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Entries made in August, 2009

The Wait Continues

Monday, August 31st, 2009

The wait continues. We did the usual again today, reading, working and writing. We're both eager to go but we're falling into a nice, relaxing routine here. ...

Snowpeak Titanium Single Cup I

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

The Titanium Single Cup I is just that—a cup and most certainly not a mug. For some reason this very important detail escaped us as we were doing research, and we decided to purchase two of them. We chose them because we were foolishly concerned ...

Power Grips

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Power Grips are a very simple foot retention system originally designed for mountain biking in the 80s. They are nothing more than a pair of one inch wide straps that mount diagonally across your pedals. The straps themselves are made of a durabl...

Going Slowly Features

Friday, August 28th, 2009

I spent some time programming a few new features for our website today: You can view our photos (updated in realtime) from our website! You can now view our GPS tracks by country in addition to seeing them for a specific day. This is...

Camp Cookies

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Looking for something to do while we wait for our rims, I decided to do some baking today. I thought traditional Jewish jam-filled hamentaschen would be a good idea since we had all the ingredients on hand, and I was craving cookies. I started wit...

Howard

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

I was on the phone with my parents when I heard a faint little squeaking noise and thought I saw the shadow of some small animal burrowing under the corner of our tent. Then I spotted the culprit—a brazen little mouse came scurrying up to our food...

Holding Pattern

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

We're still in Silvaplana waiting for our new rims to arrive. It has only been three days and we're already getting a case of cabin fever! Hopefully we'll settle back into staying put, as it looks like we'll be here until early next week. Thankf...

Terry Liberator X Gel vs. Brooks Champion Flyer S

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Before riding a touring bicycle, the longest I'd ever spent in the saddle was riding back and forth to work on my beach cruiser. I didn't know what a saddle should feel like. I chose the Terry Liberator X Gel because Cindie from Down the Road had...

Velocity Rims

Monday, August 24th, 2009

UPDATE: One of our replacement rims failed too. Click here for a continuation of the story. I will be updating this post over the next few days as we sort out our wheel dilemma. My rear rim has failed and Tara's is on the way out in the exac...

Conquering Julierpass

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Today is the big day; our highest mountain climb ever will take us over Julierpass! For breakfast, I make us a large pot of muesli with cooked apples to keep us well fueled. Feeling full, we hit the road! 8:30 AM / 850m It is beautiful an...

Ascending & Descending

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

We said farewell to Chur under overcast skies, thankful for the gray cloud cover that would hopefully stick around and protect us from the sun. A long sweaty day of climbing is a lot more enjoyable when the sun isn't beating down on your back. ...

To Chur

Friday, August 21st, 2009

We started the day bright and early at 6:30AM so we could dash away safely from our relatively unhidden wild-camp last night. Breaking down was a quick affair, as we'd been careful to unpack as little as possible so as to afford ourselves an easy ...

Railway Wild Camp

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

We left Luzern today to begin our final leg in Switzerland. As we rolled out of camp it was already very hot; 30 kilometers into our ride we were feeling (and smelling) pretty sour. Dripping with sweat, Tara stopped in a tiny patch of shade and c...

Luzern Transit Museum

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

I spent at least six hours at the Transit Museum in Luzern today. The sheer amount of stuff they have on display is incredible, here are some photos from a few of the exhibits: Close up of a percussion drill used to bore holes in mountains for...

Working in Luzern

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Tyler programmed all day while I did our "household" (tent-hold?) chores, like handwashing all of our clothes and assessing our food situation. Here are a some little dudes who came to visit Tyler while he was working! He spoiled them with lot...

The Higher Road

Monday, August 17th, 2009

This morning we had a satisfying breakfast (the first one, it seems, in days) of cooked muesli, jazzed up with cinnamon and sugar. Afterwards, as we were packing we got to talking with our campsite neighbors—a family from the Brittany region of Fr...

Hungry

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

We started our day with a sad little breakfast of dry muesli. We had no yogurt, milk, jam, juice, or anything to spice it up. Our food supply lately has been very feast or famine. On the docket for today was to find a grocery store to stock up o...

Swiss Tour Guides

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

We had a short ride ahead of us today, only 25 kilometers to the town of Burgdorf where we would meet up with our friends, Ingrid and Yves! When we arrived we were greeted with warm hugs all around and as soon as we registered at the campsite, Ing...

Fun in Bern

Friday, August 14th, 2009

We weren't sure what to expect from Tara's dad's longtime friend, Bettina, but we were pleasantly surprised with the friendly, spunky, and incredibly generous woman who came to meet us at Bern's riverside campsite. Almost immediately after we f...

Souped Up

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

I am now the proud owner of a brand new Brooks Champion Flyer S saddle! It's a leather seat specifically designed for women, complete with sturdy springs that provide extra cushion on bumpy roads. Supposedly it won't be comfortable until it break...

12 Hour Work Day

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

The never ending stream of work continues to pour in. Thanks to a finely honed ability to compartmentalize the stress of each task before me it isn't too overwhelming. In any case, I am very thankful for such good clients. There isn't much to re...

Too Expensive

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

This morning we were relieved to find that the rain had stopped, held at bay by the rising sun cutting through the clouds. We took advantage of the sunshine, setting out our rain-fly and ground sheet to dry so we wouldn't have to pack them wet; Ty...

Unexpected Climb

Monday, August 10th, 2009

We left the campsite today cheerfully, feeling as though we'd done Zermatt justice. In just a few days we'd managed to do quite a bit: taking in a festival, riding cable cars, hiking in the mountains, and getting to know a few nice people. As we ...

Being Tourists

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Despite the forecast for snow today, the morning dawned brilliant and sunny. Thankful for the good weather, we decided to take advantage our last day in Zermatt rather than hiding out in the tent. Tyler was exhausted from yesterday's hike, so we ...

Hiking in the Swiss Alps

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

We'd planned on going for a proper hike through the mountains today but when we awoke to the sound of rain on our tent, we had second thoughts. For most of the morning we hemmed and hawed through the on again off again sprinkles, vacillating betwe...

Resting in Zermatt

Friday, August 7th, 2009

This super friendly French-Canadian couple, Lise and Clarence, took up tandem cycle touring after they retired two years ago. We had lots of fun exchanging stories about our travels! Clarence was especially amused by his worried children. "Can y...

Climbing to Zermatt

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

After a long crepe-making/eating session this morning (in preparation for our mountain climb), we hit the road and headed into the town of Visp. As we left our campground the bicycle lane we enjoyed yesterday was nowhere to be found, leaving us on...

Cycling Family

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Last night while we were settled in at camp, a big group of cycle tourists rolled in. A whole family of them! The father pulling a giant trailer behind him, the mother fully loaded with an adorable little blond girl in a seat on the back. We wat...

Bad Mood

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

When we first left on our bicycle trip I remember feeling like I had to be a single-minded, fearless adventurer who never showed any lack of resolve. It used to be a rare occurrence that I would admit any discomfort, feeling that doing so was a co...

Feasting with Natalie

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Last night when we returned from our trip to Geneva I checked my email and was excited to see that I had a message from my brother. He'd sent us a note to say that his friend from high school, Natalie, is studying at EPFL, a university in Lausanne ...

Geneva

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

We decided early in the afternoon that we would go to Geneva, thinking it would be nice to do something productive during our rest day. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I suggested this; we definitely don't have any trouble in the "being prod...

Suddenly Switzerland

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

We awoke in a field of dew, the sun hurling down heat much sooner than usual as it rose on the east side of the mountains. Our free-camp field was plagued by flies; more than we'd ever seen in our lives. They swarmed around us and our tent loudly...