Alpine Tour 2009: Swiss and Italian Alps

Despite the best of intensions to post this year's version of my tour in the Alps, work and 'the next vacation' got in the way.

As with previous years, this year's version contained lots of planning (mostly from Rene), lots of training, and anxiety to ride, but the 2009 version included something new: an additional rider, my good friend BW!

All in all, we covered 600km and about 11,000 vertical meters over 6 full days of riding.

Enjoy the pics.

Day 1: 30 May 09: Lindau - Splügen
BW and I woke up at 430am to catch the first train from home so that we could meet up with Rene in Chur at a reasonable. As luck would have it, this train was late and caused a delay of our train connections.

To try to make up some time, BW and I decided to ride from Lindau to St. Margrethen. It was only about 20km, and we had an hour to do it. Easy. No worries, we are on vacation.
But, we took some pics along the way, and we just barely caught our train. I had to sweet talk the train conductor a bit ... since I didn't have time to buy the tix for our bikes beforehand, she wanted to charge me full price. I gave the sob story and blamed Deutsche Bahn for my late train at home which caused this whole mess.

Thankfully, it worked...on our way to Chur.
But, once we got into Chur, we had to stop for some more pics and some lunch. Cute little place to take a small break.Then, the tour got going with some uninterrupted riding. Mostly flat with a few rolling hills and great scenery along the way. We stayed the night in Splügen, Switzerland. A cute, sleepy ski village in the Alpine foothills. Rene has stayed here before, and he scouted out a great hotel for us.

We had some time to kill, so we took a stroll around the village...

Now, that is is stacked wood.

With the old cobblestone and seemingly ancient houses, many of which were still centuries old, Splügen was a great pick for the first stop in our trip.

...and, they had beer too! Prost!

Day 2: 31 May 09: Splügen - ??? somewhere in the rain...

With my notes of the tour still with Rene, I honestly don't know where we stayed the second full day...but, at least the day started out great in Splügen.

After a wonderful breakfast (and BW talked about the yoghurt the whole trip), we headed out for our first real climb of the tour...

On our way to Splügen Pass, we had great weather behind us...

... and of course, some great scenery.I'm still smiling, so it must be pretty early in the climb. BW was impressed with the Alps and the scenery...and he took off on the climbed - pumped full of adreneline. Rene and I were behind, but still having a great time.
...at the top, we crossed over into Italy. The roads on the Swiss side were great...the roads on the Italian side were, well, needing some work...and the tunnels were a bit dark at times.

Once in Italy, one notices the differences in the buildings, architecture, and the people. It is amazing how a much a difference a mountain pass and a few kilometers makes.

When we pack, we always have to pack for all types of weather - even snow and rain. Unfortunately, after this great climb on Splügen Pass and a super cool long, flat stretch (which Rene and BW hated...but I'm more of a flatlander / masher for a rider), we hit some rain.

The clouds were rolling in for a while, but shortly after we put on our rain gear, it just poured. We took a break before hitting the next pass.

The rain slowed down, and we took off and climbed the pass in a light rain.

Day 3: 1 Jun 09: Somewhere in the sun - Stilfser Joch

We started Day 3 in the sun (thankfully) and ended up climbing what turned out to be my favorite pass of the tour: Stilfser Joch.
...but first, we had to make it through Passo Mortirolo.
As with most of the Alpine Passes, this was a great and beautiful one, with tons of small, winding roads...but the darn thing just never seemed like it would end. You would see what seemed like the peak, and then the next curve would come.

...but, as with all passes...this one finally ended. Ouch. This pass has the recognition as the steepest pass in the Alps...but we're pretty sure this was the other side (e.g. the side we went down). After riding our brakes for what seemed like hours, we finally made it to the valley.

The ride down had some great scenery as well...I was very thankful we went down on this side. We actually ran into another American (from Colorado of all places)...small world.

After a nice break and some sandwiches, we headed off to Stilfser Joch.

A tour in the Alps would not be complete without snow...which started with about 5km to go. It wasn't a real heavy snow, but it was enough to make me want to hurry up with the pass.
Stilfser Joch is a pretty well known and popular pass. But, since this was the first full week that it was open, there wasn't too much traffic.

Thankfully, the Bratwürst stands were open for us. Nothing like a Brat to finish off with after a hard climb.

While Stilfser Joch may be a bit touristy, it is popular for a reason: it is extremely beautiful, with some super cool switchbacks on one side of the mountain.
The ski lifts were still open, and we actually spend the night in the same hotel as the Italian National Ski Team.

