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Saturday
September 23, 2006

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I am continually relearning what I already know: I love bicycling.
Unfortunately bikeless, Sarah and Nicole bused and walked while
Dan and I rode from his and Julie's place in Podoli to his mother's
house across the river and on a hill above Smichov. We borrowed
ill-fitting bathing suits and took quick dips in the chilly pool. Dan
scared me by diving off a high wall into the shallow water. When his
brother's family showed up enexpectedly, his 6-year-old niece took
one look at Sarah and started whispering to her mother. It turns
out Sarah had squeezed into the little girl's onepiece and now she
wanted it back. From there we were going to a theater festival high
on a hill just north of Prague near Roztoky, a town on the Vltava.
Nicole and Sarah went ahead to the train station where Dan and I
would meet them after we prepared a pot of beans to bring to Steve
and Olga's housewarming in the vicinity of the festival. We bungeed
the pot to my bike and raced the clock to get to the station on time.
Dan has an intimate knowledge of cycling in Prague. We rode fast
and hard, taking a winding route and every possible shortcut on an
exhilerating 20-minute ride which got us to Masarykovo Nadrazi
with 3 minutes to spare.  A short train ride, a stroll through a posh
suburb, and then uphill hike through forest and fields brought us
to a rural hilltop where tents were set up and a klezmer duo played.
Kids romped, people danced, green wine was drunk, and the sun set.