Half the A-ride

Well, with Xmas and lack of internet on the coast I
feel behind in my posts. Sorry! So here we have the Silicon Valley version of the A-ride. We thought we could go to the coast and back before our lunch reservations, but it took us 2 hours just to get to the top, center portion of the mountain range, and we didn't know what was beyond. I cannot express how picturesque this ride was. We started on a new highway where the pavement was smooth, fresh with hardly any cars. Perfect for TT training. :) We saw mountains ahead, and once we got to the top, we saw mountains all over. What a site!
The mountains and valleys extend for ever and you are never in
want of a view. and you are never in want of a view. The hard part is riding and not clicking every 5 minutes!

Climbing over one plateau we came across more rock where the road was literally carved out of the rock. We rode along shear cliffs where there were little stone rocks marking the edges and not much else. One wrong move and you'd be flying with no road underneath you. Hence either you become a very good descender, or a very slow one. :)











This is probably the last picture I will be in red and soon Taz won't be in black anymore. Like the endless roads, our cyling paths keep on going and changing... But alas no time for sentiment here as we've got so many cool shots to share with you all. That being said, I will put them somewhere online for those who want to full view. I did however try to select a few good ones.










And lastly, every good ride deserves a feast! We went to a cute
little restaurant in Padul and had the best fresh COD I have ever had! Check out our dinners! I had almost crusted COD and dan had COD in alioli sauce....YUMMMM.

First ride in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range...

The Andalucian mountains are breathtaking and a cyclist's paradise.
The climbs go for ever and have that perfect grade. The decents are narrow and if you take care and stay on your side you will be fine. Motorists are for the most part extremely respectful of cyclists. Then again where we went there weren't that many cars but from those we encountered we were very impressed.


We left Padul and biked to Orgiva and hit cute little towns where the streets are narrow and the houses all connected. This took us an hour and that was the end of our planned route upon which we
saw a road that went up and followed it. We hit Lorgivan, Pitres and a slew of other cute villages built in to the sides of these never ending mountains. Taz was in control of the camera today and snapped tons of pictures. Yup there is me climbing out of on the the villages on our way to never never land.

The coolest thing we saw were lots of little caves and houses or shacks built into the moutains. That is one way to save on building costs!!!


So much to show, and so little space, but just imagine endless mountains with at least one view of some snow capped mountains and so many houses literally growing out of the mountain side forming those adorable little villages.







We really wanted to make a loop out of all this, but alas when the mountains never converged at a point we could see, we consulted our GPS and it was confirmed that we'd have to do another few kilometers and then a huge trek on the other side of the canyon which was just a little too upredictable for us. So after three hours, we turned around and headed back.

And, one must give credit to our photographer who clicked himself.. I will have to learn that ride and click technique. All being said and done, boy did we ever deserve our dinner that night! And I really wonder how the heck all these pictures will turn out on this day's blog. :)

Venecia to Grenada with a stop in Murcia

Leaving our hotel in Venecia ( a city packed with buildings and
totally under construction) we headed for Grenada, but not before we snapped a shot of our $65 a night hotel room in a building which was so under renevation that it tooks us almost 30 minutes or driving around a 500m radious of it until we could find a way into the parking lot.

Not only does construction make this city crazy, but we thought the drivers were just as crazy so we decided not to bike here and drive a little before we took in some scenery.

Driving more south we saw not just kilometers of oranges trees, but 10's of km's of orange trees. IT was truly mesmorizing to see every little space being used up with trees. They were even on hills analogous to how California grows vines of grapes in stair steps on hills. However here was jad stairsteps of orange trees.

We stopped in Murcia for a little spin and enjoyed our first ride
in the Sierra's. A slew of mountain ranges each with it's own name. This one was Sierra epunia (I think) and once we found the entrance it was a nice gradual up until we decided to stop. The view was amazing and little did we know we were going to see so much more...Now did I mention how funky the art is here? On our way back to the car I came across this beautiful yet weird artifact in the middle of the road.

