Summer Fun

Summer has been great! As you know, it started off with a visit from my family (see previous entry), and has since been filled with bike rides, travels and adventures. There are many stories to be told, but they're secret :)

Here's a run down of what I've been up to these past couple of months.

June 5-11: Family visit

My family (minus dad) in Montreux

June 12-13: Went up to northern Switzerland to watch the last two days of the Tour of Suisse. Levi Leipheimer won..it was great!

Levi about to start the Time Trial, which gave him the overall victory!

June 14-21: A lot of bike riding with a couple of friends here.

Climbing up the Col du Pillon

June 21: The Summer Solstice. On this day I went on my longest bike ride ever. Two friends and I set off at dawn in hopes of riding over 200 miles. We finished our ride nearly 16 hours later and covered 202 miles. 12.5 hours were spent pedaling...the other time was spent eating on the side of the road. No pictures from this ride because none of us wanted to carry a camera for the day.

June 22-28: Three nights in Amsterdam. Three nights in Brussels. Lots of sight-seeing, museums, art galleries, etc.

Hanging out in Amsterdam

Drinking a beer at the Grand Palace in Brussels

June 30: My birthday. A bike ride, plus dinner and drinks with friends in Leysin.

July 1-10: Reserved a bed in an apartment in Livorno, Italy (western most part of Tuscany). I ended up getting a 3 bedroom apartment all to myself. I went there with the intention of riding my bike. Tuscany in July is HOT and HUMID. I'm not used to heat and humidity anymore, so my time there turned into a sight-seeing trip with just a little bit of riding. So I spent time in Livorno, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, and Sienna. I would love to return to the Tuscany region, but in the fall or spring when it's not so hot and crowded. My buddy Hayes joined me on July 5.

Hayes, and two new friends from Philly

Vernazza, Italy

Pisa. I took the silly pics too, but this one looked nice.

A replica of "The David." I followed the rules and didn't take any pics of the real "The David."

Sienna

Piazza del Campo, Sienna

July 12-16: I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain for two days. Went to Bilbao, Spain for a day to check out the Guggenheim Museum, and The Arcade Fire happened to be playing there that night, so I watched them in concert as well. I didn't get a feel for Pamplona, but the running with the bulls was hands down, AMAZING! And I lived :) Northern Spain is beautiful, and Bilbao was a clean, friendly city...there is one international school there...hmmm. Spain was followed by catching the first two mountain stages of the Tour de France. These stages were in SW France in the Pyrenees mountains. I want to go back there. Sammy Sanchez won the first stage watched, and Thor Hushovd won the second.

The Guggenheim in Bilbao.

Hanging out before the bulls.

The bulls in the background. I didn't get any pictures while running because the police told me to put away my camera or I would be removed.

Thor Hushovd winning Stage 13

Sammy Sanchez up the final climb of Stage 12.

July 18-22: Paris, France. I keep going back to Paris because I love that city. I've visited four times and there is always plenty of new places for me to visit each time. This trip was planned in order to meet up with a family that I worked with in South Korea. They are back living in Canada, but were taking a 3 week family vacation through Europe. We were able to time it to meet in Paris.

Hanging out with the Leigh family in Paris.

A storm rolling into Paris.

July 22-29: Long-time friend Matt McClanahan visits. Time was spent in Grenoble and Chamonix, France, Interlaken, Switzerland, and near my place here in Leysin. We watched the Time Trial of the TDF, went rock climbing, climbed the Via Ferrata on the Tour d'Ai, went canyoning in Interlaken, cycling around here, ate some food and drank some beer. A great visit.

After climbing the Via Ferrata on the Tour D'Ai.

Matt and I before we enter the canyon.

Cadel Evans at the start of the Time Trial. He was in the Yellow Jersey after this ride!!

So here I am on August 5 relaxing in my "apartment" watching "The Social Network." The last few days have been spent watching way too many movies and riding my bike since I didn't get to do that much over the last few weeks. Work starts in 2 weeks. Work gets in the way of my life, but it also enables me to do all this fun stuff...a catch 22.

