Lausanne, Fribourg and Geneva, oh my!

This post is a few days late in coming, but I've been incredibly busy this week trying to help Carl finish his essays for school, along with editing the essays of two other students. We leave for Normandy first thing tomorrow morning, but before doing that I wanted to tell you about our time spent in Switzerland last weekend. Here goes!

First of all, Switzerland is just as beautiful as the pictures and postcards make it look! We spent three nights there, one each in Lausanne, Fribourg and Geneva, and we lucked out by having beautiful weather in all three places. The lake setting of both Lausanne and Geneva, with the French Alps as a backdrop (the other side of the lake is France, after all!), was absolutely stunning, but Lausanne was definitely our favorite of the two. It's smaller, quieter and is perched on a hillside, so you can get great views of the lake from almost anywhere! The hills also mean lots of huffing and puffing, but it was worth it for the view - and as an overnight visitor you get a free transit pass, so you can also take a tram or bus if you get tired. We visited the Olympic Museum in Lausanne too, which was really a treat!

Fribourg is a little off the tourist trail, and so is less crowded and touristy, but no less beautiful. We had a blast there getting to know my blog buddy Miz K and her hubby - who else? - Mr K! They were excellent hosts, and showed us Fribourg's beautiful Old Town in the afternoon, followed by an authentic Swiss raclette for dinner - yum!! Thank you both for your hospitality, we had a wonderful time and can't wait to show you around Brussels!

Pictures:
#1 - Lake Geneva and ferry, viewed from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne
#2 - Another view of Lake Geneva, from the lakefront in Lausanne
#3 - Geneva at night - the giant soccer ball (or football if you hail from this side of the pond) is in anticipation of Euro 2008, the European Football Championship being held in Switzerland and Austria in June
#4 - The Old Town riverfront in Fribourg
#5 - Another view of the Old Town, Fribourg

Gearing up

Spring has finally come to Belgium, in the form of warmer weather and leaves on the trees. Today is by far the nicest day we have had all year; mostly sunny and a high of 17C (63F). It's just beautiful!

We also have a busy month coming up...Carl is working and writing the essays for his second term courses; they're due on May 5th but since we're traveling both this weekend and next, he doesn't have a whole lot of time left to get them finished! I'm also keeping busy helping him review and edit his writing, editing papers for a few of his classmates who aren't native English speakers, planning our upcoming travels and getting ready for our next visitors (my Mom and stepdad Joe), who arrive on May 7th.

This weekend we're headed to Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, Switzerland, next weekend to Normandy, France, and a few weeks after that we're taking Mom & Joe to Berlin and Dresden, Germany. It's all a bit overwhelming, but we felt we ought to take full advantage of the opportunity we have, and see as much as we can while we're here! As always, check back for more trip reports!

As far as the future is concerned, the job hunting has begun! We are really hoping to be able to remain here in Europe, so we are both searching for work here. Prospects are limited due to our US citizenship however, so if necessary we will begin preparations to return Stateside around late August. This year is going by so fast, it's almost unbelievable!

Photo finish

I finally received the picture I ordered of me finishing the marathon. The photographers took several but this one was definitely the best, and since they charge a fortune for them (15 euros each!), I only ordered the one. I knew I was being photographed of course, so the huge smile and the arms in the air was a little bit for the camera, but the emotion was the real thing! The feeling of crossing the finish line was awesome, and I'm so glad I lucked out to have a photo that conveys it so well!

The second photo is of all 35,000 of us at the starting line - they provided us with a small electronic version of that one for free at least! Just to give you an idea, Carl and I were near the back of the pack, on the left side as you look at the picture.

Paris and marathon stories

We returned from Paris yesterday, and we had an absolutely wonderful time - and finally our legs feel normal again! I now also have an idea of how the French - or the Parisians, at least - are able to eat and drink like they do and not (generally speaking) get fat - it's all the freaking stairs they go up and down on a daily basis! I don't think I would have realized it had I not been as sore as I was, but geez they have a lot of stairs there, especially in the metro system! I must have elicited some laughs those first few days, gingerly hoisting myself down the stairs with lots of grunting and grimacing!

