The rock on which Orvieto sits is volcanic and soft, so it's easy to tunnel into. Combined with the fact that space was limited on the rock, residents created space underground. They used the space to press olives to make olive oil, to store water, to make rope, for dovecotes, and for other things. Here are some photos from a tour I took.

Black indicates the above-ground structures. Red indicates the underground spaces, but the map is not complete:

This is an Etruscan well, of which 40 have been found in Orvieto. They were the first underground spaces to be created. As you can see, this one goes a long way down, and it hasn't been cleaned it out completely, so it goes down even farther. You can barely see the foot holds on the bottom side, which were used by the diggers to get in and out. It is thought that bellows were used to get fresh air to the digger when the well was being dug.

This is a room was used to press olives to make olive oil. The press is off to the left. A draft animal was used to turn the milling stone. Before being an olive mill, it's possible the Etruscans used this room as a chapel.

These are dovecotes. These rooms were on the outer wall, so they could have an opening to the outside that was always open, allowing the pigeons to come and go. The pigeons were a food source that required almost no work, which made them pretty popular.

This photo shows the tunnel that provided the owner access to his dovecote. It's blocked off now, but at one time it went to the surface, perhaps inside the owner's house.

After taking a quick dip at the Weston-super-Mare beach (which is huge and windy), we stopped at a Candy Royale shop on the way back to our hotel. The sign outside offered something called “waffle balls”, which caught our attention because they looked similar to poffertjes, which I loved eating in Amsterdam decades ago. The proprietor, a friendly man, worked the counter with his daughter. He was not familiar with poffertjes, but recognized the similarity when I showed them the Wikipedia page. Here he is putting the batter in the griddle:

A difference between the way he makes them and the way that I remember them being made in Amsterdam is that his griddle has a top, and so the poffertjes do not need to be turned. In Amsterdam, they were flipped very quickly and dexterously by a guy with a long fork. Another difference is the batter. The batter used by Candy Royale was waffle batter. In Amsterdam, I think it was pancake batter. Another difference is the toppings. In Amsterdam, it was butter and powdered sugar. In Weston-super-Mare at the Candy Royale, it was powdered sugar with Nutella, your choice of syrup, and other toppings, and it was served with ice cream. here’s a photo of what we got:

I got the impression that the Candy Royale shop is only open during the summer months. Similarly, the poffertjes vendor in Amsterdam was in a trailer that I suspect was towed south for the winter months.

The “waffle balls“ were good, but Ellen and I look forward to having genuine, authentic poffertjes in Amsterdam sometime soon.

!cycling group
On May 18 I participated in the Hampshire Hilly Hundred. Ellen and I drove down the night before and stayed in Wendy's AirBnb, which was perfect for us.

The HHH was well organized and run. The pre-event communications -- which included a safety video -- were informative and to the point. The route was well marked, on (mostly) country roads with very little traffic, and yellow-vested monitors were at the busiest and most crucial intersections to point out the way. The 100-mile route stopped at the feed station twice, which was perfect for me. There was a bike mechanic at the start and at the feed station. The hills were mostly of the rolling variety, though there were one or two that were steep enough to force some to walk. Here's how Ride with GPS recorded my ride:

I participated in the HHH as preparation for Chase the Sun, and Olly, one of the founders of CTS, was there to promote it. I was hoping to talk to him, but didn't get a chance.

While I biked, Ellen enjoyed seeing Winchester on foot - our AirBnB was close enough to make that possible. For more about what she did and saw, see "Jane Austen II" below.

As seems to be common with sportives, a photographer had been hired and cameras were stationed along the route to take photos of the riders, to be offered for sale. Ellen wanted some, so here they are:

This one was at the very end.

At the time, Ellen didn't have a driver's license. I didn't want to make the 90-minute drive home all sweaty and tired, so, as planned, we spent another night in Winchester and drove home the next day. We went to a pub for dinner, and I appreciated the chance to see more of the town. Ellen really fell in love with it, and it's easy to see why. If we're still here next year, I expect we'll follow the same plan. 😁

Dirk

2025-05-20 11:54:18

Jane Austen II

Of course we had to exit through the gift shop at the Jane Austen house in Chawton. Here's Ellen with a couple of things we bought:

The mug says "Obstinate, headstrong girl!" which, of course, describes Ellen is from Pride & Prejudice.

Actually, the tea towel was purchased at Winchester Cathedral, which Ellen visited while I was biking the Hampshire Hilly Hundred. Austen is buried in the cathedral, and here are some photos that Ellen took:

!cycling group
#cycling #bicycle #bike #biking #velo
Today I biked from Harpenden to Cambridge and back. Other than being a bit windy, it was a beautiful day to be out. The route I followed is below. The side trip to the east was to visit RSPB Fowlmere.

