Euro Christmas Trip 2010 (part 2)

One of the good things about visiting places in the winter is that tourist traffic is way down. The downside, though, is that many things aren't open or have weird hours.

On Christmas Eve day, pretty much everything we tried to visit was closed. Families in Europe usually get together for their holiday dinner on 12/24. After driving around for most of the day, we got back to Brugge and had dinner at a Thai restaurant. Nothing too exciting.

Christmas was the day of this trip we were probably looking most forward to. It was the day we'd be going back to our favorite cafe and I'll save that for a separate post.

We got back into Brugge after dinner on Christmas and went out to bar with a huge beer list - Cambrinus. You have to love it when you go to a place in Belgium and the beer menu is an inch thick book. While we were sitting there, the couple from Naples came in too. We found out we were all going to be in Brussels for New Years, so we tentatively planned to meet up.

On the 26th, we headed south with the ultimate goal of making it to Luzern Switzerland and visit with a friend from our recent raft trip. Along the way, we decided to swing through Westvletern. Thankfully they were open and we got to enjoy all three of their beers: 12, 8, and blond. So good. While we were still finishing our beers, I went to the gift shop and picked up a couple 6-packs. You're allowed a max of 24 per person, but I thought I'd try to be conservative and same some space in the luggage. Christine talked me into picking up an additional 12. :)

We continued on south to Paris. We decided to try and go to Christine's favorite boulangerie (which ended up being closed) and then stay in Dijon. As you'd expect, we got into Paris and hit traffic. It was my first time driving in Paris though, so that was fun. I love driving in Europe. It's aggressive, and in the city you zig-zag through lanes as you see fit. On the highway, the left lane is used for passing. It's an amazing concept.

We thought about just staying in Paris for the night, but eventually decided to carry on to Dijon. In retrospect, we should have just stayed in Paris. There was an hour long traffic jam on the way to Dijon which meant that we were going to get there too late to go out and grab a nice dinner. We ended up just eating at a pizza joint across from the hotel. It was a bummer to be driving out there in the dark too, because we didn't get to see the countryside. Although, it had been overcast and foggy in Europe since we arrived, so even in the daylight we wouldn't be able to see much.

The next morning in Dijon we went to the bakery near our hotel and they had surprisingly good croissants and pain au chocolate. I wish we would have picked up more. It was another dreary day, so we could even see any of the mountains as we made our way into Switzerland. In Luzern, we set up at a nice hotel downtown. Christine had some work to do, so I walked around town and did some shopping.

In the evening, we went out to dinner with our friend, Petra, who we met on our Grand Canyon raft trip. We went out to dinner at a local brew-pub with good beer and Petra gave us the scoop on some things to do around Luzern. After dinner, we walked around and then went for drinks at a bar top floor of a nearby hotel with a nice view of the city.

We were ready to see the sights the next morning, but it was another foggy day. It would have been nice to ride gondolas up to the nearby mountains, but there wouldn't have been much of a view. If we had brought some outdoor attire, we could have played in the snow. Instead we walked around the city some more and decided that we should maybe head out the next morning if it wasn't clear out.

That evening, Petra invited us over for a Swiss dish called raclette. It involves melting cheese under a tabletop grill with some onions and bacon and then pouring it over potatoes. So yeah, it was pretty good.

Euro Christmas Trip 2010 (part 1)

Christine and I spent this Christmas in Europe. Originally we had planned to spend most of our time in Belgium, but we made a last minute change when Christine was potentially allergic to beer. If you're going to Belgium in the winter, you're going to be drinking some beer. So here's how it went down.

Europe got hit with some massive snowfalls in the days leading up to our trip, but we were still able to get into Brussels without much trouble. We picked up our car, mentioned that we'd probably be going through Switzerland and Germany, and we found out that it's against the law now to drive there without snow tires. Our car didn't have snow tires. Hmmm. The Hertz guy was super helpful though and found out they were expecting a properly equipped car to be coming back later that afternoon and he'd call us when it came in. That gave us an excuse to hang around Brussels for the afternoon.

Our first stop was the Atomium, a structure built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair that represents a iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. The drive there through a snowy park area was really nice. The structure is impressive as you drive up. You can go up in some of the spheres and there are exhibits inside. I must say, though, that you're better of just looking at it from the outside. The exhibits inside aren't very interesting. On a clear day, it's probably a nice view from inside.

From the Atomium, we drove around the city to the village of Beersel to visit Drie Fonteinen. They make some of the best Geuzes in the world. Aside from the cafe owner and her friend, we were the only two people there and we sat down to enjoy some of their finest. A short while later, the brewer, Armond, came into the cafe with another couple Americans who were visiting and offered to take us to his barrel aging warehouse down the street. It's one of those moments where you happen to be in the right place at the right time I guess.

