I had the cool opportunity to travel to Prague in order to teach a class to one of my customers who has an IT shop in this very old city. I did some brief sightseeing my first day, but followed that up with a six hour walking tour on the second. As for sights, the Charles Bridge with the Prague Castle hovering above it is THE quintessential photo shot for Prague.
Here it is again with the zoom backed off.
The Charles Bridge from the water.
Once you start walking across the bridge you will see the statues that line it on both sides as well as find a LOT of tourists walking up and down this 1692 foot long span.
And, of course, you can see the Prague Castle when looking to the west.
Up on top of that big hill overlooking the city and the bridge are the magnificent structures that make up Prague Castle.
The rest of the day was walking around Lesser Town and Old Town. The only picture that I "had" to take was one of the Astronomical Clock that Gretchen told me about before I left. Luckily, I caught glimpse of it before it was covered up as it, and the structure it lives in, are beginning a restoration project that will likely have it totally covered up for a good long time.
The rest of the pictures in the blog post are indicative of the beauty of all of structures around Prague. For those well-versed in classical architecture, I'm quite positive you could spend days wandering around town and soaking it all in. For a layperson like me, just good looking buildings and totally European in its overall feel.
I'm not sure I sure be insulted or appreciative, but the tour guide let me know the person he was training told him that she was "amazed I made it the whole day". I'll take it BOTH ways! Other than a tiny bit of sunburn and a couple of aching feet, I was none the worse from this extensive walking endeavor and I was so fortunate to see such a beautiful city.
Blog post #3 of 3 of the Indiana Covered Bridge Loop (aka 10 bridges in 3 evenings)
I sure love Covered Bridges, but I was glad to wrap up this last night of tackling the Indiana Covered Bridge Loop in three evenings.
Scipio Covered Bridge
First up was Scipio Covered Bridge that wasn't very far from my home base for the week; Columbus, Indiana.
Not only is it good looking, but it felt solid as a rock when driving through it.
The bridge had a cool pop-up siding show above which let in lots of sunlight.
Not a giant bridge, but one that has been painstakingly restored and looks great.
James Covered Bridge
This was another example of a relatively short, but well maintained bridge.
Those strong bones and the 2007 restoration effort made the drive through this super smooth.
Westport Covered Bridge
Thankfully, the last stop of the Indiana Covered Bridge Loop was another fine example of these old structures.
This was a great three evening adventure, but it was time to load up the Destroyer Grey Dodge Challenger and head back to the hotel.
Blog post #2 of 3 of the Indiana Covered Bridge Loop (aka 10 bridges in 3 evenings)
I guess searching for Covered Bridges from Columbus to Nashville While Never Leaving Indiana didn't wear me out enough. Well, that or I am bullheaded and like to finish stuff once I start; even if not always the smartest thing to do. This trip was was about looooooooooooong bridges, but it really did create a looooooooooooong day for me. I didn't get back to the hotel until about 10:30pm, but not complaining as I really did get to see a couple really nice bridges and one at the beginning of a restoration effort.
Shieldstown Covered Bridge
The covered bridge in desperate need of repair and restoration is the Shieldstown Covered Bridge. This 355 foot long beast was built way back in 1876 and as you can see, it needs some serious love.
It was open for traffic up until 1980, but I was able to get a video of it while driving on the modern concrete bridge that runs along side it.
I hope to see this old beauty in top-shape some day!!
Medora Covered Bridge
I did not know anything about my next stop of the day, Medora Covered Bridge, but on my approach to this bridge (no vehicle traffic allowed) it was clear this was something special.
I didn't get half way through this looooooooooooong bridge before I met one of the guardians/caretakers of this Jackson County jewel, Nick Walden.
Clearly Nick has a love of his community and this bridge. It was great to openly discuss covered bridges with another human being. Nick gave a me an informative brochure and TONS of information on this, the longest historical covered bridge still standing in the US (430 feet). In addition to being a heckofa nice fella, Nick is quite the artist – ask him to show you some of his work such as the the piece above.
This covered bridge is really very, very looooooooooooong!!
Williams Covered Bridge
It was getting late when I told Nick I was running out of sunlight and he knew exactly where I was headed to next; Williams Covered Bridge. Nick surely loves his bridge the best, but he did not try to talk me out of driving way on out there. I'm glad as this place was another delight on this elongated day.
As you can tell from above and below, the slits just below the roof line let a good amount of sunlight inside.
The pillars have this bridge way above the river bed.
As you can tell, the sun was about to go down and I was glad I did some pre-planning as there was absolutely no cell phone service. I actually didn't think these places were real. 
Linda Lane Bridge
On the way back I drove past an unexpected treat – it looked like a PRIVATE covered bridge!!
