Arken

Hwan, Kendrick and I spent most of Saturday cycling to the distant destination of Arken ("The Ark"), a museum of modern art. We had no intention of going inside, it was the 17 km trip itself that interested us. Hwan and I plotted a route that took us along the waterfront - uncharted territory for Kendrick and myself. It was a beautiful breezy day and we had lots of fun taking in the sights, talking to strangers, rationing our orange supply, getting slightly lost and finding our way again. Our derrieres suffered a bit, especially on the unexpected cobblestones near the city, but the long stretches of paved seaside more than made up for it. During our ice cream stop, I witnessed for the first time the exploding of a bicycle tire. Somebody had put too much air into their tire and left their bicycle in the sun. I was completely freaked out: the sound was a lot like a firecracker, but Chinese New Year was long past.

Speaking of bum tires, we almost didn't get to do the trip, because Kendrick's inner tube on his back tire was leaking air. The local bike shop did not have an on duty repairman, but they were nice enough to lend us their tools. Hwan, who had recently replaced his own inner tube, did the job and saved the day. Hooray! He apparently learned how to do it by reading instructions on the internet, that marvelous searchable repository of data. But try telling that to Kendrick, who yesterday declared out of the blue, "The internet is BORING!".