Ride to Lake Como

The last week or so the weather really took a turn for the better. Nearly everyday was pleasantly warm and spring was clearly on its way.
So as the weather forecast for Zurich over the weekend was quite dismal, we (Elisabeth, Brett, and I) decided to go for a nice bike ride in Ticino were it was to be sunny and over 60 degrees.
The ride itself was beautiful (judge for yourself), and we kept a pretty decent pace although we stopped quite often.
We arrived in Como at night and the city itself was alive, it really felt like a nice summer's evening with folk just out enjoying the city and lake. We were getting quite hungry at this point so we took the first restaurant we found with a view of the lake where we could enjoy the sunset. The menu had pictures which should have been our first warning, but we went ahead and ordered. The hot food came out in microwave trays, what a crushing disappointment. It didn't taste bad since we were so hungry, but to do something like that while being in Italy is almost sinful.

Biking from Bellinzona to Como

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Alpine Death Ride

After seeing my bike my landlord decided we should go riding together culminating eventually in this "death ride", maybe it isn't quite as bad as the californian version, but more than tough enough for me.

So we caught the train from Zurich heading south at 630am to "beat the rush", and avoid cycling through the hottest hours of the day. Both of which didnt turn out to be necessary, but as the train ride was a good 2 hours, it gave us time to relax, digest, and mentally prepare for the inevitable.
Susten:
Susten was the first pass we climbed, it wasnt easy, but since our legs were fresh, and the sky was pretty clear, the climb flew by. At the top


Grimsel:
Grimsel was a long tough (15 miles, 6200 vertical feet) climb up from Innertkirchen. It was never really very steep, but it just kept on going, with 3 false summits. I had also eaten through my gummybears at that point so my energy was dipping


Eating lunch at Grimselhöhe was one of the most satisfying things I even done even though it was only simple pasta with tomato sauce


Furka:
In comparison to grimsel, furka wasnt so bad, but we were already wiped so it crawled by. The road was pretty constant except for one evily steep stretch in the middle, and the false summit. Coming down there was a perfectly swiss scene of cows crossing the mountain road and blocking traffic


Finally between Andermatt and Göschenen there was a memorial at Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) to the russian soldiers who died there coming up from the south to attack napoleans forces in northern switzerland.

Susten, Grimsel, and Furka Pass Ride

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Trail Maps

Verbier First Alpine Ride

So I was reading lance's twitter and he said he climbed Verbier and it was a great post-flight climb. So, I, having nothing better to do, decided to go try it out for myself, then I could bask in glory as I watch stage 15 of the Tour de France and they all suffer through it.
I also was able to enjoy one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. It was called Provencale, and it had gruyére cheeze, goat cheese, cucumbers, olives. The restaurant was called Fer à Cheval, definitely worth the sweat. Plus the decent was wonderful, I nearly overtook cars.

Verbier Climb

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Trail Maps

Fast forward to July 19th, I managed to make it out to Verbier again to watch the finish, my photos are pretty terrible (I forgot my memory card); although, my view wasnt really much better. The energy though at the stage was incredible. So many people, 10s of thousands, had all descended on this little town of around 3000 to see the riders come through. It was fantastic. And to watch the riders crawl by one at a time was pretty fun as well.

