We stayed in a house in Gripp, France for a few days, riding the local roads.

Our biggest ride was the famous Tourmalet (wiki, map, article), in use in this year’s Tour de France both today (Tuesday) and Thursday.

Starting at the base of the Tourmalet, riding counterclockwise from Gripp (route), we rode through Lourdes to the Hautacam (wiki) then to the Tourmalet.

On Friday we drove to Spain to do a group ride called the Quebentahuesos, see next post. The tunnel that went ‘under’ the French/Spanish border was close so we had to take a long route around.  As you can see, we were not the only ones riding these roads made famous by the Tour.

The detour prevented us from going on a ride in Spain on the Friday, but it was a great drive with some adventure.

Driving in this northern Spain part of the country seemed much like I expected it to look from the movies.
Chasing the lead car through a tiny Spanish village.

I started out in Höchst (Thursday and Friday), where I was working.  Along the river was a temporary pub where I was watching World Cup matches and trying the local food and drink. Here is an evening shot by the river:

In town the following day:

I made my way to Frankfurt Saturday morning, after a run along the Nidda River estuary (off the Main) from Höchst:

A few sights in downtown Frankfurt:
The traveling pub:

City Centre (spot the angel?):

The Main from the Eiserner Steg:

The Myzeil mall, on Frankfurt’s main shopping street, with a hole in the middle:

The landscape was breath taking and the experience was like my #2 impression of England.  The landscape was mostly barren, except for one tree farm, and it seemed like the entire area was sectioned off with stone walls into 1-5 acre allotments.  Seemed like way too much effort if you ask me.  Although there were areas, like near Tan Hill, that seemed to allow the sheep to roam freely. See picture below for what I mean:

The high (as in elevation) point of the ride was at Tan Hill Inn where we stopped for tea. We stopped a bit too long here, at least a half hour because it had been a long uphill climb into the cold wind for at least the last hour.  And there were heaters.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/33645430

Overall the ride took us 8hr 48 min, but we were only in our saddles for about 7hr 15min.

I had seen much of the route before as this is where we ride on Sundays, but we usually don’t spend all of our time on hills climbing. The ride had many similarities to the Tour of Flanders…. long, lots of climbs (but this ride had no flats), and rained for the first couple hours, then the sun came out with a few more sprinkles throughout the day.

Plastering ceilings the day before probably didn’t help my energy levels either.

In total, I rode 175km in 6.5 hours, saddle time (or 8 hours door to door).

Next up, the Etape de Dales!

Update: pics

http://mycyclingphotos.com/english/view_photo.php?i=455&page_number=19&event=100425_risborough

I spent a couple days in Germany. Day one was Easter Monday so I took part in family Easter lunch, Day 2 was “build an Ikea kitchen” day at Norm’s mom’s place (Germany is the 4th country I have been to an Ikea in and built Ikea furniture – and they are all the same), and day three was castle visiting and flying home.

While castle hunting we found our way  to Burg Eltz Castle.

Sitting in the castle courtyard, after a long walk to the castle from the car.

And there was one tiny door.

People used to be shorter.

A great trip and visit.  Just wish I got photos of the bike ride!

We took the ferry from Dover to Calais, overall about a 4 hour trip.  We arrived in Ninove Friday evening just in time for the rain.  Found ourselves a great place for a large pasta dinner and settled into our studio, all 10 of us, for the night.

Saturday morning, the fun began.  We were in Ninove to participate in the Ronde van Vlaanderen/Tour des Flandres (official, wiki). One of the original cobbled classics (with classic climbs, i.e.: Koppenberg, Muur), we participated the day before the pros raced.

Climbing the Muur (photo from “Muur climb” wiki page).  We had crowds along the climbs when we did the ride too, it was fantastic!

We were on the course for about 7 hours on the 160km ride.  It rained for about 3 hours near the beginning and was quite cold, but the day ended warm and sometimes sunny.  Besides some brake issues on my bike, everything went smoothly for the whole trip.

The food stops had Belgian waffles!

Good times, would do it again.

In mid-February I went to Nice to visit friends who were leaving to go live in the States(!) just days after my visit.  Flew in Friday morning for 4 days of wine, cheese, and bread.  as it was my hosts final week in town we seemed to spend our time visiting their favorite places while they were there so I got a great taste of the city.

We hiked around St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat to Vilefranche on the last day.  If you ever get there, take the time to go for this walk, it is a few hours long and it is great.

Went to Monaco for the day. Very nice city, of course.  It was an hour bus ride from Nice (1 Euro I think). We had lunch in the harbour, saw an ocean rowing race, went to the casinos and marine museum, and the fancy fancy cars.  Below is a photo of one of the hairpin turns in the Monaco Grand Prix.  The weather was perfect.

Sunday we went up to Valberg to ski for the day.  Great skiing, it seemed like we spent half the time just making our way across all the runs to the other side of the mountain range before turning back to go home!

Below is a picture from the mountain-top cafe.  Handmade pizza and wine in a plastic cup.  Brill!

The road to Valberg was fantastic. The bus took a different route home to Nice through La Sausette and its 17 very narrow tunnels.