Bachalpsee, Grindelwald
Neil, Nick and I took the iSUPs up to Bachalpsee, a mountain
lake up the First gondola in Grindewald. This is exactly the reason why having
inflatables are so perfect! You can carry them on your back and enjoy paddling
in places where many just dream they could. Bachalspee is one of those places.
It took about 25 minutes up the gondola and when we got to the top we could see
awesome views of the Eiger, the Monk with Jungfrau just on the other side. The
Swiss Alps up close are amazing! From the gondola at the top it took about 45
minutes to walk to the lakes. It was a beautiful warm day, but the water was
absolutely freezing. We paddled around, got lots of video and pics to use for
SUP Switzerland and it has to be one of the most beautiful places we’ve paddled
so far! See our video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUNzGwZMU8
Wonderful Tuscany
Our trip to Tuscany was the highlight of our summer vacation, just wish it lasted longer than 4 days.
We arrived in Florence via the train and stayed in a small
little place just down the street from the magnificent Duomo. We had a bit of
time to wander around, check out some shops, a few churches and walk down to the
river. Florence, while busy, felt much more relaxed then Rome or Venice. We had
an early night as the next morning we would set out on our bikes to discover
the many hills of the Tuscan countryside.
We rented hybrid bikes in the center of Florence from
Florence by Bike. They set up with everything we needed including paneers that
we could put all of our stuff in for the next couple nights. Getting out of the
city was a bit daunting, but didn’t take long and just an hour later we were
already in the hills and amongst the vineyards. Of course that was an uphill
climb the whole way and that seemed to be the case for our entire trip until
the very end.
We rode through small villages along the winding road as we
headed south to our first stop, for lunch, in Greve in Chianti about 3 hours
later. A popular small town to stop in with a cute square filled with al fresco
restaurants and had what I thought was our first ‘real’ taste of Italian. The
food in Italy up until this point was good, but nothing spectacular and our
meal here in Greve was fantastic. Carbo-loaded up for the next part of the ride
we went up (mostly up) and down the winding countryside and came to a very
small town up a extremely steep hill off the main road called Panzano which had an great view looking
down into the valley filled with vineyards.
About 2 hours later we turned off the SR 222 and thinking
our hotel was just a few km down the road decided to stop at a winery for a
glass or two before we made our final journey. It was a more modern and artsy
winery with a delicious chianti merlot mix. We enjoyed the views and relaxing
for a while before we got back in the saddle again.
Sadly for us, our hotel was definitely not just around the
corner and another 15 km later, up hill we found ourself in Raada in Chianti
and praying that our hotel was close! We were relieved when we were told it was
just around the corner. It was just approaching 5pm when we arrived to check
in. Nick had made the reservation and told them it was my birthday (a day early
though) in hopes of an upgrade and well it only kind of worked. There was an
upgrade waiting for us, which was great, but it was for the next night and we
were only staying at this hotel for one night. Nick had booke the room for the
wrong night! Thankfully, they had 1 very small, corner room overlooking the
road. So it wasn’t as perfect as it could have been, ie opening the windows of
our upgraded suite to the expansive vineyard views below, but it was going to
have to do. Our hotel was awesome, traditional tuscan style on the side of a hill
with great views and a pool.
The next morning I got up early to lay by the pool before we
set sail again, Nick wanted to sleep a bit more, I didn’t mind I was just
waiting for a “Happy Birthday” from him! He eventually got down the pool, then
we had breakfast, then we went up to sit on the terrace when it finally clicked
at about 9:30 that it was my birthday! Okay, so he felt pretty bad and had ran
upstairs to get the card (he did have a card already)! Around 11am my birthday
ride began and we thankfully the next 4 hour ride seemed to have a few more
dowhills. The scenery just seemed to get better and better as we continued all
the way to Siena, our next stop.
Siena is beautiful old city that is still surrounded by a
wall dating back to medieval times. We stayed a cute hotel just outside the
city gates and enjoyed the views on the terrace with some wine before we went
out for a birthday dinner. We really liked Siena and had the best meal we’ve
had in Italy so far. We were recommended a few places by our hotel and chose
this Tavern that was looked like an old wine cellar. We actually got a table
considering we didn’t make a reservation and they were full, we told them we’d
eat in less than an hour, which for Italian standard is pretty atypical, but was
okay for us. Nick had a filet wrapped in filo pastry, which was good, but
didn’t compare to my chocolate pasta with a wild boar sauce. Yes, who knew this
combination would work, but it did and it was wonderful. They even sang happy
birthday and brought us desert while everyone in the small restaurant clapped
and sang along. Not a bad birthday at all!
