Cinque Terre/Munich - Road Trip with the Bellgraph - Wk of 23 July

On Kyle and Sam arrived Sunday at 1pm to start their Eurotrip for the next two weeks and I picked them up at the airport.  This was my 2nd time at the airport that day as I arrived from a work trip in Istanbul earlier that morning (11am) after spending an extra day to sightsee.  Quite a whirlwind Sunday!

Cinque Terre

Upon arrival, we quickly stopped by my apartment and then started our road trip to Cinque Terre (about 4.5 to 5 hours); specifically, we were staying in Monterosso al Mare.  We arrived near 9 and grabbed pizza near our AirBnB, which was right on the beach near the train station.  Finding parking was a bit of a challenge at first as the cities of Cinque Terre are connected by hiking trails and trains, but none offer the best automobile access; we found a local lot a few minute walk away, but all-in-all a great location.

View from our apt.

For our first day, we grabbed croissants at the Wonderland bakery and then coffee at a nearby wine bar before taking the train to the furthest city (Riomaggiore) where we had planned to hike back to our apartment.  We quickly learned that trains were not the most timely as we boarded the train at the correct platform and time; however, the train that we boarded was actually a previous train that was arriving late.  When the conductor asked for tickets after departure, we quickly learned we were on a regional train and in the words of the conductor "No stop Cinque Terre."  Luckily, it travelled only 10 minutes past our planned destination and we were not pressed on time so could then grab the next train to our intended destination.  Once in Riomaggiore, I grabbed a quick lemon crepe before starting the day's hikes.

Pre-hike Crepe

To travel from Riomaggiore to Manarola, we took a "more difficult" hike as the coastal route was closed.  The hike was up-and-down the hills of wine vineyards, so very pretty, but tiring (1.5 hours).  We grabbed a seafood in Manarola and then took a train to the 3rd city (Corniglia) to get gelato.  From Corniglia, we took an easier hike to Vernazza (2 hours) where we had planned a wine tasting that was on the edge of the mountainside and recommended by the Bellgraph parents.  We then took the train home and did a wine tasting at the same wine bar we had coffee at that morning and had dinner.

View from the hike

The following morning, we did an identical breakfast to the prior day and hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza (1.5 hours); this was the prettiest of our hikes as there were many views of the ocean, cliff sides, and vineyards.  Both of the hikes were filled with the noises of an insect similar to a cicada.  The weather was also much nicer as it was sunny and hot; good for views, but definitely made the hiked more difficult.  When reaching to Vernazza we quickly changed as we brought our swimming suits and went for a swim in the bay to cool off.  Following the swim, we did a mini bar crawl of Monterosso and tried the local specialty (lemon, salted anchovies) and grabbed dinner at the same pizza place where we had eaten the first night (Lapos).  Highly recommend that restaurant for anyone going to the area.

Piemonte

The following morning was early as we needed to get to Geneva and had planned 3 wine tastings in Piemonte to break up the drive; l had travelled here in the past, but lost the wine when my basement was broken into so it was good to get back.  Once in Geneva, we returned the car and I took everyone for a Swiss fondue for dinner.

Munich

Next morning, we had an easy morning and went to the airport to head to Munich for the next leg of our trip; we started the trip on the Cinque Terry sunny coast hiking and the next leg would be quite different in Bavaria with strong WWII history and a beer culture.

Upon reaching Munich, we took the train directly to Marienplatz to see the old town and grabbed beers and pretzels at Hofbrauhaus while waiting for the keys to our AirBnB.  Our Airbnb was basically an art gallery with very interesting decor.  We then grabbed dinner at one of my favorite restaurants since my first trip to Munich in 2011, Zum Alten Kreuz.  The trip this time was more difficult as the menu was in German and our waitress spoke no English where as on previous trips we had had someone help translate.  All of us ordered versions of weinerschnitzel for dinner (grilled vs. normal vs. Munchner style).  Following dinner, we grabbed a few drinks from bars on the way home as it was down pouring!  We ended up taking the bus home even though it would have been very walkable if dry.