Still, we couldn't let sore legs stop us from enjoying our first visit to the city of lights. There was just too much to see, and too little time to spend there! We did manage to make it to the big sights, places like the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe (both of which we climbed via stairs too!) Versailles, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chappelle, the Louvre, and the Musée d'Orsay. We missed out on Montmartre, the Sacré Couer, the Catacombs and several other sights though, and in general we didn't feel like we had enough time to just soak in the culture and enjoy the café and dining scene. I guess that means we'll have to go back! :-)

Before we went to Paris we had heard for years about the famous Parisian "attitude", and had prepared ourselves for the occasional rude individual. Well, maybe we over-prepared for that, or maybe we've adjusted a bit to the French attitudes since we live in a heavily French influenced city, but I must say that we didn't have even one bad experience. Everyone we encountered was polite and patient with our far-from-perfect French, and a few people were so friendly that it frankly caught us a little off guard! Regardless, the charm of both the city and its people definitely makes us want to return, and soon!

Now for some marathon stories...I'm not going to give the usual run-down of how my knees hurt at mile or kilometer such-and-such, but rather focus on my impressions and things I saw and heard during the race, because that's the stuff I think you'll enjoy reading about, and it's definitely the stuff I really want to remember!

First up is all the trash. The race had approximately 35,000 people participating, and that adds up to A LOT of trash! Just trying to get to the starting line was a challenge, stepping over all the discarded junk from the 30,000 or so who had already run over that space. We started pretty much at the back of the pack - it took us nearly fifteen minutes just to get to the actual starting line! - and I guess a lot of people decided early on not to wear the plastic bag "rain jackets" the organizers had been handing out (it hardly rained at all). Anyway, all along the course there were discarded water bottles, banana and orange peels, various empty sports gel packs and who knows what else. It was amazing though, by the time we finished the race and made our way back to the start at the top of the Champs Elysées, it was entirely cleaned up! I don't know whether it was volunteers or the city workers who did it, but they did an incredible job!

Next up is the scenery - I'm embarrassed to say that after a while, and particularly towards the end, I kind of stopped noticing it. This is pretty funny - at our celebratory dinner I mentioned to Dan, one of the other people from Carl's program who ran (we all finished by the way!), that I had somehow missed seeing the Eiffel Tower during the run; Carl nodded with me, because he hadn't seen it either. Well Dan looked at me like I was nuts and said "It was kinda hard to miss - we practically ran right past it!" To my blank look he says "Uh, it was to your left around kilometer 30?" Yeah, oops, missed that one! I guess in the latter stages of the race I was too focused on getting to the next kilometer mark to pay attention to what was beyond the street I was on.

Now what I did notice was all the people cheering us on, the bands who came out to entertain us, and also the other people running with me. First the spectators: our race bibs had our first names on them, so throughout the race I had people cheering me by name - that was great! I'll never forget the first person who cheered for me - a little girl about 10 years old who yelled "Allez, Jennifer!", pronouncing my name with the cutest French accent...totally made me smile! There were easily tens of thousands of people out there, and it was everybody; little kids holding signs to encourage their mom or dad, elderly residents of the city, families of the runners, tourists taking a break from sightseeing, and firefighters from at least a half-dozen different fire houses. Oh, and for you single ladies out there - the Parisian firemen do NOT disappoint! :-)

Now for the entertainment - we heard a pretty good variety of music, including steel drums, disco and a mini-orchestra, but the one thing that really sticks in my mind is the thought that every brass band in Paris must have been out there! Some were better than others - I remember thinking that the small band of horns playing around kilometer 38 sounded about like I felt at the time - but the fact that they all came out there to entertain and motivate us was awesome.

Last up, the other runners. Although I ran the race pretty much alone and only briefly conversed with a few people, because of the sheer number of people participating I was still surrounded by fellow runners the entire time. As a result I saw and heard a few things that were memorable in one way or another. One was a young woman towards the end of the race who ran past me, repeating out loud to herself over and over, "There IS no wall, there IS no wall". I imagine you've probably heard of the infamous "wall", but in case you haven't, it's basically the point at which the body runs out of its stores of glycogen ("instant energy") and has to begin burning its own stores of fat in order to continue. The fat stores don't provide energy as well as glycogen does, so when that switch happens it can produce a pretty severe fatigue - "the wall". As for me, I kinda bumped my head into the wall a bit, but fortunately I didn't hit it too severely!

