Bree: Early on, when we began planning this trip, we had a running list of places we thought we might like to visit. It was a scramble of all kinds of places we had dreamed of since we were children, heard about from loved ones, seen in books or on the web. Ben had seen […]
After yesterday’s incredible hike through the Berner Oberland, we were convinced to stick around and do some more hiking today. Unfortunately, we’d been told by more than one person to expect lots of rain in the morning, so we had gone to bed simply hoping for the best because the peaks here simply aren’t visible […]
Having been somewhat disappointed with our lack of pictures from the old part of Annecy yesterday evening, the first order of business as we rolled out of our campsite this morning was to roll through the old town in hopes that we might get some pictures that I could live with. When we arrived to […]
As I listened to the rain last night, I couldn’t help but feel the usual anxiety I do with rain as we travel. I don’t want to be wet, I don’t want to be cold. I don’t want the wind to blow. Of course, for the first time in basically our entire trip, we were […]
Wanting to spend a little more time with the Oudet family and explore the region a little more, we planned for a “real” French lunch on the shore of Lac D’Aiguebelette, per Edouard’s suggestion. We have thus far not experienced much in the way of true French cuisine, as we keep our budget low and […]
We knocked on Edouarad’s door after wrangling our bikes into a contorted position that would prevent them from rolling down the sloped gravel driveway. After a short time, Edouard answered the door with a smile on his face as usual. Aude came to the door shortly after, with their two children alongside. The graciously helped […]
Having had little in the way of camping options the last night, we woke up on the side of a mountain which for once required not much more than a descent to arrive back in the river valley that we so enjoyed yesterday. We rolled out of our campsite to the sound of the sheep’s […]
After a good breakfast this morning and a slow packing up process after being stationary for a few days, we rolled out of our camp at the base of the Alpe d’Huez. Although the mountains had caused me a fair bit of angst, I was actually sad to be leaving their towering majestic atmosphere and […]
Bree: Waking up this morning, it was once again ‘race day.’ Time to do yet another ride that seemed pretty far beyond my abilities, but I suppose that has become the new normal since we left our comfortable suburban life to ride our bikes full time. We were in no hurry to get on the […]
I woke up with the sun- pretty much as always these days, but today we gratefully had nowhere to go. I rolled over and went back to sleep for two solid hours. By the time I finally crawled out of the tent, I realized that I felt more or less like I had been run […]
As an addendum to Ben’s post yesterday, I just wanted to mention that the alps have been on Ben’s Europe list from the get-go, and as we planned this trip, we put lots of stars on the map regarding places we thought we’d like to make it to. Of course, the Alp d’Huez was one […]
Our first views of the Alps last night had me excited for todays ride. Add on the fact that we were not so fond of our capmground as well as the heavy cotton that surrounds seemingly every riverside campground, and we were ready to hit the road. After the arduous process of waking up (Bree […]