Lausanne to Venecia, Spain

Well, we drove 11 hours to Venecia on our way to a B&B in the south of Spain. It was a long drive, but our car rental was a SWEET Mercedes Benz 220. [Station wagon, diesel] To the right, is our entry into Spain. It was nice driving through the borders and not having to stop. Switzerland to Spain...yes we slowed down, and now France to Spain we slowed down again so I clicked a shot.

Once at our destination in Venecia, it was night but we managed to head out and find an awesome buffer for dinner (where we feasted until it hurt), and we came upon a spectacular exposition center. Imagine a large pool of water with multiple buildings in the shape of fish and ships protruding from it. It was a real WOW and makes one understand why Spain is a city of art and culture. Unfortuneately I really couldn't capture the view at night... We tried though.

Christmas cookies all gone....

Last day of work before the holidays and Carmen our always smiling HR lady brought in cookies and chocolate. There were great. Almost like what Mom used to make. :) My favorite kind with shredded nuts came in two versions, the regular and the slightly chocolate flavored. Obviously everyone in the office liked them because I went back to get my camera and they were almost all gone...

Well, today is short because we are packing for Spain! Tomorrow we rent a car and drive down to Granada to ride in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Stay tuned for some new and exciting adventures.

Raclette

Today was an office lunch which involved Raclette. Essentially a certain type of cheese is heated and then scraped off onto plates and added to baked potatoes, pickled corn, pickles and onions. On the right you see the cheese being heated by the black plate on top of it.



Then the cheese plate is moved to the side and the
top hot layer of cheese is scraped off onto plates.
Here is one of our Directors, Michel, performang
the duties of scraping!

The end result is tasty, creamy soft cheese which goes well with potatoes and hot smoked meat which is really a tasty form of bacon. All this is washed down with Swiss white wine. Then there's chocolate, tangerines and log cake for dessert. [Definately time to hit the gym]

Check out the dish on the right. NOTE: do not drink water with this meal or afterwards. With all that hot cheese, one must not drink cold water or it will harden the cheese and make it harder to digest... Our IT manager caught me filling my water bottle in the nick of time...:)

Survival kit...

I really have simple requirements here in the Olympic headquarters land. I've got my laptop with my favorite picture of Montreux and my cross bike, my bottle of water, my bar of chocolate and for the health conscious, some nice fresh apple-mango yogurt with some added almonds and dried cranberries. But really, I cannot get over the milk chocolate here, Taz and I take a strip every night. I think we will be starting the CA (chocoholic anonymous) club soon. The one we tried tonight was packed with raisins and hazelnuts. No skimping on the contents or the melt in your mouth chocolate. :)
[Again, all well deserved due to an awesome early morning workout].

And thanks to my fellow blogger Alan for sharing in my picture attaching misery. I've decided that this primitive picture placement facility is a conspiracy so that we are forced to put fewer pictures and thereby occupy less room on precious disk space....

And for those of you who are following this, I snagged a picture
of left over bread and cheese which the guys were still eating today at work. I think it finally ran out about noon. Now picture two baskets full of bread, a plate full of the cheese and bottles of wine in the backdrop. Ok, to be perfectly honest I also had another two cheese sandwiches when I got into work around 10:30, so it wasn't just the guys...

Cheese and bread!

I wish I brought my camera to work today, but I didn't so you will have to imagine this. One of our customers gave us a gift of cheese today. Alone that doesn't sound too interesting because often at cocktail parties one eats these little square pieces of yellow and orange cheeses. Well a Swiss gift of cheese includes the following:
- One huge round cake size piece of Brie cheese which was super fresh and smooth and tasty.
- Two huge loafs of nice rich wholesome rye bread European bread which my Dad would totally appreciate because he knows where to find the one baker in Montreal who knows how to make it.
- Several bottles of wine... Ie, not just a few... :) :) and another :)

Now after say 5 slices of thick bread and lots of creamy, melt in your mouth cheese, I am sitting here not wanting to go outside and face the elements...... Then again our entire office floor smells of garlic and cheese so perhaps I should go home or I may morph into a cheese curdle.


