Greetings from Zurich!

Just a quick postcard (with attached pictures) to touch base. We arrived in Paris last Saturday, giving us a day to see some of the city, get adjusted to the time change and get the tandem unpacked and set up to ride. Sunday we hung out waiting for the final stage of the Tour de France to come in and we had front row seats (Ok, so we were standing in the 98 degree heat for four hours) to see the tour come by and Lance seal up his 4th victory in a row. It was quite exciting!

Monday we got up early and started pedaling towards Zurich. It turned out to be six of the most beautiful days of riding we have ever done!

We are now in Zurich and have a couple of days before we return to Chicago. I could write about the trip for hours, but I don t want to bore you with too much in e-mail. Check out the pictures and make up your own stories, they ll probably be better than the truth anyway!

Paris
Waiting for the tour to come in -- too bad we are a day early (we did not have grandstand seats!)

Paris
Obligatory tourist picture

The Tour
The peloton

The Tour
Lance!

Paris - Auxerre
Country home on the first day of riding

Paris - Auxerre
Country home on the first day of riding

Paris - Auxerre
Andrew in front of the mayor's house

Paris - Auxerre
Riding the tow path along the canal

Paris - Auxerre
Lunch at the home of a friendly couple in the country

Paris - Auxerre
Naviguessing

Lots and lots of sunflowers

Paris - Auxerre
Kristin with sunflowers

Auxerre - Chateauneuf
Velodrome outside of Auxerre

Auxerre - Chateauneuf
Serious banking on this one!

Auxerre - Chateauneuf
Country road

Auxerre - Chateauneuf
Can you find the Waterford jersey?

Auxerre - Chateauneuf
Andrew listening to the Smashing Pumpkins

Chateauneuf - Champagnole
We stayed in this building that was over 700 years old

Chateauneuf - Champagnole
Breakfast the next morning

Chateauneuf - Champagnole
Not much of a shoulder

Chateauneuf - Champagnole
Looking back down from where we had lunch

Champagnole - Morlon
A shortcut...

Champagnole - Morlon
Taken with flash; you could not see six inches in front of you!

Morlon - Kemmeriboden
First day in Switzerland

Morlon - Kemmeriboden
Breathtaking views everywhere

Morlon - Kemmeriboden

Morlon - Kemmeriboden

Morlon - Kemmeriboden
1508 Meters might not seem all that high, but is was very, very steep.

Morlon - Kemmeriboden
Andrew on the way back down.

Morlon - Kemmeriboden
The front of the Cafe

Morlon - Kemmeriboden
The view from the back of the Cafe

Morlon - Kemmeriboden No cars here

Kemmeriboden - Zurich
Preparing for our last day of riding

Kemmeriboden - Zurich
The road gets rougher...

Kemmeriboden - Zurich
and rougher

Kemmeriboden - Zurich
Troy and Kristin at yet another mountain pass

Kemmeriboden - Zurich Andrew at yet another mountain pass

Kemmeriboden - Zurich
We are not in the Midwest

Zurich
Great ad!