And were home...

Well, actually I have been home for a week now, but am now just taking the time to sit down and organize photos. It is quite a task when the entire trip was over we had over 750! Don't worry! I am only posting the edited of the edited. Anyway, were I left of in Europe... I went to Grenoble, France to visit a friend of mine from our Tokyo bike club. She was home for the summer vacation. She arranged a bike for me to ride, and ride bikes we did! The first day we did a 60 km up and down some incredible mountains with even more incredible views. I even saw Mont Blanc which apparently is quite a treat. The second day we climbed Alpe d'Huez which is one of the legindary climbs in the Tour de France. It is only a 14 km ride, but over 1100 meter climb! Apparently Lance completed in a mere 37 minutes which took us over 2 hours to complete including 3 breaks. Doing that climb was definitely one of the top 10 experiences I have ever had, including climbing the great wall. The views were breathtaking and you almost forgot that you were gasping for air moving just fast enough that you didn't fall over on your bike. Anyway, France was amazing and I was really pleased to have been able to spend time with Anna and her lovely family and friends. After France I was back to Germany for one last weekend. On Friday Nev and I took in Cologne and it's amazing cathedral. I actually climbed 150 meters to the top of one of the towers the day after Alpe D'Huez and I really thought my legs might fall off! On Saturday we headed down South to wine country. We stayed in a very pleasant little town called Rudesheim and did lots of wine tasting. On Sunday we took a river cruise on the Rhine river back towards Dusseldorf and Yasuko's home. There were so many castles along the river that you could really imagine old magical Germany. I then came home to Tracy and Regis and spent a very nice 3 short days touring around Tokyo with them. Yesterday I finally started back to work (yes I do work sometimes!!) and am finally getting back to normal life. Europe was amazing and Kaz and I will never forget it. Stay tuned for pictures!