“I must say: very British, indeed!” as my aunt commented. Yesterday was the date for the annual Tweed Run and we went out to enjoy the nice weather and see the spectacle.

We had some problem figuring out the route they were taking but finally found them riding through Kensington Gardens in front of Royal Albert Hall.

It seems like the tweed thing is a whole tongue-in-cheek movement of endorsing gentleman-ship, gin drinking and pipe smoking manifested in the magazine The Chap.

“The Chap takes a wry look at the modern world through the steamed-up monocle of a more refined age, occasionally getting its sock suspenders into a twist at the unspeakable vulgarity of the twenty-first century.”

The people in tweed looked like they were truly enjoying their ride but so were all the people looking and there was quite a number of people out taking pictures of the spectacle.

Ann had a some days off for Easter so we decided to go explore the city of Bath 150 km west of London for a couple of days.

Bath is build on a number of geothermal springs which is water from deep beneath the surface being heated and squeezed up through cracks in the limestone underneath Bath where it arrives at the surface at 45 degrees C. Over the course of history different people have used the springs for treatment of all sorts of things.

The picture above shows the layer of history that can be found in Bath. When the Romans occupied England they build a spa around 30-60AD at the site of where the Celt’s before them had worshipped one of their gods. Over 300 years the Romans build a vast complex of bath, spas and temples at the site. After the Romans left the huge complex it got flooded and collapsed and forgotten(!) around the 6th century. You can see the original Roman columns reach about 1½ meters above the water. Below that mark things were covered in rubble and protected above that the locals at later centuries took the material for their use. So literally what is below that line is the foundations, plumbing and structure build nearly 2000 years ago that still leads the water in lead pipes and supports the building above. The Roman Baths were not rediscovered until around 1880 when one of the owners of a house on top of the site complained about getting his basement filled with water. Later the columns and museum was build on top of the Roman remains.
The balcony is at the level of the current street level and in the background of the picture is the Bath Abbey. The abbey also have a long history dating back about 12 centuries, this one is the third church at this site that has been in that place since from 1499.

The city of Bath got a renaissance in the 18th and 19th century when it became fashionable again to go to the spas. John Wood senior and junior were great architects of the time and build a number of world class landmarks like senior’s Circus above or junior’s Royal Cresent below.

While we were in Bath the annual Comedy Festival was going on so we got to see the central square being filled up with red people and a great street theatre called Jane Austen’s Bath Time.

We had a great couple of days exploring this UNESCO World Heritage city. For a more comprehensive description of what we got up to go read Ann’s blog of our day 1, day 2, day 3 and see the video she made :)

I went to my local beer garden on the hill of Parukarka (or is the hill called St. Cross, I’m confused?) 5 minutes from our place. There was a long line for the beer but eventually I got one just before they ran out of glasses.

You buy the beer at either a small booth or inside a tiny pavilion pub and then you can take the the beer with you into the green field and hang around while watching the sun set over Prague. Here is a 360 shot taken outside the beer booth.

Just before the sun set the pub ran out of beer. But that didn’t matter I still had my beer and went further up the hill to see the sun set behind the Strahov hill just to the left of the big castle on the other side of Prague.

Did we just skip spring and went straight to summer?

Saturday 9 of us started out at 8am from the bus station in Prague. Our goal was a small town called Mseno where the hike would begin. Throughout the week leading up to the trip we had watch the forecast go from good to decent to sketchy. But most people were still psyched for a hike so we set out anyways. 

As we got in the bus and set out for the hour and a half bus ride it started to rain. It hadn’t stopped when we got out of the bus and as we started out for the walk everyone was in an overly cheerful mood as if the sun would come out if we just kept smiling.

We started out down the path through a small alley in Mseno and soon we found ourselves walking in splashing mud across fields. Luckily we later got on to paved road for parts of the trip.

The rain finally stopped as we made it to the first lookout point on our route. Further along we came to a part leading through something out of Lord Of The Rings with narrow passageways through the sandstones covered in bright green moss. 

Staying in fairytale world we later came to the castle of the day Kokorin Castle where we took a break.

After a late lunch we realized we still had 10km to go before we would get to Melnik so we tried to pick up the pace. At the same time the sun came out and we were walking along a beautiful path up and down hills past lakes on a river.

Leigh Anthony Dehaney one of the other guys on trip (and an artist and wizard with film) made two really cool films of our trip. The creepy flick below and the one with people here (you need a facebook login).

We made it to Melnik at the other end of our route in time to catch the 18.40 bus back to Prague. It ended up being a trip of somewhere around 20km and the first time this year I experienced two digit temperatures, saw flowers, deers and heard bird song :) Finally spring is here.

Thanks a bunch to Grace for organizing.

Click on the images for more explanations of what and where they are taken.

Thanks for the inspiration for a coffee to Karen, a dark beer to Evan Rail and light beer to Ronald Pattinson.

While central Europe is still struggling to shed the winter I went to Cambridge to meet Ann. Cambridge is a 50 minutes busride from Stansted airport so we had decided on Cambridge for our weekend together instead of London. It was really great to spend time with Ann again, last time we saw each other was in Denmark for the Christmas holiday. It is the first time we are vacationing together in a place which none of us knew beforehand so we had a good time exploring together.

The atmosphere of Cambridge reminded me a lot about that of Ann Arbor, Michigan where I lived back in 2005/2006. They are about the same size and the university has a very prominent role in the cities. Both places are very green, there is many university students and interesting cafes, restaurants and museums. Both have a size big enough for life but small enough that a bike ride will take you anywhere in less than 20 minutes or less.

Cambridge University includes a number of old and distinguished colleges which in the Oxford and Cambridge meaning of the word is independent institutions within the university where students live, eat and socialize. Below is the Chapel of Kings College where we went to Evensong Saturday night.

Another thing I really liked about Cambridge was that it was so bike infested. Every now and then we would experience a near miss when a student, biking as if his life depended on it, would flash by. But I loved it and it added to the cozy atmosphere of the city.

We stayed two nights at a cozy Bed & Breakfast a bit of a walk from the center. The last day we couch surfed with a British/Kiwi couple. We had a great time talking with Lou and Alex, went to a concert, had dinner and got introduced to Natures home Elucian Islands in Second Life that Lou had just launched the previous week.

It was a very nice weekend I must say but of course the time went by too fast. Next time I see Ann will be for Easter in Malta If you are interested in reading more check out her first and second post from the weekend.

PS. For some nice pictures from the Cambridge area in spring check out what Tina omme i London did this weekend.

Im going south to catch a week with Ann in Malta and I cant wait to see something like this.

Picture by Larsj

Excited like a little boy

Update: “March ducks” arriving to Prague in February.