującej takie właśnie sklepiki. W okolicy znam conajmniej kilkanaście. Ten tu (nie mogę podać miasta, bo to wieś :) – Kaplonosy 53B, gmina Wyryki, powiat włodawski, województwo lubelskie, 51.60172402 N, 23.33775392 E https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/51.60171/23.33775
So i rode out of the clouds from the refugio, it had rained in the morning and it was feeling quite cold again. The ride was beautiful though, through beautiful basque villages. I had breakfast in Izaba. Then i went back on the mountain bike track and there i got a few hundred meters of hike-a-bike through a beautiful, wet and mossy forest.
This was actually real steep but the photo effect does its job
On top of the hiking section i rode over a swampy field that led onto a swampy track fenced off on both sides with barbed wire. There were sections with long and deep muddy puddles across the whole track and i tried my best to walk on the grassy, fenced off sides and push my bike through the mud. On the last two meters i still stepped into the mud puddle, which in my imagination consisted of 70% cow shit and 30% horse shit. The track ended on an asphalt road where i sat down to clean my feet and sandals.
Then i went onto the climb along the asphalt road. Two bikepackers rolled down the other way, giving me smiles and thumbs up. I was wondering if it was just a greeting or if it was a sign that it’s going to be super nice up there. In hindsight i think it was the latter. When i reached the pass the clouds went away and the sun came out. There were signs that said i was leaving Navarra and the basque country, and entering Aragón and the Parque natural de los valles occidentales.
The descend was amazing and the landscape had changed quite a bit from the wet greens of the basque country to a lot more dry and rocky. It went along the Rio Veral to the fantastic village Ansó, which also looked completely different to the basque villages earlier that day. Then i went climbing another hill to the village Hecho and on the pass i found a refugio. The problem was i had hardly any water left. The refugio was super nice, very clean. Nice table, fireplace with stuff to build a fire. And it was still quite early. I didn’t want to descend to get water and then go back up. Some hikers came up to the spot, i asked them if they had seen some kind of water source, but they hadn’t. This is not the basque country anymore where water seems to come out of every crack. I hung out there for a bit in the hope that some RV or motorbiker would find its way up there to bum water off, but no luck. Eventually i rode down to Hecho, where i ran into a dutch guy on his tour. He stayed at the villages campsite. So i went shopping and also went there to sleep.
Today then it was all sunny and warm, amazing. Next days looking great too. Easy riding with hardly any climbs. In a village before the one little climb i meet the dutch tourer from the campsite, we drink coffee and chat then keep going. Couple hours later in the nice town Jaca, i have lunch and the dutch guy shows up again, he also gets lunch and we chat for a good while. He stays in Jaca today, i want to continue to Biescas. I want to ride the popular cols on the french side hopefully before the weekend, when all the motorbikers will show up.
On the way to Biescas the view on the big mountains gets me all excited about how it will continue from tomorrow on.
Btw, i keep writing down all these province, village and river names not because i am a formidable expert on the region, but so that it becomes a bit more structured in my own brain instead of one big mush of random villages and rivers.
After breakfast in Biescas i head towards the Portalet pass. It’s a transit pass and has some traffic, but also has spanish drivers and a shoulder. There is a nice bridge to the side of the road and i go have a look. There’s a couple taking photos, i ask them if i should take one of them both together but they’re good. We chat a bit and will meet each other some more times on the way up (they are by car but get out and look around where it’s nice). The ride is real nice although the best views are probably to be seen behind me. There is a nice car free tunnel circumnavigation and at the second reservoir i get off the main road and ride on the other side of the lake into Sallent de Gállego, the village where one of the hikers i had met in Riglos a couple weeks ago grew up in. I send her a digital postcard, i am actually riding this route now because of what she was telling me. She tells me to visit her cousine’s shop at the pass. After Sallent de Gállego i follow the old road to Formigal, away from the traffic but eventually end up on the main road again for the last km.
Riding out of Sallent de Gállego on the old road to Formigal
The cousine’s shop is closed and the pass does not have great panoramas, it is surrounded by mountains. Bit of a disappointment, i thought i’d be drinking a fanta with a view up there. I still hang around a bit, and then descend the 30 km down to Laruns in France. Downhill has really strong headwinds but is nice, especially the lower bit. In Laruns i have a beer, crepes and coffee, next morning i will start climbing the col d’aubisque from here. It looks already amazing from down in here, looking up towards aubisque. Beautiful mountain views from Laruns.
