Nearly December and Still Riding!

Amazingly the weather today is still wonderful enough for a decent cycle ride. It's a bit chilly but not freezing cold and only a slight breeze. Still wishing for snow to arrive for the skiing season though :-(

Back in UK for Arsenal

Back in UK for Arsenal V Fulham and the game was a little anti-climatic after our recent form but a 1-1 draw is not the end of the world. At least the 5.30pm KO meant that I was able to meet an old friend from here in Basel who Claire and I met through our good friends Jim & Beth (though Susan lives in USA she was on a Girl's weekend in London). Met up in a lovely restaurant in Chiswick, La Trompette, but no time for food for me even if the menu looked wonderful!

Yet another trip across the border to see my favorite Bundesliga side in SC Freiburg play. The team has been struggling this season and was in the bottom two so being 0-2 down at half time it was not looking good. Thankfully a great second half comeback saw them get the game back to 2-2 and it could have been much better but for a very strange decision to disallow a goal at 1-2. The equaliser came in the 90+4 minute of the game!

Day 1 Swiss Mini Tour

So I've finally managed to organise the little four day tour from Kaiseraugst that does a loop into the Mitteland and back along the Rhine. It utilises three of the Swiss national Cycle Routes (3,5 & 2) with one big climb today but pretty flat after that. This is good for Claire who joins me tomorrow (arriving by train in Kloten) and Sunday.

Today was a hard morning as I climbed out of Gelterkinden up to around 800m only to find a very foggy and cold summit after a sunnier ascent. The fog stayed all the way to Baden and it never quite as warm as expected even in the late afternoon sun here in Regensdorf.

In numbers: 93km, 950m climbing, 4900cals, 5hrs in saddle, highest pt 780m Times lost 1!

Tour 2 Day 1

Wasn't sure what to expect yesterday with such a change in group size - up from 5 to 18 plus an extra guide or two! Turns out it's exactly the same sort of day just a lot busier. Went well but was a lot more tired which was no surprise

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Day 4 (easy) & Day 5 (rest)

So the group had a relatively easy day on day 4 and arrived at the lunch stop (in the middle of nowhere) very early. After that I managed to get to the hotel where the bikes were to be stored in plenty of time to get on the spare bike. I then rode back along the route to meet the cyclists at Spiez for the rest of their ride.

On the rest day Claire came up from Basel to Wengen and we walked around from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidigg in the sunshine. After that we took the route following the Lauberhorn ski run that was now the domain of a cow herd!

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Day 3 - Tour (and hard work) Begins

So finally we get to start the tour though one light as one cyclist was unfortunately stuck in Houston due to technical issues. Thankfully she arrived at end of the day and joined the rest of us for dinner.

My work day went smoothly enough with the bag collection and dropping off relatively easy with a small group such as this one. Lunch seemed to go down well with the surprise hits being Apfelschorle ( a fizzy apple juice) and not so surprisingly, Swiss chocolate.

Hotel in a great setting overlooking the lake and we had an unexpected bonus of a Degustation du Vin with local producer. There was also a little gift when i discovered a free wifi connection (unfortunately it disappeared by morning :-( ).

Day 2 - Preparations

As I sit in the hotel room looking out to black skies, stormy weather and heavy rain i'm guessing the pre-tour drinks on the lake shore may not be taking place!

Never mind the day has gone well with a trip to France to pick up the van, collecting cutlery & crockery for the lunch stops as well as getting the lunch for tomorrow.

Here's hoping for sunnier skies tomorrow.

New Job Day 1

Well I'm just boarding the train to Bern (and then on to Geneva) as I start this new and first job here in Switzerland. Not sure what to expect but am looking forward to it. Also had a telephone interview with London 2012 volunteer selection group. A little too open and not very specific set of questions so not too sure how I did. Just have to wait & see.

Oh and this is the first blog post I'm attempting by email!

First Road Cycle Trip of Year

Managed to do a little maintenance on the road bike and got out for a short whizz to Weil Am Rein and back...

My Favourite Ride to Bad Sackingen

It may just be April but it was so warm that I actually got sun burnt on this trip to Bad Sackingen and back today, managing a little beer in the Black Whale of course!

Spring Rides Start

So here is my first real Spring ride in the sunshine in 2011!

LINK

Kaiseraugst Fasnacht Recovery!

