Going to Paris

So there I was, climbing into the little plane (Dash 8) on the little airport on Naxos. Heading for Athens... and then on to Paris. The airport in Naxos is really kind of a family affair. Also you see that road in the picture? It has the only traffic lights on the island. They turn red when a plane is starting or landing.

Paris-Brest (the sweet version)

Paris-Brest-Paris is one of the toughest cycling events that a mere mortal can attend. It involves cycling 1200km in 90 hours and is a strictly amateur event. Before it was this "randonneuring" event, many years ago, it used to be a professional race. At some point, someone (I forgot who) created a sweet called "Paris-Brest" in its honor. I knew that much.

This Saturday, while shopping with my host here, I was standing outside the bakery... when I noticed the sweet in real. It's something different to read about this, and then to see it in person. I probably should have gone in and tried one, but at the time the bakery was so full that there was a line outside the door - that's why I was waiting outside.

In any case, I should have gotten one for my friend tralala, who on the same Saturday rode a 400km Brevet (congrats, man!). One the one hand, he could use the calories after that monster of a ride, on the other, in a few years he might be riding PBP itself and then it would be a good preparation.

UPDATE: The sweet things in the pics aren't actually "Paris-Brest", but chocolate Eclairs. Seems that the bakery had misplaced the label. I got a real Paris-Brest a few days later, and saw another one in a restaurant, and they didn't look like this at all. OTOH they were true calorie-bombs.

Back from Paris

So, I came back from Paris. I had a very nice and successful week there. Apart from the business stuff, I also did a tiny bit of tourism. Not too much, since walking around currently isn't really my strong point. On the last day I noticed that I had started to limp. Ah, never ending story with that leg, it seems.

After the "vacation", I needed a few days of rest though. The main reason was that I spent an overnight at the Athens airport. My plane from Paris arrived at 23:40, my plane to Naxos left at 7:15. The airport hotel is ridiculously expensive. So I just whiled away the hours. There are some places where you can try to get some sleep, but since I was alone, I didn't fall asleep at all. I re-watched an old movie ("A Sunday in Hell"), then read up a bit on the Intarwebz, since during the days in Paris, I was mostly enjoying offline time. The first 3-4 hours passed quite fast, then somehow the clock seemed to slow down.

The worst was clearly over when I met some friends while waiting for boarding on the little plane to Naxos. The flight passed really quick. I had a nice window seat again, but this time I forgot to take the camera out of my cabin bag, so no propeller pics.