Stefan reports from Europe #1

Wow I can't believe that I am living in Europe! Albeit for only five weeks, I have always wanted to plunk myself down and take it all in on my list of high priority things to do: visits to the bakery, riding my bike, learning a very little bit of French, and truly relaxing on this exercise induced vacation.

I feel super fortunate to have met Myriam and continue to feel lucky as I invade her daily routine as she takes me around Switzerland. Being a tourist can be a lot of fun, but coming to a place where you have instant friends is hard to beat. Knowing people makes all the difference, and it takes some of the guess work out of traveling. Myriam knows all the spots, and she has been amazing in taking me around and showing me the sites. She already knows me all too well, as our first stop upon arrival was to the much talked about best ever ice-cream on the lake. It did not disappoint! Between this and bakeries on every corner (and up every mountain) I am glad that we also have an agenda of big miles in the saddle.

Nyon is a beautiful little town of about 20,000 people located on Lake Geneva. I have actually been to Lake Geneva before, but on the French side doing a triathlon back in 1996. I think the size of the town it perfect, as I find my way around quite easily, everything is in walking distance, and it has all the feel of a European haven a castle, roman columns, all the cute little European houses, cobbled streets, and of course the coffee shops, bakeries, and ice cream stores! It was cool to sit outside the castle on the first day and look over top all the old houses, packed together, listening to two men blow on traditional Swiss horns, and think of how different it all seemed from home.

The first stop was a visit to Sheila and Guy's for dinner on Thursday night. It is neat to see Sheila's new life as she has made it here in Switzerland. Her and Guy have a beautiful little flat about 20min away from Nyon and I am super proud of her when I think back to how hard she found those initial months after the move. Even more so, it was just like 6 years ago. best friends but it was in her new home and not back in Victoria!

After a huge sleep that night I did my first ride in Switzerland. Every theme of every ride has been hot and hilly! Hot is an understatement as it has been in the mid 30s and humid most days. We went out to buy a fan after a few nights only for the weather to finally cool down today isn't that always the way! As for hilly I thought Nanaimo was hilly? I must have been mistaken because after this trip Nanaimo will forever seem flat!

On the Friday night Myriam had organized a bbq down on the lake with a group of friends. It is cool how multi-national Switzerland is. I met people from Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, Columbia, and even Canada. Actually, one friend by the name of Lucas actually went to high-school at SMU in Victoria? It really is a small world. The bbq was super cool, as again, it felt like instant friends. It was a perfect spot as with the heat has come tropical-like storms and the covering available was perfect as I witnessed some of the most intense rain and lightning I have ever seen. It has actually been like this on more than one night intense heat building up to intense storms at night. I never knew Switzerland was tropical???

Saturday we headed up to Verbier which is the Whistler of Switzerland. What this really meant was that I was in for some pretty Epic rides. Upon getting to Verbier Myriam eased me into the hills with a small climb up some of the slopes in behind where we were staying. But on Sunday I was in for the big show. Jesus, and I prayed to him a few times, those were some brutal climbs. We rode 5hrs up through a few villages ending at a manmade hydro dam that was really quite the site. I included pictures of some of the tunnels that you went through winding your way up the mountains, but thankfully, also of the bakery that saved my life before the last climb back up to Verbier. Actually, it was cool to see the writing on the roads (although we were on the trails) from the recent Tour of Switzerland. Jan was a popular name on the roadside, but so too were many of the Italians. Cycling in Europe is just so different.

That night I was introduced to a traditional Swiss meal of potatoes and cheese. It is funny, as you have potatoes and cheese, potatoes and melted cheese, and grated potatoes, grated onions and grated cheese? The Swiss like their potatoes and cheese! BUT, to tell you the truth, I could take or leave the potatoes on their own, but add all the different cheeses and I have found a new favorite meal!!!!

