Josef “Jeff” Sipek

Prague & IETF

This post is part of a series named “Europe 2017” where I share photos from my adventures in Europe during the summer 2017.

In mid-July 2017, I got to travel to Prague to participate in IETF’s 99th meeting.

The IETF meeting itself was great—lots of useful discussion about the next-generation email accessing protocol (called JMAP).

I stayed a couple of days extra to enjoy Prague, and Holly flew out from Helsinki to revisit Prague where she’s been once before—for our honeymoon.

I dragged my D750 and the two lenses with me and made to sure to take photos (almost) all the time. The gallery contains only a handful of the approximately 1100 raw files. Of those, I selected 11 for this blahg post.

Wikipedia article: Malá Strana Bridge Tower:

Wikipedia article: St. Nicholas Church with the Wikipedia article: Žižkov Television Tower in the background:

Wikipedia article: Matthias Gate with Wikipedia article: St. Vitus Cathedral peeking in the background:

The Wikipedia article: National Theatre:

Wikipedia article: Charles Bridge and a view of Wikipedia article: Old Town:

Wikipedia article: St. Vitus Cathedral from Wikipedia article: Petřín near sunset:

St. Nicholas Church again during sunset (and without the ugly Žižkov TV tower):

A gargoyle keeping the St. Nicholas Church’s masonry safe:

A view from the top of Wikipedia article: Old Town Bridge Tower with roofs and towers of (left to right):

Church of Saint Wikipedia article: Francis of Assisi, the left tower of Wikipedia article: Church of Our Lady before Týn, the clock tower and the Astronomical tower of Wikipedia article: Clementinum:

St. Nicholas Church yet again, this time from the Malá Strana Bridge Tower:

Wikipedia article: Charles Bridge, Wikipedia article: Old Town Bridge Tower, Church of Saint Wikipedia article: Francis of Assisi, and Wikipedia article: Žižkov Television Tower (from the Malá Strana Bridge Tower):

Prague offers a lot to see. The few photos I selected for this blahg post don’t show anywhere near enough of it. There are more photos in the gallery, but even those are merely highlights of what one can see in Prague. If you haven’t been to Prague yet, I highly recommend a trip.

Private Pilot, Honeymooning, etc.

Early September was a pretty busy time for me. First, I got my private pilot certificate. Then, three days later, Holly and I got married. We used this as an excuse to take four weeks off and have a nice long honeymoon in Europe (mostly in Prague).

Our flight to Prague (LKPR) had a layover at KJFK. While waiting at the gate at KDTW, I decided to talk to the pilots. They said I should stop by and say hi after we land at JFK. So I did. Holly tagged along.

A little jealous about the left seat

I am impressed with the types of displays they use. Even with direct sunlight you can easily read them.

After about a week in Prague, we rented a plane (a 1982 Cessna 172P) with an instructor and flew around Czech Republic looking at the castles.

OK-TUR

I did all the flying, but I let the instructor do all the radio work, and since he was way more familiar with the area he ended up acting sort of like a tour guide. Holly sat behind me and had a blast with the cameras. The flight took us over Wikipedia article: Bezděz, Wikipedia article: Ještěd, Wikipedia article: Bohemian Paradise, and Wikipedia article: Jičín where we stopped for tea. Then we took off again, and headed south over Wikipedia article: Konopiště, Wikipedia article: Karlštejn, and Wikipedia article: Křivoklát. Overall, I logged 3.1 hours in European airspace.

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