On our first full day in Munich, we grabbed breakfast pastries at a nearby bakery and did a walking tour; this was my 4th time taking this same tour, but always a fun way to see the city.  For lunch, we had sausages and Munich schnitzel at the Weisses Brauhaus; this was one of the oldest wheat beer breweries in Munich and somewhere that I went when in Munich following the Berlin marathon the previous year.  We then found Sam and Kyle some Bavarian clothes (Liederhosen and Dirndl) before going for a walk through the English Garden.  We had a light dinner of first grabbing beers, a cheese platter, and apple strudel at Hackerhaus followed by sausages and drinks at the Viktualienmarkt before calling it a night.

Our next day was early as we had an early morning tour of Neuschwenstein castle where we had to pick up a rental car and then drive to the castle.  We grabbed pastries quickly at the Viktualienmarkt and then grabbed our Ford Fiesta for the drive.  The castle was very pretty with very diverse decorations throughout; following the tour, we grabbed sausages in the small town and drove to the Andechs brewery.  At Andechs, we walked around the abbey, into a wedding service, and then grabbed one beer before continuing our drive back to Munich.  In Munich, I went for a quick run to see the Eisbachwelle in the English Garden; this is a permanent wave on the river where people are able to surf.  We then grabbed drinks at Der Pschorr biergarten before dinner where we all had Pork Knuckle at the Haxenbauer and then had drinks at the HB.

With our 3rd day, we grabbed a large American sized breakfast at Kochspielhaus.  I then caught up on work and went for a run while the Bellgraphs went to Dachau.  When they returned, we grabbed dinner at the Paulaner Im Tal (Sauage Platter, Spatzle, and Pork Belly) before going to a walk to show the crew the Eisbachwelle.

For the final day in Munich, we had breakfast as the same location of the previous day and then went and did a BMW factory tour.  I've tried to do this in the past and it is quite interesting as it's a combined engine and assembly plant; if interested in going then book early as it fills 2-3 months in advance!  We then headed back to Geneva as I was returning to the US the following day while the Bellgraphs were to fly onwards to Amsterdam and continue their journey.

4th of July and Provence

The 4th of July is not quite the same in Switzerland, or Europe, compared to traditions of the US.  For one, everyone works, but there are also no fireworks.  The Americans in the area still celebrated and I BBQ'ed with some friends at a local park where we all brought food to pass and we had a fun experience celebrating with one another.  I tried to be festive and carved my first bowl from a watermelon to serve a fruit salad.

On Friday, two friends that ran the Berlin Marathon Lisa and Josh) came to Geneva for the evening before we started a small France road trip over the weekend.

On Saturday, we started our drive mid morning to Les Rousses to see the 8th leg of the Tour de France.  We over estimated slightly and had about 2 hours to kill prior to when the racers arrived although the caravan of cars and small parade prior to the riders is quite large!  When originally planning a trip we had misinterpreted the route thinking the start was the end and vice versa leading to a later start following the race than expected.

During our drive, we stopped and had dinner in Avignon; a random stop, but a very pretty city with a huge old town and castle within the original city walls.  Following dinner, we continued the drive and finally arrived in Nice at 2am!

While in Nice, we toured around the city our first day visiting the promenade, beach, and hiking the old city fort.  Pretty city with very blue water!

Notice the beach can be rocky!

On our second day, we visited Monaco; the country and city did feel slightly different from Nice as the architecture differed.  We walked around the city (and country as it's only 2.5 miles large), had lunch near the palace and attempted to enter the casino; however, the dress code was no open-toed shoes, no shorts after 7, and required suit and tie after 10.  Needless to say we were unsuccessful...

The 3rd day, Josh flew home and Lisa and I spent the day in Cannes seeing the red carpet of the film festival and walking the promenade before heading back to Nice for the night and one last meal before she flew out the next day and I then drove home.  During my drive home, I took the long, scenic route and was able to drive through the lavender fields of Provence.

Great long weekend trip and would recommend going back for the blue water and great seafood although will definitely dress up next time to be able to experience all of Monaco!

June - Month of Travel

So....June was been a busy month of travel that initially started with a 25 May trip and concluded with a return trip from Bratislava on 29 June with only 5 nights sleeping in my Geneva apartment during that time frame...

Luxembourg

The day after landing from the Norway ski trip, I flew to Luxembourg for a one week internal firm review, back to Geneva for the weekend in between and then back for a 2nd week of review.  Luxembourg was a very pretty city with large city walls from its historic city center and was very hilly so running was not the easiest!