Thankfully I ate a lot of potatoes and cheese as the next day we drove to Champery to pre-ride the Swiss Mountain Bike Marathon Championship course for next weekend. Here we met three others and were led up the gondola by Jean Christoph Guichard who in the mid 1990's was a great Swiss triathlete on the world cup circuit. I think Mark Bates may have had a good battle with him back in the day. This course is totally epic and I think it climbs close to 3000m in the day. The hills are tough, the single track is technical, and the downhills are so very bumpy. In the day we broke one spoke on Myriams wheel, loosened a few of my spokes (Norm brakes still squeal?), and had a huge blow out on a sidewall. This in itself is a story. Sam, one of the riders, blew a huge hole in his tire and we reinforced the sidewall with pieces of inner-tube and patches, and then tightly tied another piece of tube on the outside around the rim and tire to keep it all from bulging too much. This worked great, but with regular V-brakes it made it impossible to use his back brake. For many of the downhills Sam would hold on to my seat and I would do the breaking, until finally we made it out of the mountains and into a village where a bike shop gave us an old tire. However, this was after about 2 hours of nursing the one we had. It just made a long ride even longer and I think that day I logged 8 hours of saddle time thank god for chamois cream! The day ended off perfect though as Genvieve and Hugo had invited us over for dinner and that was topped off with more ice-cream!

Hmm swimming that is something that the Swiss do not do so well. I finally got to the pool this week and a beautiful pool it is. Right on the lake, 8 lanes, 50m, lots of areas for kids, volley ball courts absolutely stunning. The unfortunate thing is that this Swiss, so proficient in everything else, don't use lane ropes? There is simply no method to the madness and people swim up and down the pool in random patterns? Today I might have found a bit of an answer in going right at opening (nothing special here it only opens at 9:30) and this way I got about 1km before chaos broke out! Tomorrow it will be the lake I;ll take boats over public swimmers any day J

Yesterday was a bit of a relaxing day short interval ride in the morning and then off to visit Myriam's family just North of Lausanne. It was cool to meet such a great group of people, and they were all so welcoming and hospitable. Lunch was the main meal of the day at noon, and farming families cook up quite the lunches! After lunch we visited the grandparents and her brother took us to the location of an upcoming sporting (and beer) festival that he is helping organize. The Swiss like there festivals and the sight of the venue shocked and amazed me! In this region they used farmers fields and built venues for volleyball, wrestling, track etc., but also built amazing buildings for the bars and entertainment! During the 4 days they will have served thousands of liters of beer, played all sorts of games, and then tear it all down! Crazy, and yet cool. Definitely some huge support from a local community to make for a fun filled couple of days. I am hoping to check it out on the way to TransAlps in a few weeks as I think it would be quite the site.

Well that is it so far. Europe has been awesome, the scenery stunning, the people amazing, and yet still totally relaxing. This weekend will be the Swiss Marathon although I will not be racing. I think if I want a good race in Austria next weekend it would be better to not put myself in the hole. I feel okay, but have noticed how much the half iron took out of me and still feel like I am just bouncing back. I would rather not have a repeat of Temecula so will take in the show and will help out where I can. On Tuesday we will go to Lausanne to watch a big IAAF track meet and then Thursday John will arrive and it is off to Austria.

All the best to everyone and I will write more soon.
Take care,
Stefan

Side notes:
Switzerland has more flavors of yogurt than I could ever dream of. There are whole aisles of yogurt in the grocery store and I mean aisles!!! My favorite; pear and chocolate!

Switzerland has the cleanest public washrooms of all time. Something about the Swiss and cleanliness, but this is beyond what I could have imagined.

Still on the public washroom topic, I have never seen toilet paper as thick as in Switzerland. They must have very sensitive bottoms, unlike the tough Russians. If you ever go to Russia bring your own TP.

Driving in Switzerland is just like home but twice the speed. Kari, you would do just fine! Don't they know I am from Canada? I guess that is why most people drive Audis, BMWs and Mercedes you need to be able to keep up!

Some of the things you notice are weird (like the washrooms) but fixtures for doors, windows etc., are so nice here. I remember trying to get nice fixtures at home and for anything decent you would have to pay an arm and a leg. I think before I leave I will steal more than a few sets of handle fixtures from the public washrooms!