Secret Garden

We have been reading about a new crag called "Secret Garden" near Palionisos for the better part of a year.  The pictures looked fantastic, so naturally it was at the very top of our list of crags to visit (actually it even played a part in our deciding to stay in Emborios this year).  You park on the dirt shoulder, hike up a col, then follow a trail that follows the contour of the hills Eastwards.  Along the way, there is not much that looks like it could be climbable, which I mentioned to Chloe a few times!  After the last bluff, however, a huge crag opens up below you.




 It is stunning and perfectly oriented for the summer because it is out of the sun by the morning.  Even better: it is bristling with interesting rock features like tufas!

After warming up on the 6a+ to the left, we did the super-fantastic Frapogalo.

Next, the equally classic Ricounet (which had a bat staring at me out of a key hold), Melodrama and then Pomponpidoux.  The last one was pretty pumpy, but I fought through the pump to get the flash (eventually).  We also spoke to Aris and met his wife Katie, which was cool, and I flew the Phantom around the crag.  I took a nice picture of a Norwegian kid on Frapogalo, which might end up in the next guide book!  After driving up the new and excellent road back towards Emborios, on our not new and not-excellent scooter, it was lunch and a swim at Linaria was next on the menu



Dinner was at Harry's again.  We have become addicted to the perfectly fried eggplant slices and chickpea cakes.  Chloe had a wonderfully fresh fish that had been wrapped with tomatoes and foil and baked in the oven.

first day of climbing -- Kastri

Here's a somewhat mangled panorama (stitched on the phone) of the view from our room

We went to a new crag (to us) today, getting an early start to avoid the heat.  Actually, we were done climbing by like 11:00 AM.  Excellent pockets and orange limestone, and an auspicious start to our trip.  I flew the phantom a bit, did a perfect landing only to have a gust of wind blow it over into the gravel!  The blades were pretty dinged up, and just after I had meticulously balanced them.  Argh




It was a gentle start to the trip...  Bibou, Fata, Red Rooster and Principessa Giulia.  The last one is just beautiful.  

After getting provisions at the supermarket, we had an excellent dinner at Harry's

