Birds chirping, a hearty Swiss breakfast in the hotel room, and THIS ight outside your window.
Definitely have to come back in winter. It really is charming, and so Swiss-efficient. They have everything right here. It's very hard to leave.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Friday, June 10, 2005
I Claim This Mountain In The Name Of...
...Me!
Top of the Alps pass at Gimslepass. Motorcycle heaven up on this road. 3 out of every 4 vehicles are motorcycles. Stranger still is all the bicyclists who are making their way over the pass. Seeing those guys pedaling up past the glaciers in their little nylon shorts is impressive.
Funnier still was at the very top of the pass, there was a little gravel turnout, with a little sandwich wagon with drinks, sandwiches, cheese. All the way up here. Three other Harley riders parked up here along with us. I guess the biker trade is good enough for this guy to make a business out of his little wagon, but you gotta stop an think about how in the hell they tow his trailer all the way up here.
Top of the Alps pass at Gimslepass. Motorcycle heaven up on this road. 3 out of every 4 vehicles are motorcycles. Stranger still is all the bicyclists who are making their way over the pass. Seeing those guys pedaling up past the glaciers in their little nylon shorts is impressive.
Funnier still was at the very top of the pass, there was a little gravel turnout, with a little sandwich wagon with drinks, sandwiches, cheese. All the way up here. Three other Harley riders parked up here along with us. I guess the biker trade is good enough for this guy to make a business out of his little wagon, but you gotta stop an think about how in the hell they tow his trailer all the way up here.
Convenient
This little chapel sit here 1/2 way up the Alps in Gimselpass, so you pray before continuing up that road in the background.
Ride of The Valkyries...
playing on the MP3 player, seems just about right. Stopped for a coffee in Grindewald. The damn shame is that, as far as this trip goes, I've run out of f*#@ing adjectives. Please email me some, or leave them in the comments!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
The Big Cheese
So you come through this valley, and up on a hilltop to your right, about 800 feet up is this monastery. These guys make some damned fine cheese here. Gruyere they call it. Hmm. You know, tastes better than the same stuff from my local Safeway. Go figure.
Why We Came
Juan (prn. "Yoon") Pass, on the way to Interlaken. Words can't describe the road. Thing of fast, rythmic downhill skiing - only with about 90 horsepower under your ass.
THIS is why we came here.
Afterwards, it took about 5 minutes for us to get oyr helmets off, 'cause we were grinning so hard.
THIS is why we came here.
Afterwards, it took about 5 minutes for us to get oyr helmets off, 'cause we were grinning so hard.
Brian And The Chocolate Factory
Nestle' / Callier's Factory tour here in Broc, near Gruyere... Awesome is all I can say. They claim they process about 6 tons on a given day. That means I'm good for about 1/2 a day's production before I'd start to get sick.
Where's the factory outlet for the pens?
Mount Blanc in the background, Brian checking the map in the foreground. I want a discount on the pens, dammit.
What are the odds?
Brian and I, who can probably speak 4 words of French between us, pull into this little village to try and find some lunch. We pull up to the first place in town, and with no discernable signs other than "Ouvert" (open?), we walk straight into a biker bar.
Helmets hung from the ceiling as lamps, clock made out of a Honda crankcase, and MotoGP posters all over the walls.
See... this entire trip is fate I tell you, fate.
Helmets hung from the ceiling as lamps, clock made out of a Honda crankcase, and MotoGP posters all over the walls.
See... this entire trip is fate I tell you, fate.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
A friendly little joint for lunch
Made it around to the waterfront of the lake, decided to stop in this quaint little joint for a late lunch.
Given all the strange looks I got when I came through the lobby to the cafe, I'm guessing they don't typically cater to the "biker crowd".
Given all the strange looks I got when I came through the lobby to the cafe, I'm guessing they don't typically cater to the "biker crowd".
What a country!
You hang out on a waterfront for a few minutes, and strangers come up and offer you FREE BEER.
I think we Americans can learn a LOT from our European friends!
Luis, Celine and Marie-France just up and offered me beers, apparently intrigued by the whole Harley ensemble'. The only price? I had to give the girls rides around the town. (sigh... such a sacrifice)
Remind me again why I should come home?
I think we Americans can learn a LOT from our European friends!
Luis, Celine and Marie-France just up and offered me beers, apparently intrigued by the whole Harley ensemble'. The only price? I had to give the girls rides around the town. (sigh... such a sacrifice)
Remind me again why I should come home?
Roman ruins
For those of you that didn't know (I didn't until recently), that CH you see on car stickers or currency abbreviations stands for "Conderation Helvetica", or the old Roman name for the territory.
