In Geneva . . . Close Enough

My flights were fairly painless, as international flights go. There were no screaming children sitting near me and the person sitting next to me wasn't offensive in any manner . . . the food on the plane on the other hand was. The airlines have taken a big jump down the quality scale as of late with all of their cut backs and cost savings measures. Gone are the days of free drinks on international flights and food that is readily identifiable apparently. The "beef" was covered in some sort of "sauce" with some sort of corn (that I could identify) and "mashed potatoes" that were well past their prime.

After a slight delay in DC due to weather, we got off the ground and made it on schedule to Frankfurt. I am so used to traveling through the disaster that is London Heathrow that it seemed odd simply walking to my next flight without claiming my luggage, going through customs, and rechecking it for now apparent reason. Very surprisingly, the connecting flight to Geneva was empty. There were maybe 35 people on the flight and I had an entire row to myself.

Jan met me at the airport, dressed in a suit because he and Becca had a wedding to go to Saturday night. We tossed the bike bag in the back of the car and headed to their house. Becca, Jan and the kids don't actually live in Geneva, they live outside of the city on the French side in a little village called Pougny. I said all of my hellos to the kids, met Catherine for the first time, and readied myself for the moment of truth . . . opening the bike bag to see what the airlines had done.

I fully expected the worst because I got lucky in Denver and they didn't charge me anything despite the bag being in excess of 75 pounds. The lock was still on the bag which was a good start. The disc wheel was still wheel shaped in all dimensions and didn't have any major dings or dents. The only real evidence of travel is a scratch on the down tube, right through the Ibis logo, but it is only cosmetic. I put the bike together and headed out for a quick spin in the direction of Geneva.

For my second day of riding I headed towards the Jura mountains for a little bit of climbing. My jet lagged brain didn't do so well with direction and I was having a hard time gauging effort as well, but eventually I found a little goat path of a road that climbed for about 12 kilometers, up to 1400 meters. As I got higher up into the clouds, the rain started falling, and the road started to deteriorate significantly. There were hiking trails all over the place that were well marked, but the road remained fairly anonymous. Not a bad ride for having no clue where I was going and which roads would get me there. Later in the day we went to Lake Geneva with the kids to wander around and see if we could catch a glimpse of Mont Blanc, but no such luck.

On Monday, I rode with Jan to work on my TT bike and put in a 15K effort on the way back. He doesn't have too bad a commute by bike given that there are bike paths and lanes all over Geneva (and Switzerland for that matter). In the afternoon, we went hiking with the kids along the river to some waterfalls and an old hydroelectric plant. All was going well until they got tired and hungry resulting in a multi-child meltdown.

Today I had a better ride, at least one with fewer stops for me to check where I was going. I decided to head east, knowing that if i kept the mountains on one side and the national highway on the other that I should be ok. I knew the names of a few villages I was shooting for, but you can see from the route where I had to alter my path and backtrack. All in all, not a bad ride and I got home in time to join the rest of the family for a trip to the farm to pick blackberries. Unfortunately the farm was closed, fortunately I spotted some blackberries at the side of the road on my ride and we were able to gather enough for a blackberry and peach cobbler and then some, all with Catherine stuffing as many into her mouth as most of us put in the bucket. Noah was a great help in making the cobbler and seemed fascinated by the process. In another couple years, they should be able to get him on the right career path to get him in culinary school. Tomorrow is my long ride day, keep your fingers crossed for good weather.