But the next morning is cloudy and moody. Looks great but would be nice to have view when i do the effort and climb up there, looks like a tough climb too. Weather should clear up after noon according to my app, but the campsite host says sun will only come out tomorrow. Pretty nice guy for being such a negative nancy.
Looking towards the Aubisque from Laruns in the morning. Day before you would see the big mountains of the Aubisque in the background. The pass will be a good km higher up than were the clouds start hanging.
At the start of the climb was a sign that said the road would be closed after the col du soulor, which is a mini pass after the aubisque. It will be fine. I climb into the clouds, strangely there is no traffic whatsoever. Maybe because the weather, or is it the closed road? I ride the whole thing with a t-shirt only, but once i stop riding at the pass i get really cold real quick. I go to the col café, which has an awesome dog, Jean.
I have a coffee and omelette, and a group of french bikepackers show up, they came from the other direction. They didn’t even try the closed road but went on a deviation that added some more climbing. Hmm. I kill some time with the dog in hopes for the weather to clear up, but at some point i just have to go. It’s raining now too.
So i start descending, actually get a glimpse of a view through the clouds and about 300m down i am below them. There comes a breathtaking cliff section with a balcony road. I took a photo but it translates so badly that i rather not post it. After col du soulor i ride towards the closed road and it’s easy peasy to pass with a bike, just a small construction site. On the way down is also no traffic to speak of, there was a tractor at soulor. After soulor the weather gets better and better and i ride onto a small gravel track where i can dry all my jackets. Gravel track turns to asphalt again and is a nice ride to Luz saint sauveur, starting point for the tourmalet.
Nice campsite, good pizza in town, with the lovely pizzeria dog Yoda.
Next morning i head for the supermarket, on the way i see Yoda and greet him and his Madame. Bakery visit, then sit down in a cafe. It’s sunny and warm, i drink my cafe con leche, feed sparrows with biscuit crumbles, just enjoying the moment. Then i remember that i actually wanted to ride up the tourmalet. Oh well.
Climb is nice with great views. There is a section i have read about before, the “Voie Fignon” after the village Barèges, which is motor traffic free, the old road. It makes the climb a bit steeper and shorter. All in all a pretty steep climb though with 7.8% over 18km. I try to not miss the old road because my routing app would have kept me on the main road (which doesn’t have bad traffic though tbh, lots of roadies obviously).
To my surprise nobody else takes this road, i am alone with a couple marmots. I end up on the main road again for the last km’s and the last one is real mean, steep and with headwinds on parts of the serpentine. But i’m up, yay. I hang around the pass for a bit but it geta cold and real windy. Clouds coming over from yhe other side so i ride down. Through an atrocious looking ski resort. The descend is fast, it has only a few sharp corners in the beginning. I am a very cautious downhiller, but i imagine how for people who like to haul ass, this must be one of the best ones.
I wanted to go in a cafe at the end but it’s closed, so just eating some cookies and a banana before heading to the last climb, the Col d’Aspin. The road to the col is also closed, amazing. I ride up it and a roadie overtakes me. The weather is all cold, cloudy, since i started descending tourmalet. Not much views on the climb but it looks like the sun may be out after the pass. View to the other side of the pass is much nicer today.
The descend is gorgeous, weather looks better, narrow road, no traffic. Onto the municipal campsite at the end of the descend and i’m done with cycling. Actually i got to cycle to the supermarket but really feeling my legs now. As i come back two other cycle tourers arrived, italians from south tirol going east to west through the pyrenees. They want to do Aspin and Tourmalet tomorrow. I think i will do one pass tomorrow and no more, but who knows.
I wake up to rain, but it stops and i get to start with a dry tent. Will be the last pass of the popular pass chain, the col de peyresourde. I sit down in a cafe for breakfast and then buy a map of pyrenees midi. I was envious of the south tirolians map. I really like having a map, i had been thinking of buying a pyrenees map before, but it would have been three maps to cover it all so i didn’t.
