Greece - Wkd Sept. 10

Arrival in the Islands
After working the week in Geneva and with the McLaufer/Interliggi trip drawing to an end, I had another US visitor (Aimee Schauer) in town and we decided to do some traveling to Greece.  Note that typically this would be a short week within the US due to Labor Day, but Switzerland does not celebrate this holiday; however, Thursday was a holiday within Geneva as it was Jeune Genevois so we had a long weekend.

On Wednesday, I flew to Athens and arrived at the hotel at 2 am and Aimee arrived earlier in the day to relax after the long haul flight from the US. The following day we had a ferry planned for Paros leaving at 7:15am so we tried to stay close to the port; I think i slept 3 hours max. that night, but we made the ferry.

On Thursday, we arrived at Paros at 10am and hit the ground running after checking into the hotel.  We rented a dune buggy for the day and this was by far one of the best ideas we had as we were able to visit several of the beaches the first day (Santa Maria, Monastiri, Piso Livadi, Contaratos, Pounda, and Chrisi Atki).  At Chrisi Atki, I took a wind surfing lesson and fell a few times, but was otherwise quite successful having sailed a few times in the US and knew the basic techniques and concepts.  Definitely a fun experience that I was happy to try!  That evening we dune buggied back to Piso Livadi for dinner on the water.

  

The following day, we did an all-day boat cruise to see Anti Paros, the neighboring island, with a few different snorkeling points along the boat ride.  We snorkeled near the coves, rocks, and small caves along the island where we saw some fish in the cool blue water.  Fun day trip and then we did dinner in Naoussa that night on the water and then followed the beaches back to our hotel.

On Saturday, we rented another dune buggy after having such a great time the first day.  We went scuba diving and I did an intro course while Aimee did an advanced course to see the remnants of a small shipwreck, many fish, crabs, and sand dollars.  Fun fact was we were one of the only groups ever to recognize that the instructor has a Nittany Lion tattooed on his back shoulder as he did his master's degree there.  For dinner, we dune buggied to Lefke; this proved to be a fun experience as it was in the center of the island in the mountains, all of the roads were poorly lit with no guard rails, and we were using a dune buggy with no speedometer, gas gauge, and a terrible turning radius; we managed to make it home though.

On our final day (Sunday), most of the time was spent doing a 12 mile run as part of my training and then we headed back to Parikkos to take the ferry back to Athens.  The visit to the islands was great as it was warm, sunny and the food was amazing as there was fresh seafood everywhere.  I tried Octopus for the 2nd time (first time in San Sebastien on the France road trip) and it is easily one of my favorite island foods going forward.

Athens
We had two days in Athens and on our first day we did a 3 day island tour to Hydra, Poros, and Aegina: 

The following day in Athens, we did a walking tour to see the Acropolis and Forum:

All-in-all, Greece was a great time and I would love to go back, the food was amazing and there is so much to see on each of the islands and in Athens.

Gruyeres - Wkd Sept. 3

During the month of August, I spent all of my time in the US other than one week when I returned to Switzerland.  The first two weeks were spent with a day in Detroit followed by Ludington for a week and a half for Kyle's bachelor party and with Melissa's family, and then Kyle's wedding in South Bend followed by a few days of work in Peoria before returning to Peoria.  This was quite an eventful time period, but always fun coming home.

After in Geneva for less that a week, I then flew to Detroit area to run the CRIM, make a celebrity appearance on my old soccer team, and go to Disney world for a work training.

I returned to Geneva on Sept. 2nd and had visitors the next day as the McLaufers and Interliggis were beginning a two week European vacation.  I ran my last 20 mile training run for marathon training and then I met them at the airport as my bag as delayed from the prior day and helped them reach their AirBnB.  After leaving them for some time to relax, we went to Yvoire for filet du perch on Lac Leman.  Very fun first day, but the jet lag was catching up to all of of us well.

The following day, we went to Gruyeres Switzerland, home of Cailler Chocolate and Gruyere cheese.  We did a tour of each; both were fun, but at the end of the chocolate tour there they provided endless tastings of their entire chocolate line so that tour wins of the two.

Gruyeres is a gorgeous city perched within the mountains; the castle is located on the top of the the mountain along with the entire old town.  In the city, we did a fondue before heading into the castle for some sightseeing and back to Geneva.

The group had a Chamonix visit planned the following day (Monday) so we did one last dinner at Chez Moi (likely the 5th time in a month) and then they continued their Eurotrip on to Zurich!