We walked to his warehouse and he showed us around the small space. He had just gotten some unfermented wort and his assistant was pumping it into barrels. He mentioned that he doesn't usually do tours, because he prefers to just do the work. But it was the holidays. :) We were thankful that he spent so much time talking with us both at the cafe and at the barrel room. We learned some interesting things about his past and the potential future of the brewery (or lack there of due to a big fire in 2009).

We had brought over some beers from the US for just an occasion like this. What better way to say thanks than to give someone the gift of a special brew from the US? We went back to the car, grabbed the bottle, and headed back to the warehouse. We brought him an Avery Depuceleuse - one of their wild fermented barrel aged projects. We were just going to give it to him and leave, but he insisted on opening it up right away and sharing it with his assistant. I was nervous that he wouldn't like it, but he was genuinely surprised that it was good. He said it was "One of the better ones" and went on to say how several other similar beers he's tried from the US were too vinegary.

After he finished the beer, he said "I'm going to open something special." He disappeared to another room and came back with a dusty old unlabeled bottle. Based on the information stamped on the cork, he knew it was something he bottled about 10 years ago. We couldn't believe that he was opening a 10 year old Geuze for us. (Geuze, like many wines, ages really well and finding an old one is a nice treat.) Oh man, it was delicious. So smooth and dry with a slight bitterness. What a special treat. Then he rinsed out our glasses and poured something right out from one of the stainless steel vessels in the room. It was a kriek that still had the cherries seeping in it. Whoa, was it good. They were local wild cherries, and the tart cherry flavor was great. I would love to taste that same beer in a few years.

By the end of that amazing experience, it was time to go pick up our snow-tire'd car and head to our B&B in Brugge. It was a really nice place. Really close to the main square downtown and our room overlooked the street. After we settled in, we went to a beer cafe called Brugs Beertje. It was here, apparently, that the New Belgium founder had his epiphany to create his company. It's a cozy place with a great beer list and a must for any beer fan visiting Brugge.

On our way out, we met a couple other Americans, Garrett and Sue. They live in Naples, Italy where Garrett plays trombone for the Navy band. They were traveling the area drinking beer too, and we'd run into them later.

The Grand Canyon

We've been back from the Grand Canyon for over a week now and a lot of people have asked to hear about the trip. Eventually I'll have much more to say, but I want to make sure I have time to do it justice.

In short it was amazing. This is my third trip through the Grand Canyon on a raft, and each time I come away with something different. This was my first oar trip, and moving down the river with nothing but the sound of the oars creaking in the oar locks is a beautiful thing.

I'll probably type up and post my journal like I did last time, and I kind of hope to do more of a summary post prior to that. Stay tuned.

Back in the saddle

Back from vacation, it's time get on with the riding. Early on this year, I kind of figured that I wouldn't do as much cyclocross racing this year as last year. So far, I think I'm right. The long vacation has kind of gotten me out of the training groove. But cyclocross is fun regardless of your fitness level. Unlike a criterium, where getting dropped in the first lap means your race is over, in a 'cross race you're still out there having a good time by yourself.

My race start time wasn't until 4PM so I had plenty of time to sleep in before heading out to a new venue in Allenspark. The course had all sorts of technical features that made it a challenge for a slacker like me. It wasn't "scary" technical, but "fun" technical. I wish I had a course like that to practice on near home. I'm sure it exists, I just need to find it.

Since I missed the only points race of the season so far, I wasn't getting a call-up to the start line. It's probably better that way, since I'm feeling kind of slow. Instead, I pretty much started at the back and took it easy for the first lap. After that, I hit the gas, and started having some fun. I had a couple mechanical issues - dropped chain, pedal issues, and a front derailleur that wasn't adjust right, but whatever. Not sure where I finished, but I had a good time. Fun to have some teammates on the sidelines cheering/heckling.

Green Mountain Sports CX #1

Time for another race season. My season opener this year, as it was last year, was the Green Mountain Sports CX in Golden.

I started the day out by working as an official. This is a new thing for me. For the past few years, I've wanted to do some officiating and I finally made the time to take the test this spring. Why would I want to do such a thankless job? I feel like it's a good chance for me to do something to support the sport besides just showing up in lycra. I don't know how to balance racing and officiating just yet, but I'm giving it a try.

There are some racers who understand the officials and the thankless work they do, and there are those that don't. The latter should spend some time with the officials some day so they can learn to not be such pricks. (Thankfully, that's a small number of racers.) On the flip-side, I wish all officials would suit up and do some racing. There are things that may not be apparent to a non-racing official but may be obvious if they saw things from the other side of the scorers table. In the end, I think our officials do a fantastic job day-in and day-out and we wouldn't be able to have safe and fair competition without them.

A little side note about appreciative racers: I've volunteered at a few CX races before and now worked as an official, and generally you'll get some "thank you's" from participants. It's much appreciated. Yesterday as he crossed the finish line after an hour long suffer-fest, Aaron Bouplon used some precious breaths to thank the officials. I don't know Boops, but he always seems super nice at the races and really appreciates being able to race. I've heard him share his thanks on many occasions, and it's a really nice gesture.

