Home again

I've been home in Austin for a couple weeks, and it's weird. Germany feels a long way away, and things here are just like they always have been. I start driving to Seattle tomorrow, so I've been spending all my time packing, replacing things from my lost wallet (it was stolen from a swimming pool a couple weeks before I left - fun, right?), getting things taken care of, and applying for jobs. Lots of jobs. And I still don't have one. At least I'm not homeless anymore!

I've been meaning to write this for a while. Between France and Germany, I was in Europe for just over a year.

In that year I went to 9 Countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal. and the USA for vacation, so it counts)

and 9 Cities in Germany (Hanover, Frankfurt, Bremen, Goslar, Berlin, Lüneburger Heide, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Hildesheim

flew on 21 planes, and ridden on numerous trains, buses, trams, boats, and a couple times in cars.

eaten apples, potatoes, strawberries and raspberries that grew right outside my front door

rode my bike 1200 miles through the Alps, ran my first half marathon, and did the first ever Tough Mudder in Germany

took care of 5 beautiful, adorable, crazy, high energy children

and most of all had a fun year. It wasn't the easiest year, mentally and emotionally, but I really did enjoy it and was sad to leave.

2012 in Photos

I ran track,

and pole vaulted,

had a fantastic last spring break where I refused to leave my bed unless absolutely necessary,

had a great last semester of college with great friends,

I graduated,

coached another great group of kids,

rode my bike from Nice to Paris through the Alps,

went to Seattle,

and moved to Germany,

where I became an au pair to these little munchkins and their 3 siblings

1000 Things to do Before you Die: Complete my own Tour de France

Completed: August 16th, 2012

You get full credit no matter what. Extra credit for going through any mountains

We've been back in the US of A for several days now - sorry it took me so long to finish this! After we left Geneva, we were in the Jura mountains for 2 days before we had a steep descent and then suddenly we were in Bourgogne. Not that there weren't any more hills after that...
We took a little more time to do some sight-seeing in Bourgogne and saw many impressive churches, towns, cities, and of course beautiful scenery and lots of vineyards!
A couple days before we reached Paris we were able to stay with a family Dave stayed with when he was in college in Montargis. Jacques, Josée and their granddaughter Emma fed us lots of delicious food, wine, and showed us the city of Montargis.
Once we got close to Paris, we were able to visit Judy in Montévrain (right next to Euro Disney!) and stay in a campground that was about an hour away from her. It was better for disassembling our bikes than the place we had stayed when we first arrived. And no stolen tents - just lots of stolen bungee cords! The day of our flight home, we woke up at 3am so we could make our 3 trips to the airport. And we all made it home with our bikes! Except Judy, whose new release date right now is September 30th.

Chardonnay!

Here's the rest of our itinerary:

• Col de la Faucille
• St. Claude
• Moirans-en-Montagne
• Lons-le-Saunier
• Louhans
• Tournus

Hôtel Dieu in Beaune

• Chardonnay
• Cluny
• Taizé
• Cormatin
• Chalon-sur-Saône
• Beaune

lunch on the Route des Grands Crus between Beaune and Dijon

• Clos de Vougeot
• Fixin
• Dijon
• Sombernon - we ate lunch on the continental divide!
• Montbard
• Abbaye de Fontenay
• Montréal
• Avallon
• St. Père
• Vézeley

view of Vézeley

• Auxerre
• La Ferté-Loupière
• Montargis

Auxerre in the morning

Jacques, Josée, Emma and their neighbors

• Montigny-sur-Loing
• Fontainebleau
• Pontcarré
• Montévrain
• Annet-sur-Marne
• the airport!

visiting Judy!

some new friends

Map Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Montbard

EDIT:

Odometer stats:

My wheel size was set wrong, so multiply everything by 1.234. The end result was about 1807km, or 1130 miles. Plus ~130km, according to google maps, for the first two days when I didn't have the odometer set up.

starting when we left our campground near Nice:

Day 1: ? (est. 30km)

Day 2: ? (est.100km)

Day 3:

Time: 3:57:10

Avs: 6.4 km/h

Max: 23.2

Dist: 25.42

Day 4: 

Time: 5:19:17

Avs: 10.0 km/h

Max: 43.1 km/h

Dist: 53.24 km

Day 5:

Time: 4:15:05

Avs: 11.3

Max: 47.3

Dist: 48.15

Day 6:

Time: 5:57:36

Avs: 10

Max: 47.0

Dist: 59.79

Day 7:

Time: 3:34:57

Avs: 10.6

Max: 44.7

Dist: 38.27

Day 8 (unloaded climb):

Time: 4:25:04

Avs: 9.6

Max: 46.0

Dist: 42.71

Day 9:

Time: 6:20:06

Avs: 9.1

Max: 49.2

Dist: 58.12

Day 10:

Time: 4:21:11

Avs: 10.2

Max:31.2

Dist: 44.81

Day 11:

