  We utilize a 3D hybrid hydro+micro model for a comprehensive and consistent
description of soft and hard particle production in ultra-relativistic
heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. In the soft sector we focus on the dynamics of
(multi-)strange baryons, where a clear strangeness dependence of their
collision rates and freeze-out is observed. In the hard sector we study the
radiative energy loss of hard partons in a soft medium in the multiple soft
scattering approximation. While the nuclear suppression factor $R_{AA}$ does
not reflect the high quality of the medium description (except in a reduced
systematic uncertainty in extracting the quenching power of the medium), the
hydrodynamical model also allows to study different centralities and in
particular the angular variation of $R_{AA}$ with respect to the reaction
plane, allowing for a controlled variation of the in-medium path-length.
