Tour de France

I convinced Chris and Alissa to go to the Tour de France this weekend. The end of the stage was in Verbier, Switzerland. We drove down Saturday night and found a place along the race route to camp. Chris and I camped outside without a tent and were lucky enough to get 2 small rainshowers during the night. Luckily they were really light, so it never got hard enough to penetrate our sleeping bags.

I wasn't sure what to expect before we went, but wanted to go to see what it was like. I just got finished reading Lance Armstrong's book and watched a few of the first stages this year and started getting into it by learning about some of the riders, so wanted to go see what it was all about. I never thought I would say it, but this was an incredible event and want to go another year! Verbier is a ski town of about 2,500, but was jammed packed the night before with every bar being crowded and also a band outside in the town square. Not only in town, but there were cars lining the entire route up the mountain already the night before. I wouldn't even know where to start estimating how many people were there during the race, but it had to be well over a hundred thousand just in the last few miles.

Not a bad view to wake up to, huh!

Want some escargot? There were slugs and snails everywhere.

House full of colorful flowers along the route. This was taken early before the race, so the riders are just "normal joes" riding up the route.

Some artwork under the church along the route.

My future BBQ grill.

Looking back at the 1km to go marker.

Standing in front of the podium.

One of the many "Lance Camps" we saw. (In case you haven't noticed, Lance is from Texas and dang proud of it)

All along the road, fans painted names of their favorite riders. Here is one for the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank who ride for Saxo Bank, so I couldn't resist taking a picture with the truck going by. The second one is Christian Vande Velde who is an American rider for Team Garmin Slipstream.

Alissa and I sitting in our own Lance Camp in the shade on the hill waiting for the race to start. We had a great view on a hill looking back at a switchback, so were able to see quite a bit.

People and bikes were everywhere!

Before the race, the sponsors come through and pass out promotional items in a parade they call the caravan.

Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank finished second.

Andreas Kloden on the left and Lance Armstrong on the right. Lance finished in 9th, 1 minute 35 seconds behind. He may not be the Lance of old, but still not too shabby for a 38 year old.

And again, The Man...I mean the winner of 7 Tours...I mean Lance Armstrong.

Kim Kirchen for Team Columbia HTC.

Christian Vande Velde for Team Garmin Slipstream.

Rinaldo Nocentini in the yellow jersey. He was the overall leader until this stage. Sandy Casar is in the white in front.

Here is a group of riders that finished around the middle of the pack. They were slow compared to Contador in the 2nd video below.

Now after watching that, tilt your head and watch how fast the winner of the stage and now overall leader Alberto Contador was going! Unbelievable!!! (You think there might have been a few Lance fans around us with all the booing when he went by?!?!)

Halfway

It's hard to believe, but I'm already halfway through my 18 month rotation here. In less than 9 months, I'll be back in Denver.

Work has gotten really busy, so I haven't been traveling much lately, but enjoying the summer weather in Munich...and what better to do than enjoy the many beer gardens here. Last Sunday we went to the Andechs Monastery. It has been brewing beer since 1455.

Here's Kerry making friends.

Yesterday morning I went for a bike ride along the Isar River and then went to a street festival near my apartment. They had all the roads blocked off and had 4 different bands playing at the same time, but set up at different spots along the roads with various brat and beer stands, so was a really good time. Then, to celebrate the 4th of July, Jenny and Andi had us over for a BBQ at their apartment. Jenny is from London, so we made sure to give her a hard time about hosting Americans on such a day. She said they were happy to get rid of us anyway. HA!

Here are some pictures from along the river.

Budapest, Hungary

On another whim, I took the train to Budapest this weekend.

Budapest used to be 2 separate cities split by the Danube River. This is a view showing Buda to the left and Pest to the right.

Hungarian Parliament

St. Matthias Church

Fisherman's Bastion

3 of the 7 tribe leaders who settled the Budapest area


Ceiling of St. Anne's Church. I went to a classical music concert someone played on the organ.

The Royal Palace was originally built around 1250, but was destroyed numerous times in various wars and was always rebuilt. The version seen today was only built in the 1960s since it was also destroyed in WWII.

The Chain Bridge was the first bridge across the Danube in Budapest and was originally built around 1850.
Royal Palace in the background looking across the Chain Bridge.

And you know how I like the "then and now" pictures! This one shows the bridge in 1945 after being bombed in WWII.
Hungarian Parliament.
Ceiling inside one of the halls in the Parliament.

Kings' crown inside the Parliament. The first king was King Stephen and he was crowned in about 1000. He was later canonized as a saint and now the crown is known as the Holy Crown.

Inside the Parliament

These are numbered cigar holders outside the Parliament Chamber.

Parliament Chamber

One of the many art museums in Budapest.

St. Stephen's Basilica

Inside St. Stephen's Basilica

Memento Park is a place where they have now displayed all of the former communist statues that used to be in the city when the Soviets were in control. This is a replica of a statue of Stalin. The citizens tore the statue down (like the Iraqi's did the statue of Saddam) and all that remained were the boots.