To France

With an ending like that to friday, you would think saturday would be one of those, woke up at 2pm and ate pretzels till I felt better. It was not. It was supposed to be rainy, but when I got up I could see a bit of rain but mostly clear sky. There was a winefest in Freinsheim that some of the other BASFGuest house students went to. I decided to try and go, of course by bike. I started heading over there and received a text saying the festival was dead and probably wouldnt start until night. So I diverted to Neustadt am Weinstrasse (Germans Wine Road). I went through a number of beautiful small towns all with wine shops and tasting locations. The bike route even goes through some vineyards. It reminded me of oregon, but it liked these ones much better. You ended up going through a different town about every 10 minutes (they are quite close together) and the bike paths were exceptional. You never had to ride on the street if you didnt want to.
In Neustadt I met up with Neeta (an undergrad from India, it is her last day) and Olga (a student at UniHamburg). We went to get some food, sunscreen, and Icecream. Then tried to go to the castle but barely missed the hourly bus. After a little recharging I decided to continue southward. The weather at the beginning was flawless. The scenery was beautiful and all the little towns were great. The bike paths were at times a bit confusing, but between the signs, my GPSs, and my map, I was able to figure most of it out. It started raining quite hard at one point, in a town in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a nice Wine tasting/cafe with tons of other cyclists at it. I decided to try and wait it out with a nice big coffee. The coffee was excellent and I got a chance to practice a little bit of german with them. Based on my accent they guessed I was from the Netherlands (even though my bike jersey says Boston on it). I feel sorry for any dutch person right now. They had come from Ausburg and were on a short wine tour.
Anyways the rain let up and I hit the road again in brilliant sunlight. At this point it began getting much hillier. I still had plenty of time, I hoped, and at least I wasnt wet and still had food and water. The whole ride continued to be quite fantastic and scenic. I will have to come bike here again. The highlight of the trip though was riding by the sign at about 25mph that said with an EU star logo saying Frankreich in the middle. All of a sudden everything went from german to french. Along those lines the pretty little wine towns turned into the dead or mostly dead Wissembourg. I also had the shocking realization, that I dont know how to say Train station in french. So I went up to the first friendly looking french person I saw and said. "Ou est le Hauptbahnhof" at which point they told me in german. I found the Gare centrale, or something like that. And then realized not only did their schedules use french days of the week (a little foggy on thursday-sunday), but they list two trainstations for Wissembourg. I found a french man and tried to ask him using french/german/pointing and we decided I was in the right place, but he wasnt certain. I found a small cafe in the center of down which was slightly nicer looking, the outskirts were just butt ugly ~ ludwigshafen. I ordered Pannekuchen (clearly not a french food) and a little container of french vin rouge. It was spendy, but I satisfied my goal of having a nice glass of french wine. It also made the train ride much more pleasant.
Finally I was told by some french persons in Ludwigshafen that the french no longer use Bicyclette, and I heard two different 30-40 year old persons use it, to tell other people to get out of the way.

All in all about 70 miles on the day.
See the ride stats here
Ride map here

A small detail I forgot was I saw a sign that said "Honig Aus" -> Honey out?, and didnt really understand it. A few seconds later a bee flew into my jersey and stung my heart. Bee strings smart more than I remember than, and fortunately I am still not allergic to bees.

Starbucks and Riding

I hadnt run very much in the last couple days and my running database was beginning to hassle me about it. So yesterday I decided to go explore this park in Mannheim. The park itself was right on the river and has fantastic part dirt running paths that run along the Necker. It was especially nice because it was still fairly early (7am) so the place had an almost glowing sensation to it. I think I have found my replacement for the esplanade while I am here. I also was able to run by the 'Space Needle' of mannheim which is much uglier and less impressive when you get right up to it. Anyway it made for a nice run and as a gentle reminder that all my hard work from the spring wont just vanish in a poof of smoke if I take a few days off.
After that I was in a great mood to go to work with which was extended when I finally was clued into the bigger picture for what I am working on. I am pretty sure I can't tell you but I feel much less like a lab monkey at this point, and if the project works out I will have been a tiny part of something very cool.
After realizing that without DAADs money infusion soon I will be dangerously low on cash, I had the sudden realization that there are a number of places that take credit cards (after being abroad for awhile you start to think no where takes credit cards). After getting out of work yesterday I decided to bike over to starbucks in mannheim. The resturaunt was as always in a prime location and they even had hot sandwiches. I got chicken and pesto and a small coffee milkshake. After doing this I felt motivated to possibly bike a bit longer. I wandered around pretty aimlessly for awhile and discovered a town with basically one entrance/exit which made me feel quite dumb searching around for another one.
Eventually I ended up at this ferry (the rhein doesnt have many bridges outside of real cities) I assumed like the canby ferry it was free for bikers and of course I assumed incorrectly. This was however the first time german has really helped me out. The toll guy on the ferry clearly didnt speak any english (I didnt even try), but when I explained to him I didnt have any money with me he just said next time pay double. After that I continued to bike down to speyer, to make a real ride out of the day. The ride was fantastic. The roads out here are so wonderful. I got down to speyer and basically just turned around, there was not much still to see.
For the route back I decided to take the bike paths. My experience in Bielefeld taught me that basically all bike paths blow so I tend to avoid them. It was getting dark and I had a car pass me quite quickly without giving me more than a foot of room so I thought I should at least try them. The bike path was absolutely perfect. It reminded me of the Minuteman Trail in boston only less busy, slightly wider, and no intersections. I was able to really just ride without distraction nearly the entire way back. All in all it made for a pretty great day, but I do need to find some cycling partners.

Motionbased of my Ride