80+km on a singlespeed

Beautiful day today, made a family visit for a birthday, took the train part way, biked the remainder, and then all the way back, biking, against the wind, on my new singlespeed.



-These be the new wheels - one gear is all you need, really, it is. Um, current count now has me in possession of 3 bikes here, I thought storing all 3 downstairs in our storage just seemed greedy, plus the new bike looks pretty.



-Current state of my place - just to show what it looks like now that I've settled in (and a less zoomed in view of the new wheels).



-Panoramic view from my room - nice weather means more foliage, and nicer shots.

Long weekend in Praha/super-mini ID reunion

Woohoo, long weekend.
Last week weds/thurs were holidays here in the Netherlands, so I took friday as a vacation day, and rode the train to Praha (Prague) and back.
Since Christianne (LeBlanc) is currently working in Nürnberg, and also wanted to travel to Praha, I met up with her in Praha, and we had a super mini ID reunion/were travel buddies for the long weekend (May 1st was also holidays in a bunch of other EU countries).

Here's the highlights (over 500 photos were made).



-ID kids unite! - ... in a foreign country .... on the street



-Vltava River Panorama



-at Pražsky hrad (Prague castle) - beautiful weather made for a good time, and beautiful pictures



-Gold window - church at Pražsky hrad, there's a lot of nice gold detailing in Praha, and it's not just for bling' sake (I don't think) but seems quite beautiful and tasteful



-door of the church - Christi and I seemed possibly overly enthusiastic about this door, and the detailing



-Panoramic view from Pražsky hrad



-Národní Galerie (National Gallery Modern) - yes, we took in some culture too



-Lampa - Slovakian designed lamp, in the "Design Match 2008" design exhibit, which we conveniently caught there



-LIPI - Hungarian designed paper children's toy




-Sac à faire - make yourself a bag - Austrian design where the cutout pattern of the material also becomes the pattern on the finished product



-Singlebirds - porcelain ware, Austrian design




-Hot Chocolate Menu - something seems a little lost in translation with the idea of 'hot chocolate' or it's just a completely different thing here, culturally, as I didn't expect a hot cup of what's essentially Nutella the first time I ordered one (and didn't have this photo menu to go by)



-The Fred and Ginger dancing building - Frank Gehry



-view from Vyšehrad (old Prague castle)



-flock of sheeple on Karlův most (Charles Bridge) - so this seems to be the biggest draw in all of Praha, and was ridiculously busy pretty much all the time, we crossed it around 20:30-ish, when there was slightly less of a crowd



-Christi and I above the city - but not in that uppity sense



-Panoramic view towards Pražsky hrad



-very large statue - it looks like it has something of the communist era to it