europeblog

Well, now I know all about geographic datums and projections, and what’s the difference between WGS84, EPSG:4326, EPSG:900913. The answer is that WGS 84 is a datum, EPSG:4326 is a projection which refers to WGS 84, no hang on that’s not right, it’s a datum, the same one WGS 84. Actually I’m not so sure about that. Anyway, EPSG:900913 is the new name for a spherical mercator projection. Or is it a datum, I’m not sure? The important thing is that it approximates the Earth as a sphere instead of an ellipsoid, and this makes some geographers really angry.

Got back to Wrocław on Sunday evening after 9 restless hours on the train from Zakopane.

All up it was an 89 day tour, 5750km cycled, through 9 countries, estimated 36kg bread & 13kg cheese eaten, 600L water drank, 460 hours sitting on the bike, est. €2200 spent, stayed in 58 different campsites, about 1 banana per day on average, so 89 bananas…

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I’m in Torino this morning. I hope to leave this afternoon. Waiting for the DHL courier to show up to camping… I left my passport at the camping in Laiguegia — well they forgot to give it back to me. But I should never have given them the passport… prefer to pay in advance anyway.

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After a desperate rainy day reading sprint to finish Anna Karenin and — eyes still moist — put it in the mail before the post office closed, I was left with lighter bags, but wanting for reading material.

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It is an object of repeated worry for me that the view of Europe that I experience is not true European life, or even something close. Would my time be better spent participating in real Australian life, and seeing and learning about the world through the lens of Foreign Correspondent, and late night SBS movies?

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Côte d’Azur, or the French Riviera. It sounds nice, but it’s just a centuries old surfers paradise. My first impression of the coast was as a sparkling sunny seaside sprawl. Tiny boats zipping along the water, leaving white wakes. Silent jets soaring out from the city, others circling then gliding in. This was looking through the haze from the relative serenity of the mountain at Col de Vence.

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Do you like to wake up with everything wet because the rain got in?

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Prepare yourself for some quite negative messages. As you know I am generally contented and eager to be agreeable. And I am savouring the joy and challenge of this bike tour. I really think it’s a worthwhile undertaking, though in reality it isn’t. See… there you are, negative messages.

For some reason it’s necessary to point out what’s wrong and what makes me unhappy. To complain. Don’t read if you don’t want to. Actually, do read or there’s not much point me writing this. Just don’t be mislead by the tone of some of the blog entries.

Lastly, avoid inconvenience: load this into your feed reader.

Arrived in Zürich yesterday. Had a bit of a disaster-riddled yesterday morning.
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