Tuesday, August 22, 2006

I'm in the Netherlands

Well, if any of you are wondering, yes, I've made it to the Netherlands safely, and have adjusted to the time zone change quicker than I have anticipated. The first day was hard, but I think forcing myself to stay awake in anticipation of a good nights sleep helped the most. I hope to post some pictures eventually of where I'm at (Amsterdam), but the weather has not made it very easy to go out and take pictures. Its rained here every day since I've gotten here, and hasn't made it much above 70 degrees. I'm glad I brought some long sleeve shirts, but I fear I did not bring enough.

Everything is about as I expected here, except that it seems a little more "run down" than I thought it would be. Perhaps because all the pictures I've seen are taken of the best parts, on bright sunny days in perfect settings. All in all though, thinking about the age of places such as this, I am reasonably impressed with it all still. Language barrier doesn't seem to be that much of a problem. Most everyone here knows at least some English, and a majority seem pretty fluent. That along with what some knowledge of the German language has helped a lot. A lot of the words sound the similar to the German equivalent. A quick read on how to pronounce the Dutch spellings has helped me out there. Hopefully the sun will come out soon, and I can get some pictures for you to see.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

a few pictures of my race.

Well, MR was nice enough to share some of the pictures he took of me racing.... Enjoy.

Nice game face huh? Don't worry, he's all bark, no bite :)

And they're off.... In my usual style, I'm out in front in the beginning. Perhaps its a good thing. Avoid confusion, etc...


And here I am in the lead group, in the beginning, holding my own, for now at least...

And here I am finally, off the back, maybe I shouldn't have start out so fast, hehe.... ouch.