a belated happy dad's day

i did not forget about father's day since my dad was actually here in switzerland! although he and mom were away for the weekend, we spent one day biking together soon after and i think that counts as a pretty good father's day. we rode part of route 62 backwards, starting in Chatel-St-Denis near Gruyeres. i'm a little embarrassed to say that we only made it to Romont, 33km total ride, because the hills of this region are deceiving! from the train the terrain appears gentle and rolling, but we managed to find some very fierce hills. on one of the downhills i reached a speed of 38 mph- so you can imagine the climbing we did.

the route is really nice for anyone looking for a moderate ride- located between Lausanne and Fribourg with no major mountains in the way. you just need to hop on a train with your bike and within 30 minutes you are ready to bike through the hay fields, "rolling" hills and small swiss towns with mountain vistas in view. not much traffic- but a few tractors...

i'm pretty sure that dad enjoyed the ride, and hoping that the rest of you enjoyed a great father's day!

morning ride.

we're back to grind here in lausanne. howie back to classes and i to my computer. i think i should go to bed soon so that it doesn't burn a hole in my lap! i've been working on a couple of graphics projects and also started seriously planning our italy trip for july.

but this morning when i woke up i didn't quite know what to do. i thought about running, but my toes hurt from all the walking we did over the weekend. i looked at my bike and knew that even though i didn't feel like hauling it downstairs, it would be exactly the thing to start my week.

somehow i found myself all geared up and ready to go so i hit the road towards vevey. i didn't plan to ride the entire route, so turned around somewhere in the middle. the route is seemingly simple- ride along the lake. but occasionally there are small towns you can ride through or the road changes into a highway, or surprise roundabouts... just enough to make a simple ride a little confusing.

misty morning lake.

so my first mistake was riding up to the top of a steep hill after riding through a town, only to find myself arriving at a round about exactly at the same time as a car, who of course did not stop (maybe didn't even see me?) but luckily there was literally only enough room for the car, maybe about 6" clearance, me, and about 1" between my tires and the curb stones. somehow i managed to stay up and just rode right through it all with the passenger in the car looking amazed that i didn't stop. i'm just amazed that i didn't fall OR touch the car! later i realized that the car had come from a hidden side road and legally had the right of way, so i should have stopped, which also would have made me fall over :)  i think i'll just avoid this intersection in the future.

that's the road i was supposed to be on... 

second mistake was on the return trip as i meant to stay on the main road and avoid all small towns. i followed the biking route sign and ended up riding through a town. somehow i missed the signs back to the main road, and ended up following some signs which took me up into the vineyards. this turned out to be not such a bad mistake- but that path has many more hills, and the occasional car popping out from nowhere. also its actually a little scary as i felt like the wind would blow me right over the edge of the path. you can't really see whats below, so might as well be the lake! i wasn't on the vineyard path for very long, but i will have to try it again soon.

vineyards are finally green!

bike season opener!

it all happened so quickly...

i have been researching my options for purchasing a bike since mid-January.  i was a little frustrated by the lack of a used bike market here... there is one nearby shop selling used bikes but the guy told me that the Swiss love to buy new things. not old things. there was another option i explored: www.ricardo.ch which is sort of the craigslist of switzerland, however items are sold by auction which makes it difficult to test ride a bike before purchasing. of course i thought about buying another bike, but the thought of having to move 2 bikes after this year (potentially from different countries) was overwhelming, as were the prices. (its switzerland!)

i put it on the back burner for a while.

i'm not exactly sure how much time my dad spent packing up the bike, but surely i owe him for doing such a great job packing it. on monday i received a giant box in the mail with this inside:

i was able to pick up a bit of grease from a local motorcycle shop. a few hours later, as some of you might have been following the progress on facebook, and saw the final result:

i realized i didn't have a water bottle, and with a ride scheduled for wednesday, i decided to take a little ride to a nearby bike shop i read about on english forum, (a great resource for all things Swiss) The Bike.  it is true that the owner is not only an english speaker, but is from wisconsin as boldly displayed by his gb packers sweatshirt.  hopefully soon i can join their thursday night ladies rides- need to get my biking legs back first!

the past two wednesdays i've been lucky to bike with a couple of the gals here, marieke and chantal, for some rides along lake geneva. hopefully we can be ready for some alps rides soon.  (yikes! i realized i've never biked in mountains!)

until next time, here's a glimpse of the lovely lakeshore near morges. (we also biked past the medtronic facility just outside of morges)