As you can see, the weather is amazing! We don't always get so many days of blue skies in the summer.
As with previous posts, I love signs - especially if they can be taken out of context. As we were getting off the boat (Eva's parents are in the uppr right near the road), I couldn't help but lauch at the name of the city 'Assmannshausen'. 
One of the very cool touches of going inside the mansion was one of the security guards. He must have been 80 years old and a Krupp employee for 65 of them. He was beaming with pride and showed us every nook and cranny of the place.
The ladies: Jutta, Tanta Ali, and mom relaxing on the porch.
The first day was relatively flat with little scenery. Here, the sign is telling to get off of our bikes due to the steep decline. Of course, we rode down.
...still seems like a good idea to do this thing...
This is the valley where we stayed for the first night. The food was great preparation for the next day...our first real climb. Originally, we planned to only climb one pass this day, but we ended up doing two passes.
...still seems like a good idea and lots of fun...
Here I am after the first pass, Klausen. This was about a 1500 meter climb for us. The scenery was great, and the weather was perfect. I'm not much of a climber, and Rene had plenty of extra breaks waiting for me.
On one hand I'm having a blast, on the other, I'm beginning to ask myself what I'm doing in Switzerland climbing mountains.
P.S. We're carrying all of our food, clothes, and water with us on our backpacks.
Wow! What a view. We're on our way to the second (unplanned) pass of the day: Sustenenpass.
We had a short break before the real climbing to the pass. I was beginning to feel a bit pooped...
We're now beginning the ascent. The sun was blazing hot, and instead of many switchbacks, we had one long climb up the mountain. Both of us got burned on the left sides of our bodies. I ate three powerbars and almost 2 liters of water on this climb to try to not bonk.
We finally made it to the top. There was a cool hostel at the top of the pass where we spent the night. The area was very cool with a small glacier. The snow was a nice break from the blazing heat.
Here's a look at the climb from the top. You can see the long, gradual climb pretty good in this pic.
The picture at the top. I was pooped. We did two passes on our first day of climbing and covered almost 3500 vertical meters. Sorry for the vulgarity of my fingers...I was not amused that Rene wasn't more tired than he was.
The scenery was unbelievable...but I was exhausted.
The hostel on the left was at the top of the pass where we holed up for the evening. Great location. I think I ate two entrees for dinner!
After a long downhill of about 45 minutes and slamming on the brakes, we headed up the next pass of the day: Grimselpass. Here I am with a few other biker folks we met along the way. After the long ride up, we stopped at the hotel (pictured) for a cup of joe before the descent.
This is the more known view from Grimselpass. Our descent was the left serpentine. At the bottom of the hill, two other mountain passes converge in the small town in valley. From the valley, the only way to go is up!
As with the other passes, here I am with the sign proving that I made it.
We stayed the night in the valley before we climbed Nufenen pass - the highest paved mountain pass in Switzerland. It snowed a bit on the downhill and was very cold. As luck would have it, as I stopped on the downhill to warm my fingers a bit (cold + downhill = very cold), there was a construction worker nearby who had a fire going...very convenient. Otherwise, I think my fingers would have fallen off.
At the top of San Gottardo - on the 'italian speaking' part of Switzerland.
San Gottardo was the best pass of the trip. It wasn't as steep or high as the others, but the road was very old and was mostly cobblestone. The serpentines were extremely tight, as you can see below. The view was amazing.
Even better, there is now an autobahn that goes to the top. So, after slaving for an hour to climb the mountain, we get to the top, sweating, to see a bunch of tourists. The look that they gave us was priceless...like who would want to ride up a mountain on a bicycle?
There was a hostel at the top of the mountain where we spent the night. We had a couple of liters of wine to celebrate our favorite pass and the last major pass of the trip.
Our last pass, Oberalppass, was only a 600 vertical meter climb (the others were between 1000 and 1600 vertical meter climbs). The best part about this pass was the downhill: The downhill was a very lazy 1-2% decline for what seemed like hours. We felt like kings those two hours.
After it started climbing a bit again and as we were trying to reach Lichtenstein, it started getting really stormy and windy. We didn't quite make it to Lichtenstein on our bikes - we took a train for the last 30km and spent the night in a hostel near the capital of Vaduz.
The final morning of the trip, we had to ride about 30 km to the train station to get our train back home. We were greeted with wind and rain. We barely made our connection and were cold, wet, and hungry.
Here is Rene - at our break in Munich - at a biergarten with a hearty lunch. Despite a bit of bad weather at the end and a really bad case of saddle sores, it was an amazing trip that I'll never forget.
Before we were home, we were already talking about our trip for the next year!
While many Germans love grilling, Germany hasn't seen the likes of a Grillmeister like me ;-) I think the most popular way to grill is with coal briquettes, but I'm just not patient enough for that. I confess, I'm a gas griller.
The church was very cool and very old. The rafters were wooden and had various families' names inscribed.
As with Heinz and Kerstin, Carmen and Sven had to cut a log together. For us, it was rather exhausting watching them do this in the hot weather. Thankfully, there was an ice cream stand next door for us to refresh ourselves.
The Erlangen Gang. It was over 90 degrees that day. Needless to say, my suit had to go to the dry cleaners after the wedding.
Here's us with Mirja and Thomas at a Hamburg 'Biergarten'. It was sort of a beach like setting, and the beer was cold. But, the Bavarians still have the whole biergarten thing perfected.
First, they had to saw a log together to show their unity.
While most people have heard of Oktoberfest in Munich, Bergkirchweih is a very typical and local beer festival. You sit (stand when the party really gets going) on these tiny beer benches under trees that is on the edge of a forested area.
Bergkirchweih gets about 100,000 visitors per day over the 16 day span.
This year was especially special since it was the 250th Bergkirchweih.
Here I am with some coworkers from the office: Tobias and Andrea. At this point in the evening, I've had 3 liters of beer.
The masses of people with multiple liters of beer in them. Each of the beer 'tents' tends to have a house band that plays all of the typical party tunes (for those of you from CU, think of an outdoor and German version of Potters).
The first time I got to sit on my stall. Where are the magazines?
We took the chance to get this 'red' kitchen. We like how it looks now, but are worried that it will look pretty outdated in 10 years (see the lime green in the 'Ed Man's House Rennovation' link in my blog). 
I really like the openness of the kitchen, which leads to the living room. We couldn't fit in an island, so we settled on the counter area in the first picture above. Works great when we have guests.
Here's our master bath (toilet not yet installed). Eva did all of the red at the top.
One wall in our bedroom is also a deep red. Lots of red, you say? Well, we just joke that we are in our 'Red Phase'...whatever that means.
Here we are with Babsi, Susi, and Ecke at brunch.
The restaurant was a renovated train station outside of town. We got surprised with the passing of a 1930's steam engine...pulling a few cars full of families in vintage cars.
