A Paris et cinq miles

20th February, 2010

The weekend: partly perfect, partly annoying.

Late return from work trip to Dublin cancelled out Friday night plans. A very happy and very sunny day trip to Paris on Saturday involved a lot of wine, cheese and cocktails. Planned to return in a few weeks for the Turner exhibition which has just opened and runs until May 24th.



















Sunday was a lazy day of paper reading and cinema going. I managed to cram in a 5-mile run and was pleased not to have lost much of my fitness despite drastically reducing my running in recent weeks.

Ran: 5 miles
Time: 49 mins, 21 seconds
Calories burnt: 584 (two lumps of cheese)

Spa-ah-ah

Saturday 30th January, 2010

No running this weekend, more snow and a visit to Spa, a town in eastern Belgium.

Leaving Brussels on Saturday morning, it was pelting with snow and we wondered if we would make it -- Spa the town is at the bottom of a deep valley in the Ardenne. After laughing at other unfortunate drivers who had spun off the road and avoiding a few very icy patches ourselves, we arrived in the beautiful white valley.

The Thermes de Spa are amazing, like being some 1970s science experiment or scifi movie. There's one massive indoor pool, which is over 800 square metres and a host of other indoor and outdoor pools. Light currents swirl around the pools and jet streams pummel the tension out of your shoulders. Sitting in the outdoor pool, being gently massaged with hot water, while snow fell down and coated the forest was a magical experience.

Spa at night: blurry

Back in Brussels, I finally got round to sorting out the running club: we will have our first meeting this month.