Crans-Montana

After spending one night at home, the Romandie office year-end party was in Crans-Montana, which is a mountain town about 2.5 hours from Geneva.  The year-end party is a weekend long event with a different site each year to get the office together and celebrate the end of the busy season with team building activity (mud run in the current year), large dinner, and a night out.

Dubai

The same day returning from Crans-Montana, I swapped my weekend bag for already packed bags to fly to Dubai for a work site visit.  We landed in Dubai and 11:30pm and it was hot (11:30pm)!

The city itself is quite modern with many sky scrapers and large infrastructure projects everywhere.  Our hotel was located on the mainland near one of the artificial palm islands and the entire area was quite nice.

Our first day at the plant featured a unique twist. Most foreign companies operate in the free trade zone (FTZ), which is a tax free area with gated entry.  Once at the gate, we had obtain pre-approval; however, our taxi driver was not licensed to drive in the FTZ so we had to walk from the border to the plant offices.  This was not far (~300 meters), but it was quite funny as the team wandered the desert.  That evening, I went for a short indoor run and we ate dinner near our hotel at a Benihana, which none of the European team members had been to or heard of the restaurant concept as this is a fairly common chain in the US.

The following day, we had the same issue at the FTZ entrance only this time our taxi driver must have been more persuasive as the driver didn't have the pass, but convinced security to let us drive to our drop off point.  After work that day, we went for a team swim in the pool.  Note that this is an outdoor pool that is cooled rather than heated.  We then had an Iftar dinner with our local contact; this was quite good as there was tons of food and we were able to try many types of the local cuisine.

The next morning was my final day so I woke early to jump in the ocean (5 min.) walk from the hotel.  The sand here was white sand and quite nice and the seawater was warmer than the pool!

For work that day, we successfully entered the FTZ with no issues and I worked a half day and headed to the airport for the first stop of the multisite journey before returning back to Geneva.

Greece

I flew from Dubai to Athens and stayed the night before boarding an early morning ferry to Mykonos for a friend's 30th birthday weekend (7am).

Day 1 Dinner - Greek Salad and Octopus

The birthday party weekend was 5 days long and about 20 people where we rented a villa in the city center.  Each day we went to a different beach club to enjoy the Mediterranean and then dinners were typically souvlaki within the city after watching the sunsets from the mountain restaurants.  For the actual birthday dinner, we had a family style dinner at the villa that was catered with many different types of Greek food; it was quite fun as we even had a bartender for the dinner!  I really enjoyed my 2nd trip to the Greek isles; the weather is always great and the food is amazing!

Mykonos Beach Club

Birthday Dinner at the Villa

PwC Crew

Following Greece, I then had two work trips back to back.  The first to Amsterdam for 1.5 days to see a plant visit and the 2nd to Bratislava.  Coincidentally, Bratislava was the first international location that I ever visited for work back in 2012.

It was quite a relief to get home after these trips after spending the past 5-6 weeks out of town; I flew home on Thursday and then on Friday I had my first visitors for the summer.

Weather wasn't great for their trip, but we visited the Olympic museum in Lausanne; this was actually quite interesting as the museum has medals from all of the Olympics as well as the torches that are carried around the world to then light the flame at the open ceremony.  We then had a glass of wine in the vineyards at Le Deck, saw a concert at the Montreux Jazz Fest, and on Sunday did a day trip to Yvoire for filet-de-perche before my friends returned home.

Montreux Jazz Fest

Svalbard - Skiing at the North Pole

En route to the Trip Start

On May 26 and I began a ski randonee touring trip to Svalbard (North Pole) with two friends; Svalbard is the furthest north permanent human settlement in the world...Our trip started with a 2.5 hr flight from Geneva to Oslo where we stayed the night and then an early 3 hr. flight the next morning to Longyearbyen.  Leaving the early summer in Geneva (75F) to something more similar to home (Oslo - 60F) to then the Arctic (Svalbard - 0)).

Note that this was my first experience doing ski randonee, which is a mix between cross county skiing, downhill skiing, and mountaineering where the back binding is loose and "skins" are attached to your ski base when hiking up the mountain.  This was also the first ski trip of the year where I was not in a cast, brace, and able to use poles.  I had full intentions of doing some practice prior to the trip, but with no poles this was not possible.