The next morning was our final day of riding. We were told
that we MUST go to San Gimgiano then we could easily ride back to Certaldo and
catch the train to Florence. Our legs were already tired from 2 days of riding,
but we powered on and besides I still hadn’t seen my sunflowers! I really
really wanted to see those sunflowers fields that you see in postcards and
didn’t think my trip would be complete if I didn’t. Everyone kept saying they
are everywhere, but up until this point we still had yet to see a single
sunflower, nevermind a entire field of them. Now I had decreased my
expectations after some research finding out that we perhaps were a bit late in
the season to see the sunflowers in full bloom, but I still had hope.
We left Siena just after breakfast and headed outside of the
city back North. About 45 minutes into our ride we were heading down hill and
tadah I could seem them in the distance thousands and thousands of sunflowers!
I started flying down the hill only to get to the bottom and find that they
were all dead, well except for one lone one that had somehow survived. Oh well,
at least we saw them.
For the next 2 hours we would pass by field after field
after field, of dead sunflowers that is. What a magnificent sight this would be
if we came just 2 weeks earlier! We rode through a few small towns surrounded
by walls perched up high in the hills and eventually saw signs for San
Gimigiano. With only 5 km to go we were getting excited, but realized that this
would be the hardest climb yet. 5km straight uphill. We were told at the
beginning of the trip by the bike shop that you really earn your views when you
cycle Tuscany and boy was she right. This was the hardest climb the whole time,
but well worth it at the top. We had lunch in San Gimgiano and took in again
the amazing scenery and then it was on to the train station.
Just outside of San Gimgiano we turned a corner and there
they were maybe not thousands, but a couple hundred sunflowers still alive! We
were probably up so high that they were still in bloom, super excited! This
last part of the ride got even better because for the next 14 km we descended
down hill the whole entire way until we got to the train station. We relaxed as
we flew down the road taking in the final glimpses of the Tuscan countryside.
We’ll definitely be back someday.
Vienna, Austria
Cruising around Vienna
Biggest and best Schnitzel ever
St. Stephen's Cathedral at night
at the Parliament building
Museum Quarter
Stresa, Italy
We’ve had a lot of rain in Switzerland since we arrived. Not exactly what we expected since last year when we visited we had nothing but sunshine and warm temps. Thankfully, we have Eurail pass and in just 2 shorts hours from Thun by train we were in sunny and warm Italy! We took our iSUPs with us for a paddle day trip to Stresa, Italy. We had seen Stresa from the train when we came back from Venice, located right on Lake Maggiore, it looked beautiful and a great place paddle. There are 3 islands off the coast that you can take a ferry to or for us, paddle to and so we spent the day exploring the islands, it was absolutely gorgeous! We were back in Thun by 8:00, definitely beat sitting inside waiting for the rain to stop! Check out the video on You Tube too here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_VTIuv2Ec
Zurich, Switzerland with an old friend
We spent the night in Zurich with an old friend Carole and her boyfriend Flo. Carole was an exchange student when I was in 11th grade who swam and played polo with us. Better late then never as it’s taken almost 12 years to meet up again. We had dinner at a traditional Swiss restaurant with schnitzel and rosti. Rosti is delicious heart attack food, but once isn’t going to kill you. Hasbrowns, onions, bacon, cheese and butter, what else could you ask for!
Rome, Italy
Rome, wow. It was overwhelming. We had 3 days and 2 nights and we definitely didn’t get to see everything, there’s just way too much history surrounding this city. The Colosseum was really cool and the Roman Forum, amazing! Although, heading to Rome in July makes for extremely long lines and an enormous amount of people everywhere! Thankfully, we had read about the Roma pass, which was a lifesaver. It let us choose 3 places to cut the line and go through the fast track. Considering the line to the Colosseum was almost 3 hours, the 25 euros we spent on these were priceless. I loved all the statues, the architecture (what a dream for architectures buffs and students alike) and walking the small cobblestone streets. We threw some coins and made a wish in the Trevi fountain and took a free walking tour of the Pantheon and Spanish steps, again…so much history!
Roman Forum
Trevi Fountain
Colosseum
Parthenon
We enjoyed more Italian food and sampled an apertivo one night which is quite popular with locals. It’s like a happy hour, but serves tapas for free from around 4-7pm and that was enough to call it dinner. Of course we had our fair share of pizza and pasta as well as gelato to make another real authentic Italian experience while in Roma. Oh and we did visit a cafe called Bar Pompi that had the best Tiramisu in town, just wish we had time to go there more than once!
apertivo time
absolute best tiramisu
The last day we visited the Vatican City which I never knew was actually its own country and protected by the Swiss Army. We did a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistene Chapel, the Vatican Museum, unreal. From Michelangelo’s et. al paintings to all of the sculptures and the overall architectures of each of these places was awesome.
Vatican City
Grad School is finished!
It's official!
So after 2 years, I finally finished my Masters. I am looking forward to having a lot of extra time now, especially in the evening and on the weekends to do much more fun stuff then just writing papers and studying!
Congratulation Flowers from Nick
Full Moon Paddle on Lake Thun
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