Kalymnos, day 1

(the view from Mastixari)
Today was Chloe's first real day without kids (THANK YOU STEPHANIE!!).  I caught her looking around nervously for them, catch herself and then relax (like I have been doing for the past week and a half).  We got an early start for Milan and our Grand Ryanair Experiment, driving across town on the Rocade Sud, through the Gresivaudan valley, and then through the Maurienne and the tunnel.  There was a huge line of trucks awaiting inspection on the grade leading to the tunnel, which we happily were able to pass.  From there it was through what seemed like twenty tunnels and as many pay tolls as we crept towards Milan.  Somewhere around Milan, having had perfect conditions the whole way, we encountered the mother of all traffic jams.  Chloe and I were pretty stressed, but we ended up making it to the airport parking in what we thought was enough time.  I should back up here and say that we have never flown RyanAir.  After four previous trips to Kalymnos, we have tried all manner of connections and this time we were dedicated to the cause of not flying through Athens.  The Athens connection is terrible, and almost always involves staying the night there, in some awful and/or overpriced hotel (except the one Stephanie treated us to, at the airport!).  So, the idea was to find a direct flight from somewhere near Grenoble to Kos or Kalymnos.  And since nobody actually flies to Kalymnos, that meant Kos.  On the climb Kalymnos website, they announced the Ryanair routes earlier in the spring, so despite the myriad horror stories that we have heard and read, we booked a flight from the closest airport (Milan Bergamo) to Kos.  There are a huge number of options, so we just picked what we thought would be best.  One particularity of the Ryanair experience is that you are required to check in online and pre-print out your boarding pass.  However, during the checkin process, when I de-selected the added insurance option, it would remove the checked baggage (you need to pay for checked baggage).  When I re-added it, the tickets ended up being 150 euro more expensive.  Calls to their expensive help line connected me to a disconnected number.  I'm sure they charged me anyway.  There was no contact information for email or any other method.  Eventually I figured out the insurance scam though, printed out the tickets, as well as an itemised list just in case.  We opted for one extra heavy bag (20kg) because of all the gear.  Despite all this I was quite nervous that we would get to the airport and then learn that we would have to pay hundreds of additional euros in baggage fees!  One last thing worth mentioning is that there was an airport parking deal which we bought, which seemed pretty good: 45 euro for our entire 13 days of parking.  It was called "Ciao Parking" and claimed to be 4 minutes from the airport.  I assumed that this meant that it was 15-20 minutes away.  Therefore, as time was ticking away in that huge traffic jam, I was doing the mental calculations... parking=20 minutes, check-in=30 minutes, and getting slightly hysterical.  We navigated the industrial estate that houses Ciao Parking, registered with them, parked the car, missed the first shuttle, and then sat in the second shuttle as a fat Belgian in a mercedes SL class fumbled around in his car while holding up his finger to the driver and telling him to wait.  Eventually we left, and imagine my surprise to find that the airport was actually four minutes away!  Chloe and walked into what looked like a third world bus terminal, with peeling paint and stacks of luggage everywhere.  There were huge lines to check baggage in for every carrier except Ryanair!  We walked up to the counter, gave the guy our tickets, loaded up our luggage and incredibly did not have any problems.  It was smooth sailing also through security and we were soon on the upper floor of the airport, which is noticeably further upscale than the downstairs, with Armani stores and thousand euro handbag stores.  Amusingly, the signs for the gates lead you in a big circle around all of the stores.  Within a millisecond of the Ryanair guy clearing his throat on the PA, a throng of Italians in stylish sunglasses had queued up into an impressive line.  We discovered then that one of the options that we had bought: reserved seats, also entitled us to board first, so we casually strode past the unwashed masses amidst looks of wonder and envy.  It was as if we had just pulled up in a Lamborghini (And speaking of which, there were several Lambo employees who had also booked reserved seats on the plane), and all for 15 euros.  With reserved seating, you also get access to the "1" row, which has a huge amount of leg room.  After the usual safety stuff, which I actually paid attention to for once, having read that Ryanair mayday calls are on the rise, we were off!  For the rest of the short flight, we were offered all manner of things (for a small fee):  food, sweepstakes tickets, and even perfume.  I was not even aware that Lady Gaga had a perfume, and chloe and I somewhat indiscreetly pondered aloud what it might smell like: cigarettes?  sweat? alcohol?  Anyway, we landed in Kos a few hours later and were left to walk across the tarmac to the terminal without an escort or any clear path.  I felt that this was probably in violation of some kind of safety rules.  My final nice surprise with the Ryanair experience was when our bags came out first -- I wonder if this is part of the priority/reserved thing?  Best 2x15 euros ever.  Without having taken the return flight I can say that the Ryanair thing worked out great for us.  Things stopped working out great after we arrived in Mastixari at 17:30 to find that not only had the 18:00 ferry been cancelled, but so had the 18:30!  The next ferry would be at 20:45, so we did the obvious thing and ate fried calamari and other delicacies by the water until it was time to go.  The water was pretty choppy, and while we were waiting to board, Chloe took some motion sickness pills.  At long last we started the journey across the channel to Kalymnos.  An American kid behind us was shrieking at the crest of every wave, which gave me a headache after the first thirty or so.  Once in Pothia, we had to find a way to get to the other end of the island (Emborios) and ended up getting a bit ripped off on a scooter rental.  We stacked it up with our new and already much beloved North Face Duffel, my CiloGear pack and our day packs and putt-putted Dumb and Dumber style to Emporios.


In a show of their amazing hospitality, despite it being close to 10 pm, Dimitri and Evdokia served us some stuffed tomatoes, and later a few shots of tsipouro!  Shortly afterwards, we collapsed.

Breaking news -- new Rope bag!

That's right, after ten years of service, I have retired our faithful Ropemaster in favor of the fabulous Arcteryx Haku.  After reading various Internet Genius reviews about how an 80 meter rope would not fit in the bag, voila:  80 meter rope in a bag.

New feature in the gym

…lookos sooo nice

Rapha Rising completed

I finished the challenge today, one day early.  I did not want to injure my knee, so I've been doing the last few rides at very low speed.  By far my slowest times up everything.. sometimes approaching 2X slower than my fastest!    Some lovely views today, as usual.

Choppah practice

gotta improve my skills for Kalymnos!

A photo from Albany!

