My hosts in Zurich--about 18 college students in a huge 100 year old house

Greetings from Feldkirch, Austria where I'm all packed up and ready to ride off into the mountains. No guest riders today, but plenty on the horizon :)

The "Swiss Chick Relay" continued after Zurich with the 5th Swiss rider Dragi, who was a foreign exchange student who stayed with my mom while I was traveling in Africa. We got along super and she was a champ working with Tele Zuri TV station who was following us about 1/2 our ride to film for a segment of their evening program. (check the broadcast here--brushup on your Swiss German first--http://www.peacepedalers.com/video/Tele_zuri_mpeg4.m4v) We made it to a small town in between Zurich and the Liechtenstein border just before the rain started and just in time to see ourselves on the tele. It was classic! A perfect 60km ride with a tail wind blowing us in before the storm.


Dragi and I at the end of our ride

Roman, Dragi and Me in between Zurich n Liechtenstein


Roman and I on a PERFECT day on the alps!

Yes, we pedaled up a 25% grade! With over 200 pounds!

Then Roman, another Swiss foreign exchange student who stayed with my mom, drove out to where Dragi and I stopped. I treated us to a room to a small Swiss hotel, we took Dragi to the train back to Zurich, and Roman and I spent the evening chatting and sipping beers. Roman was my 6th rider, but only the 1st male in the entire country--a trend that seems to be continuing. I'm clearly making up for the imbalance in Africa where 98% of my riders were men! Bring on some estrogen power!

Roman and I were totally blessed as the weather predicted rain and clouds but we had sunshine all day! And the views were amazing from the previous day's rain. We did about 70km of blissful cycling with endless views before reaching Liechtenstein and meeting up with my Hospitality Club (http://www.hospitalityclub.org) host Trix. Roman's girlfriend Simone drove from Zurich to Liechtenstein to pick up Roman and we all celebrated the new friendship with some prosecco sparkling wine overlooking the mountains of Trieste, Liechtenstein that Trix happened to have in her fridge (and is my favorite!). Life does NOT suck!


We rode beside this lake for 1/2 the day! Unreal!

Stunning!


Cool Swiss farm houses along the bike route

Checking the bike map to discover we made it!

Simone, Roman, me n my host Trix at Trix's sweet pad

And worthy of a celebration

Trix was a marvelous host and made sure I ate my first of keisekanufel (way misspelled but that's how i remember it) which was amazing! Her couch was super comfortable and with the rain we ended up chilling instead of going out riding. We had long chats, I listened to her cd's of various bands she sang in, and I'll never forget her suggestion that men should pee sitting down--I tried it and I dig it! But not so easy to remember to do!


My first taste of the Liechtenstein Kaseknefel ;)

Waking up full of love and appreciation on Trix's couch

But I took off later the next afternoon to meet my next host here in Austria Helene from couchsurfing.com where I've spent that last few days in her warm flat, meeting her lovely parents, dancing till 5AM with the friendly locals and catching up with myself and business stuff hoping the weather would clear. No chance, time to break out the Assos rain jacket n warm stuff :)


Helen and her lovely family. And another AMAZING meal

My host and great Austrian friend Helene sippin a yummy Austrian beer :) She's riding with me in a few days...

So I'm finally on the road again--into the cold, windy and damp weather that's over Europe now--but very, very excited! Hoping to get a day of skiing in Innsbruck when I arrive, and perhaps find some more male riders. But for now, I'm happy to balance up my guest rider count with as many female riders come out!

Over n out!

Jamie