Oh...and dinner was absolutely perfect! Too bad the brat that I had filled me up way too much.

Day 4: 2 Jun 09: Stilfser Joch - St. Moritz
After convincing Rene to take a picture at the pass, we headed on toward St. Moritz. It wasn't our original plan, but one of the tunnels along the way was closed to bikes. The pass after the tunnel was still closed for the season, so we had to go around.

As I mentioned earlier, the switchbacks on this side of Stilfser Joch are amazing! I'm glad we got to go down from this side...

Stilfser Joch is in the very right hand corner (more or less) of this picture. What a great descent. After tanking up at a local bakery, we hit Pas dal Fuorn (Ofenpass), bringing us back into Switzerland.

While I don't mind being being in a country (Italy) where I don't understand anything, it was nice to be able to communicate with folks again. Of course, Swiss German isn't exactly easy to understand...(for Germans or German speaking Americans ;-)
This was another one of those passes that just never seemed to end, and I was really hurting. I didn't think I could make it to St. Moritz, but after a hearty soup, I was ready to try.

After the sun came out (and the soup started working through my system), I felt even better. The huge tailwind and the cute Swiss villages helped, of course.

As we were riding into St. Moritz, I could see why it is the beloved ski village that it is...

Rene's brakes were wearing thin, so he was happy to find a bike shop. While he was changing out his brakes (kinda important for the mountains), BW and I had a beer...and convinced Rene to have one as well.

St. Moritz isn't known for being a cheap area to spend your vacation. Thankfully, Rene knew that there was a great Youth Hostel on the outskirts. We had this sweet ride around this lake to the hostel. Even though we aren't exactly 'youths' anymore, we were practically the youngest folks at the hostel, with lots of families and older couples utilizing the hostel for its inexpensive accommodations and filling, but not fancy, meals.

Day 5: 3 Jun 09: St. Moritz - Lindau

After leaving St. Moritz, we had to backtrack a bit to hit Albula pass. Since we had a huge tailwind the day before, I was fearing the worst, but with the slight tailwind, we hit the pass road in less than an hour.

Today was Rene's day in the mountains, screaming up the pass. Near the top, it got really cold...so on with the cold weather gear again... There was also this restaurant / cabin at the top, where we stopped to warm up a bit with some cake and coffee...what a great way to prepare for what turned out to be a super huge downhill.

As with St. Moritz, I didn't think we would make it to the train station in Landquart in enough time to catch the last train to Lindau...but, as luck would have it, we had a slight downhill and a nice tailwind the whole way.

I love this kind of riding...you feel like a king on your bike.

Unfortunately, we just missed the train, so we had to wait an hour for the next one. So, we did what most any sane person would do after 6 days in the saddle when you have to wait in perfect weather for the train: we had a beer. Yumm...Hefeweizen (Wheat Beer).

Day 6: 4 Jun 09: Lindau - Lindau
Rene caught an early train back home...which left BW and I alone for our last day. We didn't really want to go home, so we just took it eays in Lindau, riding around the lake, stopping to see the scenery, and having snacks (cake, fresh cherries, etc) along the way.

We even spoiled ourselves with a massage at one of the hotels. After 6 days of hard riding, that massage was perfect!

Not really believing that the week and this year's tour was already behind us, we got up early the next day, with aching bodies (and sore butts), to head home. As with every tour, the memories get better with time...as the hurt in our bodies fade away.

BW stayed another two days with Eva, Quinn and I...so those pics will follow...

Not a Real Post

...but it will have to do. Seems like forever already, but I finished my annual bike tour in the Alps almost 2 weeks ago, and I still haven't gotten around to blogging the great journey. Mainly because after the trip, I had 3 busy days in the office then another 9 days of vacation (this post will also come soon) in Hamburg and Denmark.This year, my good friend from CU, Bryan (also known as BW) joined Rene and I on our yearly trek in the Alps.

...more to come soon...

Baby Boom

This is Eva...

Since Rob is riding in the Alps with his friends Rene and Bryan, I decided to visit my family and meet the latest additions to our family:

On April 22nd, Julius and Emilia were born. After a very difficult pregnancy, we are very happy to have them with us! Here they are with their parents, my cousin Sebastian and his wife Mareike.

On May 13th, Henry was born. Here he is with his parents: my cousin Philipp and his wife Doro.