Alpe d'Huez

I have a litany of excuses for not going to Alpe d'Huez to watch today's stage:  knee pain, muscle soreness, rain.  Basically, lameness.  Here is today's paper:  a switchback by switchback preview of today's stage

Rapha Rising ride

For the last couple of months I haven't been feeling great on the bike. Basically, I get dropped by people that I never had a problem keeping up with. It's been frustrating, but I've still managed some riding: Glandon from the Maurienne, Charmant som and others. Today I drove with a friend to the Alpe d'Huez for a semi organized ride from the temporary Rapha shop in town. We set off over Sarenne, down across the dam and back into the Bourg valley, and then up a climb that I had been scoping out for a long time -- up to Col du Solude. This last road turned out to be spectacular, despite having to ride through unlit tunnels. The top part is a well graded gravel road with magnificent views of the Alpe d'Huez and the valley. Somehow we managed to ride past a bunch of people who had stopped at a cafe in Villard-Notre-Dame, but we ended up waiting for them at a cafe on the other side in Villard Reymond with an American couple that we caught up to along the gravel traverse. It turned out that they were the Grubers, whose photos (link here http://gruberimages.zenfolio.com) I have really admired, so that was cool. Next, a technical descent down to the road that comes off Ornon, and back towards Allemond. I got dropped along this stretch and started up the last climb: Alpe d'Huez via Villard Reculas with just my friend. It turned out that there are a couple of alternate starts to this climb, and the rest of the group was waiting for us down the road for a while -- oops! After 1 km I waved my friend off, shifted into the biggest cog and started the grind by myself. It was slow going but ok until near the top, where I had the worst leg cramps that I have\
 ever experienced. I had to get off my bike at least ten times to let my legs unclench. It was a delicate balancing act: lean too far one way and the hamstrings would go… the other way would start the quads. It was agony, and despite the shelf road at the top being gorgeous, with Sound of Music rolling hills looking out over glaciers and peaks, the best I could do was to focus on arriving back to the car. I eventually made it, but I'll admit that those last several km were pretty dark, even with the very loud Dutch music and Swiss rap filtering out of bumper to bumper RVs. I took a little video:




This was two days before the Tour would sweep through, and there was already a continuous stream of cars and bikes going up and down the hill. By thursday, there would be close to one million people on this narrow stretch of road.

98 km (60 miles), 2565 m (8400 feet) of climbing.   I should also mention that this was part of a "Challenge" to ride ~24000 vertical feet in eight days.

Dropped the kids and Chloe off at the airport this morning… I miss them already!

Dimi Restaurant

So my new favorite place for lunch is in a pretty unlikely place:  an industrial zone in St. Egreve.  The food is simple but excellent, with a large percentage of organic ingredients.  Best of all, they serve possibly the best cheeseburger in France (ok I have not tried that many -- one look usually cures me of that)!  Did I mention that it has an actual bun and cheese?

mom leaving

After what seemed like a very short stay, mom was off today.  We'll all miss you a lot, mom!

Took mom over to Hank's today to show her his place on the plateau.  Was great to see him again, even if we didn't ride our bikes.

Home from the Drome

More climbing this morning, thanks to mom babysitting (thank you mom!!)  We were hoping to go to Fauborgs, but it was in full sun at like 8 AM, so we hit the main cliff and hiked to a sector we had not been to in a long time called Bicolore (right next to the sector where I exploded my tendon).  Warm up was on a beautiful blocky 6a called "Le clef du nirvana", then I managed to fall off Bicolore itself, and then did Ambroise, a fantastic 35 meter 6c:  bliss!


Then it was back to the gite to clean and close up shop.  Here is a photo of chloe next to the thistle that someone had inexplicably planted next to the front door and which we were stabbed by almost every time we opened or closed the door

(it is a beautiful thistle though!)

Last thoughts on the gite:  beautiful location, tastefully appointed and well equipped.  My only criticism is that large tractors and balers were driving 6 feet away from the front door every thirty minutes or so.  I'm not sure what exactly they were doing.

Although the Moulin de la Pipe is the only game in town in terms  of restaurants, I think we will cook ourselves next time, as it is not the best quality, and quite expensive.

On our way back to Grenoble, we stopped at a lovely restaurant called the Auberge de Leoncel.  Everything we had was wonderful, but extra special compliments are due to the caramel ice cream that they served, from "Glaces de l'Ardeche, Michel Morand".  Possibly the best caramel ice cream I have ever tasted, and worth a detour.

"Climbing"

We got one route in after a late start on the main cliff before getting grumpy about the full sun (EVERYWHERE!) and retired to the Gite.   OK, maybe it was just me being grumpy.  We did a little touring instead and headed south through small towns and eventually ended up in Crest.  Nothing too remarkable really.  It was one of the least interesting parts of the Drome that I had been to, but still pretty.