Family Visit (Pictures posted later)

Family Visit

This post is overdue, but better late than never.

Graduation was on Friday, June 3^rd. My mom, brother and sister-in-law arrived on the evening of Sunday, June 5^th and would be staying in Switzerland until Saturday, June 11^th. My dad was unable to join because he doesn’t like to fly…maybe I’ll end up in Mexico or Canada next and he can drive there J

As excited as I was to have family visiting, it honestly felt a bit weird initially to have them there. Back in Kansas City my life involved frequent interactions with my family, but since moving overseas I’ve only seen my family when I visited back home, or on Skype. My overseas life hadn’t really been shared in person, only through pictures and conversations. So it did take some time for me to warm up.

Rather than staying at a hotel, my family was able to stay in some rooms provided by my school. My brother and sister-in-law got a normal room, but my mom wasn’t so lucky L She had a tiny room with a bed and had to share the bathroom with the others. I wasn’t happy about that, but the school said that those were the only rooms available.

I had a pretty good itinerary lined up for everyone along with my family’s request to spend a couple of days in Zermatt. Everything would have been near perfect had the Swiss weather been consistent with what had been going on the previous few weeks. But Switzerland decided to bring in the clouds and the rain for my family’s visit. Despite this, I still think we had a pretty good time.

Day 1 I took them on a hike, which I had never been on going up…only on the way down. I choose the Tour D’ Ai, which is a beautiful hike that leaves one with amazing views of Lake Geneva, Dents Du Midi, and even the Alps on the northern part of Italy. But the hike was more strenuous and longer than I had anticipated. Everyone did awesome…and my mom was a trooper!!

Day 2 we left for Zermatt where we were hoping to see the Matterhorn. It was raining when we got there and was still cloudy when we left the next day. No Matterhorn for us except on the postcards. But it was fun to visit Zermatt.

Day 3 was spent at Zermatt…not doing much. And then driving back to Leysin with a couple site-seeing stops on the way back.

Day 4 we went to Gruyeres, a famous village known for its cheese making. There’s a well-restored castle there which we all toured, then enjoyed some of the ever popular Swiss fondue. After lunch we headed to the Caillier Chocolate Factory. The tour felt like a walk through ride at an amusement park…nevertheless, it was entertaining. At the end of the tour there was a tasting room. I ate too much there and had no desire to purchase any additional chocolate. But my family went on a shopping spree there in order to bring back chocolate for friends, family, and coworkers.

Day 5 the weather improved and we had sunshine, which was perfect because we were going to the Swiss Riviera (Montreux and Vevey). We took the cog down the mountain and then a quick train ride to Montreux. Montreux sits right on Lake Geneva. We then took a nice long walk along the lakeside to the Chateau de Chillon. This castle has a lot of history and was extremely significant back in the day. I’m not a history buff, so you’ll have to read about it. We toured the Chateau for quite a while, then took the walk back to Montreux. We spent our last dinner together at my favorite restaurant back in Leysin called the Lynx, which had been closed every other time we tried to go there earlier in the week.

Day 6 In the morning we went to their favorite breakfast spot – The Creperie. Breakfast was followed by some souvenir shopping, and then packing. They had to catch a train to Milano in the afternoon, so we all drove down to the train station together. Short goodbyes are the best way to go. I learned that after the first time I left the states to go to Korea. My parents along with one of my best friends waited in the security line with me for an hour or so. It was torture for all of us. After that time I’ve just had my parents drop me off outside the airport and go on their way. Here at the train station we said our goodbyes to one another and a train came quicker than expected, which made for a quick goodbye (thankfully).

I was so happy to have family visit and for them to get a taste of Switzerland as well as what my life is like overseas. They got to share in some of the frustrations as well as the joys of being overseas. It meant a great deal to me to have them use their vacation time and resources to come spend some time with me.

So thank you very much to my family for visiting! I hope you enjoyed your trip and felt that it was well worth the time and effort to come over. See you at Christmas!