Flora/Fauna/Trauma

A green lizard (Lacerta viridis), spotted along the trail. Followed by ...

.. what I believe is a grass snake (Natrix natrix).

Each week, Daisy and I head over to our old house in the village of Černý Vůl to feed Oscar, our old stray cat whom we nursed back to health a few years ago after he caught pneumonia. He never wanted to come inside while we lived there (except for the occasional curious peek inside the front door), and though we agonized about it, we knew that, once we had to move away (our landlord was selling the house), Oscar would never let us take him away from his home (happily, anyway).

So we asked our landlord to keep an eye out for him and put out some dry food when he could, and we go once a week to treat Oscar to a package of wet food and make sure he's got water.

Each time we arrive, he greets us as if we'd never left. The solution seems to be working out just great.

Daisy and I wanted to go on a bike ride a few days ago and decided to ride from our new flat in Prague 6 to Černý Vůl to feed Oscar. It was a gorgeous day, and our route along the river to Roztoky and along the forest path to Černý Vůl would happily put us on course for a stop at the Únětický pivovar, too.

The beer was crisp and cold. Oscar was his usual frisky self.

At Únětický pivovar. I broke the metacarpal bone in my little finger a few weeks ago. That door had it coming.


Riding back from Únětice to Roztoky, we also had the good fortune to spy both an iridescent green lizard and a good-sized grass snake crossing our path in the hot dust. I even managed to take a couple of decent photos with my iPhone.

Just outside the village of Sedlec, we also passed the site of some sort of tragedy. Roses had been left along the bike path. The guardrail had been obliterated, and after a drop of 15 meters or so, there were more flowers and few stuffed animal toys next to a tree along the river.

As we later found out, an SUV had recently plunged over the side. The driver had been killed. As far as I know, no children were involved, so I'm not sure about the stuffed animals. Perhaps someone out there knows more. Horrible stuff.

Daisy and I continued along the river and rode back up the street known as V šáreckém údolí from Lysolaje to Prague 6. We stopped for lunch and sat outside at one of our favorite restaurants, Chorvatský Mlýn.

We had a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell, Black Risotto, and Tomato Salad With Mozzarella Burrata and Basil. They've got the most amazing fresh bread there, too. More like cake than bread, really, but moist and delicious, especially dipped in some Croatian olive oil.

A great ride, with more up and downs than usual.

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 35 kilometers
Average speed: 16.2 kph
Maximum speed: 37.1
Time on the bike: 2.06.17
Pivo Index: 3
Distance ridden so far in 2012: 174 kilometers

Oscar doing his traditional greeting of rolling-over-so-we-can-scratch-his-belly.

A happy Daisy.

Bread as sweet and soft and moist as cake.

Tomato Salad With Mozzarella Burrata and Basil.

Black Risotto.

A section of the lovely new bike path along the west side of Vltava between Podbaba and Sedlec.

The scene of the fatal accident near Sedlec.

Something As Simple As A Bicycle

The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind. ~ William Saroyan 

My friend Rob Coalson gave me a wonderful 50th birthday present. Yes, I just turned 51, but only recently have the fruits of Rob's gift come to ripen.

Rob donated a very generous amount of money in my name last year to the 88bikes Foundation, the goal of which, as its website says, is to "provide a sustainable, joyful, empowering form of transportation to young people in developing countries, in situations where these children have been challenged to be their own heroes due to war, conflict, poverty, disease, or other regional hardships."

Basically, 88bikes gives bikes to kids who don't have bikes, in places where something as simple as a bicycle can make a huge impact on the quality of their lives.

The organization was founded by Dan Austin, a writer and filmmaker from Seattle; Dr. Jared Austin, a pediatric hospitalist and assistant professor at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland; and Nick Arauz, a designer and social media entrepreneur from Brooklyn.

I had forgotten about Rob's donation until a few weeks ago, when I was surprised and thrilled to find on my desk at work five certificates featuring photographs of the five children who had each received a bike in my name, thanks to Rob's generosity. The kids live in Mozambique and Nepal.

What's amazing about the certificates is that they show not only the children posing with their new bikes but holding a photograph of Emma and me, taken on a bike ride a few years ago and posted on this blog.

I have to admit, it's quite something to see a child in Mozambique or Nepal holding your photograph. (See above and below.)

Thank you again, Rob, for such an amazing gift.

I urge everyone to check out 88bikes and make whatever donation they can afford.

The Road To Heaven

That's Mark Baker (left), Brian Reagan, Stewart Moore, David Murphy, and myself at Únětický pivovar.