The climb is calm, even though it’s the weekend, but there are some motor bike gangs, they all are coming towards me though, they obviously start their pass chain from here. The pass has a sweet col cafe. 12 crêpes for 7€, haha. Deal. Also two sweet dogs up here, client dogs.
A super nice downhill, there’s paragliders around. I roll into Bagnères-de-Luchon, nice little town. I sit down at a cafe by the market square. It starts raining again. My app says it’s gonna rain all day. I chat with a guy about the weather, the best pizzeria in town and other important topics. Really liking the vibe of the people here, very relaxed on this saturday. I check in on “camping des thermes”, 8€, usb charging station, super nice hostesse. And as i have set up my tent i make friends with one of the campsites cats. That was so amazing. I just hang out and get to sleep late.
As i leave i see the cat again and manage to take a photo with the obligatory bike included
I sleep long and levae the campsite around eleven, head back to the market place cafe and then start heading over to spain again via the col du portillon. Pretty steep, i did not expect that, but it’s short and calm for a sunday. Not much view on the climb, mostly in trees, but on the downhill are some nice panoramas. In Bossòst i eat sone tortilla and think abou my options. Weather app says drizzle all day, but it’s not drizzeling, just cloudy. I was feeling lazy today, but i wonder if i should still make another big climb to over 2000m, there’d be a refugio there which looks located really good.
I ride the main road towards Arrós, go into a hotel restaurant to buy some water and drink a coke. I chat with the receptionist about the weather, it looks like it’s not going too bad and the clouds seem hanging quite high. So i will do the climb. I walk through the lobby super cool with my shades on and run into a glass door as i try to exit, haha. My glasses pinch my nose and i’m bleeding. The receptionist gives me some ice and paper, all worried about my wellbeing. I sit on the terrasse of the hotel until the bleeding stops, which takes annoyingly long. On the way out i take extra care to not run into the door again.
Right from the hotel the climb starts. Small asphalt road but it gets really steep. I really need to start checking the grades more. Although all the steep climbs were really worth it too. At some point i turn onto smooth gravel and then turn onto a chunky gravel road that should take me up to the refugio. I get those lonely vibes again, there’s nobody around. I get all calm and just look into the moody mountains as i keep climbing up.
At some point i make it to the peek of the climb, there is even a small patch of snow that i ride throu, it has narrow snow free tracks that i can pass though. There is some sun coming through a bit on the other side, looks amazing. On the descend i pass a bunch of horses standing criss cross ob the road. They freak me out, just standing there all static. But they don’t attempt to kick me, phew. Bit further down i get blown away by the views and it is just a km away from the refugio.
I see the refugio and get super excited, this is the jackpot. I ride a single track with loads of horse and cow shit to the refugio, but it is locked. Fuck. I look around the hills for a nice camp spot but it’s just cow shit and mud really. I look on the map and see that there’s another refugio about 10km away. It has a description on osm, so surely that one would work. But it adds another good climb, i’ll descend and then go back up to almost 1900m. Fuck it, let’s do it.
Climb is chunky gravel and really tough. On the last bit i would be led onto the main road but i decide to just push my bike the last km up some single track instead. I am done with cycling for the day. It’s already getting dark and cloud dust sets in.
Refugio feels cold and shoddy, it has a bunk bed without mattresses but i rather sleep on the floor. I turn my phone camera in selfie mode, my nose looks terrible but it’s just blood smear from wearing sunglasses. Just a tiny cut. I’m cooking some pasta and a sound freaks me out, either a bat or a bird must be living in this refugio. Wing flapping sounds. I later see that it’s a bird, does a whole lot of flapping in the chimney, i guess it’s also freaked out. I like having the bird around better than bats. I thankfully can sleep without interruption, hope the bird as well.
In the morning the refugio seems a lot more friendly and appealing, sun comes through the window. As i am snoozing the bird starts flying around inside the refugio. I don’t know why it won’t leave through the chimney, that must be what it always does since the door was closed. Maybe my bike is in the way or it’s too scared to come close to me. I get up and open the door for the bird and it flies out. I leave the door open and cook coffee after coffee, writing this diary, sunshine and blue skies outside. The bird comes flying through the chimney again and leaving through the door. I will leave it’s home in a minute.
Here is a 360° panorama captured by Curiosity at her current location, with North at center and South at both ends, on top of two large and small scale maps with her position.