My aunt organised a family BBQ for everybody to meet and Kocka and Katja even got a little gift for Quinn: a towing truck - which was towing a banana! Quinn was so excited about the banana that he would not play with the truck until the banana was eaten...:-)

And then Kocka started something which he probably wished he never had... Quinn could not get enough...

Besides the family-BBQ Quinn and I enjoyed a weekend with family and friends and wonderful weather. We got the garden furniture at my parents house cleaned and Quinn enjoyed helping.

The Simple Things in Life

Yes...it has been a while since the last post, but this is not because we haven't been busy. Along with trying to enjoy the nice weather and preparing for the new kids' room, we have taken the time to enjoy some family time.

Since it has been a while, I'll post the newest pics first.

Thursday was a holiday in Germany (Ascention Day), so in the afternoon we headed to a small village that had a small festival with homemade bread and pizza from a wood fired stove. Yum.
Since the village was in the sticks, there were plenty of farm animals for Quinn to look at...and some bales of hay that the kids were jumping off of. Quinn saw the kids, saw them jumping on the hay, looked at us to see if it was OK, and then started at it...and had a blast. Sometimes, the simplest toys are the most fun. He definitely is not allergic to hay.

The place was packed. The food was great, and the band playing traditional German music got your toes tapping. Quinn clapped along. Plus, there was beer for Papa! Yumm! My productivity after two beers for the rest of the afternoon was not very good...

Before Quinn took his nap, we 'bribed' him with the afternoon's event, saying: when you wake up, we'll go eat some pizza. When he woke up, his first words were 'Pizza essen' (eat pizza). The kid doesn't miss anthing when it comes to food.

As I mentioned, we are getting ready for the second child, which means that we are moving our office into the entry way. The whole act started last week with a trip to IKEA on a Friday night, which turned out to be the right move. We were exhausted, but it was finished. We even had dinner there: schnitzel & fries. Not very healthy, but very kid friendly.

If you've built IKEA shelving, you know it should be simple, but can eat up weekends in a hurry. We learned the hard way that Quinn doesn't like it when I use the big drill to drill holes.

He does, however, like it when the computer is much more accessible to him. Even though it was unplugged, he couldn't help from typing...

Quinn's other pasttime: taking my good pots and pans out of the drawer and putting them back. The kid loves to clean, sweep, and vaccuum. He DOES NOT get this from me.

Finally...in reverse order, is our trip to the zoo 2 weeks ago with our friends Tanja and Rene, which was their birthday gift to Quinn that we finally took them up upon (Thank You!). We had a good time, and the boys had fun as well.

Kids just love animals!

Oh...what I would give sometimes to know what was going on in Quinn's mind.

At the end of the day, especially after a great day today, where we got a lot done, and had a blast with Quinn outside (including a trip in the city for ice cream). We ran and rolled in the yard, played 'touchdown', and laughed. It was such fun. It makes it all worth it.

It is not all fun and games. Even though today was as close to a perfect day as one could have, Quinn has his days, and has been more difficult. We have heard that this is a phase, where the kids try to test their boundaries and where everything is 'mine'. It is not that Quinn is all that bad. He has, after all, spoiled us a bit...since he is generally a great child.

We have heard that this phase is normal, and that it is replaced by the 'why' phase. I can say that I'm really looking forward to this. Like any other parent, I have my days as well, and I was at my wits end last weekend. I had no idea how we could be good parents for our one child...let alone a second one.

I called my mom. We chatted for about 2 hours. It was nice to just vent a bit...and to hear that Quinn and I were 'normal'. As a parent, many times, all I want to hear is that my feelings as well as the actions of my child are 'normal'.

My mom also told me a great story from the time when I was Quinn's age...maybe I'll share this another time. But, after chatting with my mom, poking my head in Quinn's room and seeing him sleep so peacefully, I realized why children are so very cute when they sleep:

It's a self defense thing: so that the prehistoric men would not eat their children when they hit their 'terrible twos' and to give the 'modern man' a reminder of their love for their child, to remember that it really isn't all that bad, and that tomorrow will be yet an even better day.

Touchdown

So I'm reading the paper while having breakfast with Quinn this morning. I know it is better to actually focus on Quinn, but I cannot resist the headlines and the sports page.

As I get to the sports page, there is the usual soccer stuff, and of course, a few pics of soccer players.

Quinn looks at the paper, points at the picture, and says:

TOUCHDOWN!

Then he said 'Helm auf'...as if were odd that the soccer players weren't wearing their football helmets.

I guess he still has some American in him...