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
1st SUP Swiss Championship
The 1st SUP Swiss Championship sponsored by Nidecker was held on Lake Geneva at Prevanges beach. Both Nick and I took part in the race in the 10km, which ended up being around 12.8 km, definitely felt longer then 10 km as we raced. Thankfully we’ve been doing a bit of paddling so managed, but racing a real long distance race should have a bit more training before hand! Nonetheless we did well and I won the women’s race and also won the women’s 5 km race as well. Paddling just around 20 km in a day was a lot, but someone crazy enough had to do it! It was a beautiful day and knew quite a few people from the International Surfing Day as well as around the area in which we live who we’ve been paddling with were also there.
the beginning of the 10k
me rounding the buoy
Nick looking good
finishing the 10km race
1st place in the 5km
1st place in the 10k for the ladies (I was the only one)
Venice, Italy
6 hours from Thun and we were in Venice. Easy enough with our rail passes in hand and a few days free during the week. Stepping out of the train station, we were right in there in the real Venice! The only Venice we’ve ever known has been the Venetian hotel in both Las Vegas and Maccau! We booked a bed and breakfast and upon crossing the first bridge over one of the canals and taking a turn at the first small street , I knew this would be a town where a map is absolutely necessary! We zig zagged our way through the tiny streets and eventually found our B&B called ‘Happy Venice’. It was overlooking a canal just over a bridge.
that's me in the window of our room!
When we arrived the lady answered the door, a old Italian women with absolutely NO English, yet she’s been doing this with her daughter (I assume she speaks English) for years. In Italian, and only Italian she explained everything we needed to know and more or less understood as she showed us the house. The place had only 3 rooms, 2 of which over looked the canal and one of them was ours! The gondolas would come rowing by our window and people stopped to take pictures on the bridge. It was a great location and we definitely chose a winner!
We stayed in Venice for 2 nights and while we walked a ton and crossed a thousand bridges, we also ate and drank a ton as well. We visited the beautiful churches and a couple museums and in the evening enjoyed real Italian food including gelato with plenty of wine. While we didn’t get to Stand Up Paddle in the canals, the highlight of the trip was learning to row a gondola. Instead of taking a quick 20 minute gondola ride for way too much money, we saved the romance and opted to learn how drive one instead. Jane from Row in Venice, taught us how to for a 2 hour session on a canal. While we weren’t on the Grand Canal, a smaller less busy one was much better suited to us first timers. Before we headed out, as we watched the Gondoliers the day before, they make it look effortless. Motorboats and water taxis zip in and out of the gondolas and they have no problems not running into each other. While they make it look effortless, for us it definitely wasn’t a walk in the park.
Jane showed us the basic stroke on her 2 man gondola and then we set off for a couple hours of rowing. The front man was obviously easier then the back one who was in charge of steering. It’s amazing how they can actually steer this around the tight corners of the canals and boat traffic without hitting anyone else or tipping over. We can’t say we became experts after our 2 hour less, but did manage to get a little better at the technique and helping row this big boat back to the marina safely. It was great, but both Nick and I think we’ll stick to SUP.
We stayed in Venice for 2 nights and while we walked a ton and crossed a thousand bridges, we also ate and drank a ton as well. We visited the beautiful churches and a couple museums and in the evening enjoyed real Italian food including gelato with plenty of wine. While we didn’t get to Stand Up Paddle in the canals, the highlight of the trip was learning to row a gondola. Instead of taking a quick 20 minute gondola ride for way too much money, we saved the romance and opted to learn how drive one instead. Jane from Row in Venice, taught us how to for a 2 hour session on a canal. While we weren’t on the Grand Canal, a smaller less busy one was much better suited to us first timers. Before we headed out, as we watched the Gondoliers the day before, they make it look effortless. Motorboats and water taxis zip in and out of the gondolas and they have no problems not running into each other. While they make it look effortless, for us it definitely wasn’t a walk in the park.
Jane showed us the basic stroke on her 2 man gondola and then we set off for a couple hours of rowing. The front man was obviously easier then the back one who was in charge of steering. It’s amazing how they can actually steer this around the tight corners of the canals and boat traffic without hitting anyone else or tipping over. We can’t say we became experts after our 2 hour less, but did manage to get a little better at the technique and helping row this big boat back to the marina safely. It was great, but both Nick and I think we’ll stick to SUP.
St. Marks Square
Lausanne, Switzerland
Suzanne and I and the view!
We checked out the city of Lausanne and Lutry on Lake Geneva before heading to the Swiss SUP championship race. We met, fellow paddler, Susanne at the International Surfing Day a couple weeks before and she invited us to stay with her for the weekend! It’s always great to have locals to show you around town. There was a big gymnastic competition going on, so the small town Lutry where she lived was housing the Australian team and had all sorts of Australian flags up around town, a warm welcome for Nick! The area is absolutely beautiful with the vineyards lining the surrounding hills.
walking in the village of Lutry
welcome Nick!
having some Swiss raclette
Basel
One of the great advantages of buying an unlimited Eurail pass is being able to just jump on a train for the day and discover a new city. This past week we went to Basel for a few hours. We walked around the historic old town, visited a few churches, ate lunch on the river and did some shopping. It’s a much bigger town then Thun, but still small enough to walk around and see most of the sights of the old area in an afternoon.
SUP White Water Camping Swiss Grand Canyon
Nick, Neil and I took a white water SUP camping trip to the Swiss Grand Canyon for 2 nights. It was July 4th and Nick remembered everything to help celebrate even if it was in Switzerland and with an Aussie and a Englishman! Earlier in the day he surprised me with a an piece of apple pie and when we got to the campground after a beautiful 3 hour drive through the mountains, he had brought not only ingredients for smores, but also sparklers to celebrate. We set up camp including, Neil’s huge luxury 3 room tent and cooked dinner. These were followed by smores and a few attempts to spell out USA in sparklers. I think it was the 6th try and we finally got it. I said that we weren’t going to bed until we did it successfully!
Happy July 4th from Switzerland
making s'mores
a beautiful church in the mountains
These cows blocked the road for a while during our drive
In the morning we woke up and drove down to the river to start our paddling adventure. The bottom half was easier and was good to get some practice. These rivers are not deep here unlike the US and prove to be more technical then what I would imagine on others. Add to it the lack of rain and the water levels were quite shallow with plenty of rocks popping up. I think my thoughts were just don’t get hurt and it will be a success. The scenery around was amazing and the coolest part about it was around 3 hours later after having paddled and surfed a few stationary waves we got out walked up to the train station which lines the river and took it back to where we began in about 5 minutes. We took a break and had a great lunch by the river and then did another run in the afternoon. A combination of having a little more confidence and switching to Neils 12’6 river runner board made the 2nd go much easier for me.
on a standing wave
Nick powering through the rapids
I made it through as well!
Me in a riverbug
after the first day, us 3 waiting for the train
that's the river we paddled down below
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