After many years of putting it off for lame reasons, I finally got around to getting over to Europe. With my sister living in Geneva, and Deyv and Isabelle roaming around Europe, all the pieces were in place. I hopped on a plane with my bike and headed across the big pond. Arriving, I was picked up by Deyv and Isa along with my sister. We wandered around Geneva for a while, as much as Deyv is able to wander these days with his crutches and all. Here we are down by the waterfront, with Isa sporting the latest hairstyle, the jet d'eau.
Your tax dollars at work: here is the sunset as viewed from her house outside Geneva, complete with the Alps in the background.
These things were everywhere in France and Switzerland. Squid would have been loving it.
We continued to meander around Geneva for the first day, checking out castles and stuff like that. Don't worry, the bike pics will be along shortly
Here's Deyv and Isa, the famous world travellers!
At first I didn't like how this pic turned out, but now I'm starting to think it came out pretty cool:
Of course, there are always beer breaks involved when hanging around with someone on crutches
We decided to do some wine tasting, so we looked in a local paper for some info. We ended up at some bar, which we quickly determined would suck. The owner of the bar however called his brother who owned a vinyard. Normally his brother required a reservation for tastings, but he said it was okay for us to come over. Not long after that, we were on his estate, overlooking Lac Geneve and the Alps, trying about 20 different wines, all for free. Screw these wannabe wineries in the US that want to charge you $2 for a half a glass of crappy wine at a crowded table. This is the way wine tasting should be.
After that it was time to start figuring out where our biking adventures would take us over the next several days. Here's me trying to look like I understand the map:
And with that we were off in Deyv and Isa's little Nissan Vanette. Normally I'm not a big fan of cars or driving, but it becomes a little more bearable with views like this:
And this:
Our first destination was Zermatt in Switzerland. Zermatt can't be reached by car, you have to leave your car and take a train up the mountain. This made for a really cool scene in Zermatt, although it was a bit touristy. We were the only bikes on the train:
I had made the mistake of telling Deyv and Isa that I wanted to climb in the Alps. Note to self: don't smacktalk how much you like climbing to someone who is on a one year around-the-world biking adventure. Our first ride was a sweet loop up to Schwarzsee station and back down to Zermatt. The loop included a 3000+ ft climb, where at the top we would be at the base of the Matterhorn. Representin' the Trailblazers jerseys, pre-ride:
As we started up the mountain, the trail snaked up and up through little farms and villages:
Before long we got a little bored with the fire road and decided to take a hiking trail up for a while. Things started to get steep and technical:
But that did not deter us from climbing - Isa grinding it out:
Around a tight steep switchback:
After a while we popped back out onto the fireroad and continued upwards:
Through a cool tunnel:
And above the tree line:
At this point we were not only above the tree line, but also getting close to the Echo line
We just kept going up...
...and the views kept getting better...
Until things finally leveled out a bit and we started finding some singletrack:
The last section up to Schwarzsee station was a granny gear grinder of a climb. In fact, after many years of cruelly neglecting my granny, we suddenly developed a close relationship on this ride At the top, Deyv had taken the Gondola up so we could all enjoy some beers and sausages together and admire the Matterhorn. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the Matterhorn, but that didn't stop us from having sausages and beer!
Things were quite a bit cooler at the top, and we needed to put some more clothes on for the downhill portion of the ride:
On the way down, we were determined to take some of the many singletracks we had seen on the way up, which were too steep or technical to use for ascending. That made them perfect for riding down!
Isa on a fun section:
The views continued to impress:
As did the trails:
Good thing Isa was here to keep this split tree from falling the rest of the way over!
The final section of singletrack we had scouted on the way up was a walking path that ended up going through a really cool little village. We got some strange looks and possibly cussed out in German for riding there, but since neither of us understood German, we just kept riding
These trails were just kickass:
As we approached Zermatt again, we found some little "exercise stations" along the way. One of them instructed passers-by to perform gymnastics moves. But I don't think most of the people on the trail can perform gymnastics like Isa:
Our ride at Zermatt was awesome! And as luck would have it, as soon as we took the train back down to the car and headed to our next destination, the clouds cleared...