I didn't do any research on places to go when I got there because my focus was on the biking, unfortunately. Cambridge was not so much a destination as a place to turn around. It was full of pedestrians. There was plenty of traffic too, but the city is pretty bike friendly. I only took 2 photos and a video, so I'm afraid you'll be disappointed if you came hoping for more.
This one comes pretty close to my mental image of the city, based on years of watching Masterpiece Theater.

This one is of the cat at the pub where I ate lunch.

Here's a video of Parker's Piece, near the city centre, and regarded by some as the birthplace of the rules of association football.

This memorial was on my route. The land is now in agriculture, but during WW2 it was RAF Steeple Morden and was used for a time by the USAAF. Looking at the land, it's very easy to picture it as an airfield. As a kid who grew up reading everything I could find about WW2 flying stories, I ate it up.

Video

Sportive: (noun) A cycling event in which a large number of riders travel a long distance on a marked route on public roads, and the time they take is recorded.

Saturday afternoon I put my bike in the back of a rental car (a Renault SUV with seating for 5) and drove to an AirBnB in Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey, England. The next morning I drove to the Village Hall in Cobham for the 2025 Spring Onion. (Heck if I know why they call it an "onion".) 300 riders had signed up. I didn't get there early enough to park at the Village Hall, but fortunately there was public parking nearby. The event was run by European Cycle Events, and they had set up an inflatable start/finish arch. The ride wasn't a race, but each rider was given a number and your time was recorded when you started and finished. I suspect that there were some who treated it as a race. There was a feed station about halfway through the ride, but the "racers" probably didn't stop there.

The first riders started at 8:30. They were released in bunches so that they didn't overload the roads. By the time I was ready to go, it was 8:45 and most of the riders had left.

It was a great day for a bike ride. There had been some threat of rain, but it didn't come until the ride was over. It was mostly sunny and cool -- in the low 50s. More info about the route:

The country we passed through was beautiful and mostly rural. I'm always grateful for the opportunity to see new parts of the UK. One noteworthy village we went through was Ellen's Green 😄. Cobham, the HQ of the ride, is only 4 miles from Claremont Fan Court School. If I'd had more time, I might have stopped by.

The feed station was roughly halfway and was full of bikers, but there was plenty of food, including bottled water, bananas, and some nutty bars. The rest of the food was pretty sweet. I didn't search too hard, but I did not find a bathroom at the feed station. I would have thought one would be provided. I was also disappointed that there were no bins provided for compostables (such as banana peels) and recyclables. Everything went into the same bin.

I did this ride as part of my training for Chase the Sun. CTS is a ride (not a race) from the east coast of the UK to the west coast on the longest day of the year -- the summer solstice, June 21. The goal is to make the trip between sunrise and sunset. You have almost 17 hours to ride 205 miles, so you need to average (according to my calculations) 12.2 mph. I'm happy to say that my average speed, measured during my workouts, has been inching up. On March 16, it was 12.1 during a 72-mile ride. On April 6, it was 13.1 for a 65-mile ride. More progress: for the Spring Onion, my average speed was 14.7. I'm grateful for the progress, but CTS will 3 times the distance of these rides.

As you can see from the elevation profile above, there were ups and downs the whole ride, but the toughest hill came near the end. A road sign said it was 18%, while Ride with GPS says it was 10.7%. I think it was maybe 14%. If you look at even an 18% slope on a graphic, it looks easy, but in reality, it's not. The hill was about half a mile long, and it was in the back of my head the whole ride. I didn't expect to make it without walking. But I've been working on hills and it paid off. I put the bike in the lowest gear, and slowly motored up the hill without stopping 😅

It was mostly downhill from there (literally, not figuratively). When I got to the finish, there were fewer cars in the parking lot (or "car park" as the Brits say). I went inside to get some food, and there was a table with Chase the Sun info on it. Manning the table was Phil, one of the CTS organizers. He recognized my name from the emails I'd sent to CTS with questions. We had a very nice conversation, covering training for the ride, how many riders complete the ride before sunset (about 60%), how many riders who fail come back to try again (a lot of them), my hopes for getting a CTS ride going in Michigan, what he does (film producer), and more.

The next sportive in the training calendar for CTS is the Hampshire Hilly Hundred. I've registered for it, so watch this space.

I still had to drive home, unfortunately in an unshowered state. I changed out of my clammy, wet top, put the bike in the car, and headed off. Long story short, I made it home, returned the car on time, and went to bed early 🛌. I'm so grateful that Ellen will join me for the Hampshire Hilly 100 and for CTS 😊

!cycling group