Marmotbeans

Go to the album …

Uploaded by marmotbeans.

Why go to western Spain in July? Well, because we were already over in France for the Tour, and Spain is just next door. So off we go, joining mom and Polly in Madrid, to revisit an area that mom had spent a little time in when she was a teenager when her family spent the summer in England. It was quite scenic, and lots of very old World Heritage Cities nearby. But yes, it was extremely hot.

Uploaded by marmotbeans.

We’ve been back for many weeks now, and I’ve finally posted some of our photos to share with everyone. I’ve got them organized by day. Enjoy!
Day 1 (Ferney > Aix les Bains)
Day 2 (Grenoble > Les Deux Alpes)
Day 3 (Alpe d’Huez!)
Day 4 (Les Deux Alpes > La Lechere)
Day 5 (La Lechere > Albertville)
Day 6 (Albertville loop)
Day 7 (Albertville > Annecy)
Day 8-9, Paris

Hi all. Sorry for the delay in any postings, but we´ve really had almost no access to the internet, and had very little time to do anything but eat, ride, and sleep. It´s been pretty awesome really. We´ve ridden some amazing roads, gone over some beautiful cols, and seen several days of the race.

The tour is now over of course, we´ve been through Paris (2 days), and we´re now in Madrid seeing much Picasso and eating Puros (big Churos) and chocolate. I still don´t have a way to post any pictures, unfortunately, but I will hopefully be able to do so in the next day or so.

We HAVE finally made it to Geneva (more to come on THAT), and we have MOST of our luggage (still missing our bike wheels, pedals, helmets), but we’re working on all that. We’re here though, and meeting the others riders, everyone seems cool. Damn french keyboard sure is hard to type on! I’ll try to get more later.

Off to Le Tour, with our Team Flag!

Uploaded by marmotbeans.

It’s 9pm on Wednesday evening, and our taxi picks us up tomorrow morning at 3:45am, to begin our journey to the French Alps to ride, and to watch the Tour de France! We still have a bit of packing to do, so this will be brief. Kelly made up a “team” flag for us to wave on the side of the road as the Tour (and the TV cameras!) go by us on L’Alpe d’Huez. For those of you watching the tour, look for us on stages 15, 16, and 17 (July 18th, 19th, 20th). I’m guessing we’ll be 3-5 km from the top of L’Alpe d’Huez as that tends to be where final attacks sometimes take place.

Hopefully, we’ll get a chance or two to post some photos here during our trip. Check back in in the following days!

More Nicaragua pictures

Originally uploaded by marmotbeans.

The second week of our trip was spent in Nicaragua. Mostly in and around Granada, which is a great Spanish colonial city. We also spent a night out in huge Lake Nicaragua, on the island of Ometepe with it’s twin volcanos. <MAP>

More Costa Rica pictures

Originally uploaded by marmotbeans.

The first week of our two week Central America junket was spent in Costa Rica. Our first stop was the Mirador Lodge, near the Monteverde Reserve, with spectacular views across to Arenal lake and volcano. <MAP>