Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Liechtenstein- Day 1-2

Phillip created my life plan on the white board. This is the path to a world champion. It's a mountain path. Part way there is a doping station which you can go through or go around. Also, the air gets thinner at the top so people get a little crazy ;-)


The first day in Liechtenstein was good. Unfortunately, I'm back to my old problem of not being able to sleep in the morning, so I was up far to early but it was good to get caught up on emails and blogging and such. Phillip, Stephanie's husband, brought us to his work for a "business meeting" to talk about Clif products which he is interested in importing. Shannon and I chilled there a bit longer so he could wrap up things there. After we went to a retired bike-mechanic who had a sweet bike shop setup in his basement so that he could look at Shannon's ever-loosening headset. It was nice to just drive around and see the country. The scenery is very nice here with huge mountains and flat valleys. After a lovely dinner made by Stephanie, Shannon, Stephanie, and I headed to the open-air cinema that was going on in downtown Vaduz (the capital city) since they were playing a movie in English. We watched Sunshine Cleaners- it was quite good.

The bike shop

Today we got up and rode for a couple hours before Stephanie had to head to work. We went to Switzerland and rode through the valleys with her friend Alexa who is a mountain bike racer. She is doing some crazy 8-day mountain bike race that goes across the Alps and has 3000 meters (~9000 feet) of climbing each day. In the afternoon Shannon and I got really good massages from Stephanie's massage therapist, Fabienne. This evening we're going to dinner at Phillip's mom's house.

This country is pretty interesting. Only 62 square miles, most of which seem to be one big mountain and a bit of the surrounding valley. There is a prince here who pretty much rules the country now. A few years ago he threatened to move to Austria if the people didn't listen to him and everyone was distraught. The country gave him more power after that. The country also throws a party for a dead prince every August 15th. Anyways, it's been an enjoyable visit so far and its nice to have another person to ride with us!

Liechtenstein

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