Time: 6:20:34

Avs: 10.5

Max: 47.3

Dist: 67.23

Day 12 (unloaded climb):

Time: 2:37:31

Avs:10.7

Max: 41

Dist: 28.10

Day 13:

Time: 7:25:05

Avs: 8.1

Max: 45.6

Dist: 60.23

Day 14:

Time: 5:03:15

Avs: 11.0

Max: 39.9

Dist: 55.82

Day 15 (Chamonix):

Time: 0:56:11

Avs: 8.9

Max: 26.9

Dist: 8.36

Day 16:

Time: 3:29:40

Avs: 10.7

Max: 50.2

Dist: 37.52

Day 17:

Time: 6:29.32

Avs: 13.0 (13.9 before we ate raclette for dinner....)

Max: 39.6

Dist: 84.58

Day 18:

Time: 2:37:17

Avs: 13.3

Max: 34.8

Dist: 35.08

Day 19:

Time: 5:43:48

Avs: 10.5

Max: 40.5

Dist: 60.72

Day 20:

Time: 5:40:34

Avs: 14.5

Max: 58.6

Dist: 82.31

Day 21:

Time: 4:23:51

Avs: 11

Max: 36.2

Dist: 48.46

Day 22:

Time: 5:13:54

Avs: 13.3

Max: 36.1

Dist: 69.61

Day 23:

Time: 4:00:40

Avs: 11.3

Max: 36.9

Dist: 45.60

Day 24 (Dijon):

Time: 0:41:59

Avs: 11.1

Max: 24.4

Dist: 7.82

Day 25:

Time: 5:11:13

Avs: 13.4

Max: 32.5

Dist: 69.56

Day 26:

Time: 4:13:33

Avs: 13.6

Max: 49.6

Dist: 57.83

Day 27:

Time: 5:08:21

Avs: 12.2

Max: 40.4

Dist: 63.11

Day 28:

Time: 4:40:03

Avs: 14.3

Max: 36.6

Dist: 67.17

Day 29:

Time: 2:30:48

Avs: 14.1

MAx: 38.0

Dist: 35.67

Day 30:

Time: 7:27:59

Avs: 14.6

Max: 39.5

Dist: 109.03

Detour through Switzerland

As we left Bourg D'Oisans, we saw them doing a triathlon - 2k swim,
115k bike, 22k run. There was a short one and a long one, and lots of
foreign athletes were there for it. We've had some pretty steep climbs
over passes and have passed our highest point of the trip! 2770m - so
I guess it's all downhill from there! Although we might have wasted it
in the 50km of downhill we had to our next campsite, Bourg St Maurice.
We had 2 unlaoded climbs planned there, but it stormed so Matt and I went to an internet cafe in the morning and joined Dave for the 2nd climb. Of course it still poured on us. But other than that, we've had pretty good weather!

Here's where we've been since the last post:

on the way to Charmonix

Switzerland!

• Bourg d'Oisans
• Le Rivier-d'Allemont
• Col du Glandon
• Col de la Croix de Fer - we watched the Tour de France go over this
• when we were in a cafe on our way to Paris the first day!
• St Jean-de-Maurienne
• Modane
• Bramans
• Sollières-Sardières
• Lanslebourg
• Bessans
• Bonneval-sur-Arc
• Col de L'Iserans - our highest climb! 14km, up to 10% grade for the
• last couple km. We got to the top, and the temperature dropped 25° and
• it started pouring, so we put on our rain gear and made our way down
• Val-d'Isère
• Bourg St Maurice
• Les Arcs (unloaded climb)
• Cormet de Roselend (19km climb)
• Beaufort
• Les Saisies
• Col de Saisies (15km climb)
• Notre Dame de Bellecombe
• Praz-sur-Arly
• Megève
• Servoz - We met an Italian man named Joseph who lives here who showed us the way to get to Chamonix by bicycle, and then he made us spaghetti and let us use his internet and left us alone in his house while he went to the dentist!
• Saint Gervais les Bains
• Les Houches
• Chomonix Mont Blanc - we spent 2 nights here and hiked up to the Glacier and some ice caves with our day off
• Col des Montets
• and then we crossed into Switzerland!
• Col de Forclaz
• Martigny - we met 2 Americans who we happened to camp net to who were going from Amsterdam to Nice, and one of them graduated from Colby! The other one was 16, and they were both named Brian. We ate Swiss chocolate with them and watched all the fireworks going off for the Fête Nationale de Suisse. Then it turned into a real thunderstorm
• Èvian les Bains - where the original spring for Evian water is
• Excenevex
• Yvoire - we ate Raclette in the old medieval city
• Geneva

And now we're right outside Geneva, back in France, stayin with Dave and Judy's friend Veronique for the night! I'm not gonna lie, I'm excited to sleep inside for a night. We're going to go see some modern yodeling in a few minutes!

Its hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left!

We're in the Alps!

