They have a professional photographer that takes your picture as you climb Alpe d'Huez, then you can go online and order pictures if you want, but they are in smal sizes unless you buy the original, and you can't blow it up much without making it look a mess.

Another picture of me climbing Alpe d'Huez.

Nice picture with the mountains in the back ground.

The start line at Boug d'Osains with the Alpe d'Huez lead out truck with the stop clock on the back.

The finish line of the climb.

I think the average gradient up Alpe D'Huez is like 8.6%, but most of the climbing portion is like 10-12%. It flattens out in the corners, and then just as you build your speed up to about 14 mph, it kicks up again to 12%. It's a pretty tough climb.

A nice view of Lake Annecy.

Mitzi loves going to the playgrounds at the parks.

The kids having fun at the playground.
7-8-10 Thursday
Today was one of the days I was looking forward to quite a bit. Today I raced up Alpe d’Huez. For those non cyclists, Alpe d’Huez is probably the most famous climb in cycling and is included quite a bit in the Tour de France. A couple of years ago when Lance Armstrong won a time trial up Alpe d’Huez, they estimated probably a million people were lining the approximately 8 miles up from the valley to the ski resort at Alpe d’Huez to watch the race. They have a race up the road every Thursday morning in the summer put on by the tourist office and Alpe d’Huez. I didn’t get the best sleep the night before, but got up early and drove there to get registered in plenty of time and warm up a bit. There were probably about 50 riders doing the race, some of them looked very fit, lean and serious, and a few looked like they would be happy to just make it up the climb. They start you off as a neutral start with a truck from Alpe d’Huez leading you out and a large digital stop clock showing in the back of the truck. As they reach the turn onto the climb, they wave a flag, the stop clock starts, and it’s game on. The steepest part of the whole climb is the first mile or so, so I was kind of amazed when they started, about 5 guys just stood up and sprinted up the hill like they were in the last 200 meters of a race. They blew up the road. I settled into a strong pace trying not to go too far above my thresh-hold too early. I quickly settled into a pace I felt like I could maintain and just tried to focus on keeping the pace strong. Very soon the order of the stronger, medium, and weaker riders showed, and everyone strung out on the climb at their own best pace. I passed a couple riders who went too hard too early but mostly focused on a guy above me who looked strong and was going at a good pace. I gradually reeled him in and then focused on the next guy up the road. I caught him and we mostly climbed together most of the rest of the way. They have signs at each corner that number the corner and list a previous winner of a Tour de France stage at Alpe d’Huez, but they are placed quite high up, and some of them you don’t see as you are focused on climbing the road, unless you are really looking for them. I lost count of where I was on the road, and thought I still had about 1km to go, when I went over a little rise and could see up the road, and the finish line was only about 100 meters in front of me. I surged to the finish line and finished with a time of 55 minutes, 22 seconds. I would have been extremely disappointed if I hadn’t finished inside 1 hour. I was a little disappointed with my time, knowing I could have done a little better, but not too much. I could have done better if I had got a better night’s sleep, if I had the power working on my power meter, if I knew better where the finish line was, and of course if I was 10 pounds lighter where I should be if I hadn’t eaten so much gelato in Italy, but still a time of under 56 minutes isn’t bad. I think I finished about 6th. The winner’s time was like 44 minutes something, which isn’t too far off Tour de France winning pace. I think the record up the climb was set by Marco Pantani at just under 37 minutes. I had been riding in Europe now for over a month, without a flat or any major mechanical problems, and didn’t take my bike bag with air and spare tube for the first time riding in Europe as I didn’t want the extra weight, but of course Murphy’s Law crept up and bit me. I blew my tire about 1/3 of the way down the descent. Somehow the tire was chewed up a bit on the side, and even just a spare tube without a something inside the tire wouldn’t have fixed it. I ended up holding my thumb up at turn number 8 for probably a ½ hour until a guy with a trailer came by and picked me up and gave me a ride down to my car.
Later in the day we all went down-town and walked around. We bought Donner Kebaps and ate them at the park while the kids played. Most of the kids like playing at the parks over here, especially Mitzi and Ian.

Brad and dad up by the ski resort Semnoz we went to. Lake Annecy is to our left below us in the valley.

Kindra wasn't real thrilled with the flattering helmets we wore.

I'm sure I looked pretty dorky too.

We rode down the hill on these carts. It was great fun, but pretty bumpy if you got going fast.

The wild flowers were pretty impressive, although the picture was a little blurry as I took it riding up the hill on the bumpy cars.

Waiting for the alpine slide.

Ian liked the motorized car that went around a track.

The alpine slide was pretty fun.

