Interlaken

I cycled out to Interlaken on Sunday with my colleague Mike. It was a 7 hour ride with lots of climbs and an intense mountain pass (Jaun Pass). But once we hit the summit, it was 40km of downhill to Interlaken. This has to be one of the most beautiful sites in Switzerland. The city sits between two glacier filled lakes. The dissolved minerals give the lakes a turqoise color.

All in all a good day! Had a falafel sandwich and cold beer to top things off and then a sweet train ride back to Lausanne.




Here are some shots:


Reminds me of the Crags behind Pikes peak...

Happy to be over Jaun pass...
Top of Europe ...Jungfrau..

Glacier cool water!






Not a bad view...
Mike's one of a kind hand made bike...

17 years!

This year we celebrated our 17th year with a nice dinner at Le Skippers, just down the street. Initially we tried to make reservations at some nicer restaurants but they were all closed, either for the summer (must be nice!) or due to banquets. But being regular clients, helped...they gave us the best table in the restaurant and we had a wonderful dinner. Great weather, views, and conversation! Brenna was our photographer, so no pictures of her unfortunately....

Today we're going to ride (boat) across the lake to Evian and then hike thru the foothills which you can see in the background of the shots...

CERN-WOW!

I was fortunate enough to get to go on a tour to CERN today. CERN is the world's largest particle physics lab.

We got to see the large structures that are being built above ground as part of the LHC project, a project designed to unlock the secrets of the universe.

They build 15 huge 4,000 ton structures and then lower them 450 feet into a subterranean tunnel. This forms one of I believe 5 measurement stations placed inside a 28km ring. I've attached some pictures of these units. These contain huge helium cooled electromagnets that are designed to deflect beams of protons, travelling near the speed of light. They have two paths, one clockwise and one counter clockwise. When they steer them, they can make them collide. The project will likely complete next spring and the hope is that these collisions will release particles that have been trapped inside protons since nearly the beginning of time...this will recreate a snapshot of our universe, nanoseconds after the 'big bang'.
Pretty exciting.

On a practical note, this system when running burns more electricity than the city of Geneva!



Lots of electronics..just to control and detect the result of a subatomic collision!

View of two of the 4,000 tons each steering columns/detectors...

large crane outside the building to lower each unit once it is built...
Lunch view!

Aubrey's new doooo

Afraid of heights?

Not for me, but this sure looks like a fun way to spend a hot summer day...


Note the guy falling upside down...Click on the image to see a video of the full jump...

Some day's you should just stay home!

Dedi agreed to join me for a nice bike ride outing today.

First I headed to work to take care of some things and snapped my chain while just coasting along. Got that fixed. Then Dedi and I headed out and noted that her shock was out of air and her rear derailleur was bent. One more trip and got that fixed, but maybe at this point I should have said, let's just stay home...

Instead we headed out to Saint Prex. It was beautiful along the way and I shadowed Dedi on all the roads with traffic. We snapped some pictures along the lake and made a note that this would be a good place to take the Atlanta Brennen's when they come to town.

On the way home, we took trails most of the way, but in Morges there were so many pedestrians, we decided to take the road which had a pretty good sized, well marked bike lane.

As we approached my favorite hill (favorite hill? sick no?) I told Dedi I'd wait for her at the top and I blasted up it. It felt great to work my legs and lungs...I then turned around to ride back up it with Dedi and found her sitting on the side walk, her bike half on half off the road. For those of you worried, she's fine...but I'll get to that in a bit..

I thought, heat stroke? Fatigue? No...she seemed okay...then I saw the scraped knees and elbow and realized she had gone down. As a car passed her, it weaved into her lane just enough to bump her handle bar. Dedi lost control and fell in the middle of the road. A 2nd car then swerved to avoid her, though Dedi thought at first that it had run over her ankle. Turns out not to have been the case...guardian angels were at work.

The driver of the red car stopped...an elderly woman, with a rubber right arm... She seemed a bit out of it. She tried to convince me that she could drive Dedi home but a witness who was biking behind Dedi mentioned to me that the woman had been weaving and had in fact just missed him. So we played it safe and called 117, the equivalent of 911. I'm thinking, this woman should not be driving...