After it cooled down, Chloe and I went to the Pecher du Bas sector, and oh my god was it hard!    I barely scraped together an onsight of the 6c+ pitch of Maux d'amour and almost had a heart attack thugging my way through the lower crux of L'equilibre du juste followed by very tenderly clawing my way up the very technical upper part.  Probably the hardest 7a I have ever done, and I was elated to reach the chains without getting ejected by any of the thin moves leading up to it.

Next, we had a so-so dinner at the moulin de la pipe, 

and against my better judgement flew the Phantom in high wind, in order to get some pictures of the cliff

Road trip to Ombleze

Chloe had found a new Gite just past the Gorges d'Ombleze which we were supposed to have gone to in May.  After a few cancellations and moves, we were finally able to go this weekend, and with mom!  Based on the price and remoteness, I was a little worried about what it would be like, but was very pleasantly surprised.  It was a very well refurbished farmhouse, with lovely furniture and cedar panelling everywhere (even in the bathroom!).  The kitchen was well equipped as well.  Next to the gite was a big field with knee high grass and a path carved through it to a small creek.

Glandon

I rode Glandon from the Maurienne with Martin -- my legs felt terrible and I was dropped, but what a wonderful alpine paradise it is up there.  1500 meters of climbing is a lot when you are not feeling fit, however.

Dinner at Francks!

Oh how I miss BBQ.  It's so strange and sad that we aren't allowed to grill on our little patio!


And as usual more fantastic desserts from Franck

Pizza night

with the guys.  Franck, who is known for his exceptional dessert making skill, made probably his best dessert ever, and one of my all time favorites.  I took the opportunity for a little Phantom footage, even if I had meant to shoot stills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGo7zMcFGNY

Touvet

Today mom and I went to the chateau du Touvet, in the Gresivaudan, to the East of Grenoble.  After a very short drive, we followed the tree lined entry, parked and bought a ticket.  I soon found myself in a conversation with the woman at the ticket booth about where we were from, and the usual questions about what we were doing there.  It turned out that she was from St. Egreve, and did I know that there was a chateau in St. Egreve, too?  It turned out that the current owner of the chateau du Touvet (their family has been in charge for the last 500 years) used to own the chateau in which we live, and had broken it up into apartments and sold it.  We all laughed together about the coincidence before the bell for the tour rang, and mom and I had to quickly shuffle off down the very long but impressive driveway.  The tour began with a description of how the castle used to guard against some hostile neighbors (The Savoyards), of which there were a couple in the tour with us, who took it in stride.  The docent told us that the gardens used to be even more majestic when they could afford ten gardeners instead of one.  Ah, la crise!

Once after we entered the castle, I immediately took a photo of the impressive entry, and was as usual told that photography was not permitted.  It seems that not even the smallest of public places has escaped this irritating anti-photography trend.


Next on the tour was the salon, where there were two big basins which were apparently used for rinsing your hands after eating utensil-less.  There was also a table on which the aristocrats would place their dead animals after the hunt.  The flooring in this room and all of the other rooms that we saw (only the ground floor, unfortunately) was spectacular.  Up next, the music room, where I was mostly fixated on the floor again, which was a mix of noyer (walnut), merisier (wild cherry) and Erable (maple).  Stunning.

I don't remember too many details about the rest of the tour, except that there were extremely wide chairs to accomodate the huge hooped dresses of some particular era.  At one point, the docent asked us what we thought the boudoir was for, and one wag replied "pour bouder!", which received some laughs.  After looking it up, I discovered that "bouder" is "to sulk".  So I learned some vocabulary!  We also saw a cool yew table which was made from yews felled from the St. Egreve chateau.  I actually noticed that there were some Yew trees on the grounds, and had started to make Alex a bow with some branches, until I read that every part of the tree except parts of the berry is extremely poisonous.

After the tour, mom and I wandered the gardens and grounds

Mom

Mom always amazes us with how quickly and easily she figures out local public transportation systems.  She is already at home going to and from the center on various buses and trams.  She's been exploring a bit and brought back a small selection of desserts today!

Tour, Frise

Took Keith and Mom on a tour of the synchrotron and to la Frise before dropping keith off on the train to  Paris

Presles and Pont en Royans with mom, Zoe and Keith

We did a little Vercors tour today by way of the col du mont Noir, then through Presles, to Pont-en-Royans and then back over the plateau and down to the valley again.  We stopped at a nice little cafe for drinks in Presles and had some outstanding ice creams in Pont-en-Royans.  We also stopped at the cheese co-op and bought some bleu de Sassenage as well as some Vercorais (not impressed).  It was a beautiful day, tje wildflowers were everywhere and I did not fly the phantom into a cliff.  What more could you ask for?