7-7-10 Wednesday
This is Kindra writing and I am taking a turn writing for the “blog”. Today was fun although it seems to take us forever to get things going for the day. Adam went for a ride around lake Annecy in the morning, it is 40 km. long around and took him 1 ½ hours. It was a recovery ride for him. He is in his ELEMENT here! I see him planning his rides on the bike with great fervor and he RELISHES the opportunity to ride where “the pros” of past tours have ridden (tour de France for those of you normal non-cycling people out there!! Ha!!). Several of the climbs are very difficult and he is gearing up for tomorrows climb …Grandma is overcoming her jet lag nicely and seems to not get too tired by her grandchildren’s requests for game playing! I think Ian could play the numbers game all DAY! She has been a good sport and plays for hours with them. I try to get in a couple of games with them in-between laundry, hanging out the laundry (Europeans do not have clothes driers) sweeping, holding BOO-BOO and exercising. I love that Grandma is here. We love her to pieces and she is a big piece of “home” for us that I have been missing. We hear French spoken everywhere now and I can understand a little bit. Thank goodness for junior high French class! I love the French language it is beautiful to listen to! The area is breathtaking. The water of the lake is a deep turquoise and there is a path that goes around the lake that bikers, joggers and walkers can use. The lake is surrounded by huge mountains and there is a ski resort close to here. The house we are staying in is 200 years old and has 3 ft thick walls that keep it fairly pleasant inside as we wait and wait for Adam to come back from his ride- just kidding; we usually wait and wait AND wait. Ha! Well anyway, we went to a place today in the tops of the mountains west of the lake and went on their Alpine Slide. It was called Semnoz and we had a blast. There was a guy in charge of the ride that goes down the mountain in a go-cart and as he was explaining how to maneuver the thing: IN FRENCH no less, I could see Ashley thinking, now what am I supposed to do? Especially since there was a tow rope that pulled us up in the cart to the top of the mountain. We were supposed to release a lever that would let you go loose from the tow line which was hitched pretty high up in the sky. Adam was the first to go and then being the nice mother that I am I let Brad and Ashley go next! Ha! I think we explained it pretty good to them (we being the guy in charge and me the very unknowledgeable French translator) I think we both said “good luck” and then waved them off. Fortunately they released the lever at the right time and avoided certain death and then took off down the VERY BUMPY hill. I went after Ashley. It was fun. It was only us four because Ian was too small and Megan was sick from the winding mountain road that Adam loves to drive. Grandma wasn’t feeling very adventurous today but she said she would consider doing the parasailing. We didn’t get to that but maybe next time! Ha! Brecken, the stick in the mud stayed home saying she didn’t want to go to another alpine slide. We have been to 3 here. After the go-cart ride we went down the slide. It was a blast and Megan even was feeling a bit better and decided to go down as well- Mitzi rode with me. The French are nice but they definitely say what they think, OUT LOUD! After our adventurous time we winded our way down the mountain with Adam at the wheel and we decided to go out for dinner. Adam was wearing his France soccer team shirt. The man at the restaurant who was seating us yelled at Adam to “take off that shirt!!” Adam was like “what?” The man said it again only louder this time and people were starting to stare at us. Finally the man said something in French and waved us off like he is tired of people wearing the French soccer team shirt in his restaurant- ok, whatever. Maybe France isn’t doing too well in the world cup, we aren’t keeping track. After escargot that Ashley and Megan tried, we had fondue and salad. It was delicious. Well better go and hit the hay Brad says hi to all of the gorgeous babes that are reading this right now! Ha!
Bye
Kindra

✌ (ha-ha peace out. –brad.)
☣

Pictures are in reverse order for today. Brecken had to model here designer dress she got in Italy for Grandma.

They had these oven mitts made out of rubber that Mitzi liked to play "lobster" with.

The place with the tourist information center in Sevrier was quite pretty with all the flowers.

Still quite a bit of snow well into July. I wonder how much snow was here the middle of May?

Great ride today up the Col du Galibier and the Col du Telegraphe, although it was mighty cold on the descent.

The last few miles were the hardest when your legs start getting tired after climbing for well over 2 hours, and you hit 12% grades.
7-6-10 Tuesday
I started the day with another early morning spectacular ride. This morning I tackled the Col du Telegraphe and then the Galibier. It’s a killer of a ride. You climb for about 2 ½ hours straight, with just a little respite for a mile or two going through the Valloire ski resort area between the two climbs. One of the things that make it so tough is the length, and the fact that the steepest part is the last few miles. The views at the top are monumental though.
I knew this was going to be a bit of a rest/down day as grandma was going to be wiped out after her long trip here yesterday. We went and did some shopping and then had a barbeque at night. Brad especially liked the white sausages we grilled up.

Beautiful little town at the start of the climb to the Cormet de Roselend. They have tons of beautiful flowers everywhere here.

This is the cute little church overlooking the reservoir I came across on my ride.

Great ride up to the Cormet de Roselend this morning. The scenery is pretty great.

