Vacation recap: Part 1 in Geneva

This weekend marks the beginning of the end of my glorious 2 week vacation. I can't believe it is already almost over :( My mom and I have had a fantastic time adventuring around Switzerland/France and also partaking in a solid amount of relaxing between mini trips.

In the first few days after returning from St Moritz, my legs were in some serious pain after the half marathon and the weather was not acting particularly nice to us. Accordingly, we decided to chill out around Geneva for a few days - we ran errands, found recipes and made dinners and cupcakes, hung out with Ryan, went for a bike ride along the lake, took walks, and sat out by the beach. Since living in Geneva, and aside from the weekends, I haven't really taken the time to simply live, relax, and enjoy myself here for a few days without having an agenda, traveling elsewhere, and/or rushing back and forth. It was really wonderful to just simply relax and spend time with my mom (and Ryan when he wasn't working).

Checking out the lakeside activities while on our bike ride. Geneva offers a free bike rental service from multiple locations around town. Here is how it works: after you provide a CHF20 deposit, you can use a bike for free for 4 hours - it was my first time using this rental service, and it was really a fantastic way to get around the city. By the way - check out the adorable kids' sailing class behind me, mini sail boats + mini kids = too cute!

Soaking in some sun at the wakeboard club

Summer vacation - don't leave me!

The Glacier Express: "A train to fall in love with"

Switzerland's Glacier Express train has been on my "bucket" list even before our move to Switzerland. This 8 hour train ride across the country is famous for its spectacular scenery and daring bridge and tunnel construction. Switzerland's website describes the train ride: 

"The Glacier Express is the most famous railway in the world. It travels from Zermatt to St. Moritz in around eight hours. It is a day trip through untouched mountain landscapes, glamorous health resorts, deep gorges, delightful valleys, 91 tunnels and across 291 impressive bridges."

Given that we were already in St Moritz for the race, for our trip back home to Geneva, we decided to take the Glacier Express to Zermatt and then the regular train from Zermatt back to Geneva. Sitting on a train for 8 hours was the perfect way to avoid walking on our superbly sore legs after the race. Below is a map of the route that the train takes:

The train starts at an altitude of approximately 1800 meters (6000 feet) in St Moritz, then dips up and down mountains and valleys and reaches its highest point above the tree line at one of the highest mountain passes in the Alps at 2033 meters (7000 feet), before dipping back to the town of Zermatt.

The elevation chart of the Glacier Express

The Glacier Express Train started running in the year 1930 and over the years Switzerland realized it was hugely popular with tourists and decided to capitalize on this opportunity by putting panoramic windows into the trains, providing audio cues/guides along the route, and providing 3 course meals and service throughout the journey. The result is a relaxing and beautiful way to capture the essence of the Swiss country side, especially areas which would be particularly difficult to travel by car.

One of the most impressive bridges on the ride

One of the numerous little villages that the train passes by

The train stops in several locations to reload with supplies, etc. and you can get out to stretch your legs

Checking out the scenery while listening to the audio guide

The panorama windows really make a difference in the views you can see passing by!

Lunch time!

At the highest point in the journey, the Oberalppass at 7000 feet

One note of advice for non-Swiss residents who want to take the Glacier Express: this train ride is very expensive, CHF 30 for a reservation fee and CHF150 for a one-way ride. I would recommend (as with any train trips in Switzerland), purchasing one of the Swiss train passes which provides visitors with unlimited and/or 50% discounted travel within a certain number of days/time periods, for one fixed fee.

Race recap + the weekend in St Moritz

Greetings from my two week "staycation" in Switzerland! My mom is here visiting with me (yay for mom visits!) and the plan is to stay in Switzerland, just relaxing and exploring more of this beautiful country.

This past weekend Ryan and I traveled 6 hours to the easternmost part of Switzerland and met my mom in the famous ski resort town of St Moritz, to run in the "Engadine Sommeraulf", a 16 mile summer trail/road race at 6,000 feet altitude. Before you call me crazy, note that when we signed up for this race, we thought it was only a flat half marathon (13.1 miles) at minimal altitude.... we found out the truth a month or so before race day and by that time, we didn't really have time to adjust our training schedule. Big whoops. So, we decided that given the distance and altitude challenges, we would forego any time goals and that our goal would instead be to just cross the finish line.

Sunday morning we woke up to bluebird sunny skies but the temperatures were barely above freezing, so we bundled up and headed out the door (or at least I bundled up according to the below photo....)

The race course itself was absolutely gorgeous, it covered the length of the Upper Engadine valley, through mountain passes, into forests, past the glitzy town of St Moritz, past castles and fortresses, and next to 6 different glacier melt lakes. This race definitely wins the award for most scenic race I will ever do!

Photo credit to my mom, who waited out in the cold for hours to cheer us on at this point in the race and take this photo for us. What a cheerleader!!

The race itself was EXTREMELY difficult for us. We managed to accomplish our goal and we both crossed the finish line, but it was a struggle, especially after we got to the mini mountain from hell at mile 10. Maybe it was the altitude, maybe it was the larger than expected hills, maybe it was the distance, or maybe it was our decreased motivation to our training plan this time around - whatever it was - this race kicked our butts. BUT, in the end we hobbled across the finish line. This race made me realize more than ever, that to us, race times don't ultimately matter - what matters was the healthy workout routines that we worked to establish along the way. Also, the experience of running (literally) in the Swiss alps is one that I will never forget.

After the race, our legs were (and still are!) extremely sore, so we decided to take an easy afternoon excursion via a cog railway to the top of a nearby mountain (Mouttas Muragl) for a celebratory dinner + drink. The views were fantastic from this terrace and we could literally look down on the entire race course which was a really fun way to round out a race experience.

Standing in front of the race course view - we ran past each of the lakes in the distance!

M&M: Mom and Mountains! :)

Excited to dig in after a grueling morning 

Meat and cheese plate perfection

It got quite chilly on top of the mountain! Thank goodness for sheepskin blankets offered by the restaurant

My first glimpse of the famous Edelweiss flower: a national symbol in Switzerland due to its hardy nature - it can grow in summer or winter!

We didn't get to explore the area very much as we were in town for less than 48 hours, but we did manage to find some great spots that I would recommend:

Dinner: La Piruetta in the town of Celerina and the mountain-top restaurant at the Romantik Hotel Mourratas Muragl
Hotel: We stayed in a town directly before St Moritz, called Celerina. The town was very cute and convenient for summer excursions (5 minute train ride to St Moritz). St Moritz itself was really dead in the summer, so we didn't mind staying outside of it. We stayed at the ALL IN ONE HOTEL INN LODGE. Sounds like a shady name; but, it was extremely clean, new, spacious, and a good price.

Hello from Mallorca!

A few weeks ago, Ryan and I realized we didn't have any plans for this weekend, which happens to be a 3 day holiday weekend due to Swiss national day (essentially Switzerland's version of July 4).  Being the unpatriotic expats that we are (tis tis!), we looked on skyscanner.ch and found that airplane tickets from Geneva to Mallorca were relatively inexpensive. We honestly didn't know much about Mallorca, just that it is a well loved beach vacation destination for Europeans and it is only a 1 hour Easy Jey plane ride away from Geneva. So we booked the tickets and chose a hotel and hoped for the best. So far we have been more than pleasantly surprised! While the island is very busy given that we are visitng smack dab in the middle of the European summer holiday season, it is ruggedly beautiful, with blue waters and dramatic coastlines. More photos and a recap to come later, but until then -- hello from Mallorca!

The view from our hotel's terrace onto the bay/beach of Camp de Mar