Seems the place is littered with old Roman ruins around the countryside. There's even supposed to be a small ampitheater nearby, if I can learn to read the French language maps.
I love being able to walk up and *touch* thousands of years of history. How cool is that?!
Seems the place is littered with old Roman ruins around the countryside. There's even supposed to be a small ampitheater nearby, if I can learn to read the French language maps.
I love being able to walk up and *touch* thousands of years of history. How cool is that?!
Obligatory T-Shirt Stop
Couldn't come here without stopping by the local Harley shop. Best part was my limited French with the owner's limited English... But speaking that Int'l Language of Love... horsepower and great rides.
The owner told me they're having the European Harley Owner Rally in St. Tropez this week, through the weekend... Hmmm... Might have to extend the trip... : )
The owner told me they're having the European Harley Owner Rally in St. Tropez this week, through the weekend... Hmmm... Might have to extend the trip... : )
This afternoon's destination
Looking out across Lake Geneva from Lausanne, that mountain range on the other side holds the village where we'll spend the first night.
The Noble Steeds
Almost forgot! Here's our rides for the trip... The V-Rod's smooth as silk, but with those forward pegs, you really feel like you're navigating a Barcolounger around the curves.
The Yamaha on the other hand is a monster in every sense of the word. 1700 CC's... I swear this thing'll melt the snow off the mountains. I just hope Brian gets uncomfortable often enough that I get to ride it more!
The Yamaha on the other hand is a monster in every sense of the word. 1700 CC's... I swear this thing'll melt the snow off the mountains. I just hope Brian gets uncomfortable often enough that I get to ride it more!
Friggin' Blogger
Turns out I lost a couple of witty postings since Blogspot's email posting doesn't seem to be working. I'm sure it's user error, but in my testing the other day, it worked fine.
So, this empty train car is just to have SOMETHING to anchor the post to.
Anyhow, the big surprise of the morning came at the baggage claim, where in the crowd, I was aromatically reminded I'm now on a "Deoderant Optional" continent. Pew!
So, this empty train car is just to have SOMETHING to anchor the post to.
Anyhow, the big surprise of the morning came at the baggage claim, where in the crowd, I was aromatically reminded I'm now on a "Deoderant Optional" continent. Pew!
The cows are following me...
Geez... Right before leaving NYC to move to Sunnyvale last fall, these things were ALL over Manhattan. Everyone thought they were ridiculous.
I land here, and the damned things are on a special "Cultural Exchange" program.
No wonder the Europeans make fun of us.
I land here, and the damned things are on a special "Cultural Exchange" program.
No wonder the Europeans make fun of us.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Quick, working stopover in NYC
Aside from the hassles of getting here at 3am on Monday (thank you Continental Airlines!), good quick trip to NYC. Stopped in the local office and met the right people to get the ad sales on our new video games site really moving. Good meeting with folks at Atari as well. It's reassuring to hear positive feedback from the games publishers about our direction.
Of course, I also got to spend time with My Favorite Columbia University Doctoral (sp?) Candidate, the lovely Michelle. Got to play with our puppies as well. Good "home" time, but way too short as always. Unfortunately, we spent far too much of our limited time together trying to makes heads-or-tails out of her homework... I gotta give her credit, I don't think I could do what she's doing -- it's unbelievably intense.
Off the lovely Newark, and the flight over to Geneva. Gonna try to set a record, and be off on the bikes within 1 1/2 hours of landing.
Of course, I also got to spend time with My Favorite Columbia University Doctoral (sp?) Candidate, the lovely Michelle. Got to play with our puppies as well. Good "home" time, but way too short as always. Unfortunately, we spent far too much of our limited time together trying to makes heads-or-tails out of her homework... I gotta give her credit, I don't think I could do what she's doing -- it's unbelievably intense.
Off the lovely Newark, and the flight over to Geneva. Gonna try to set a record, and be off on the bikes within 1 1/2 hours of landing.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Prepping for the two-wheeled invasion of Heidi-land
Ok... So we're set
I think.
Got all the airline tix in order. Tomorrow's packing day. Meeting schedule locked in for the brief couple of days in NYC, then off on Tuesday to Geneva. The great folks at NetBike.tv have got Brian and I all set. Of course, that is, if we could make up our minds on the bikes.
Hmm... for me? Is it the Harley V-Rod, or the BMW 1200RT. Low-slung torque-y American bad-ass goodness, blasting the Star Spangled Banner as I careen around the Alps, or Tuetonic luxo sport cruising, with all the lastest gizmos, gadgets and ding-dongs. And... it comes with lugggage.
