Some other travels in 2012

After writing all these posts for Europe, I noticed that I neglected to write about some other weekend trips I made this year. Apologies for having them out of order – but better late than never!

Seattle

I scheduled a trip out in March to visit some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. There was still snow on the mountains, so I packed the snowboard. My friend Sahala and his girlfriend were heading out to Crystal Mountain with their friends that weekend, so I tagged along. As it turns out, cycling tightens up my right hip and psoas, so I had some pain trying to control the board. After a miserable first run, I logged into work and saw there I was a minor emergency. I spent the afternoon working while the others rode. All wasn’t lost, there was a REI company party sponsored by Marmot, so I got some Marmot schwag. I’m not giving up cycling, so I’m just going to have to learn to ride switch (with the opposite foot in front). It will absolutely suck the first couple days, and it will feel like learning to ride all over again since I don’t have muscle memory for it.

The next day, I got to hang out with my high school roommate, Maaike. It was a good time walking around Seattle with her and catching up. She’s an architect, and she lives in a flat with a fantastic rooftop view of Seattle.

Maaike on her rooftop deck

That evening, I had dinner at Spur Gastropub with a bunch of Trilogy and TAMS friends. These folks across different periods in my life clicked, and it was a nice feeling to introduce them to each other.

Pigging out in LA

Some of my college friends and I decided to do a quick getaway to LA for a weekend in April. This was the eating crowd, so we spent all of our time eating, discussing what to eat and then eating again. I managed a run from Venice to Santa Monica beach and back, but not much else. Highlights included Newport Tan Cang, Korean food and Umami Burger.

Dinner!

At Newport Tan Cang, we ordered a huge plate of lobster. Most of the folks weren't willing to do the work to get to the lobster meat, so Judy and I cleaned up. Hours later, I ended up with pretty bad hives, and thought I had developed an adult onset allergy to lobster. Months later, I was still breaking out in hives and eventually figured out I was allergic to dyes in laundry detergent. I can safely eat lobster again.

Leadville

At some point in time, my friends and I decided to do a trail half marathon at Leadville at the end of June to see how we would feel at altitude (some are ascending Kilimanjaro in fall 2013). I signed up and promptly forgot about it. Typical me, I didn’t run for the months leading up to it. Race day came, and it was rather miserable.  Leadville sits at 10,000 feet of elevation, and the race (a heavy half at 15 miles) has us going up to 13,000 feet. I walked most of it (slowly at that) and was just happy to be done with the race.

View going up Mosquito Pass, Leadville

Being us, my friends and I also decided to go whitewater rafting the day after the race. We weren’t the most nimble folks, but it was nice to be active without using our legs. I actually stood in the river for a bit during lunch for a much needed ice bath.

Before heading out on the river

Of Montreal (and Mont Tremblant)

I traveled to Quebec mid-August to watch several friends compete in the inaugural Ironman Mont Tremblant. It was nice to get out of the stifling heat in Austin and head to a cooler climate. The town really took to the event and made us feel welcome. They repaved most of the bike course, displayed Ironman banners on the small businesses and installed Ironman street signs along the route. We later found out that the banners were sold by the Chamber of Commerce to the businesses at CAD 200 each.

After four years, I finally made use of the S&S couplers on my bike and brought my bike along for the trip. It took about two hours to break it down the first time and then another hour to put it back together. It was interesting to see how far I've come in understanding how my bike works - I don't think I could have done it alone four years ago.  

Packed bike

The bike course was gorgeous and was broken up into segments: 1) transition out to the highway, 2) an out and back on a fast and mostly flat section, 3) a short in/out of St Jovitte (where I stayed), 4) rollers from (1) back to transition, and 5) an out and back on a nice hilly section that went up in steps.  The road back on the hilly section was net downhill - I had a stupid grin on my face every time I rode that part of the course. 

Race day itself was long, but my friends had great races (especially for the tough bike course).

Happy on my bike

Scott before the race

John finishing up a great race

Denis, finding his daughter Autumn, on the run

Chris, the birthday boy, in the finish chute

I also managed to have Timmy Horton's (the Canadian donut shop) every day. There's a TimBit (donut hole) that's just amazing. We also had poutine and beaver claws (fried flat donut with cinnamon, sugar and lemon) as a treat.

In the end, I only had 12 hours in Montreal, but I managed to get a nice run up Mont Royal from my hotel. I did a nice jaunt up the stairs, but hurried down as it was getting dark. I'll definitely need another visit to Montreal to get a feel of the town. 