I am justifying the above because after a great trainer workout and then a freezing ride into work, I got stuck taking a cold shower. What a horrible experience.... I really wanted to avoid that uninviting cold stream of cleansing liquid, but that darn trainer made me face the elements twice today. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... I am so glad I sit near the heating control at work..:)

Yverdon-des-bains

After an internet quest to find a cross country ski place which we
could take a single train or bus to, we found one in Ste. Croix which involved two trains and one bus. This alone was enough to discourage us from skate-skiing, so we decided to bike the 50+km instead to see exactly where this was. Yverdon was at the end of the second train and that ended up being our final point after we hit -6 degrees C! Yup this was a no-picture going there ride because there was NO way I was taking my gloves off and I am glad Taz was there to suffer with me as my face literally froze during this one 10km long cross wind section. Wow, talk about cold! I wonder if in some sick way this is good skin treatment? IE kill off all the surface skin cells so I regrow new ones??? In any case we hit Yverdon after 1.5 hours and needed a warm coffee shop. Luckily, downtown had some open ones which we charged for ignoring all the nice little cobblestone street vendors and Christmas displays and songs being played in the town square. Yup there is Taz with his star hazelnut cake looking a little worse for wear. Of course once we had our coffee and hot chocolate we were in much better moods. Speaking of which.. I am getting the best hot-chocolates here!

We stalled as much as we could. I even tried heating up my clothes using the water heater in the bathroom. :) But alas it was time to go. Being brave, I clicked a few shots....
Town center:

The way home was more enjoyable. Either the wind died down or it was the entirely new route we found which was more sheltered, had a little climb in it and went in and out of villages. Or I took going tempo more seriously. :) I have no idea where we went. We followed some bike paths, some city names we knew and we eventually ended up right by my work. And, after two weeks I know about half a dozen ways to get home from my work so we were good. So, 1:40 minutes later, we were now very happy to climb 3 flights of stairs to our super cozy and warm apartment. The end result....The roadrunner finally figured out the exact clothing combinations and Taz kinda had a little frostbite on his toes...he needs an extra layer and can be seen using the oven for something other than baking...

TAZ (above) and the roadrunner's full kit.

Only the tough venture out..

Today was windy which added to the coldness but I was determined to head out for a ride and venture into some uncharted territory on top of some known territory. So I headed out to Montreux and planned on venturing into some hills from there.. Note, I said, "I". That's right, after 10 minutes, Taz bailed on me and went to the rowing club so I was on my own..


On the way to Montreux, the view was spectacular and the
snowline had come down abit. I didn't want to stop too much because that meant taking my gloves off so the picture are few and only if I really, really couldn't resist.! Love that mountain view and imagine multiple little hilltops of these stair stepping vineyards...

In Montreux I finally found what everyone was talking about and clicked it. Yup, that's Freddy Mercury from Queen...For some reason they love him in Montreux.


Leaving Montreux I ventured into the hills. It was actually warmer up there even though I actually went up to the snowline. Then again it could have been that I was climbing that it was warmer. Anyhow more quant towns of various names...Blonay..Vevek...etc and even a tram car/train that takes you to the top of one of the hilltops. Now, after 3 hours of riding it was time to head home. That meant going down hill and hoping I end up somewhere near the water so I can find my way home again. But before I faced the cold I took one last venture into gloveless land and clicked a few shots. Here some showing some cute little houses and some nice backdrops. Notice the center symmetric one. :) After these three, I took the plunge and headed down hill and then along the flat windy lakeside. I'd say I froze my A-- off, but I didn't. I just froze my fingers off...

Riding around Renen..

On my return from an errand to Jumbos (huge hardware store) where I picked up two more tubes (ok I admit I bought the wrong ones yesterday...doh!), I found this sign...


[The bottom yellow sign says "cyclocross---->"]
I was all excited and followed the sign and all I could find at the end of the road was a cemetry.
Is that what cyclocross is all about in Switzerland?

