21 Juli 2022

One of my favorite internet memes is: “He suddenly knew he F’d up…” It is usually a picture of someone getting ready to do something incredibly silly or mildly dangerous. The person has a look of abject terror, or is screaming “Get me off!!!!” Today I had one of those moments. I have talked numerous times on here about the big bike ride I have coming up in about 5 weeks. 100 KM and 3 mountain passes should make for a long day. I started training for this ride, months before I signed up. I had been riding 5 days per week and averaging close to 50 KM per ride. I had also been riding at least two days a week on hills, and had worked myself up to about 75% of the climbing I will do on the ride. I was feeling very confident that it would be a hard, but very enjoyable day on my bike.

I knew I was not going to be able to get many miles under my belt for basically a month. We went on vacation in June, and then I moved Kaylee in July. What I failed to realize is just how fast someone that is approaching 60 can lose their fitness. I took a couple of long hard rides after our vacation and before I went to get Kaylee, and did not notice any loss, but then took time off moving Kaylee and another few days since my youngest sister came for a visit. I took one long slow ride since I came back from this US, and thought I was still OK. This morning I told myself I was only going to ride for three hours, but it was going to be on the hills for the entire three hours. I realized how quickly I lost much of my fitness level about 1/3 of the way up the very first hill. Needless to say I quickly changed my training plan for the day, because I realized trying to complete the climbs I wanted would probably cause me more harm than good. I am hoping I still have enough time to get the miles under my belt I will need to be able to complete the ride, but for the first time since I signed up for the ride I am not feeling very good about being able to complete the distance.

Wish me luck. I think I am going to need it!

We are finally getting to have visitors again. We went almost two years with no one visiting but the kids. That started to change this year, when the sister of Drew’s Girlfriend (Is that still an appropriate term) came to visit. This month my youngest sister is coming, next month, we have some friends from Wisconsin in for a couple of days, then Julie’s parents, and finally my oldest sister will be here. We are in for a busy 8 weeks or so! I had almost forgotten how you can still find new things and that other things change over time as we re-visit places.

The first change I found very sad. The Grossmunster is the largest church in Zürich. It is an old catholic cathedral built by Charlemagne. The legend is that his horse stumbled over the tombs of Felix and Regula (Zürich’s patron saints) and that was the sign to build a church. The church became the symbol of the Switzerland Reformation, as all of the trappings of the church were removed including the organ. Anyway, the best view of Zürich is from atop the towers. I had last been up one of the towers in January of 2020. I was excited to take my nephew up and show him the view. Unfortunately, I am guessing that far too many people were bad visitors because you could no longer go out on the tower’s balcony. You had to stay inside the tower and view the city through steel gates. It was still a fun climb up and down, but the best part of the climb is no longer there.

One of the sites my sister wanted to visit was Luzern. This is where we had a good surprise. Every time I visit Luzern, I have to visit the Lion Monument. Right next to the monument is a place called the Glacier Garden. I had never visited the garden before this week. I learned I had missed out. The start of the garden are some “glacial pots.” For my Southern Indiana folks, this is like a sink hold in the solid rock. Basically, as the glaciers were melting, sand, grit, and water swirled around the stone, and drilled a large hole in the rock.

We took some time and learned about the Alps came to be and the impact glaciers had on forming the landscape. Next we found my nephew’s favorite activity The Labyrinth. I think he would have spent the rest of the day going through the maze.

After the garden, we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around Luzern. It was a fun day. My sister is now visiting Venice. I tried to warn off because Venice will be wall to wall people right now, but she wanted her son to see it before it sinks into the water.

It is good to be back, and since I do not have many big things on the calendar I should be able to get back to regular posts! I hope you have a great day. I will talk to you next week. Enjoy the pictures.