As every year, we celebrated our wedding anniversary together with the closest family.
4 years ago:
Now:
4th wedding anniversary
Autor: Ania
Przyjezierze – Bike Marathon 2012
This year we are biking considerably more often than in the previous years and the biking marathon is a sign of this fact. I came across an advertisement of the venue on the local bike trip and decided to give it a try almost immediately. We encouraged our close friends to join us and so, the fun began.
Przyjezierze is a small town 80 km from Szczecin. We set off early, with four bikes on our indefatigable Fiat Punto (this car has gone through so much with us). It was our first time in a race so everyone was a bit nervous. Especially guys, who like to compete.
We were one of the firsts at the registration desk so we had quite some time for us to prepare to the race. We were lucky, because the weather that day was perfect for a bike ride. Not too hot, no sign of rain. At first we made a short tour around the venue place. There was surprisngly a lot to see! The organizers made a good job.
At first we had a look at home made food by the farmer’s wives association. In the end… a biker needs some calories before the start (but not too much, so we all agreed that we will come back to the stalls after the race for a proper treat).
Then we had a look at the exhibition of cars – with Ferrari being the most popular. Wow, that really is a super looking car!
Then we moved on to see the show given by the bike jumpers (I don’t even know how they are profesionally called, but the animator said they were one of the best in Poland). This looked really cool and a bit dangerous. Respect!
When we finished the tour we still had some time before the start (which was planned at 15.00), so we decided to have a warm-up ride around the area. We followed the official trail of the contest for a while and then took an opposite turn to visit the Moryń lake. Poland is really beautiful.
We didn’t want to be too tired before the start so we came back quite fast, full of excitement while waiting at the „zero hour”. There were really a lot of pro bikers around us, so we felt a bit overwhelmed, yet full of hope and desire to have fun.
Some photos from the start…
From the route…
And from the finish…
That’s correct – my „finish” happened to occur in the middle of nowhere when my bike broke after an ominously looking (but fortunately victimless) accident. I was a bit disappointed not to finish the race but that’s OK, I had some lovely time walking my bike to the finishing line. Poland is really beautiful and I wouldn’t have taken these pictures if it hadn’t been for the accident. So in the end, there is always the good side of the coin. I’ll beat them the next year!
Radek came at a very good 35th place. He was the best from us and I think he was very proud of the result. All in all the race was very exhausting but real fun! We stayed for the award ceremony and got the medals ourselves. Nice souvenir. We will definitely come next year.
To give you a better understanding of how the event looked like here’s the video summary done by the organizers.
Prague – revisit
Although we had visited Prague just a month earlier, we were not disappointed by the revisit. We had a chance to have a different look on the city – to visit the places we had forgotten, to stroll around not so hecticly end to delight ourselves with the fantastic weather.
We stayed in a very nice hotel in the city centre with a pleasurable view on the roof tops of the city.
When Radek finished his affairs we had the whole afternoon to walk across the city again. Radek was happy because he could take all the photo shots once again with his new camera. We didn’t have any specific aim while walking, First we guided ourselves in the river direction. Beyond no doubt, it’s the prettiest place of the city.
Then we moved across the bridge to the other part of Prague (is it left or right? I’m so bad at directions! Anyway, we crossed the bridges to and fro so I’m unable to track our route with details). We passed by a park with some interesting pieces of arts, peeped over a photo session of the newly weds, waved to some tourists in the ship sailing below on the water, listened to an organgrinder (heh, that’s very old-school, but also very touristic). All of that done unhurriedly. It’s the sense of tranquility I liked the best about that day.
Then we continued walking but in a bit more organised manner. I wanted to see the places we hadn’t „checked” during our previous visit. This were the Prague’s synagoge (I wish more buildings were so colourful) and the museum of sex and erotics our friends recommended to us.
As the sun started to lower, we continued wandering aimlessly. We really were enchanted by this city and we will gladly return there for the third time.
We finished the day with a meal on the Strahov hill with a spectacular view on Prague and walked back to the car.
Mallorca, extasy and motion, oh oh oh
This month I had a marvellous occasion to travel on a business trip to Palma, Mallorca (how cool is that?). Well… What can I say? Everyone knows the song:
Mallorca, join the generation, oh oh oh
That’s Mallorca
Mallorca,
feel the good vibration,
oh oh oh
That’s Mallorca
Long May weekend: Konopiště and Kutná Hora
We decided to see two more things on our way back home. We were quite tired of the tourist approach we have followed for the past few days, so we made it rather quick.