Soon we had the ambulance and police. Dedi was a bit embarrassed by it all, but all in all, we did the right thing...better safe than sorry. Unfortunately the woman then claimed that she did not hit Dedi, that it was the 2nd car...the witness though gave a different story; one that matched Dedi's description. The police then lined up Dedi's bike with the car and sure enough the car's side mirror was cracked and had a black streak that lined up perfectly with Dedi's handlebars.

So at least if there are any problems down the road, we've covered ourselves. Dedi's bike license plate was also current, and this covers any costs that don't get covered by the woman's insurance.

The ambulance then drove away and took Dedi to the hospital in Morges. I started making phone calls to find someone to cart away Dedi's bike when our downstairs neighbors drove by. We packed her bike in their trunk and we both headed home. I was full of adrenaline and was literally flying....my neighbor clocked me at speeds up to 60km/hr. Good thing I didn't get a ticket.

Once home, I was getting ready to head to the hospital when Dedi called and let me know that the police were going to give her a ride home...pretty sweet. They were very nice and took the full deposition from our parking lot.

So all is well that ends well...but I will say, it was quite the shock for both of us... I hope though that we can continue to these mini excursions together. ...we just have to pick days where the stars are better aligned...

Cheers,

Dave

No upgrade yet

Well the price for the apartment upgrade went up and in the end we all decided to stay put. A bit disappointing but it does free up the summer for us. The spring cleaning also helped squeeze out some more room in our little home.

Today we were hoping for a nice family ride and picnic but it looks like Aubrey is swamped with homework, and Brenna's at a sleep-over...When she gets home, I'd put money that she'll be need more sleep than riding..

Yesterday was a nice day for all of us. I went to a bike-swap sale in Lausanne and was able to sell a 2nd bike trailer I had bought a few months ago (not the Bob). It sold within minutes...I had hoped to use it for our dogs but the fit was a bit too tight. The good news is that I was able to sell it for what I paid for it new on sale, so no loss, just a bit more experience.

After the sale, I swung by a Spring fair at the girl's school and then met Dedi and the girls who were shopping in Lausanne. We enjoyed a nice Starbucks moment...just like being in the USA, just older buildings, surroundings, and of course, no AC.

I then came home and was getting ready to take the dogs for a walk/run when my neighbors offered to take me and the pups to a nearby wildlife park. So we all headed out and enjoyed the time. Tigger and Telly sure do love running free...Their dog though ran off at the end of the walk, and we ended up waiting about 30 minutes for him to come back...We talked a lot and I enjoyed sitting in the shade getting a good French and occasional Swiss German vocabulary infusion...

After a nice dinner, Dedi and I walked the dogs down to the lake...still light out at 10:00 pm,. We shared some wine, cheese and crackers and enjoyed watching the lights across the lake and then an unexpected firework display in Montreux. Nice!

;-) Dave

Jee-mai & the Dange Langes

We had a wonderful visit this weekend with Jee-mai & the Dange Langes! They swung up here in the middle of an incredible European trip of a life time. They've been up and down the Italian coast, been thru Austria and zig-zagged across Switzerland trying to find our little corner.

Somehow I had a premonition of where they were 'stuck' and riding back home from a grocery stocking-up trip in Renens, took a small detour and found them at a bus stop asking for directions! It was nice to roll up behind Jee-mai and give him a surprise welcome!

It was great to re-connect and spend some time together. Yesterday we all took the boat across Lac Leman to Yvoire, France. We strolled, lounged, photographed and snacked. Tigger and Jordan were inseparable and it was nice to see sooo much love..."a boy and his dog..." Well not quite his dog, though neither would deny they'd like that to be the case.

We capped the evening off with a wholesome dinner at our local 'Le Skippers" restaurant and this morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast with lots of fresh bread and pastries.

They're now heading towards Monaco, hopefully making good time but avoiding speeding tickets!