Brian has gone from a BMW, a brief flirtation with the idea of the V-Rod, to a Triumph Rocket, to the Honda CBR600, to now settling (?) on a spankin' new Yamaha MT-01. Brian, Brian, Brian, my sportbiking friend... first you toy with the idea of coming over to the dark-side on the backs of Harley's silver, Porsche engined toy, THEN you go with the Ultimate Power Cruiser(TM) from our Tuning Fork friends. Once you're on that beast, we're NEVER gonna pry you off! I just laugh trying to think about getting him going through customs on our way back home, with this permanent sardonic Joker-like ear-to-ear grin frozen on his face ("Monseiur, what seems to the problem with your friend here?")
Starting to wonder about the perception I'm leaving my co-workers with though... I've now had three of them ask me if I'm even coming back. My standard reply is that I'm just intending to point the bike East and keep going. That is a tempting thought... but then again I'm not sure I need to extend my reputation with our fine boys in Law Enforcement into Eastern Europe. That's just what I need - an Interpol record!
Back to the prepping....
One challenge is that this is the first heavily gadgeted trip I'm making to Europe, and ironically one where I'm obsessed with packing light. It's the adapters. All the friggin' adapaters. Cell phone. Bluetooth headset. MP3 player. GPS unit. Video camera. Still camera. Sheesh, SIX damn power suckers - PLUS the one converter I'm allowing myself to bring. Which is gonna make for interesting evenings - do I wake up every three hours to swap out the one device I can actually plug-in at a time for a recharge? I could think about a quick run to Brookstone and picking up another adapter, but then I've got the available outlet problem, since I've *never* seen two of these things fit into the same socket. Oh well, it's gonna be a challenge rationing out those precious electrons between my all my littel Nickel-Cadium and Lithion-Ion friends, but I'm sure we'll make do.
The Big Experiment is that we're going to attempt moblogging, posting notes & photos to this blog while I'm GSM range, so we'll how that goes... (as I wrote that, I had visions of a fuzzy broadcast of Capt. Kirk back to Starfleet HQ -- "We're going to attempt... TIME TRAVEL...")
Gotta go practice my yodelling now.
I think.
Got all the airline tix in order. Tomorrow's packing day. Meeting schedule locked in for the brief couple of days in NYC, then off on Tuesday to Geneva. The great folks at NetBike.tv have got Brian and I all set. Of course, that is, if we could make up our minds on the bikes.
Hmm... for me? Is it the Harley V-Rod, or the BMW 1200RT. Low-slung torque-y American bad-ass goodness, blasting the Star Spangled Banner as I careen around the Alps, or Tuetonic luxo sport cruising, with all the lastest gizmos, gadgets and ding-dongs. And... it comes with lugggage.
Brian has gone from a BMW, a brief flirtation with the idea of the V-Rod, to a Triumph Rocket, to the Honda CBR600, to now settling (?) on a spankin' new Yamaha MT-01. Brian, Brian, Brian, my sportbiking friend... first you toy with the idea of coming over to the dark-side on the backs of Harley's silver, Porsche engined toy, THEN you go with the Ultimate Power Cruiser(TM) from our Tuning Fork friends. Once you're on that beast, we're NEVER gonna pry you off! I just laugh trying to think about getting him going through customs on our way back home, with this permanent sardonic Joker-like ear-to-ear grin frozen on his face ("Monseiur, what seems to the problem with your friend here?")
Starting to wonder about the perception I'm leaving my co-workers with though... I've now had three of them ask me if I'm even coming back. My standard reply is that I'm just intending to point the bike East and keep going. That is a tempting thought... but then again I'm not sure I need to extend my reputation with our fine boys in Law Enforcement into Eastern Europe. That's just what I need - an Interpol record!
Back to the prepping....
One challenge is that this is the first heavily gadgeted trip I'm making to Europe, and ironically one where I'm obsessed with packing light. It's the adapters. All the friggin' adapaters. Cell phone. Bluetooth headset. MP3 player. GPS unit. Video camera. Still camera. Sheesh, SIX damn power suckers - PLUS the one converter I'm allowing myself to bring. Which is gonna make for interesting evenings - do I wake up every three hours to swap out the one device I can actually plug-in at a time for a recharge? I could think about a quick run to Brookstone and picking up another adapter, but then I've got the available outlet problem, since I've *never* seen two of these things fit into the same socket. Oh well, it's gonna be a challenge rationing out those precious electrons between my all my littel Nickel-Cadium and Lithion-Ion friends, but I'm sure we'll make do.
The Big Experiment is that we're going to attempt moblogging, posting notes & photos to this blog while I'm GSM range, so we'll how that goes... (as I wrote that, I had visions of a fuzzy broadcast of Capt. Kirk back to Starfleet HQ -- "We're going to attempt... TIME TRAVEL...")
Gotta go practice my yodelling now.
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