We've been riding for a little over a week, and we made it from the Cote d'Azur to the high Alps. I was a little surprised on the first day when we had, in Dave's words, a "monstous but relatively short" climb to get out of Opio, where Matt lived and I visited him in 1996. Little did I know that relatively short meant 45 minutes. But by now I've gotten used to the long, slow, several hours long climbs. I almost enjoy them? don't tell anyone.

l'Alpe d'Huez

At the top of l'Alpe d'Huez!

Today we climbed l'Alpe d'Huez, with 21 switchbacks. Then we decided it wasn't time for lunch yet, so we dropped down and climbed even more over a pass, before a 15% grade drop down on a narrow gravelly road. Matt and Dave climbed les 2 Alpes, but I came back.

Intense M&M's and Intense cidre. the beginning of an intense trip

Here's our route so far. The places in bold are where we camped, and everywhere else we stopped in or I just remembered going through.

Nice
Le Pylone Camping
Biot
Sophia Antipolise
Valbonne
Opio
Bar sur Loup (Gorge sur Loup)
Gréolières
Saint Auban ( and la clue de St Auban - it was really cool!)
Brian çonnet
Val du Roure
le Col de St. Raphael
Puget Théniers
Entrevaux
Camping du Brec
Annot
Le Col de la Colle de St Michel
La Colle de St Michel - we stayed on a farm with a beautiful view! By far my favorite place we've camped
Colmars des Alpes
Allos
La Foux d'Allos
Le Col d'Allos - our highest climb so far! 20 km, and the last 6 were steep. The ride down was amazing too!

Matt and I hiked up above the Col d'Allos - our first glimpse of the real Alps!

Barcelonette
around the Lac de Serre-Ponçon
le Sauze du Lac
Savines
Chorges
Col de Manse
St Bonnet
Corps
Les Egats
Valbonnais

and now we're in Bourg D'Oisans! We're spending 2 nights here so we could do the climbs unloaded, but tomorrow we're continuing on! The Alps are really beautiful. There are lots of flowers and waterfalls, little towns and villages, cows, sheep, goats, beautiful gardens, and mountains of course. And it's not 100° anymore.

riding beyond l'Alpe d'Huez

I'm in France! Days 1-5?

Things really haven't turned out the way we expected them to. We hadn't really been in contact, and didn't even know each others' flight iteneraries. I was worried no one would find me so my dad and I figured out everyones' flights. I arrived last in a different terminal. Luckily, my cousin Matt called us right before I went through security (because he didn't even know what airline he was flying...) and we told him where I'd be and when everyone was arriving. Luckily we all found each other easily. After finally finding the rental car and taking 2 trips to the campground that involved getting lost, we set up the bikes in the off and on rain. And then everything started going wrong.

What we expected to happen:

• Set up the bikes and tents, get groceries and have a relaxing first day.*
• Get a 2 day museum pass and spend the next 2 days exploring Paris, and then see what Paris has to offer on bike on the 3rd day since we'd have all our stuff
• Get on the night train Saturday night from Paris to Nice.

What actually happened:

•  We got to the campsite with the 2nd load of bikes and realized one tent had been stolen. There was hardly anyone there. The campground had a 2 person tent someone had left there that Matt and I shared with all our stuff, with a broken fly that was perfect for the pouring rain. It meant we could postpone buying a new one though.
• We decided not to get the museum pass because of the tent and we had to stop at a bike shop on the way to Paris because my headset was loose on my bike. That was a pretty quick fix. But Paris was supposed to be 20km away, and it took us over 2 hours - that's how long it takes me to run that far, so I'm not sure that was right. We did have a nice coffee break when it was raining. We saw the town hall and Notre Dame, walked around in the rain and saw where my aunt, Judy had studied abroad in college.
• We ate dinner at a restaurant and decided to go see the Eiffel Tower even though it was still raining. By the time we took the metro there and back and got on our bikes, it was midnight. Not to mention it was freezing cold, dark and pouring rain, and 3 of us were wearing jeans. When we were finally almost home, we were going down a hill that went around a curve and Judy's tire slipped into a dip in the road. She hit here hip and her head. A car stopped and helped us call an ambulance, and she went to the hospital. Matt and I got back to the campsite at 3am, showered, and went to sleep, hoping it wasn't too serious. In the morning we found out she had broken her pelvis in 2 places.
• We spent the day visiting her, buying a new tent, and then rushing to an opera, L'Amour des Trois Oranges. Even though we took thetrain we got there 3 minutes late, so we missed the first half but we got pretty good seats for the second half. Then we took the metro, raced up the steps of the Sacre Couer, then raced back. Oh yeah, it was still cold and raining. There were fireworks starting for Bastille Day though!
• Saturday we packed up, loaded our bikes and made our way to Paris. The sun managed to show its face for a few minutes, although there was still some rain too. We made it to the train station and then got on our overnight train to Nice.