I had the pleasure of riding right down the middle of a herd of cows on my ride. They made me a little nervous riding right by them, as they are huge, but it felt a little like riding in the middle of a pack of racers.

Ian and Mitzi love to play at the beach.

Ashley and Megan were brave and both tried escargot.

Everyone was excited for Grandma to come spend some time with us.
7-5-10 Monday
We had a great day today. It started out early for me with a great ride up to the Cormet de Roselend pass. This was my first ride in the French Alps, and was fantastic. They had these markers every 1 kilometer that shows you how far to the summit, the current altitude, and the average gradient for the next 1 kilometer. The scenery was great. I came upon a beautiful reservoir with a tiny church next to it. Then at the summit it overlooked mountain peaks covered in snow. I rode down a little bit on the other side, and when I was riding back up to the summit, I had to ride right through the middle of a herd of cows that were being led to a different pasture.
When I got back from my ride, I took a quick shower and then drove to Geneva to pick up my mom who was coming to stay with us for most of the 2 weeks we’ll be at Lake Annecy. It’s only about a 45 minute drive, and Ashley came with me. Ashley was especially excited to see her Grandma as her Grandma is one of her best friends. When we got back, we all went to the beach on Lake Annecy and the kids swam and played. The weather was nice and hot, but not overbearing. Grandma was obviously quite tired, but we kept her going so she’d go to sleep late evening to help overcome the effects of jet-lag. After the lake, Grandma, Kindra, Megan, Ashley and I went to dinner and wandered around the old part of Annecy. Annecy has a beautiful old part of town with lots of restaurants, ice cream, and the river that flows right through the town. We had traditional Savoie food with cheese and potatoes, and I ordered some escargot for the girls to try. Both Ashley and Megan tried it, but they weren’t too impressed. We came back and Grandma crashed.

Megan went on a walk with her Dad to Annecy and had ice creme. It was some nice one-on-one time and the scenery was great.

Downtown Annecy.

We stumbled upon Cafe Curt.

Beautiful old town Annecy.

The sunset as we came back was beautiful.
7-4-10 Sunday
Today was a down day. We were so tired after our long day yesterday that we were exhausted. Adam is the only one who made it to church. We mostly rested and Adam and Megan went for a very long walk from Sevrier where we are staying on the shores of Lac Annecy to Annecy down-town and back. They took some pictures and were pretty tired by the time they got back.

Brad, Megan, Brecken, and Ashley in the Science Museum in Milano.

Kindra, Me, Ian, and Mitzi in front of the castle we found on the way to France.

Here's where I got my ticket for speeding in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
7-3-10 Saturday
Today was BUSY!! We had to clean and pack for 8 people! Fortunately the kids help A LOT! That is good because they are the reason for the mess! We got out of there in record time and had left the house sparkling, we received an email from the Italian lady we traded houses with and she was very sweet. She wants to keep in touch which we would enjoy. I feel like these people are “my European family”. They go out of their way to leave us gifts and treats, the kids usually get a bottle of Coke and they give us a bottle of wine or a couple of beers. I don’t think they know we are LDS and don’t drink alcohol, but that is ok, we were still thankful for the thought that was involved. We feel so lucky to have this experience! Well anyway we started the long drive for Lac Annecy. On the way we stopped in Milan to see the Leonardo Di Vinci Science Museum. I didn’t go in because Mitzi was asleep and she was so tired we thought we would let her sleep. Apparently I didn’t miss much, the kids said very little was about Leonardo Di Vinci and that is what took us to the museum in the first place. It was hot inside with a lot of people. So we were on the road again. We drove a couple more hours and stopped at the border between Italy and France. We saw a castle that was pretty neat and I needed to stretch my legs so we stopped and it was interesting looking, but because it was a small town, they didn’t have any English tour guides. We missed out on all of the info on the castle. Although at the end as we were looking at the outside of the castle we saw these faces that had been added to the top of the castle in the middle ages. A lady who could apparently was bilingual turned to us and said, “The guide just said that they used to believe that those faces would ward off evil”. The faces were not scary like gargoyles, they were just very simple faces. It was interesting to learn. It does amaze me when I see the measures that were taken to fortify the castle (the 3 meter thick walls, arrow slits, draw bridge, moat etc.) how violent these people were! They didn’t live very long lives and most of it was spent just surviving! Anyway we had to meet our next family; we were staying at their house and we told them we would be there between 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The French family was going to be here for a couple of days before leaving France for our house in Utah. It was a house swap. They said something about having dinner with them and I was hoping I could remember enough French to get us by! They were a super nice family, mom, dad,22 yr old girl and a 16 yr old boy and a 13 yr old boy. They had made us dinner! I remembered enough French to get us by. Thank goodness! They showed us around and then left. I loved the way the woman had decorated her house! She was originally from Paris and had a very vogue modern, whimsical taste. I would just walk around admiring her style. The girl was in an internship in engineering and was also an artist. Brecken of course wanted her room. They had left us mountain bikes to use and the lake was maybe 2 minutes ride away. It was beautiful, kind of an aquamarine green. We were excited for our stay here! It was going to be nice to have internet again and the kids were going to love swimming, boating and the bikes. It was a very long day but it was going to be a fun 2 weeks in Annecy!!!

