Bike Stuff

Every month, usually the third Thursday of the month, an organization called Auto*Mat organises a mass bike ride called Cyklojizda. This is considered by many to be Prague's Critical Mass ride, although there are a number of differences from a conventional Critical Mass ride, most notably that it is organised more deliberately, and the relations between the riders and the police are invariably better, usually with the police providing some traffic control for the riders. Typically, the ride starts here, in Namesti Jiriho z Podebrad, but in the past it has also been started from other locations, most notably Staromestske Namesti.

This protestors from the World Carfree Network (really and truely worldwide, but based in Strasnice) were participating in Den bez Aut, or the day without cars, the largest Critical Mass-style bike ride every year in Prague (unless the organizers, Auto*Mat and Cyklojizda, have to substitute something else, which they occassionally have to do). The ride attracts thousands of people from around the world, even if this photo makes the even look small, and even the conservative mayor, Pavel Bem, has supported this event, actually.

This is a more realistic view of the 2009 Den bez Aut ride, with riders jamming Resslova Ulice, heading for the Tancici Dum (Dancing House) and the River Vltava.

This was the view from the bus stop over the Opatov Metro. I was actually on my bike, though, so I wasn't waiting for the bus.

This was the next place that I reached with my bike that I took a photo of. This pond was almost completely pea green, but unfortunately the crappy cameraphone didn't pick it up. When I cranked up the saturation in Gimp I managed to get it to be slightly more realistic, though.

I had originally planned to bike to Branik on this trip, but because it was getting too late to ride back to Haje in daylight I got the crazy idea to go all to way from Haje to Palackeho Namesti for the Karlovo Namesti Metro station, by far my most ambitious solo ride in a long time, and possibly ever.

Here's one of several shots that I took to commemorate the fact that I made it to Karlovo Namesti with my bike.

The next day, I went on another bike ride, this time with other teachers from one of the schools that I work at. This was the lunch break at Restaurace Skoda Lasky in Zabraslav. Incidentally, my bike isn't visible, so I've put this in the "My Bike" album for the general idea.

Zabraslav, while one of the small outlying areas of Prague, still took awhile to get out of. I asked one of the guides where this was after 20 minutes or so of riding, and he said it was still in Zabraslav. I liked the contast between the ultra-modern suspension bridge and the old church.