madrid

My annual training this year was in Madrid, Spain, so of course I took advantage and arrived a little early (from my French Riviera trip) and toured the city and did some shopping. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and it was a very nice city.

One of the girls I work with is from Madrid, so she recommended some great places to eat, shop, and things to see. On my one free day, I did a LOT of walking and by the end was carrying a LOT of shopping bags, so it was quite a tiring day!

 

On Thursday night after training and dinner a group of us went out in the city to check out the "Fashion Night Out" (Madrid's fashion week condensed into one day).

french riveria

September and October have been such busy months, which is why I'm so far behind on blogging. The French Riviera was amazing. It was a long weekend filled with great food and great views.

First stop: Monaco

 

Monte Carlo Casino

 

The Grand-Prix goes through this tunnel

 

 Ridiculously huge yachts in the harbor

 

 Quick stop in Eze

 

 Next Stop: Nice

 

 

 

Next Stop: Cannes

 

 

 

Next Stop: Ile de Porquerolles

 

This was by far my most favorite stop. Not only was the island amazingly beautiful, riding bikes around and getting completely lost made for some wonderful memories!

 

 

The first view of the lighthouse we biked to still off in the distance: 

The little "downtown" are was too cute and had delicious icees after a long bike ride!

 

Last stop: Toulon for an overnight stay before flying out of Lyon the next morning!

 

The French Riviera has been on my list of places to go for a long time now. I am glad I was able to see so many places in a short amount of time. It was probably even more beautiful and enjoyable than I had pictured it in my mind!

 



 



aare rafting

My friends Ondrej and Stephany came to visit for a long weekend while they were in Europe visiting Ondrej's Family. We had a great weekend, it was a lot of fun having them here. On Saturday, we drove to Bern and met up with some of my friends for a day of river rafting. We took the train to Thun where we got our rafts and started down the Aare river. The whole trip took almost 4 hours and we ended in Bern. We lucked out with great weather.

 

This is the first time I've seen this (although I hear its popular in Switzerland), so I had to take a picture of "Women's parking":

 

 

Adrian, Matt, Jelena, Claudia, Ondrej & Stephany:

 

Enjoying some beers and beautiful scenery:

 

 

At the end of our trip we met up with Daniela for a cookout in Bern:

 

 

 

After the cookout, Daniela took Ondrej and Stephany (and the rest of us) on a short tour of Bern:

 

Of course Ondrej couldn't resist running through the fountain:

 

They can't stay away from this place!!

 

Thanks for visiting Ondrej and Steph!

swiss watch

I finally bought a nice "souvenir" for my Swiss experience - a Swiss watch. This was a "happy birthday/merry Christmas/congratulations on your promotion last year" present to myself :)

 

full moon paddle boarding

About a month ago, I did something that I've been wanting to do for over a year now - paddle boarding (or stand up paddling). Jelena and Daniela went with me and we took a 2 hour course on Lake Zurich. It was really fun. It was one of the hottest days of the year and so falling off our boards into the water was actually a relief.

Our instructor told us that the school was doing a full moon paddle in August from 9pm-11pm. Daniela and I decided to go and it was AWESOME! The water was so calm that late in the evening. It was so peaceful and we had a great view of the city of Zurich all lit up by the absolutely beautiful full moon.

Our instructor took a few pictures of the Group during the paddle. We didn't get back to the school until 11:45pm. The lack of sleep on a weeknight was well worth it though. I would definitely do this again!

speeding ticket

One thing that I have to warn all my visitors about is the speed and red light cameras in Switzerland. They are everywhere and so you really can't speed. When my parents were here, my mom designated herself as the "Speed Nazi" and would yell at dad if he was over the speed limit. Well, on Lainey and Josh's last full day here, we were on the way back from Jungfrau and mom took a nap and Josh following behind us saw the camera flash. Sure enough, this week, I received the speeding ticket in the mail (addressed to my dad). Luckily it was only CHF 20! My local friends even said that was cheap :)

 

Update: Dad's speeding ticket #2 received this week. This one for CHF 60. I hope this trend doesn't continue!

aletsch glacier hike

Just a nice little Sunday in Switzerland and a hike to Europe's longest glacier which is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The trip there took about 3 hours, but after a couple trains and two gondolas, we were in Bettmerhorn and at 2,647m. The hike took us along a rocky path with great views of the mountains and the amazing glacier (first time I've ever seen a glacier) until finally we hiked down until we were close enough to touch the glacier.

 

Don't misstep or you're going down.

 

My hiking Buddy for the day  - my friend Piotr - pointing out the obvious (there is the glacier!)!

 

As I said, the path got quite rocky for awhile. This is the "staircase" we climbed down.

 

This is the view from where we sat and ate lunch.

 

Touching the glacier! It was really cold right down by the glacier, but after the hike back uphill, I was warm again!

 

This picture was taken because I was asking "what the heck" after we saw a sign that our destination was 1 hr 30 minutes away and then we hiked 30 minutes and the next sign said our destination was in 2 hours. I was not happy, but the next sign was "correct" again. 

 

The trail description had said that we would hike to the "majical lake Märjelen". When you expect "majical" and get this, it is a little underwhelming, but beautiful nonetheless.

 

The final part of the trail took us through this really long tunnel.

 

The 4 hour hike was absolutely perfect. It might be a competitor for my favorite Swiss hike.