I probably should not have done it, but I drove onto the little gravel road down to the base of the bridge.
It was a looooooooooooong trip back to my hotel, but again, a great outing; complete with a bonus bridge!!
Blog post #1 of 3 of the Indiana Covered Bridge Loop (aka 10 bridges in 3 evenings)
Not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to spend three evenings in a row after teaching my Hadoop & Big Data class to an Indiana-based customer of mine. I guess I'm just a nut and I really like to see Covered Bridges!!
New Brownsville Covered Bridge
Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana (not Ohio!), is the home of this nicely maintained covered bridge that is opened to traffic. It offered me a chance to see a bridge in the first 15 minutes of my first outing.
As you can see above, the park ain't too shabby either! An added benefit on being in such a public place is that the graffiti level (which plagues so many old covered bridges) is well managed.
As I said, you can drive through this one – vroom, vroom!!
Bean Blossom Covered Bridge
I then headed west and soon found myself in the town of Nashville (again Indiana, not Tennessee!) which was beaming with character.
In addition to the man-made elements, this part of Indiana is really pretty. Rolling hills with winding roads surrounding by tall trees. After tearing down a super skinny little forest road for about a mile off the main road north of town I arrived at this sweet little bridge built back in 1880.
It has great bones!
It was a pleasure to drive through it, too.
Ramp Creek Covered Bridge
I then headed back out of Nashville towards Columbus (again, both in Indiana, not Tennessee and Ohio!!) and got to see this very interesting double-wide at the entrance to Brown County State Park.
It has got some solid bones, too!!
Guess what? Yep, you have to watch another "exciting" movie of me driving through another covered bridge!!
I am in Minneapolis / St Paul this week for my first ever trip to Minnesota which lets me add a few new pins to my Oh, The Places I've Been! map. The trip started a bit bumpy with sitting on the plane for three hours before finally taking off. As a colleague from Hortonworks, Will Daily, and my brother, Eric, (a commercial pilot) both tell me, it is more important that we safely take off and land and I have to say thanks to the crew for this one. This left me with a very few precious hours of sleep before my class began on Monday, so when the students asked if we could hold class from 7am-1pm without taking a lunch break so they could go to their IT department's annual family picnic, I realized that would give me a great opportunity to check out the Minneapolis area.
First up, I headed over to the Mill Ruins Park in downtown along the Mighty Mississippi River.
A pretty unusual city park, but one I'm glad I took the time to check out. Next up, my love of Waterfalls required me to head over to see Minnehaha Falls. I got a bit disoriented and ended up hiking a lot more than I had planned and by the end of the visit to this park it was far to say that my work clothes were not dry. I was thrilled to find the stream that pointed me in the right way and got to cross this cool little bridge.
I was so glad to finally make it to the base of this 53 foot plunge.
What a nice looking waterfall and a true Minneapolis gem.
How to top all of this fun? The MALL OF AMERICA (MOA), of course! The amusement park in the middle of this thing was so much more than I was expecting. Multiple roller coasters and other "vomit comets".
I really enjoyed watching folks have such a good time on these rides, but being tired I decided I'd stroll into the "regular" mall parts of the MOA and stumbled (like I could miss this!) on these GIGANTIC Lego creations.
I wandered around for about an hour and I barely scratched the surface of the 500+ stores in this monstrosity. Seriously, it is as big as you have heard it is. In one word; "insane"!! 
I was so tired I even skipped the Sea Life aquarium. The MOA clearly is the epitome of American commercialism. Again, you need to see this thing!!
I got out on The Chestatee River for the first time for a pleasant and relatively quick trip. The good folks at Chestatee River Adventures offer a super cheap $5 shuttle for those with their own boats. Hats off to these fellas as they were incredibly nice and super helpful. The helped lugging the boats down to the river at the put-in and back up to the van at the take-out. Seriously, I cannot say anything except for positive comments on this outfitter and its employees.
The view from the water is great!
As for wildlife, it was turtles...
turtles...
and more turtles.
That one above was my favorite shot of the day. The one below would have been if I could only focus the camera under pressure to get the shot!
The cool turtle of the day with this big (even if the pic doesn't suggest its size) soft shell turtle.
Look closely at the next pic and you'll see two soft shells on the left and a "regular" turtle on the right.
As for the biggest turtle of the day, I estimated this next guy at about 18" from head to tail.
Toward the end of the run there was a ton of rock stacks that apparently is a tradition on this river.
Truly, lots of natural beauty all along the riverbanks. I really enjoyed myself and the quietness of this river.
I really look forward to getting back on The Chestatee River which feeds into the LLR - Lake Lanier Run.