View of city from Mont Royal

Day Trip to Bratislava

On the walk to the tram to the train, we stopped at the grocery store, bakery, Hundertwasser Haus and a design store. Needless to say, we missed our intended 10:20 train to Bratislava. Since it’s hourly, we decided to go to the Heeresgeschichtliches (Military) Museum to wait for the next train. The Austro-Hungarian empire had a long military history and the museum has been there since 1856, so we spent more than an hour there. We saw lots of armor from the 1500’s onwards. Also on display were guns, swords, spears, other brutal weapons, uniforms and battle field flags throughout history.

When I took American History in the 9^th grade, I learned that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo started World War I. Back then, I didn’t know much about the Hapsburgs, so I was rather confused. After spending some time in Vienna, I have a bit more context. The museum had the car Franz Ferdinand was riding in when he was assassinated along with his military uniform that day. I have to admit that the slashes and blood stains were a bit gruesome for me.

While the English bits were sparse, there was a hall dedicated to World Wars I & II. It was interesting to read a different perspective of the wars and why they were fought.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand's car in Sarajevo

We finally got on the train to Brastislava, which was about an hour away. We walked around the castle grounds and then searched around for the Museum of Clocks. It’s housed in the reputedly skinniest house in Central Europe, so it’s a bit hard to find. Afterwards, we walked around the Old Town, found a cute cake shop, and then headed back to Vienna.

Bratislava Castle

The house was this big!

Old Town Bratislava

Rawr!

Vienna

On the first day in Vienna, we found a crowded coffee shop for breakfast. While we were sipping on our cappuccinos, the shop’s retractable awnings slid out with the threat of rain. At one point, I mentioned that it had gotten cold, and within a minute, the electric heaters came on and set us back at a comfortable temperature. 

We decided to tour the Belvedere first as it was in the same district as our AirBnB flat. We walked through the grounds and then toured the Upper Belvedere, which included the well-done Klimt exhibit (includes The Kiss). Even though it was raining, we took the tram to Inner Ring of Vienna for lunch at Hollman Salon, similar to a gastro pub in the States. From there, we walked around the Hopsburg and saw that they were setting up for a sports event. Unfortunately, it didn’t include a run, so we moved on. After a coffee stop to warm and fuel up, we did a walking tour around the area.  In the middle of the walk, I noticed a bakery smell in a courtyard. When we turned the corner, there was a line for the bakery. We walked on, but the smell followed us. Of course, we turned around and had an amazingly fluffy and flaky chocolate croissant.

We returned in the evening to tour the Lower Belvedere. My legs were aching from all the walking and my feet were unhappy with my choice of shoes (Chuck Taylor's) for the day.

Gardens at the Belvedere

On the second day, we took an early Ubanh (subway) to Schloß Schonbrunn, the summer palace of the House of Hapsburg. Good thing we went early – it got more crowded as the day went on. I guess most folks don’t wake up early on vacation.

We spent about 6 hours touring the grounds and imperial rooms of Schloß Schonbrunn. The rooms were well done, and we learned quite a bit about the House of Hapsburg. While walking through the gardens, we saw how they trimmed the hedges (something we wondered about even at the Belvedere). We completed the maze (more difficult than it looks) and went through the labyrinth.  While we didn’t find Minotaur, we did find a climbing pole. When we arrived, we saw two guys. One had already made it to the top of the pole, and the other was taking his picture. The picture taking one seemed to waffle on whether or not he wanted to climb the pole, so I went ahead and climbed it. After I rung the bell at the top, I think I heard something akin to: “Now you have to do it.” So, of course, the picture taking friend also climbed the pole.

After the labyrinth, we made our way to an apple strudel demo and had a nice lunch at the café. I’ve noticed that museum/attraction cafés in Vienna are quite good in terms of food quality and presentation. We ended the day at Schloß Schonbrunn with a tour of the carriage museum which had an impressive collection of daily, sport, coronation and mourning carriages.

Windy & cold day at Schloß Schonbrunn

What it takes to trim the hedges

Apple strudel demo

Goat cheese salad with pumpkin chutney at  Schloß Schonbrunn

Before the trip, we decided to go hear a symphony while in Vienna. The town seems obsessed with Mozart, but I prefer Beethoven. Our choices were easily narrowed down to a Beethoven (and Mozart) Symphony at Karlskirche (St. Charles' Church). We took the tram to a quick Greek dinner and then another to the church. The walk there gave us a good view of the dramatically lit church in the evening. While the acoustics could have been better, I still enjoyed the symphony and the surroundings. The first chair was quite animated the whole evening. I haven’t attended many symphonies, so I’m not sure if this is common. I also liked her short sleeve dress accessorized by long gloves with the fingers cut out.