We had the best of intentions.

A bike ride was planned. We'd all meet at the Únětický pivovar in Únětice and then cycle out to the village of Chýně, about 25 kilometers away.

There's also a brewpub in Chýně. Total coincidence.

The thing was, we met up in Únětice, and the sun was shining, and the beer was flowing and we all got to talking nonsense and somehow one beer turned into five. Or maybe it was six.

Finally, we extricated ourselves and headed toward Chýně, through Tuchoměřice.

CLICK HERE for a map of our route via Garmin Connect

Tuchoměřice, only about five kilometers from Únětice, is the home of Auberge de Provence, a lovely Belgian restaurant with an elegant outdoor patio and garden that some in our cycling party had never visited.

So we stopped for another drink. And some food. Fine food, it was. Oysters on the half shell and Caesar salad and fantastic Belgian frites. A rump steak. A few more beers. We never made it to Chýně.

It was one of our shortest, beeriest, and most memorable rides.

But this is why we ride. For the exercise, of course, but for the friends and the adventure. For the utter unpredictability. For the fun of it.

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 27 kilometers
Average speed: 15.2 kph
Maximum speed: 53.4 kph
Time on the bike: 1.46.39
Pivo Index: 7? 8?
Distance ridden so far in 2012: 149 kilometers

The long slog to Tuchoměřice.

Holding forth at Auberge de Provence.

Oysters at Auberge de Provence.

Rump steak at Auberge de Provence.

An excellent Caesar salad at Auberge de Provence.

Things started to get a little fuzzy after so many beers.

Ještě jedno pivo?

Brian and his fancy new Cannondale. (Photo by Mark Baker)

Clouding over. (Photo by Mark Baker)

Here's to good friends. Tonight is kinda special. (Photo by Mark Baker)

In Memory Of Capt. Robert B. Holmes

I've been riding the bike paths in and around Divoká Šárka for 10 years now, and I thought I'd seen everything there was to see there. Monuments and craggy overlooks and beer gardens and chainsaw sculptures.

I was wrong.

A few days ago, a work colleague of mine, Ron Synovitz, told me an intriguing story about a historical marker he had run across in Šárka. I just had to try to find it for myself.

It took some doing. The marker is not located along a path of any sort but is instead hidden in a copse bordering a farmer's field, close to what I thought was an old abandoned house and collapsed quonset hut. (That is, until two dogs came running out after me as I cycled by. Kinda scary.)

I didn't have any GPS coordinates to help me, and it took a few minutes of aimless wandering before I stumbled over the marker.


The historical marker is located on the edge of this stand of trees.

The stone marks the site where, on April 16, 1945, a U.S. P-51D Mustang fighter-bomber, with its distinctive checkerboard nose, crash-landed after being hit by Nazi guns protecting the nearby Prague-Ruzyne airport.

The plane was piloted by Captain Robert B. Holmes of the 82th Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force. Holmes was killed in the crash.

According to one account, a small crowd surrounded the crash site before the first German soldiers arrived. One eyewitness said that Holmes, still fastened in his cockpit, did not have any obvious signs of injury and that it seemed as if he were asleep, with his chin resting on his chest.


That's Captain Holmes in the center, with his mechanics, James Tudor, on the left, and Robert L. Thoutem in front of Holmes' P-51 Mustang. Just under the cockpit window you can see a swastika to indicate that Holmes had one confirmed kill of a German Messerschmitt. (Photo courtesy of hloubkari.bloguje.cz)

According to his mechanic, James Tudor, who knew him well, Holmes was said to have been an introverted and well-mannered young man who didn't drink or smoke.

Holmes was reportedly buried secretly and without ceremony in a nearby cemetery in the Vokovice neighborhood of Prague. (Coincidentally, I live in Vokovice now). After the war, his remains were exhumed. He was first interred at the American military cemetery in St. Avold, France, and then, at the request of relatives, reburied in Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota.

Near the marker in Divoká Šárka, at the base of a tree, is a small pile of debris that is apparently all that remains from Holmes' Mustang. I certainly hope that visitors respect the memorial and don't steal any of these artifacts.


A small pile of debris, apparently from Holmes' Mustang, at the base of a tree near the marker.

The memorial is located at GPS coordinates N50 ° 05.740 E14 ° 18.407. A quick search on Google, where I gleaned the historical information for this post, reveals that many folks have already made the pilgrimage to pay their respects to Holmes' service.

I salute you, Captain Holmes.