First we passed by yet another hrad – Konopiště. Nothing special, i believe it must be more beautiful in the season. But we saw the peacocks – that was fun, they approached people really close.
After having a walk in the nearby park / forest we set off to Kutná Hora – a place that was recommended to us by our colleagues we had met earlier. We didn’t see the city, we went directly into the Sedlec ossuary which is estimated to contain the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. The chapel is really breathtaking. It’s rather small and gives a goose pimp to everyone. I wouldn’t like to stay there alone in the dark, really scary, but not only. It’s somehow a spiritual place, making you think about life and death. Definitely worth seeing.
Long May weekend: České hrady
On the next day of our journey we decided we had seen enough of Prague and it was time to move into the neighbourhood. And so we had a trip under the auspices of „České hrady” meaning Czech castles. Boy, there are so plenty of them! We decided to have a look at two that day.
First one was Křivoklát.
The castle inside was nothing special (we had had a bit enough of old architecture and tourist sightseeing) and we decided not to wait for a guided tour and to have a walk around instead. This was a good idea. Who would have thought that on long May weekend it can be so hot? It was better to profit from the sun rather than stay in the medieval walls.
We chose one of the paths, it took as an hour and something to complete it and gave us good opportunity to watch the castle from different angles and perspectives. We also came across a children’s playground which made me particularly happy.
The next Hrad we visited was Karlštejn. Unfortunately, we were caught by rain so we didn’t take many pictures of it so you have to believe me it was adorable too.
Long May weekend: Prague 2
Day two in Prague had a pretty rigid schedule. We started from Strahov monastery but our final destination were Hradczany – the famous complex of castles.
When we were done with Hradczany, we went to a viewing tower. There was a Labor Day fete, so a lot of people climbed up to the hill to celeberate the free day – there was music, entertainment and a lot of kids. The view from the tower was very nice (similar to the one from Hradczany, although a bit more broad because from higher altitude).
We stayed on the hill for quite some time enjoying the free day and fantastic weather. I felt really lazy (in a sense: peacefully lazy, not: tired lazy) and was a bit inconsolable when Radek told to move on. We finished the day in Franz Kafka museum.
Long May weekend: Prague 1
When we reached Prague, the weather (to my big content) became more sunny. We were not living in a strict centre so it took us some time to walk to the old part of the city. We entred it from the Strahov hill and it was indeed a very cordial welcome from Prague. Such a view!
What does one begin with in Prague? …
After standing up to the expectations of Radek’s T-shirt we continued our tour round the city untill we were too tired to walk and got back to the hotel (more walking!).
Long May weekend: Pillnitz
The next day we set off to Prague but not directly. We passed by Pillnitz, the old garden residence of the Saxon kings near Dresden. Nowadays it’s a garden with a castle and river. There were not so many people and I’d say… we flied by the place. Pillnitz is fine but let’s face it – nothing compared to Prague.
Long May weekend: Dresden
’What to do during the long May weekend?’ – we considered a lot of options this year. We started from „a 3-capital-journey” (Wien, Budapest, Brno) but changed plans and decided for a Dresden-Prague trip.
We arrived at Dresden around midday on Sunday. The city was badly demolished during the allies bombing in the IIWW but now it’s not so apparent, since a lot of monuments were rebuilt. We started our trip from die Frauenkirchie – the church that was renovated just a couple of years ago and is now the sign of distruction the war left.
The church inside didn’t make a huge impression on me – everything was new, rather modest. What I liked best about the buidling was the tower, and – to be more precise – the tower view.
It was windy…
Dresden has rather a small old city part, so when we came down from the tower, we just strolled around without a map. At the river side there was some kind of a race accompanied by a festivity. From what I noticed, 'festivity’ in Germany is understood as drinking beer, eating Bratwurst and listening to German folc music. That’s I guess what we call „local charm”.
When we decided we were done with the city tour, we went to the hotel and came back to Dresden in the evening to have a bite (no, we didn’t take Bratwurst). As always, the cities in the sunset are never the same as in the day light.
