"Nächste Woche wird's richtig herbstlich"

...according to the weather report at the streetcar station. Summer's gone and Fall is here! Monday it was hot and we went swimming outside but then it got cold and rainy

hangin with Philippa on the tractor

Slowly but surely I'm getting the hang of how things work. I know what the kids will eat, where it is in the kitchen, and where to put (at least some) things away. The kids get excited to see me when I return from Hannover or wherever in my free time, and ask where I was. And they actually want to play with me!

Greta on the tractor. Best day of her life

On Tuesday I went to the language school, which took an hour to get to, and had to wait for 2 hours to take a "test" to see which level I should be in. I really just talked to a lady for about 5 minutes. She said there wasn't really a class for me, since my speaking is way ahead of my grammar. As in, I don't know grammar. So I have to buy a book and study before the class which starts October 22nd. Apparently there have been a couple other people like me who had German parents but grew up somewhere else or something, and they all gave up and didn't get anything from the class.

Philippa!

I went swimming alone with Magnus on Thursday - Thursday afternoons are when I'm going to take the oldest 3 kids on outings, but this past week the girls had a play group. It was good to spend some time with him because he tends to like to play alone, and when he wants to play with me I'm always interrupted by the twins waking up from their nap or eating stones or throwing food all over the floor.

I'm so glad they like the stroller and the swings! I can only chase after them so much

finally some quiet 

Friday night I did a Nachtlauf in Hannover. I didn't decide to do it till Thursday night but I got a free shirt and I'll be getting a personalized medal with my name and time in the mail out of it! It had been raining all night including on my way there and back, but stopped for the actual run. And the temperature was perfect for running. I picked it up a little from the leisurely pace I've been going on all my runs, but it was still very comfortable. I definitely didn't feel like I was going to die like I normally do during races. Plus I drank a cup of tea before I went and even though I used the porta potty 2 minutes before the race started, of course I had to pee the whole time My time was 26:12, which is right at what I expected. I haven't actually known how fast I run since last fall, so it's good to know! We got alcohol free beer, apples and tomatoes. It was fun to run around the city!

10. Nachtlauf Hannover

The Hills are Alive...

I've survived my first week as an au pair in Germany. With 5 children. Yes I know, everyone has let me know that my life is now the Sound of Music. Which is pretty much my favorite movie ever so I'm embracing it. I even sing to the kids sometimes!

the view of the backyard from my window

Magnus is 7, likes being in charge of things and likes to play with his tractors by himself and see what his dad is doing around the farm. Henny turns 5 in December, taught herself how to write her name (Henriette) and wants to wear a skirt every day. She also manages to make everything take forever. Eating, getting dressed, whatever. It takes 5 times longer than it should. Johanna is 3, and she's hilarious. She comes up with the craziest words and sayings and has an extremely active imagination. She wants to do everything by herself but she's still figuring it all out, so it makes if frustrating when we're trying to get things done! Greta and Philippa are 19-month-old twins. I've spent a lot of time with them in the mornings while the older kids are at Kindergarten and school. They love tractors, cars and airplanes. Trekker and Auto and their favorite words in the whole world. And Max, the dog. They like to wave and scream "Hallo!!" at everyone who passes. They quickly go from being extremely adorable to little monsters. And when one screams, the other feels left out and has to join in.

my bed - it finally looks like my room!
elephants make everything beter

My first 2 days were extremely overwhelming. I didn't know what was going on, the family had just gotten back from vacation and school was starting. I was jetlagged and exhausted, and out of practice with German. I couldn't really understand that much. The kids didn't know me, and the twins decided to just cry and cry for no reason when I was alone with them. There are lots of people around here, and I was introduced to everyone as they stopped by but I didn't know who they were. I still don't really. Once I meet someone for the third time I usually remember their name...

I wandered around Hannover on Wednesday afternoon and walked around the Altstadt. It was nice to leave the gates of the hof (where I live - it's a big old farmhouse and farm store and then lots of fields surround it). On Thursday, I walked into the closest town, Gehrden, to get passport photos for my visa. There's a nice little pedestrian downtown area. I got ice cream, of course. And then Friday, the previous au pair, Rachel, came to visit with the 2 boys from the new family she's with. It was nice to meet someone! They're moving even closer to us so hopefully we'll be able to do things together with our kids. I met up with another American au pair that evening in Hannover. Germany was playing in the city so the streets were crowded and all the TVs were on! I live about 13 or 14km outside Hannover, but it's a little complicated to get back with the bus, especially late at night. Between waiting for the streetcar and then walking from a nearby town because waiting for the bus would have taken even longer, it took me at least 1:30 to get home. 

Auto!! Trekker!! Flugzeug!!

The weekend was a little less stressful. My weekends should be mostly free, but I had to watch the twins Saturday morning because Magnus and all the 2nd graders put on a play for the new first grade. We went to the school for a picnic lunch afterwards and the kids played for a while. I went for my first run in Germany, which generally makes life better. There's a couple little bergs (hill things) around here that have paths and are nice to run on. Then we grilled in the backyard with a friend who's staying here for a month and her boyfriend. It was nice - I'm starting to understand a lot more even when everyone's talking so fast! At first I was speaking English with the parents but we're slowly switching. I'd say we're up to 90% German. I understand pretty much everything they say to me, because they try to speak a little more slowly and clearly, but it's still frustrating to not be able to say what I want to. I should be able to start language classes soon so hopefully I'll increase my vocabulary... I think I'm at Johanna's level right now. We understand each other.

heather

Today, I went with the family (except Henny and Johanna, who took a trip with their grandparents for the weekend to visit family. It was amazing how quiet it was with 'only' 3 kids!) to this place where there's lots of heather (Heide). It blooms purple for only a couple weeks of the year. On the way back we stopped at the uncle's blueberry farm and had cake, coffee, and ice cream and chatted with more people who I have no idea who they were. The girls and the grandparents were there too, so we picked them up. 

And now it's time for a new week! I have an actual schedule now, but we'll see how much we stick to it. Everything happens spur of the moment over here - it has to with so many kids. 

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.

Austin sunsets, you never fail me