Jonathan's blog

I was just considering the possibility of visiting a friend in Utrecht. With the flights currently grounded, I thought it might be a nice idea to get the Eurostar or ferry to Calais and cycle from Calais to Utrecht. I wasn’t exactly sure how far it would be, so I checked on Google Maps.

The shortest driving route from Calais to Utrecht is 337 km. That’s doable on a bike in a few days. However, being a car route, it was sticking to the major roads so I selected the walking option which I thought might choose quieter roads that would also suit a cyclist.

Apparently the quickest (not shortest) route on foot is 1,049 km. Unbelievably, the map shows that you are to go via the UK twice.

Calais to Utrecht

I suppose the implication is that it’s quicker to take the ferry for the long stretches than walk. The only segments of that journey to be undertaken on foot are a short stretch in Kent, a short stretch near Brugge and the home straight into Utrecht.

The shortest walking route still goes via Kent but makes you walk from Oostende to Utrecht.

I will probably end up getting the ferry to somewhere in Holland and cycling just the last stretch.

When I get my Vista-based Media Center to scan for FreeView channels, it finds them all correctly. When I go to add listings, I choose my region and it fetches them. But ITV1 and ITV2 both lack listings – despite the fact that the listings in question appear to be available.

There’s a tweak you have to do, and then it all works wonderfully.

1. First go to the Main Menu, choose Tasks and then Settings.
   

   Step 1

2. Choose TV
   

   Step 2

3. Choose Guide
   

   Step 3

4. Choose Add Listings to Channel
   

   Step 4

5. Choose the channel that is causing you problems. For me it was ITV1 and ITV2 (although oddly not ITV2+1).
   

   Step 5

6. Scroll down the alphabetical list of available guides, and choose the right one for your channel. As you can see, there may be more than one available guide for some of the channels, so try both until you get one that works.
   

   Step 6

7. Choose Save
   

   Step 7

8. Rinse and repeat for each of the channels that is lacking guide data.
9. Open the Guide and make sure the data is now there.
   

   Step 9