Y3W8 – Le Tour de France
During the week, El snapped a few pictures of Lleyton as he passed the 10 month milestone. He is really finding himself comfortable on two feet moving all over the furniture.
On a bit of a whim, we hastily planned a weekend visit to see the Tour de France. I was browsing the official site a noticed that the race was scheduled to stop in Colmar on Friday. Colmar is located in the Alsace Lorraine region of France. To my surprise, Ellyn's first reaction was absolute agreement that we should make it happen. This is an atypical response to a inquiry on my behalf to attend a sporting event. The girls, coming off a F1 racing weekend, were definitely game (before you know it I’ll have all of them joining me to watching sports on TV).
After spending Friday evening in a quant little hotel in the small German town on Endingen am Kaiserstuhl some 30 km from Colmar, we headed for the Tour fairly early in the morning. While in Colmar, we ran into some friends from Ford and enjoyed some of the pre-start festivities.
We ended up just meters from the starting gate and the rolling start allowed us to capture a few pictures of the riders without them passing in such a blur.
The first picture is from the lead group heading out of town. You can see the yellow jersey rider (overall race leader at the time) Rinaldo Nocentini and green jersey sprint leader. On the far right, one of my colleagues from Ford snapped a great picture of Alberto Contrador, the current leader and likely winner, futher down the stage, and in the center picture is the man, Lance Armstrong, buckling up his helment as he heads out from town. Bailey caught Lance while she was taking video and this is a snapshot from the clip.
As the party was breaking up, we strolled the streets back to our car and prepared to drive a couple hours to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) on the border of Switzerland and German. Along the way, we visited Rheinfall. The largest waterfall in Europe, Rheinfall is most impressive due to width/breadth than sheer vertical drop. This area of the Rhein river as it departs from the Bodensee is dotted with Medieval towns and villages.
That evening, we strolled the streets of Stein am Rhein, a small village on the Rhein river highlight by classic Swiss buildings with interesting frescos.
One word of advice. If you think you can get an affordable meal in Switzerland (or Scandanavia for that matter), forget about it. We search to the point that the girls where ready to attempt a complete mutiny when we finally found what appeared to be a solution with small Italian restaurant located along the river. After being convinced by the waiter that the kids could eat for nearly free, we received our $100 bill. Apparently, Ellyn and I ate $50 worth of spaghetti. I told myself that it didn't matter since I had $80 in Swiss Francs left in my pocket from our last trip that needed to be spent otherwise...
The next day was highlighted by visits to the city of Konstanz on the Bodensee and a small island named Mainau – traditional known as the ‘island of flowers’.
On a bit of a whim, we hastily planned a weekend visit to see the Tour de France. I was browsing the official site a noticed that the race was scheduled to stop in Colmar on Friday. Colmar is located in the Alsace Lorraine region of France. To my surprise, Ellyn's first reaction was absolute agreement that we should make it happen. This is an atypical response to a inquiry on my behalf to attend a sporting event. The girls, coming off a F1 racing weekend, were definitely game (before you know it I’ll have all of them joining me to watching sports on TV).
After spending Friday evening in a quant little hotel in the small German town on Endingen am Kaiserstuhl some 30 km from Colmar, we headed for the Tour fairly early in the morning. While in Colmar, we ran into some friends from Ford and enjoyed some of the pre-start festivities.
We ended up just meters from the starting gate and the rolling start allowed us to capture a few pictures of the riders without them passing in such a blur.
The first picture is from the lead group heading out of town. You can see the yellow jersey rider (overall race leader at the time) Rinaldo Nocentini and green jersey sprint leader. On the far right, one of my colleagues from Ford snapped a great picture of Alberto Contrador, the current leader and likely winner, futher down the stage, and in the center picture is the man, Lance Armstrong, buckling up his helment as he heads out from town. Bailey caught Lance while she was taking video and this is a snapshot from the clip.
As the party was breaking up, we strolled the streets back to our car and prepared to drive a couple hours to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) on the border of Switzerland and German. Along the way, we visited Rheinfall. The largest waterfall in Europe, Rheinfall is most impressive due to width/breadth than sheer vertical drop. This area of the Rhein river as it departs from the Bodensee is dotted with Medieval towns and villages.
That evening, we strolled the streets of Stein am Rhein, a small village on the Rhein river highlight by classic Swiss buildings with interesting frescos.
One word of advice. If you think you can get an affordable meal in Switzerland (or Scandanavia for that matter), forget about it. We search to the point that the girls where ready to attempt a complete mutiny when we finally found what appeared to be a solution with small Italian restaurant located along the river. After being convinced by the waiter that the kids could eat for nearly free, we received our $100 bill. Apparently, Ellyn and I ate $50 worth of spaghetti. I told myself that it didn't matter since I had $80 in Swiss Francs left in my pocket from our last trip that needed to be spent otherwise...
The next day was highlighted by visits to the city of Konstanz on the Bodensee and a small island named Mainau – traditional known as the ‘island of flowers’.
It was a nice opportunity for the girls and Lleyton to play on the extensive grounds and see the animals at the working farm in addition to natural beauty of the island.
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