The volcano wins, but…

Europe’s flight status map tells the story.  Normally dense with planes, the weekend found the skies clear of clouds and planes except for the far south.  I give credit to the Dutch pilots, actually taking planes up to test the risk and to collect some hard data to drive the decisions of when to start flying again.  It’s exactly the right thing to do.

Meanwhile, my brother is stranded with his family in Rome for the next four days; they are going to relax and enjoy the city a bit longer. My flight to Cancun to speak at a conference was canceled at midday today.  I’ll mail in the talk, adjusted to be more of an illustrated white paper, but everything else was pretty well caught up in the rush to get out of town.. 

Which puts me in the unaccustomed position of having four free days ahead and beautiful weather to enjoy them.

It was a beautiful day here, sunny and almost 20C, not a cloud (or contrail) in the sky.  I pointed the bike vaguely north and rode off into the Belgian countryside.  There was good conversation with other riders, a low-tech ferry crossing, and a beer and a laugh with friends at the end of the journey.

 

 

 

 

‘wonderful day…’hard to believe that the volcano got the better of this deal.