Piaw's Blog

Friday, July 27, 2007

Review: Pimsleur Italian

I checked this out from the library, and used it to try to learn Italian. It's terrible, compared to the competition, for instance the Berlitz series or even the Fodor's French For Travelers that I used 2 years ago to learn French. It goes at a slow pace, which isn't bad for retention, but as far as I'm concerned, it's focussed on entirely the wrong kind of things a traveler would be interested in.

For instance, the initial 3 CDs spend all their time talking about "How are you?" "I'm well." The next 3 are spent asking, "Would you like to eat?" "Would you like to have dinner with me?" "When would you like to eat?" Mike Samueltried to learn German using the German equivalent, and we made jokes about how Pimsleur should really be renamed "Pimpsleur". It's all very useful if your primary focus is picking up members of the opposite sex or trying to be very polite, but for a bicycle tour of Europe, it is absolutely worthless. For survival in the country-side or in the city, it's is also worthless.

When Lisa and I went to Europe 4 years ago, we used Berlitz German, which was much more practical, taught you how to count, etc. The tapes were dense, so we had to listen multiple times, but that's the point of having it on tape, so you can replay the lessons over and over until you get it.

All in all, the Pimsleur language lessons are not good value for money, and not useful for serious travelers. Disrecommended.

Book Review: Lark and Wren

Roberto downloaded this book to his cell phone, and we had a few rainy days during the tour, so I had time to finish this book. As novels go, it's not terribly well-written: a lot of the novel tells us how the characters feel and think, rather than demonstrating via their actions. The plot does move fast, so you're never left hanging on wondering what happens next.

The story revolves around a young woman, Rune, and tells the story of how she becomes a Bard and hence is your typical fantasy growing up story. She leaves the small town to the big city, meets a few friends, learns music, loses her mentor, and finds her husband... At the last bit of the book, there's a short section where they find the missing prince of a kingdom, pursued by the former king's brother, who led a revolution of the kingdom. The ending to this little story isn't the typical throne restoration story, so at least it's not a complete cliche.

All in all, not recommended, but it wasn't a bad way to pass a rainy day. Since the book is free, you can't beat the value for money, but I won't be spending money on further novels in the series.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Thoughts about the Tour de France

I haven't been following the Tour de France, but folks at my recent Kiss of Death ride, as well as folks at work seemed to have paid it quite a bit of attention, and now the yellow jersey's been kicked out of the tour, for lying about his whereabouts and quite possibly doping (though in a way that's undetectable by the probably incompetent French labs that found Landis to be guilty of testosterone boosting with invalid equipment and undocumented procedures).

It seems to me that bicycle racing has long been divorced from what people like me do when we ride bicycles for long distances.

For instance (ignoring the doping thing):

I have to fix my own flat tires and equipment, these guys get follow vehicles with mechanics, doctors, etc.
I ride just one bike the entire tour, and if I break it, I'm stuck. These guys get special bikes for each stages.
I carry my own luggage the entire way, these guys don't carry anything, not even tools to fix their own gear.

I'm not saying that the old days of the Tour De France were free of cheaters (earliest tours featured "racers" who were caught taking trains to skip stages, etc). But at least the Tour they rode had some resemblance to the kind of riding I do. Now, it's so unrelated I won't really notice if the Tour went away next year because of all the doping scandals. Perhaps bicycle racing has become too mainstream for its own good.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Back from the Kiss of Death

I just got back from Terry Morse's "Kiss of Death" ride with Undiscovered Country Tours. It's a nice ride:

Day 1: Ebbett's Pass, Pacific Grade to Bear Valley and return. 72 miles, 7200'
Day 2: Monitor Pass, SAG to Sonora pass, return. 50 miles, 5000'
Day 3: Blue lakes, 52 miles, 4100'

It's a healthy amount of climbing, and the last day is pretty. But after riding in the European Alps (especially Switzerland and Austria), the California high mountains don't look very pretty at all. We were really disappointed, and it was hard to motivate ourselves to climb hard.

I think if you were to do this the same year you did an European trip, do the Kiss of Death as a training ride, and then go to Europe. That way, you won't be disappointed. Oh, and I should say that Terry and Mary and their guides provide fabulous support. You won't be disappointed by their service. (Disclaimer: Terry's a long time member of Western Wheelers, my bike club, and gave us club members a discount for this ride) And I say this even as someone who almost never does organized bike tours as a rule.

And now that I've done most of the roads involved in the Death Ride, I think it's a really silly ride. As Mike said, "What's the big deal?"

Mike wore out his Avocet 700x28s at the end of this ride (I noticed it when I dismounted his bike from my car). I guess those tires really don't last more than about 1000 miles for a 200+ pound rider.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Mike's Trip Report

Mike has put up his trip report, and he uses fancy javascript to convert all units between imperial and metric, which is really cool. It's always interesting to see different people's perspectives on the same trip, so you should definitely read Mike's if you enjoyed mine. If mine was so long you got put off, read his --- it's much shorter.

What always surprises me is that when I offer to let folks stare at the map for a change, nobody else wants to do it. For me, navigating is enjoyable and a mental challenge in addition to the physical challenge of cycling. The whole package is the fun, which is why I enjoy going to new places every year. For me, revisiting a place twice is fun --- it's amazing to see how easily roads I've been to just once come back in my memory, which tells me what to do, and where to go. But more than that, and I'm too familiar to derive any challenge from the navigation --- you'll notice that the first few days, when I was in completely familiar territory, I felt compelled to throw in new challenges like Melchsee-Frutt, or Lauterbrunnen.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Tour of the Alps 2007 Trip Report

I actually wrote it on the plane, but it took awhile to write the python script, edit pictures, select the ones to embed into the narrative, and then proof-read it. It was a great trip, despite all the rain we encountered, and I learned a lot on the trip, as usual. I hope the report helps anyone in the future who is visiting the same area.