One of the more interesting bikes I saw at the Museum. The chain is shifted by reaching down and using those levers by the rear brake.

One of the more interesting museums I've visited in Italy. Of course having a passion for cycling helps.

Ian by this really cool bike made out of wood with clear disc wheels. I think I want to run the clear disc wheels on my time trial bike.

After the museum we went to the factory stores. Ian likes the Ferrari store the best. I wanted to pick one up to take home.

I made dinner for the kids before going out to dinner with Brecken and Kindra. I love making and eating Caprese Salad.

Brecken and Kindra as we went to dinner. Brecken didn't care much for the flying beatles though.
7-2-10 Friday
Did the same ride as Monday to Tortona, but pushed it harder and finished 10 minutes faster. It’s a great ride with some hard climbing. Today I went with the older kids to the Museo di Campionissimi, which was the title given to Fausto Coppi, but it was really just an overall cycling museum. It had probably at least 100+ bikes. Everything from a bike designed by Leonardo di Vinci, to Allesandro Ballan’s world champion bike. There was the bike that Fancesco Moser rode to a world 1 hour record and many more. There were tons of jerseys, some from a long time ago, to recent signed jerseys. There were also lots of full wall movies playing of old time bike races, as well as a bunch of video monitors that you could select what you wanted to watch. Everything from some of the earliest pictures taken of bikes, to footage of Lance Armstrong. It was quite a museum for a cycling addict like myself. After the museum we went to the big outlet stores that are near where we are staying. They are very name brand stores, and although they are discounted a little for being in the “outlet” stores, they still weren’t cheap. Brecken bought a pretty dress that she can were to “proms”, and I bought a leather jacket. Ian loved the Ferrari store that is at the outlet stores. After we got back, Kindra and I took Brecken to the wonderful little restaurant on the edge of Vargo. We were walking over just as the sun was setting. As we were walking there, these huge flying beatles scared Brecken half to death. They literally are the size of bats. Once again, the dinner at this restaurant was fabulous. It’s what you think of when you think of homemade authentic Italian food.

The Via dell'Amore is the best part of the Cinque Terre that we saw, especially all the locks. We'll have to bring a lock and visit by ourselves next time.

The iper near where we were staying.

It has the best gelato. Probably 50 or more of the most fantastic gelato. Yummy!

On the train heading to the Cinque Terre.

Mitzi playing in the sand/rocks.

It was quite pretty, but overall I was a little disappointed in the Cinque Terre. I liked Portofino more.

It would have been a little more romantic with just the 2 of us.

Brad, typically trying to put a scowl on things.

This is where I'd really like to go explore.

7-1-10 Thursday
Even though we had a pretty full day yesterday going to Portofino, we went back past Portofino today to go to the Cinque Terre. We didn’t get a chance to go to the Cinque Terre last time we were in Italy, but I had heard a lot about it and was very eager to see if it lived up to its reputation. The Cinque Terre translated means the Five Lands. It’s a remote area on the Italian coast that was left untouched for years due to it’s remoteness. Only in the last 30-50 years has it even been very easy to get to since they’ve now run a railroad track to it. It consists of 5 primary villages with a number of hiking trails and the whole thing has been declared a national park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We found a place to park in Monterossa al Mare and took the train to Riomaggiore. We got a gelato and hiked down to a very pebbly beach. The kids though had fun exploring in the water. We then hiked the “Via dell’ Amore” or “Walk of Love”. It’s only about a 15-20 minute hike from Romaggiore to Manarolo. The whole thing would have a very different feel if it had just been me and Kindra. As it was, it wasn’t quite so romantic sweating and trying to carry Mitzi, keep Brad from pestering Ian, etc. I think my view of the Cinque Terre would have been significantly different with just the 2 of us. I was pretty let down and disappointed as it was. I liked Portofino significantly more. Maybe if we had actually stayed a night it might have been different. One thing that was very cool though was on the Via dell’Amore was people bring locks, write their names on them, then attach them to the fences and poles along the Via dell’Amore to “lock in their love” together. Some of them were obviously very old, some were extremely large, and at one point there is a seat that looks like a couple kissing, and there are hundreds of locks around it. There are probably thousands of locks on the Via dell’Amore and the views were pretty spectacular at times. As we were driving away from the Cinque Terre you could see several of these little groupings of probably 10-30 houses with a little church. I thought that’s what I’d really like to go explore. Maybe next time.