On to the race. I took off my officiating hat, put on my lycra, and set out on the course for some warmup laps. In record high heat (90+), I don't know if "warmup" is the right term. I usually like to take a couple laps a low speed and then do some stuff at race pace to pick my lines and open up my legs. I just couldn't seem to get my engine to turn over in the heat. I was a little drained from being out in the sun all day (oh, and an Ommegang brewmaster's dinner the night before didn't help).

They used last years results to do call-ups, so I actually got the front row. My plan was to just settle in mid pack the first couple laps and then find some motivation to "race".

It's a tricky course for me - really loose and bumpy. I wish I could find something near-by to practice corning in loose dirt like that because I know I was going way too slow for a lot of sections. In addition to the loosyness, good passing sections were also limited. That made it really easy for me to get complacent, sit on someone's wheel for a while and recover until there was a good place for me to pass.

I was really unmotivated to race until someone near the start/finish was trying to encourage his friend to drop me. Then he had to go and say the Velonews magazine (my team) sucked. I decided that was good time to start going hard and I put at least 30 seconds into that dude that lap. Sometimes it's all about finding a reason to go hard. :)

I finished in the top 15, which surprised me. I'm on racing hiatus until mid-October. I probably won't be that fit, and I probably wont be that motivated to train, but I still hope to get out there and dominate the mid-pack. :)

Moto to Flagstaff??

Apparently, not everyone got the memo that Christine and I are going to ride our motorcycles to Flagstaff, AZ. That's probably because I never sent the memo.

A year and a half ago, Christine and I booked ourselves on a raft trip through the Grand Canyon. I've done it before (twice in fact), but on the last trip I just knew that it was something Christine needed to do. I recently looked through my journal from the last trip and these were the last words I wrote:

I need to take another Grand Canyon vacation. An oar trip next time though.

So that what we're doing. A 16-day float trip through the Grand Canyon with ample time for hiking to some amazing places from the river.

How could we possibly make this trip better? Motorcycles. We're going to ride our motorcycles down. We'll ride from Fort Collins to Durango one day and from Durango to Flagstaff the next. We've never taken a trip like this, so I have no idea how it's going to work out. If all else fails, we park the bikes somewhere and rent a car.

The bikes are equipped and ready to go. Maybe this trip is just an excuse to tinker with the bikes. Here are some of the things we've added:
- Cruise Control / Throttle Lock
- Extra tool storage
- Aux fuse box
- Heated jackets
- Highway pegs
- Bike-to-bike intercom
- Power jacks for jackets, cell phones, gps, etc.

I'm excited to get rolling.

Moto mayhem

In a few weeks, Christine and I will embark on our longest motorcycle ride to date: Fort Collins to Flagstaff. We've been busy getting our bikes and gear ready for the long haul.

I've spent a lot of time in the garage over the past week installing cruise control on my bike. Not a throttle lock, but full-on cruise control. Conceptually it's pretty simple. There's a control unit that can tug on the throttle as it monitors speed, tach, and brake. As you might expect, it's a little involved to hook it all up.

It started with a teardown of the bike. I had to remove most of the body panels, the gas tank, the air cleaner (harder than it sounds), and even the throttle bodies. Having never taken that much off the bike, it was a little scary and I often wondered if it would all go back together. From there, I had to hook up the control unit and all of the wires. Sounds simple in words, but it took a long time and several trips to the hardware store.



Finally it was time to put things back together and cross my fingers. Once I got far enough along in the reassembly I could hook up the battery and test my wiring. So far so good, everything seemed to be working. Then I finished putting the bike together and started it up. The first time I tried to start it, I had forgotten to hook up the fuel line to the throttle body and the fuel pump spit a bunch of gas on me. Nice. After rectifying that situation, the bike started up and ran perfectly. Pretty exciting.

Then comes the scary part - a test ride. I put on all of my gear and set out to see what happens when you let a computer (and a marginally competent engineer) mess with your throttle. I got out on an open road near the house and hit the "set" button. To my amusement, I could feel the computer take ahold of the throttle and maintain my speed. It was super sweet. I tested out all the other features and everything worked great. I'm ready for some long highway miles. I still have some finishing work to do (like mounting the control pad), but it's mostly done.

In addition to the work on my bike, I made a couple modifications to Christine's. She wanted to be able to stretch her legs out a bit while riding, so I added some highway pegs. That's still a work in progress as we try to find a position that's comfortable for her. I'm not ready to tackle the cruise control install on her bike, but for now I've installed a throttle lock. Unlike cruise control, it takes some adjusting as you ride, but it will help give the throttle hand some relief.

On the wardrobe side, Christine had some height added to her boots. Even with a lowered bike, it's hard for her to get her feet down. The added bit of sole really helps.

And to top it all off, we added some new white leather pants and a white leather jacket. Hotness ensued.