It's 4.00pm and I'm just recovering from last night's excess at the Fasnachts-Finale which I went to expecting to stay till around 11.00pm and ended up getting home at 4.30am!!!! Thanks to Clemens, Petra and the rest for dragging me down into the bar and keeping me there..

Emmetten Oldie Ball 2011

Here is the beautiful view that greeted us as we arrived at Emmetten to stay with our good friends, Bridgitte & Peter (and their daughter Elina), for a weekend of skiing / sledging. Claire had arranged this as a surprise for our wedding anniversary (now our 7th).

After a wonderful meal cooked by Peter we also enjoyed the fun of the "Oldies Ball" at the Hotel Engel with large Oktoberfest style beers and schnapps!

Cardboard Done...

Just back in after the important task of getting the monthly (well more like six weekly) cardboard ready for recycling tomorrow morning. Missed getting it out one evening and they turned up at about 7am - never even noticed, fast asleep!!

NEW CAR!

Here's the new car that I've been blogging about. Love the Swiss and their trusting nature with regard to paying for things. How do you pay for a brand new car costing quite a lot of money here?

They gave us their Bank details (IBAN etc) and say, "transfer the money next week please"!

Just have to decide where to drive to tomorrow....

Car to Arrive Much, Much Earlier than Expected!!

Two weeks ago I blogged that we had finally decided to take the plunge and order a brand new car here in Switzerland. At the time the dealer had said that it could take up to 2-3 months for it to arrive unfortunately. He then rang us last week to explain that the delivery would be much earlier and the car would be here by week 7 (week beg Feb 14th). Well much to our amazement the showroom rang today to say it will be ready at the weekend!!!

Just need to sort out the details with the very helpful insurance brokers at NVC.

BBC just better than Sport1 (only just!)

Tonight I watched the BBC coverage of out game versus Ipswich in the second leg of the Carling Cup Semi Final and I know they have to support the underdogs to some extent but like the ITV coverage of the game versus Leeds last week it was ridiculous. How Mark Bright gets a job as a summariser (especially of an Arsenal game as he is still bitter about 1993) is beyond me. Anyway we won and we await Birmingham or West Ham in the final...

Read about Sport1 coverage here...

Two Hours Spinning is Hard Work

I went to the Gym's two hour spinning session today (they do this one Sunday a month during the Winter) and it's the first time I've been. Despite my approach of taking a little easier than my normal Spinning classes (45-60 minutes duration) I still found my legs dying on me as I reached the last 15! Afternoon on the sofa beckons (as it was yesterday but that was alcohol related!).

A Little Hungover...

Well that was a wonderful Friday evening with our American friends, Jim & Beth and our Landlord, Clemens (and no it's not strange having the landlord over as he's a good friend too). We had a Raclette (well all of us except Claire, of course) and plenty of wine! That might not have caused too many problems this morning if it hadn't been for Clemens bring over a couple of bottle of Schnapps!!! I may never drink again.....

Lamentable Blogging Activity....

For some strange and unfathomable reason it seems I am unable to find 10 minutes a day to type about 100 words or so to describe the wonderful activities that I have been up to on any particular day in Switzerland. Does anyone know why this is so difficult? Okay sometimes I may have to upload a photo or scan a document but it's not all that difficult is it....

Anyway as of today I promise to do better - I've said that before but this time it's DIFFERENT!

So today has been a day of getting light switches fixed (thanks to Urs), a little exercise, a little looking at fresh snow (yippeeeeeee) and planning a Raclette evening tomorrow night for our landlord (Clemens!!) and our soon(ish) to be departed friends, Jim & Beth.

Plus some great news on the car (see Saturday 15th post) in that instead of 2-3 months wait it will now be 3-4 weeks...

Finally - The Bennet's are getting a Swiss Car

Well obviously it's not a "Swiss" car as I'm not sure there are any actual Swiss car manufacturers ( though that needs some research). It is, however, our first car that we have bought in this country. Of course, we haven't bought or paid for anything yet and there's an odd thing. We have signed for a brand new car and there was no need for any deposit or anything. I'm guessing our signatures are as good as any money in the courts here :-)

So what have we bought... One of these.... looks a little like this one

I wish the Volleyball had gone on longer..

I discovered this evening that a German Sports Channel, Sport1, was going to show the first leg of the Ipswich v Arsenal Carling Cup game tonight. However, because a very important volleyball (!!) game was late in finishing the football coverage didn't start until the start of the second half. Given how crap our performance was then I now wish the volleyball match had gone on for another 45 minutes!