Svalbard - Arrival

The views from the flight showed a massive white island covered with snow; basically like a snow desert given the lack of vegetation.  The Island seems to not receive massive snowfall each year, but the snow keeps given the low temperatures.

Following our arrival at our hotel, we grabbed a quick lunch and went dog sledding in the afternoon.  For dog sledding, we were paired off in groups of two with 6 dogs where we would take turns riding in the sled or driving the sled over a few hours; our guide was a professional dog sledder who will be racing in the Iditarod in 2018.

After dog sledding, we grabbed dinner in the hotel; I had whale carpaccio and reindeer.

Following dinner was bedtime during complete daylight as we were so far North where there is 24 hours of daylight.  It was quite bright and felt midday at 11pm based in the daylight and the same even when awaking later in the night.

Svalbard - 11:37pm

Day 2

On our 2nd day, we took a boat cruise to Barentsburg, which is the most Northern Russian permanent settlement in the world.  The boat cruise was 3 hours each way, with a lunch, and then we had 2 hours to have a short tour around the city.

The boat cruise was very pretty with arctic mountains in the background, plenty of birds, and we saw a walrus.  We also picked up a pair of randonee skiers that had been camping and apparently had a polar bear visit their tent the night before and were unharmed.

Lunch was grilled Salmon, ribs, and whale; I gave whale a second chance and still did not find a preferred method for eating the animal...

Barentsburg was very different than Longyearbyen as the city had an active mine and did not have a commercial airport so it felt more like sustainable city with heavy support from tourism (although with only 500 residents).  We tried beer at the local brewery along with some Russian Vodka before heading back home.  We arrived at 7p and grabbed dinner at the restaurant next door and met our skiing crew for the following day.

Day 3

In the morning, we took a kayaking trip within the fjord; it was cold!  We were in full dry suits and the length across the bay was 3km where we paddled to an abandoned mining village to walk around and have a quick warm up drink before paddling back as the ski trip was to start that evening.  Our ski trip started off with a slight delay (1 hour) as the boat heater was being repaired so we used the extra time to run to the grocery store and buy last minute snacks (which coincidentally was a coop - same store that I go to in Switzerland).  We arrived in the boat and departed that night to arrive at the first fjord at 1am to then awake at 7am for skiing.

Day 4

Our group seems is a total of 9 skiers (mostly Swiss), two guides, a cook, and a captain:

1st day of skiing started at 8:30 and ended at 3; quite a long day of skiing.  We climbed two mountains and covered 9.7 miles.  In the morning, they drove us to shore with a small inflatable dingy and then we started skiing.  The views were quite spectacular and and some of the climbs were also a bit epic and scary likely due to my inexperience (day 1 of randonee and my hand is still recovering).  At one point, we were mountain climbing on skis and trying to perform types of climbing/turn maneuvers that I had never seen, yet alone performed, before.  It's also quite a challenge as any instruction, or warnings, are made in French and then translated to English...sometimes...

I'm the guy in back with my ski lodged in the snow!

We finished the day on a very long descent, to a glacier that we then had to hike around; this probably added at least a mile on flat terrain that was very tiring.  We then skied on to a sheet of ice that the boat picked us up from using a ladder.

Quite sore on day 1, but spent sometime on the boat hot tub for some recovery!

Day 5

We started skiing at 10 today and covered 6.7 miles and the two summits we covered both required ski crampons and the first requiring the team to take off our skis to attach to our packs and then using an ice axe to summit the last 20 meters.  Using the crampons was a nice safety option and I generally felt much more confident on steep climbs using these rather than randonee climbs.

The two runs from the summits were great with the weather improving throughout the day so our last run was amazing as it was sunny with good fresh snow where we were able to ski down all the way to the shore where the boat then picked us up.

We finished the day enjoying the hot tub in the sun on the boat in the sun with the mountains in the background.  We spent on our extra time in the boat reviewing pictures, playing uno, and spotting wildlife (walrus and birds).

Day 6

Our tallest summit of the trip was this day; we hiked Phippsdjellet, which was 1013m and the day was gorgeous with no clouds and low wind so we didn't have to wear too many layers as we neared the summer.  We covered a total of 7.9 miles.

Upon reaching the end, the dingy had beers waiting for us in the shore.  For future reference, never use your ski boot as a beer holder as when it tips it then drenches your boot with beer.  This has never been an issue in the past as I've rarely taken my boot off on the beach while waiting for the boat to pick me up!

