The Merry Month of May

It seems I am often running about a month behind on blogs lately! May was a great month, jam-packed full of activities... and even some sunshine :) This explains why I wasn't at the computer blogging...but now it's raining again, so better late than never, right?

The month kicked off with our Alphorn lessons, as Jeff described in the post "Bringing it all together". Right after the lessons we applied what we learned while cheering on the bike racers in Tour de Romandie - I finally documented our experience with that, including pictures, in a new post: "Crazy Americans at Tour de Romandie". The Alphorn fits neatly in a small backpack and at only 1 kilo it didn't seem to slow Jeff down at all on the climb... The following week in the Zürich area was nothing but sunshine for about 10 days in a row - It felt fabulous after such a rainy April! I celebrated by biking every day for 3-4 hours -- It was a sort of "bike camp" for me, to shock my body and hopefully get back in shape for the summer. Well, the "shock" part definitely worked! But the soreness was welcomed after a strange winter of sporadic, low intensity workouts due to the ankle "incident".I had to take a break between bike rides to take our car in to have the winter tires removed and replaced with summer tires. (This is a semi-annual tradition here in Switzerland, and some insurance companies even require it.) Luckily I didn't have to miss out on the nice weather as I waited on the car - Here is a picture of the "waiting room":and the view that kept distracting me from my German books...The timing of the good weather was lucky since Jeff had two work holidays during the sunny time. One day was spent hiking with our friend Thomas, who recently moved here from Colorado, and enjoying the views around Mt. Rigi...Of course no hike or bike ride would be complete without the Alphorn now... Sometimes Jeff just carries it out of the backpack so it's ready to play whenever there's an inspirational view... ...as if there are any of those around here ;) Our friends from Lausanne stopped by for a day of biking in our part of the country... We checked out Sattelegg Pass (second day in a row for me) and found some other great hills as well... stopping for the usual mid-ride lunch break (I'm starting to really like that European tradition) and of course applying the recommended R.I.C.E. method after the ride ("Rest while eating Ice Cream and enjoying the Elevation of the nearby mountains)...
After all this sunny weather and hiking and biking, we were ready to EAT! Luckily our Swiss friend Martina volunteered to teach me how to make the traditional Spätzli - a special type of egg-noodle dish. After this I have a new respect for the people who make this from scratch - It is hard work!
Not to mention it makes quite a mess (or at least I do!)...
But wow, it sure is yummy. Sehr guet! The noodles are covered in cheese (of course - this is Switzerland after all!) and baked till the cheese melts on top, then it is served with applesauce. It sounds like sort of a strange combination, but it definitely works... mmmmmmmmmmm...

Well, that about covers the first half of May... I'll take a break for now and add the second half separately. Don't forget to check out the "Crazy Americans at Tour de Romandie" post...
Ciao for now!
Becky