Your tax dollars at work: here is the sunset as viewed from her house outside Geneva, complete with the Alps in the background.
These things were everywhere in France and Switzerland. Squid would have been loving it.
We continued to meander around Geneva for the first day, checking out castles and stuff like that. Don't worry, the bike pics will be along shortly
Here's Deyv and Isa, the famous world travellers!
At first I didn't like how this pic turned out, but now I'm starting to think it came out pretty cool:
Of course, there are always beer breaks involved when hanging around with someone on crutches
We decided to do some wine tasting, so we looked in a local paper for some info. We ended up at some bar, which we quickly determined would suck. The owner of the bar however called his brother who owned a vinyard. Normally his brother required a reservation for tastings, but he said it was okay for us to come over. Not long after that, we were on his estate, overlooking Lac Geneve and the Alps, trying about 20 different wines, all for free. Screw these wannabe wineries in the US that want to charge you $2 for a half a glass of crappy wine at a crowded table. This is the way wine tasting should be.
After that it was time to start figuring out where our biking adventures would take us over the next several days. Here's me trying to look like I understand the map:
And with that we were off in Deyv and Isa's little Nissan Vanette. Normally I'm not a big fan of cars or driving, but it becomes a little more bearable with views like this:
And this:
Our first destination was Zermatt in Switzerland. Zermatt can't be reached by car, you have to leave your car and take a train up the mountain. This made for a really cool scene in Zermatt, although it was a bit touristy. We were the only bikes on the train:
I had made the mistake of telling Deyv and Isa that I wanted to climb in the Alps. Note to self: don't smacktalk how much you like climbing to someone who is on a one year around-the-world biking adventure. Our first ride was a sweet loop up to Schwarzsee station and back down to Zermatt. The loop included a 3000+ ft climb, where at the top we would be at the base of the Matterhorn. Representin' the Trailblazers jerseys, pre-ride:
As we started up the mountain, the trail snaked up and up through little farms and villages:
Before long we got a little bored with the fire road and decided to take a hiking trail up for a while. Things started to get steep and technical:
But that did not deter us from climbing - Isa grinding it out:
Around a tight steep switchback:
After a while we popped back out onto the fireroad and continued upwards:
Through a cool tunnel:
And above the tree line:
At this point we were not only above the tree line, but also getting close to the Echo line
We just kept going up...
...and the views kept getting better...
Until things finally leveled out a bit and we started finding some singletrack:
The last section up to Schwarzsee station was a granny gear grinder of a climb. In fact, after many years of cruelly neglecting my granny, we suddenly developed a close relationship on this ride
At the top, Deyv had taken the Gondola up so we could all enjoy some beers and sausages together and admire the Matterhorn. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the Matterhorn, but that didn't stop us from having sausages and beer!
Things were quite a bit cooler at the top, and we needed to put some more clothes on for the downhill portion of the ride:
On the way down, we were determined to take some of the many singletracks we had seen on the way up, which were too steep or technical to use for ascending. That made them perfect for riding down!
Isa on a fun section:
The views continued to impress:
As did the trails:
Good thing Isa was here to keep this split tree from falling the rest of the way over!
The final section of singletrack we had scouted on the way up was a walking path that ended up going through a really cool little village. We got some strange looks and possibly cussed out in German for riding there, but since neither of us understood German, we just kept riding
These trails were just kickass:
As we approached Zermatt again, we found some little "exercise stations" along the way. One of them instructed passers-by to perform gymnastics moves. But I don't think most of the people on the trail can perform gymnastics like Isa:
Our ride at Zermatt was awesome! And as luck would have it, as soon as we took the train back down to the car and headed to our next destination, the clouds cleared...
