Day off and lazy

So, this week I worked a grand total of hours approaching 72. Kera realized that is the most hours that I've ever worked since we've known each other. Ugh! About the only thing that I can say about it... at least I'm enjoying every day of it. Well, to rephrase that... most every day of it. Last Wed. was kind of a strange day at our company. It's normally my day off as well as Brad (the guide that lives down in the neighboring town to Neuschwanstein). Instead, our owner decided to capitalize on World Cup fever and run a bus that day without consulting either of us. Hmmm.

Somewhere there is me as a guide. At the top is a great shot of the castle that Kera took from Mary's bridge.

Anyway, we worked it out and Wed. morning we had a small (30 seater) and more than enough people to fill it and send some on the train. Turns out, it was a scorcher here (33/94) and many of the people had been on the Insomniac Tour the previous night. Long story short; hot bus + hung-over people + winding mountain roads = 3 people puking in to buckets on the bus. CHARMING!!! In the end, I ended up leaving my restaurant menus on that bus in the tumult and the bus driver was a dick. Oh, did I mention that we ended up stuck in the castle for 45 mins. due to almost ping-pong ball size hail!

I had a group of people that had to be back to the train to avoid getting back to München before 10:00 so as soon as the hail stopped we ran down the mountain so that they could get back on the bus. My light PataGUCCHI rain parka kind of gives the illusion of being water proof/resistant. In the downpour, it basically turned in to bright orange SaranWrap! Ah well... all in a days work. I got the people to the bus on time though (pat on my back)!

World Cup... of those of the unenlightened. Germany beat Sweden 2:0 yesterday to advance to the 1/4 finals. You'd have thought that they won the whole thing. People were in the streets most of the night partying. Good times!

Tomorrow, the Spaceship goes bye-bye! We have to clean it up and give it back tomorrow evening. We didn't know until a few days ago that GE had cancelled the insurance on it before we drove it down to Tegernsee for the race a couple of weeks ago. That could have been bad.

Kera's taken a number of pics down at Neuschwanstein. Some really cool ones too. I've got some I still need to upload. Soon folks. Gives you an idea of what I get to see each day and why I enjoy it so much. In case you've missed past posts, here's where to go Neuschwanstein site.

Been thinking alot about what I'm going to do after this job is done (at the end of Oktoberfest in mid Sept.). At this point, who knows? Might try to get an ESL certification, might attempt to start the frame building or trail building business or might check in to other guide jobs or start something myself. All of it's going through my mind. Hell, I get a few hours a day to ponder these things. I'm stubborn and resourcful, so I'll figure something out.

Actually thought I might have something being lined up the other day with a customer. She asked if I might be interested in sales. She worked for an American company that makes a phone/GPS combo. Anyway, she asked for my info. so that her cohort in Germany could contact me. We got back to München and I had to help someone race to the main train station. When I turned around she, her boyfriend and almost everyone else was gone. Ah well, another time.

Kera and I managed to pull of going out to breakfast, she took a nap and then we went for a mountain bike ride. Along the way we stopped at a beach and sat with our feet in the water amongst the naked and clothed people on the beach. Amazing how the more you're around it, the less you even notice (i.e. get a clue powers that be in the US).

I've been running a lot since I don't have time to ride. I'm up at 6:00 3+ mornings a week for a 45-60 min. run through town. We're still planning to do a 1/2 marathon sometime later in the year.

Last but not least... congrats to my friends Amy and Robert on the birth of their son Jack.

That's about it for today. Have a great week.

Sunday/Sonntag is race day!

This comes from this great link Ad Freak

We went racin' this morning. Our task for today was to take part in the Tegernseer Tal Marathon race. Kera entered the 57 km and I the 77 km marathon. There was one shorter at 39.8 km and one longer at 100 km. We both had a pretty great day. Neither of us has any real idea of where we finished, but we're both very happy with how we felt and performed during the race.

For Kera, the course was perfect. Good climbs with loads of speedy doubletrack. She loved it! Here's the Höhenprofile. Kera did the Streke B (Red) and I did Streke C (Yellow). You can click on the pic for the full view. The first climb isn't all that bad and the second is a no brainer. Sadly, the one stretch of singletrack was a forced walking section. After the long flat-ish section we did a loop through town where Kera's race finished. I then headed out again and went up and over Wallberg.

On Wed. (my day off) I went and pre-rode the course with our friend Tom (often referred to as the Crazy Scottish guy). That day was good, but it was one of those days that I was burning up whilst climbing and freezing going down the other side of every mountain. Today, well, it was a damn near perfect day in Bavaria. I think it's about 75 F and not a cloud in the sky. Amazing!

I'll have to drag the camera along one day when we go down to ride as it's the perfect image of Bavaria. There are grassy meadows in the mountains with the great Bavarian houses, which often serve as restaurants and beer gardens for hikers and cyclists. There are also all the forests and rivers that flow through as well. All the while you're riding past the people in traditional Bavarian dress hiking around. Pretty cool!

For those in K.C., you'll understand when I say that I can get to Tegernsee and the mountains to ride in the time it took me to get to Landahl before. It's about 50 km's out there. Unfortunately, it's a lot of two lane road with local traffic. Just have to go early in the a.m.

If I'm correct, tomorrow officially starts to work for a new company... SwissRE. For the most part, our lives as ex-pats will remain the same. In fact, from what's been discussed, everything, but the car is the same. The car.. our spaceship, is going back to it's 'real' owner. We don't know how, what or when of the details but it seems that we'll end up with some sort of vehicle in the end. All we can do is wait for it to get sorted out.

Work has been strange. We had a couple of huge groups on Mon. & Tues. other than that, I didn't work at all this past week. Even with the World Cup going on which has brought giant groups to the bike tours, we've been slow as far as groups heading to the castle are concerned. Come on people...! It's finally beautiful outside and no one seems to want to see this amazing part of the world.

Update, before I update you guys... results for last weekends race came in. Kera - overall 197th out of 253 & in her class 25th out of 44 (great for a roadie!) Me - overall 133 out of 274 (o.k.) & my age class 26th out of 89 (pretty good for a singletrack guy).