The First Race

Tall trees

Wow well our family here has taken good care of us. Shannon and I have hardly had a minute to ourselves, we've been so busy. After dinner our first day, Shannon and I went for a walk along the river. It was very beautiful, minus the very large slugs and snails. The family is so nice and brought us some grocery staples like muesli, milch (milk), crackers, freshly made rhubarb-strawberry jam, rhubarb cake, and fresh honeydew melon from the garden.

Traditional Farmhouse with lots of Bloomen

Yesterday was a good day. After our 11 hours of sleep, we got up for a quick breakfast at Susanna's house, some internet and emails, a delicious fisch fillet, reis (rice), and salat (salad), we went to a small town on top of a small mountain and hiked to a large wooden tower with 198 steps to the top. The view from the top was breathtaking. We could see the Alps and all the surrounding valleys and mountains and beautiful towns.

Bloomen

When we got back, we packed our bags and prepped our bikes for the time trial. It was an hour drive to Luzern where the time trial was through the town and in the countryside. It was a 13k course that you did two laps of. Shannon and I met three of our teammates: Nicole, Andrea, and Jessica. They were all very nice and I'm very excited to race with them. The race itself was rough since we hadn't gotten to ride at all beforehand, just warm up before the race. The course was absolutely breathtaking and quite rollings. Shannon and I didn't have high expectations with the severe-jetlag and not riding, but it looks like we did okay for a time trial on road bikes with no aero equipment and big, fat training tires, well enough that it looks like we'll be able to use some race wheels the team has around.

The Alps are in our backyard :-)

Today Shannon and I exchanged money by ourselves at the bank in deutsch. It was a good accomplishment and the lady understood us. She got really excited when we tried. After lunch, we went on a nice 3 hour ride to Bern and through tons of villages. It's amazing- we never got honked at for being on the roads and cars never got too close for comfort. A little different than in the U.S. for sure. Pictures will follow!

Our friend Abby

Here are some funny stereotypes we have found to be true: The cows, sheep and goats all have bells around their necks, the whole country is just as beautiful as in the pictures, and yes, they eat lots of cheese, bread, and butter.