Notes from the North 6
The title is misleading. I am in Paris having first spent some fine days in an Airbnb in Ghent with bikes provided. Belgium is much ahead of anywhere I’ve been, except perhaps Berlin, for bike use and bike lanes and the bike parks at the train station are a wonder to behold. I took a train from the gare du Nord to Lille then on to Ghent which also gave me plenty of opportunity to see how many houses, or at least those near the train lines, are now using solar power. The route north-south from Edinburgh to London is a solar/PV-panel desert in comparison . However, I didn’t take the train to Ghent to ride bikes or study the levels of solar panel use but primarily to see the restored altarpiece painted around 1432 by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck in the cathedral of Saint Bavo. This was something I had promised myself a long time ago but which had been delayed because of covid restrictions and other practicalities. Eve holding a fruit which is not an apple (for once) some of ...