The second "fellow runner" story is a little gross, but too funny to not share with you. Somewhere around kilometer 30 I came up behind a guy I hadn't seen yet in the race, with long, graying hair down to about his shoulders. I was directly behind him when all of a sudden I started hearing noises. At first I didn't pay much attention, but it continued, and after a few more seconds I was pretty sure the guy was farting! I looked around at the people to my left and right to see if they'd noticed, but if they had their expressions didn't give it away. Well as if I needed further confirmation, I then started to SMELL it! Meanwhile he's STILL letting 'em rip - it was unbelievable!! Needless to say I was pretty grossed out and managed to find the energy for a little burst of speed that got me past the guy...and thankfully I didn't see or smell him again!

Okay so there you have it, an extremely long post of Paris and marathon stories. Hopefully I haven't bored you, but I really wanted to get some of these memories written down before I forgot them! Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Pictures:
#1 - Catherine, Dan, Carl and I under the Arc de Triomphe just before the start of the race.
#2 - The Eiffel Tower at night, viewed from the top of the Arc de Triomphe - it's lit up like you see here for the first fifteen minutes of every hour, and it's beautiful!
#3 - Unusual but pretty view, looking up at the Eiffel Tower
#4 - The south side of the Notre Dame cathedral - the circular stained glass window is absolutely stunning from the inside!
#5 - Napoleon's casket - now I fully understand where the term "Napoleon complex" came from!

The Results

Okay this is going to be short because we're both exhausted and want to squeeze in a nap before our celebratory dinner this evening, but I promised I would let you know how we did. Well, WE DID IT!!! We both finished successfully, and while we're a little worse for the wear and hobbling around like we're 90 years old, we're okay.

We're still waiting for the official chip timer results, but based on the time we kept on our watches, I finished in just over 4:35, and Carl in 4:39. I am ecstatic because I was aiming for under 5:00, and the pie-in-the-sky goal was 4:30, so I almost made it! Carl is a little disappointed with his time, but he had a really painful problem in the arch of one of his feet that came up around kilometer 28 (the marathon is 42.2 km), so by the time he neared the end of the race the pain was just too much and he had to slow down. Still, sheer determination helped him finish despite the constant pain, so without a doubt we are both happy with the results - especially considering that neither of us had ever done something like this before!

I'll post more once we get some rest, and hopefully we'll get some good photos from the race photographer that I can share with you as well. Till then, nighty night! :-)

The Final Countdown

Wasn't that an 80's hair band song??? Well it's also the thought on our minds at the moment, as we sit in our apartment here in Paris (we rented a small studio apt. rather than stay in a hotel so we could make our own breakfast and have a little more privacy).

The start of the race is just under twelve hours away, and to say that we're nervous would be a bit of an understatement! We just got back from the Marathon Expo where we checked in, picked up all our stuff and had a pasta dinner. While eating our pasta we were watching a video of last year's race, and I think that's when it truly sank in for me - I am actually going to attempt to complete a MARATHON! Will I be able to finish? I think my body would have to completely give out in order for me to give up and not finish after all this training, but everyone has a point where they just can't continue, and I just hope I don't reach mine!

No matter how exhausted I am tomorrow, I promise to update this blog by 4 PM Paris time (that's GMT +1) to let you all know that we finished (we will!), and what our times were. It will probably be a short post, but I'll be sure to log in and at least tell you that much! Keep your fingers crossed and think happy thoughts for us! :-)

Atomium pictures

I've been a bit slow in getting these added, but here are some pictures from Saturday, when Chuck, Sue, Carl and I went to the Atomium. I mentioned it in a previous post about things to do in Brussels, but basically it's a HUGE model of an Iron crystal that was built for the 1958 Expo, or World's Fair. It's magnified 165 billion times, and it really is big. The neat part about it is that the whole thing is accessible inside (though at €9 the admission isn't cheap), and it has some nice views of the northern part of the city. The "tunnels" that go between the large circular areas leave you feeling a bit "off balance" because you're moving at an angle, but that kind of adds to its futuristic feel. If the Atomium were to be built today it might not be considered spectacular, but in 1958 this must have been an incredible sight; even the elevator was the fastest in Europe at the time it was built!

Anyway, it's another item we can check off our list of things to see, and we can now tell our visitors about it and let them decide for themselves whether they want to go in, or just admire from the outside! Thanks Chuck & Sue, for helping us add to our tour guide qualifications!