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 15 kilometers
Average speed: 12.4 kph
Maximum speed: 41.7 kph
Time on the bike: 1.13.06
Pivo Index: 1
Distance ridden so far in 2012: 122 kilometers


Previous visitors have left small tokens of respect at the base of the stone marker.


A willow tree in early bloom on the edge of the reservoir near Divoká Šárka.


Looking out over the reservoir on the edge of Divoká Šárka.


A beer at restaurant Kaštan in Vokovice.

I Call The Big One Bitey

"I call the big one Bitey." -- Homer Simpson, "Marge Vs. The Monorail"

We've had quite a few mishaps and misadventures, our little gang of cyclists, over the years.

We've fallen backwards into the Vltava; ridden into a deep hole, falling ass over tit; surprised horseback riders on the trail, causing one rider to fall off a bucking horse; turned our hand into a bloody mess, courtesy of a Swiss Army knife; had potatoes thrown at us; been run off the road and pinned up against a hedge by insane Czech drivers; fell on the ice; discovered caves and Egyptian follies and long-lost sculpture gardens and secret lakes.

I thought we'd pretty much experienced it all. Until yesterday.

That's when I was bitten by a ferret.

I had stopped at the beer garden in Divoká Šárka for a bit of refreshment while on a short ride from my new flat in Prague 6. A couple walked into the beer garden with two ferrets, each on a leash. I asked them if I could take a photo. They said yes. I took a photo.

When I reached out my hand to pet the little critters, one of them sunk his teeth right into the flesh beween my thumb and forefinger.

The wife had to use her fingers to pry the ferret's jaws open. The sumbitch just wouldn't let go.

If she told me not to pet them, I didn't hear her. She did have a first-aid kit at the ready and whipped out a little antiseptic towel for me to rub on the wound. I'm guessing such incidents are not uncommon when it comes to her ferrets.

I tried to laugh it off. It only started bleeding profusely once I was back on my bike and on the trail again.

My own damn fault, I guess.

But let me just ask: What the hell kind of a pet is that?!



Ironically, my cycling gloves (which I always wear) would probably have saved me, if I hadn't forgotten them for some odd reason.

Anyway, the route around Divoká Šárka and the village of Nebušice is perfect for a little one-hour exercise ride. I was having a bit more trouble than usual breathing, what with my asthma acting up, and so, despite the perfect conditions, I couldn't wait for the ride to be over.

That's what I get for wanting to get a little exercise.

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 14 kilometers
Average speed: 14.7 kph
Maximum speed: 52.5 kph
Pivo Index: 1
Time on the bike: 0.56.33
Distance ridden so far in 2012: 107 kilometers

Beauty & Folly -- A Sunny Ride To Mělník

Photo by Mark Baker

"Beauty and folly are old companions." -- Benjamin Franklin

The call of cameraderie, March sunshine. and a few cold beers overrode my muscle memory (see previous post on my pitiful quadriceps), and I headed back out on the bike on March 17 with Stewart Moore and Mark Baker.

We took our bikes on the train and all met up in Kralupy nad Vltavou for the wonderful ride to Mělník, the same trail that I've written about before. It's flat, largely car-less, and picturesque, and boasts quite a few nice little pivo stops along the way (featuring Holba and Krakonoš, two beers too little seen in Prague).

And we got to explore an Egyptian-inspired pavilion -- a folly, if you will -- not far from the chateau in Veltrusy. Stewart first noticed it on a recent solo ride. We'd passed by it before, but the trees in full leaf had evidently obscured it from view. It features a subterranean staircase, a few underground rooms bisected by a tiny creek, some dark stone tunnels leading to the surface, and a room that features what can only be described as an altar.

If anyone has any more information on who built this and why, please let me know.

We made it to Mělník for a lunch of hamburgers and chicken wings at the Buffalo American Restaurant.

(I managed to cycle all the way to the castle summit in Mělník without a break, my legs feeling pretty fine -- proving, I think, that the problem in my quadriceps stems from cycling and then stopping for lunch or beers or whatever, thereby letting the muscles tighten, for my ride home was excruciatingly painful.)

And then it was back home the way we came.

One of my favorite rides -- a great route free of cars, classic pubs along the way, and a stunning destination to aim for.

Enjoy the photos, quite a few of which were taken by Mark (including the portrait of Stewart, above right).

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 63 kilometers
Average speed: 14.9 kph
Maximum speed: 38 kph
Time on the bike: 4.10.34
Pivo Index: 6.5
Distance ridden so far in 2012: 93 kilometers



Photo by Mark Baker


Photo by Mark Baker


Photo by Mark Baker












Bad name for a gas station.