The quest for tubes...

So, my boss told me where to get tubes for a decent price. TOYS R US. So, he took my out at lunch on his foldable bike and showed me where the store was. Wow, my first vision of a real big store. Not only was there a toy store with more than toys but a huge grocery store and two bike shops. Well not TBO (The Bicycle Outfitter) like shops but sports stores where they sell everything from skateboards to bikes to skis...

In any case I picked up two tubes at T-R-US for a cheap 5.45 CHF (which is about $5US). Anywhere else they'd be like 8-9CHF. Any why do I need tubes??? Well on my bike home last night bam-bam double flat. Yes, I am the queen of commuter flats. It was cold and I was grumpy, so I shouldered my bike and ran for about 1.5km until my shoulder hurt...then I realized one could just push the bike and run which I did for the next 3km. I am definately getting my exercise here.

Today was another sunny day and I decided to share my office view with all of you. :) Yup, mid afternoon, I opened our (we are 4 in our office) window and stuck my head out and clicked away. First we have the distant view(left) ...See the Alps in the background? Next we have a zoomed in view, but I guess my Camera is not quite postcard quality, but I think you get the picture.

So while I am hanging out in the "Scientific Buildings" in the Lausanne University playing around with my little circuits I get to look outside and see this..Ah, life is tough...

But really it is. We went for dinner tonight and it took us 20 minutes to get there (lots of good restaurants by the train station) because we had to climb this hill. And it's cold enough that I have to wear a hat and mitts. But the food was good and after we walked home, we had some chocolate for dessert. Hey I deserved it! I went for an hour run before dinner. I am amazed at the number of night joggers. People around here really face the elements!

Well, gotta get up early so it's goodnight for now..

First day of sunshine...

It was cold but the sun was shinning. I've got my clothing down to a science...thick booties, fleece hat, gloves with liners, my old Canadian windbreaker pants on top of my chammies, wool undershirt, longsleeve jersey and windbreaker and voila. Awesome riding today! :)

Uneventful day other than sunshine and another sorbet for dessert! Check it out. Can you see the little bits of real apricot? YUM!

I work therefore I am

Blognerd here! I am making it an exercise to keep my entire blog setup, profiles, and entry in german so that I learn to live the language. However some of these words are really long and I don't know what they mean even though I speak the language.. The best is when the google translator gave the English equivalent for Wortbestatigung as Wortbestatiging. Now, that was a big help! However, being the engineer I am, I dissected the word and found bestatigung which means confirmation. Why is this relevant? This is the key to me becoming a non-blognerd. So there you have it, p.a.b, I think I turned off the word verification thingy. :)

Today was a tough day. Had a 9am meeting. More job training. Who schedules meetings at 9am? I could not arrive late because my officemate was giving the talk and he specifically asked me so nicely if I was going to make it yesterday. One must become a team player, and I really like my office mate...he's quite the bright one! So, perhaps that answers some questions as to, is there work in my life. Well of course there is and here's my office to prove it. :) So which desk is mine? Notice how I've been given an office with space for zee bike?


The meeting lasted more than 2 hours and must have really exercised some brain cells because I was hungry and downed my lunch at like 11:30. Well, good snack for the noon ride. Speaking of which, today was another rainy day, but I think I figured it out. It is potentially dry between 11-2pm so that will become my mid day ride window. However, I decided to go out at 12:40 so I managed to get rain at 2:30. Made it in just in time before I was too cold. NOTE: Todays ride was much more enjoyable with my new fender. Yes, my new boss gave me a front attachable tire shield (which he took off his wife's bike). And believe it or not, he also bikes in....I think we are at about 4 now who ride in...

Well, I am pretty pooped so I am signing out.

I like rain....