There are many geological features in the panorama, can you find them in the maps?
It's been a year since we first booted up #Zelda#TearsOfTheKingdom! ⚔️🛡️ What do professional cartographers think of this #map of Hyrule? How does it stack up against the perfect 10 out of 10 map in #BreathoftheWild?
(Title picture is from yesterday in the Parque Natural Sierra de Castril, narrow single track only went for a couple 100m but a good occasion to take a photo and make me look like a badass)...
What happened then? I was cycling through a nice lonely nature park again (i think) and then somehow ended up in Zangoza. The last twenty km or so i should have a super nice mellow downhill but i had a lot of headwinds, that was a huge bummer.
I wanted to make it to that town, i needed to go shopping and it was already kinda late. Then i found out there was a pilgrim albergue, for the camino de santiago crowd. The door was closed, i called the number that was advertised outside, ten minutes later a woman showed up and let me in, it cost me 5€ for a bed, kitchen, washing machines (not sure if they cost extra, didn’t use, i’m a dirt bag). 5 other pilgrims to share the room with, four french gus and one german. Nobody snorred that night, they all were very nice.
Next day i had breakfast with them all, i thought it was interesting how their journey also seemed a lot like a social experience while i basically had been in solitude for the whole time. They would now walk for two days to Pamplona, i got there before lunch that day. Cycling is the best form of travel, ha.
Pamplona is full with pilgrims. I did not expect or associate that with Pamplona, the whole camino craze. I stayed again in some pilgrims albergue, this time it was abou 15 people and there were snorrers and people who somehow didn’t hear their alarm clock in the morning, probably were wearing ear plugs against the snorrers. So, i was already kind of over the camino crowd.
The plan was to cycle to St Jean de Luz on the adriatic coast, across the border to France. Morning was real cold again.
By noon i was kind of pissed about how cold it was, but i didn’t let the temperatures kill my summer vibes and make me put on leggings, no way. I’ve been going uphill for most of the early day and at some point the downhill started, some rail trail with an incredible amount of soggy tunnels. I was in the Basque country now and the vibe was very different, super green and wet everything. I was really happy having fenders, i was thibking about sending them home every now and then, together with the kickstand to shave off another kg. I’ll keep them. At some point i got a pinch flat in my front wheel. Had become a bit complacent not getting flats on all the bumpy tracks i rode and hadn’t checked tire pressure since albarracin.
Road side fix worked fine, there were enough puddles around to look for the hole.
I later got stuck in a bar, just hanging around and then decided to only go to San Sebastian, in spain still. Took a room there and got a bit shitfaced in the bars, that somehow went real quick. San Sebastian is really nice, like the vibe a lot, i just wanted to not go originally because i had been here before a couple of times.
Today i made kind of a rest day and cycled the last bit to St Jean de Luz. It was sunny and almost hit 20°. Tomorrow it should even get over 20° but the days after it’ll dip down again. The route corniche along the coast was closed for all traffic, explicitly also for cyclists and pedestrians. I met a few cyclists and pedestrians on it anyway, was nice to know there won’t be any cars.
I checked in on a campsite, went into town, hung out at the beach and bought some glue to fix my fork bags. They already have holes after a few weeks of cycling and the weather report for the coming days in the pyrenees is not looking all that dry. I also just found out that the big tour de france cols here are known to be misty and cloudy and wet. I had no idea, haha.
So with me being in France now i conclude this topic, even though i will enter and exit spain every now and then in the coming weeks. I will make another reply with general thoughts about touring in spain though.
🧵 …neben im oben verlinkten Artikel zu Alternativen von Google Maps, gibt es die Apps und im Internet Tools, die auf @openstreetmap basieren. Mobile offline ist sicher OsmAnd+ sehr gut und im Internet online allgemein die Geo-Suche- und Orientierung auf @Lokjo.
Pyrenees Traverse (lemmy.world)
Oh my gody guys and girls. I am beyond hyped right now, two days into riding the Pyrenees west to east....
Cycle touring in Spain (lemmy.world)
(Title picture is from yesterday in the Parque Natural Sierra de Castril, narrow single track only went for a couple 100m but a good occasion to take a photo and make me look like a badass)...