We're back! Now that my brain and body are finally in the same time zone (seriously, it was harder coming home than going there), I figured I'd put together a summary post. Check out my Facebook page for all of the pictures - I'm so glad we had our new camera - I took almost 2,000 photos!
Switzerland was absolutely amazing. In fact, I'd say it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We spent a couple days hiking around the Interlaken valley and really enjoyed the Swiss Alps. The pictures and views were breathtaking! It reminded me a lot of Yosemite, only much much bigger! We spent our few days there doing some serious hiking and had some of the most amazing times! I loved the long hike we did on our 2nd day there - we were literally out all day long... hiking, snacking, and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
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| Beautiful Waterfall |
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| The Amazing Mountains |
In addition to a fantastic trip, I've also crossed another item off my bucket list - riding up the Alp d'Huez:
Buy a house - completed 2007
Get married - completed 2011
Run a marathon - completed 2012
Ride my bike up the Alp
d'Huez - completed 2012
Own a horse
Have babies
Climb Half Dome
See the Fall on the East coast
Visit Africa
Visit Australia
Let me tell you, I'm so glad I did the marathon earlier this year. I hadn't trained very much for this ride, but the running definitely helped beef up my cardiovascular health! This was incredibly hard for me, but a really cool experience. I'm so proud to have this one checked off! And I bought a really cool jersey as a memento!
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| The Switchbacks Of Alp d'Huez |
After that, we watched stage 16 of the Tour de France which was one of the big mountain stages. This was my first experience watching a huge race like this (before I had only seen the Amgen Tour of California) and it was quite a spectacle. About an hour before the riders came through, they had a parade. A serious parade. They threw all sorts of fun stuff at us (sausage, candy, magnets, hats, etc) and the cars were all decorated like parade floats. Then we saw the helicopter come over the ridge and the riders were right behind them! They were absolutely flying down the hill into town... it was so much fun to see!
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| Float In The Parade |
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| Thomas Voeckler - The Winner Of Stage 16 |
After watching the Tour, we drove up to Caen to see some of the famous places in Normandy. One of the things I love about going to Europe is how much history is there. Everywhere you look there is an old building or a marker. And the history goes so far back! I had really wanted to see the D-Day battlefields (Mike had been before and said it was breathtaking). Breathtaking does not even begin to describe it. We went to the Caen Museum the first day we were there and caught up on the history... but standing on those beaches, knowing what happened there gave me goosebumps. It was also really touching to go see the American Cemetery.
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| Omaha Beach |
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| American Cemetery |
We finished the trip in Paris. One of the first things we did there was watch the last stage of the 2012 Tour de France. We headed out to camp out along the finishing route around 10am and got some great spots. It was seriously awesome to see the pros riding so incredibly fast down the streets of the
Champs-Élysées. We also did some of the touristy sight seeing and made some time to head out to visit the World War I trenches of the Somme.
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| Us In Paris |
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| Tour de France Finish |
This trip was an amazingly fun adventure with my husband that I will never forget!
