"Hillseeker Camp" - The Coloradans Have Arrived

Our next set of "Hillseeker campers" have arrived! All bright-eyed and excited, ready to find some Swiss hills to climb, climb, climb...
Well not all campers were bright-eyed -- Jet lag tends to have its way sometimes...
Day 1 started out as usual, with a bit of scenery-filled yoga...
...then moved right to the chocolate-loading phase (similar to carbo-loading, but Swiss style). Now we're ready to RIDE!
Happy campers were ready to hit the hills... including special guest "counselor" FitnessFrau Kate...
Since the Day 1 ride was just a warm-up shake-down ride, we kept the 17%-grade climbs limited to just a couple. Good thing is these folks come from Colorado so they're no strangers to going uphill either...
but they obviously don't see marshmallow farms in Colorado, based on this reaction!
After the ride, what better recovery snack is there than Nutella on fresh bread (oh yeah and recovery beverage of course)...
Thanks to quality recovery snacks like that, the "campers" were ready to ride again the next day - This time "commuter style"...
It wouldn't be a real Switzerland experience without recycling, so that was the first stop...
Then we were off riding down the local bike path....
...First stop: Bike shop - Where else? (I swear I don't get a commission for bringing campers/visitors there, although maybe I should!) Now this is the ultimate Swiss souvenir:
Udderly cool ;)
Next stop.... You guessed it - Chocolate Factory! Guests seem to get a bit overwhelmed by all the choices there - It's just chocolate, chocolate, chocolate everywhere you look - How could anyone focus...
We topped off Day 2 with a flat (really!) but quite windy ride into the city to do some sight-seeing, on what turned out to be a nice evening...
Tomorrow we're off to the Berner Oberland to test out the Gross Scheidegg route again (the climb that rewards with view of Eiger + two other major mtns), and then the "Swiss Triple Bypass" after that... That is, as long as the early-winter snow stays away up high (even without snow I think it'll be pretty cold up there, brrrrrr). We'll see how it goes!

Cheers,
Buggy

What a summer!

Just a quick note to say "Grüezi!" and to confirm that yes, we are still alive, even if we haven't been blogging! For the past two months we have had visitors and have been travelling non-stop -- and I for one can't think of a better way to spend the summer :-)

So we will be posting pictures and updates from the summer soon... For now at least our current visitors include a blogger (who is obviously faster at posting updates than I am!), so you can see their version of what we're doing now here on "Life through a Lens":

Day 1: Jet Lag be Gone
Day 2: A 3-Hour Tour
Day 3: Racing with Cancellara in Gruyere
Day 4: Camp Hillseeker Recap
and: Chocolate Girl Run Amuck
Days 5&6: Hillseekers 2-Day Intensive Crash Course
Day 7: Swiss Break Time
Days 8-10: Italian Dolomite Camp Weekend
Day 11: Last Day of Camp

As you can see, we now seem to be running a "Hillseeker Camp" - providing a home-base for cycling adventures in the beautiful mountains and hills of Switzerland and Italy. These latest "campers" were really fun, and I'm glad to have the memories documented in the stories and pictures from her blog (Thank You Laurie!). Next campers arrive in two weeks...

Cheers!
Becky (a.k.a. Buggy)

By the way, you may have noticed that we are referred to as "Gustav and Buggy" - These are the names that some people here in Switzerland have mistakenly called us (since "Jeff" and "Becky" are not common Swiss names), so now they seem to have stuck!