Guess what? It rained today. I feel like I am fighting the elements and I believe it's going to make me stronger. Today I faced those demons with a yummy cup of coffee from the bakery downstairs and my regular croissant au jambon. I almost didn't feel the ice-like rain on my face as I biked to an emtpy rowing club. Actually I did warmup on the way there so can't really complain, but I did forget my booties...oh oh. In any case, I did a weight circuit workout all by myself. SWEET! I took over the basement, blasted the music and off I was running around my little made up stations. And the rowing club has two trainers... I'm all set for winter.

Upon completion, I hopped on zee cross bike and rode to work at a 45 degree angle. I chose the bike path directly on the water for the sense of adventure and was mesmerized by the 3 foot waves. Water and debris were spraying up angrily and I was having fun watching this. Except of course when I got a good dumping on me...Darn where were those booties...Wanted to take a picture, but with the new camera and more months ahead of me I didn't want to risk water damage.

Work went by, finally met my boss today, and realized I have a heck of a lot to learn. So, I texted Taz and suggested another workout.. So I hoped back to zee club and did some trainer time and believe it or not a whopping 5 min on the erg!

Back at home I made us some yummy sandwiches thanks to Taz playing hausfrau today and doing the laundry and groceries...:) And we had awesome apricot sorbet icecream and chocolate for dessert. Chocolate and cheese are SOOOOO cheap here, sigh...this is not good.

As for picture, well, um...you would have gotten one of the ice-cream...but...uh...new camera apparently likes to have it's battery charged and doesn't take pictures with it dead...OOOPS.
Tomorrow I promises...and I'll highlight the little real pieces of apricot in the sorbet.

Isn't God supposed to rest on Sunday???

Another rainy day with spots of Sunshine and some strong winds. By time I ventured out, it sort of looked clear, but as soon as I got out it started to rain again and it was cold. So, I turned back around and went up 3 flights of stairs...(and did not give up but..) got another layer and came back down and biked. I lasted a little over 2 hours and then the toes and hands were getting too cold. NOTE to SELF: get thicker booties and wear thicker gloves. As a result, I did not stop to take any pictures, so what we get today is a shot of my favorite scene..My feet..check out the red toesys. :)

Other than that, I think I am becoming a blog-aholic. I decided to surf email and fellow blogs and then to enter my blog data and picture and believe it or not I am still in my shammies. Yikes. Time to shower and get some food in me!

Lausanne to Evian en velo

Today was my first real adventure on the road and it turned out to be a long one with amazing sites, some good food and some cold toes!

I started off in Lausanne at around 11am and made my way to Montreux by following the lake. It was somewhat cloudy and wet, but it did not rain while I was riding. YAH!

Riding to Montreux basically takes you closer to the Alps and it starts getting a little colder and before I knew it I was seeing snow. And then the coolest thing was to see the snow-line. I felt like I could almost touch the snow! Montreux itself is very quaint and today there was a huge fair there. Shops and vendors all over the streets and along the water and shows in tents. Met Taz and some workmates there, but too cold to just hang around in little elf tights, so the bikers moved on after a little cold-cut and cheese snack.









Leaving Montreux, the plan was to follow the Alps on the left and the water on the right and hope we end up somewhere where we could either catch a train or ferry home. Well, our first obstacle was a delta and park which had us doing circles and dead ends until we finally escaped and ended up in Bourdette. Another really, really cute town where we had the alps in the back and then we saw baby llamas...All I could think of was Brooke! I need to get a picture for her...:)


Aren't they CUTE??? Why is Taz smiling when little llama is showing us his butt? And yes I don't match but those voler vests defineately added warmth to my cheerwine kit.
Next on the agenda was no more stops since we needed to keep warm. So our plan was to ride to Geneva and take a train back to Lausanne, however the light was not playing into our favor and by Thonon we made a choice to back track to Evian and take a Ferry to Lausanne. By the time we hit Evian-des-Bains for the second time it was dark and cold. I just wanted food and warmth. So, we had 1.5 hours to kill until the next ferry so we went to a nearby Creperie and had some Crepes and a nice glass of Bordeaux. And, just for the heck of it I had to get a bottle of Evian water..