No hot tub this day (or the remainder of the trip) as we lost a bit too much water in waves the prior night; I did get a hot shower though!

Day 7

On our final night, we anchored our boat to the ice sheet and started our ski tour today by climbing from the boat down to the ice by ladder (more like a chicken coup) and started from the open ice.  Terrain for the day was nice and the climbs weren't too technical so that was a life saver!

At the end of the day, one of the skiers fell from ladder into the water and got scratched up and destroyed a few electronics (camera, phone, and iPod); luckily, that was it as it could have been a dangerous situation near both the ice and boat.  When back on the boat, the crew took the dingy out wake boarding using dry suits and a few of us were able to try; I wore warm clothes beneath a dry suit so this was not too bad.  The boat crew tried a few other stunts such as pulling a wake board on water along with a skier on ice and then a snowboard that went both on and off water.

Day 8

The final day of skiing was sunny with two summits and a great final day.  This day had likely the hardest final summit with a very steep cliff on both sides of a traverse; very happy to behind me to then ski all the way down to the boat!

We finished up the day returning to Longyearbyen to grab a last dinner with the group and visit the only two bars in the city; I'm quite sure that one of the bars had more bottles in its repertoire than the population of people in the city.  It was an early night as most of the group was on the 7:50am flight the following morning so we went left around midnight and walked home in the full sunlight of the midnight sun.

All-in-all this was a great trip with new people and many firsts: midnight sun, ski randonee, dog sledding, and, whale tasting.   Everyday was a nice balance of 6 hours skiing to then being completely disconnected from the world with virtually no phone/internet.  I really enjoyed the experience and plan to randonee again next year as it is quite relaxing yet challenging.

One of the skiers in our group had a drone and made the following two videos:

Short Intro (2 min.) - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByJ4_6pL1xvpQ1d3RTZqaldCSUE

Full Video (30min.) - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByJ4_6pL1xvpaVNyay12Y09Oc0k

Mannequin still frame while relaxing after skiing:

Geneva Marathon - May 7

For the Geneva Marathon, my employer sponsors its employees to run any of the races for the Geneva marathon weekend.  During the prior year, I ran the marathon and in the current year, I ran the relay marathon with my work team.  This was a nice break from a full marathon as we were able to divide the distance across 5 people. The race was well organized, we had great running weather (overcast and cool), and the whole team ran quite well.

We did run into the following logistics' issues that I had not considered when planning the marathon that made for some unexpected twists to the weekend:

1) Bib Collection and Sharing - Typical of most marathons, the Friday and Saturday before the race there is an expo where runners can collect their running bibs where vendors also sell gear and Geneva was no different.  When running a relay marathon, the captain is responsible for gathering the bibs for all team members and then getting the bibs to all team members.  You would not expect this to be an issue, but becomes a logistical puzzle when the expo opens Friday after work, team members live across a large area, and everyone starts at different locations on race day.  We figured it out between getting bibs to those near me, friends of teammates, and I met our first runner on race day.

2) Gear Check - Not really an issue, but there is no gear check in a relay race other than you must give your bag to the person immediately after you or give your pre-leg clothing to the person that finishes prior to you.

3) Race Start - This was interesting.....so the race oraganized transportation to the start of the 1st 4 legs from the start of the race, but then you may be stuck waiting for the prior runners to reach you.  As the third runner, I found a bus route (2 buses) to get me to the start of my leg.  The morning of the race, I boarded the first bus and after the first few stops I notice signs that the bus route that day would stop short (thus forcing me to miss my connection) due to the marathon.  As I was reached the end of the bus line for that day, I was in the middle of nowhere and 6k from the start of my leg with an hour to spare.  I contemplated adding more distance to my planned run, but ultimately called an Uber for transport to the start of my leg.  The Uber arrived and we quickly ran into multiple closed roads and longer delays so we had a fun experience of using google maps and navigating while speaking a mix of French/English to get to the start of my leg.  We made it and I still had some time to spare luckily.

4) Finish Line - The last twist when running a relay marathon compared to a full is after running your relay leg you must get to the final 0.5k of the race (where there are multiple closed roads) to cross the finish line with your teammates and get your medal.  This was relatively easy in the grand scheme of the day.

PwC Speed Machines