Vacation photos

England and Croatia pictures are now up on Flickr.

I had a wonderful time, and it was great to have a chance to hang out with far-away friends.  A few highlights from my trip:

• Biking around Oxford.  The city is amazingly bike-friendly, and I borrowed Karen's bike for the day while she was at work.  It was a great way to see the city, and allowed me to get out into the countryside a bit, too.
• Cherry strudel.  There are bakeries everywhere in Croatia, and most sell excellent cherry strudels that, unlike their American cousins, are tart and have an even ratio of filling to pastry.  Despite the fact that Croatia is not necessarily inexpensive overall, the strudels are only a bit more than a dollar apiece.
• Driving around Croatia.  We rented a car for the last three days in Croatia, and it was great to see a few out-of-the-way places and the generally spectacular Croatian countryside in Zagorje and Istria.  Also, I rather enjoyed driving a VW Golf stick shift on curvy country roads.  (It was the first time I'd driven a manual transmission that was less than a decade old.)
• Gnocchi in Groznjan.  I like gnocchi, and that was some really good gnocchi.  (I also like saying gnocchi.)

As a postscript, a coincidence:  I went to a happy hour a couple days ago, and a friend of Louise's was there...when he found out I went to Carleton, he asked if I knew Laura.  I said yes, I just got back from visiting her in Croatia.