Sunny Weather

Despite forecasts of a blizzard which cancelled our company ski trip, today's weather hit the low 70's. Wow! It sure felt nice. As we were getting ready for a family bike ride, we heard a voice outside..."Telly!"...this was our friend Cheryl who calls our dogs to see if we're home! We soon joined her and her family and biked/walked along the lake shore. It was soooo nice! We also hit an area where dogs can run free...Tigger was let loose with her leash still attached to make it easier to retrieve her...well she figured out she could run faster with the leash in her mouth...That was comical, but then Telly joined the fun and grabbed Tigger's leash and proceeded to run and yank Tigger around the park! It was quite entertaining.

As the afternoon started to fade, I pedalled off to the Renens' train station (Gare) and hit the only nearby open store on Sunday..I stocked up on bread, wine, cheese, and ice-cream! It was a nice feast! Then as the sun began to set, Tigger took her spot on 'her' deck, where she lies down, sticks her head out under the railing, and checks out all incoming and outgoing pedestrians! ...It's quite the picture from ground level to look up and see just her protruding snout!

Slip Sliding Mountain Biking

Got my first real mountain bike ride in today. Two hours of fun tracing the Venoge river...Only Jan, who has helped me scale Red Rock cliffs with bikes in tow could relate to the bush wacking that I went thru as I attempted to find the main trail after an errant turn and a stubborn impulse to keep going forward and not back-track...

Along the way I was introduced to some vicious, razor sharp plants which decorated my legs (it was warm enough for shorts!) and made new aerodynamic ventilation ports in my jacket...I also did my fair share of slipping and sloshing through mud...but all in all it was a blast...Lots of fun downhills that made me question "ride or walk?" ... the ones that I rode did a good job of getting the adrenalin running again ...There were also two nice sharply banked 1-2 foot stream crossings that required all-or-nothing leaps to avoid the popular endos...Fearful that I have lost much of my edge after a cold winter without my Sumo biking buddies pushing me to do more, I attempted both...I nailed both leaving me with an ear to ear grin...

Snowy Dresden

Just got back from a 3 day business trip to Dresden. The flight out of Geneva was quite scenic with great views of the alps... Dresden however was suprisingly cold and snowy making the flights and driving a bit interesting. I discovered the hard way that the snow on the unplowed roads was deeper than my Opel Astra's road clearance...That led to my 3 passengers pushing the car out to safety while I steered in the warm comfort of the vehicle...I'm still catching abuse for that one.

The city has seen a lot of reconstruction since the unification and I found it to be beautiful...the Elbe river snakes throught the city giving it a Venice-like charm... Highlights included a wonderfully co-ed spa and great German food and drink!

Culinary Delights

I found some more pictures from our trip and thought I'd throw in the culinary ones. Here's a shot of Dedi looking at her octupus & ink, aubrey with hot chocholate so thick that the spoon stood straight up and a 'normal' venisian coffee!

Dedi's Great Culinary Adventure

OK, this is Dedi, I just need to add a bit about my adventure. One of the days we had ventured to Murano which is the island of glassblowers. We had ventured up and down many a canal, in and out glass blower exhibitions as well as one museum of glass. We were hungry and decided to take a chance with a recommendation of "It's OK."
While we were ordering, I was remembering the sumptuous pasta with mussels I had had the days before. The only seafood I could make out was Pasta Noir with Cuttlefish Ink. When I look at the Italian, I thought the ink was some latin term for how it was prepared. Also I had that nagging voice in the back of my mind, "What have I heard about cuttlefish?" Maybe it is a delicacy. Perhaps to some, but all I remember is my pasta had black sewer scum all over it . "Oh now I get it, the ink really means INK." And now three days after this frightful experience I google cuttle fish, and guess what, "It is not a fish."

Venice

We are just getting back from a nice 4 day trip to Venice. Aubrey, who has somehow picked up an annoying French accent, is correcting me... if you account for train travel, we only had 3 full days in Venice! Anyway it was a wonderful trip.




We had read up a bit and knew to expect some wondeful sights, yet we were still amazed at the beauty around us. Art in every sense of the word. Museums, buildings, churches, glass, sculptures, windows....

I was most taken by the sense of impending loss....beautiful expensive buildings, built to last forever, with water a foot over the original ground level floor...Such a contrast.

We also visited, Lido di Venezia, a 6-mile (10 km)-long, slender island just a 15-minute boat ride away from St Mark's Square. Couldn't resist dipping our toes in the very cold Adriatic sea...

We took the Cisalpino train back to Lausanne. Very fast and comfy though a long ride. We arrived in Lausanne close to midnight in a good winter storm. When we hit our final stop, it was sleeting badly and none of us were up for the 1 mile treck home. Fortunately, a simple cell phone call activated one of our 3000 'car-share' vehicles parked across the street and we drove in comfort back home.