Karlskirche

On the third day, we started off at the Wien (Vienna) Museum, which is a hoarder’s dream. I saw lot of cool armor, sandstones and door signs. Until recent history, most people were illiterate, so the door signs had to be distinct: the locksmith needed a key on his sign or a tavern needed its symbol (I saw an example for the green lizard tavern).

The eclectic mix of items there came from a pattern of donation throughout the years. There was a 16^th century item donated to the museum in 1899. Many statues on churches and public buildings were damaged by industrialization and weather. During their restoration, the originals were donated, and the copies are displayed outside in the elements.

Stained glass windows from Stephansdom

Armor!

For lunch, we headed over to Naschmarkt.  It had endless stalls of restaurants and stands for vegetables & fruit (I evens saw jackfruit and dragon fruit), spices, dried fruit, sweets, meats, seafood, olives, cheeses and charcuterie. There were even a few stalls for wine. We stopped at the crowded Naschmarkt Deli, and I loved my chicken corn-flake covered schnitzel.

We capped off the sight-seeing with modern art at Belvedere 21. Personally, I don’t like very modern art. The pieces that lack craftsmanship/skill simply don’t interest me. 

Ljubljana & Riding out of Slovenia

Ljubljana, Capital of Slovenia 

We started the trip with two days in Ljubljana. We stayed at the city center and walked everywhere (cars aren't allowed in the city center). On the first day, we landed mid-morning and got situated at the hotel. Things went a bit slower than normal due to our exhaustion from the flight (no sleep for me). We visited the castle at the top of the hill, walked around, signed up for a 5k the following evening and watched an ITU (draft-legal) duathlon and triathlon. It was another sleepless night for me, so I ended up getting breakfast at 6AM and fell asleep on a full stomach.

On the second day, we took a "free" tour of the town (paid for by voluntary tips of the tour guide).  We learned a lot about the different buildings and the multiple bridges that crossed the town. The older part of the town by the castle was protected by the river, and the bridges linked the old town to the new.  We then had a heavy lunch at a traditional Slovenian place which included duck pate wrapped in prosciutto along with different cuts of game.

After putting my bike together, we had a brief tour meeting, and headed over to the race. The nighttime 5k (started at 9PM) does 2 laps of the city center and crosses two different bridges. The course was a bit confusing as I didn’t understand any Slovenian.  However, I liked running through the lit up old buildings and right next to folks having dinner and going to the bars. Even better, when we were done, they fed us a massive plate of pasta with meat sauce. I had another nearly sleepless night.

Day 1 Cycling: Divaca, Slovenia to Motovun, Slovenia

We started the morning off with a train ride from Ljubljana to Divaca. It was a nice train ride, with a pretty and varied country side. On the way to lunch, the roads were smooth with a nice shoulder. The climbs were reasonable with sweeping descents. After lunch, we biked across the border between Slovenia and Croatia. Strangely enough, there was at least a mile or two of road that was no-man’s land between the Slovenia exit and the Croatia entrance.

We decided to take the “high road” "with some climbing" (according to Bob, the tour leader) to Oprtalj where we would meet up with the group taking the less hilly “low road.” The high road started (and continued) with some steep climbs that skyrocketed my heart rate. I had to stop a few times to let my heart settle down before continuing. Looking at Strava data, it was a Category 3 climb that went on for 1.8 miles and averaged 10.2%. 

As a reward for the climbs, we saw gorgeous sweeping views (common theme for the entire trip).  Some of my favorite memories were watching two women pushing an older farming truck down a hill to get it started, climbing through a quaint town and hanging a right to continue past it, and looking left during the undulation section of the hills and seeing a castle on a hill in the middle of the valley.  When we stopped at Oprtalj, we could see Motovun, our destination, across the valley.  This meant was had a great descent from Oprtalj, and more hills up to Motovun. For some reason, I thought we were done by the time we hit the parking lot for Motovun, but we had over a mile of climbing before reaching the pave. At the pave, I had to walk up the steep and uneven road. I was tired and hungry.

View on the first day's ride

View of the pave headed into Motovun

We stayed at Kastel atop Motovun, which meant a cool room and great views of the valley.  Even better, we were in truffle region, so I had a dinner of truffle cheese, cream of mushroom (truffle) soup, and white truffle risotto. I was happy after dinner (and I finally got some much needed sleep).