livelysonletour

[livelysonletour]

It rained all day the last day we were in Porto. We still ventured out for a late breakfast so Garrett could sleep in after watching the Texas game. We then went back to our apartment and I read for a while. The rain still not letting up, we decided to try to go out again. We had a couple leather shops and Mercado do Bolhao still on our list of things to do. We capped off the excursion with the classic Portuguese pastry, pasteis de nata. Although we haven’t mentioned them here yet, we have actually been eating a pasteis de nata almost daily. I think the official count is 16 in total (all from Manteigaria).

We went back to the apartment to dry off and I picked up my book again. Later we grabbed very late dinner at a place on our street called Tasco, where all the servers seemed like best friends and the food was awesome.

The following morning we took a train back to Lisbon, and we accidentally got off at the wrong stop in Lisbon. Luckily, we were only 15 to 20 minutes away from our hotel and we just grabbed an Uber to take us the rest of the way.

I booked a super cool and romantic hotel for our last night in Portugal in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon. We spent the day walking around and stopping in some shops as things caught our interest. I found a sweater and a wool poncho (hopefully I will figure out how to wear it) and Garrett found a cool deck of cards (his go to choice for souvenir from any trip). We also happened across Rua Garrett (Garrett street) while we were out.

For dinner on our final night we did a chefs tasting menu at a nearby restaurant named Prado that I booked a few months ago. Dinner was great, but a little long considering we had a super early flight out of Portugal the next morning. Garrett passed the time between courses laughing at people trying to figure out where the bathroom was.

We are back in the US now! Sir and Charlie are happy to be back home, and we’re all in bed by 8:45!

[livelysonletour]

We spent New Year's Day exploring Parque Nacional Peneda-Gerês on the Northern border of Portugal and Spain.

A bit tired but motivated for what I expected to be one of the most exciting days, I went out early in the morning to secure train tickets at the train station we visited on our walking tour. Part of the reason we wanted to get tickets early was to avoid lines and ensure we arrived to meet our guide on time. The other part was to redeem our inability to escape the train station upon our arrival to Porto way back in 2023. The tickets were secured easily enough, and I enjoyed walking through city streets caught between the day starting (for people like me) and the night ending (for people like the gentleman walking through broken glass and confetti with his Super Bock still in hand).

I came back to the Airbnb to get Cat, we packed a backpack with waters, rain coats, a lunch (cured ham, cheese, bread, olives, cashews, apricots, and orange juice), and bathing suits, and then headed out to take the train to Braga where we met our guide for the day, Pedro. After asking if we needed any car sickness medication, Pedro began driving us through the mountains up toward the park. Pedro is recent Mechanical Engineering graduate and a music and NBA lover, so we found plenty to talk about.

We stopped at a little cafe owned by his friend for coffee and breakfast - I had a pastel de chaves and Cat had a Portuguese croissant.

We then continued up the winding roads before coming to a trailhead located near the abandoned border gates between Portugal and Spain. We freely walked between the two countries and Pedro pointed out signs mixing Portuguese, Spanish, and Galacian. After re-entering Portugal, we headed down a beautiful trail called the Gerês Bridges Trail.

It was full of bridges, waterfalls, shepherd's paths, cows (check out the video Cat got below!), and the ruins of various users of the mountain pass (from Roman soldiers to Portuguese shepherds to park rangers), all providing spectacular sights. We had lunch on the final bridge at the base of a waterfall before hiking back up and to the car.

Pedro then took us across the Spanish border to the town of Lobios to enjoy the town's hot springs, Caldas de Lobios. We stopped at a small cafe and bought a coffee so we could change into our bathrooms suits and then gingerly stepped into the hot springs. The temperature varied slightly as the water flowed from how I like my showers to barely tolerable - which to be fair is not that significant of a delta. I also had the bright idea to try wading in a small stream near the spring's source and scalded my left foot.

After we had taken all we could handle, we changed and headed back to Portugal. We made a quick pit stop at Castelo de Lindoso, a medieval castle and its grainaries, before Pedro drove us back to Porto.

After such a full day, Cat couldn't bring herself to head back out for dinner so she finished some snacks we had and I ventured out to grab some local delicacies (as the Portuguese call it: McDonals) before we both went to bed, though I got up at 2 am local time to watch the Texas loss to Washington in the Sugar Bowl ☹️... Sadly the cows we saw on our hike didn't have long enough horns to provide the appropriate suerte.

[livelysonletour]

Our next day in Porto was New Year’s Eve. We needed to shop for bathing suits (more on that later) and some snacks for New Year’s Day so we spent the day getting lost in Porto. We started with pork sandwiches at Casa Guedes (a recommendation from Theresa). Then went down to Rua do Santa Catarina for some shopping. We got lucky and found some bathing suits at a sporting goods store. Garrett got a tiny European swimsuit that I’m sure he’s excited to wear ironically.

Then we got dressed up for our New Year’s Eve dinner reservation at 7:30 pm at a Michelin star restaurant called Antiqvvm. I booked the reservation months in advance and I was a little disappointed that the only time they had was 7:30. That’s a pretty early dinner by European standards. Well it turns out that there was only one seating from 7:30 to midnight and our dinner was to end with a midnight champagne toast. The food and wine were both amazing, from the foie gras with beet two ways, turbot with hollandaise and caviar, to the wagyu steak with spinach puree. However, arguably the best was the lively Portuguese singers (students from the local college) who serenaded the restaurant periodically through the night. The also played as the team of chefs did a lap around the restaurant before the meal started (like when the starting lineup is announced in an NBA game) and for a victory lap when the meal had ended. Over dinner Garrett and I reflected on our 2023 and planned out our New Year’s resolutions for 2024.

We joked the whole night that we were going to be turned into s’mores at midnight (like in The Menu), but we made it off the island in one piece and walked home to our airbnb through the crowds of people still celebrating the new year.

Happy new year everyone!

P.S. The song below is from the musicians that played at our dinner, and it’s the first song they started with! Enjoy!!

[livelysonletour]

And now on to Porto! We took an early train from Lisbon to Porto on Saturday. Garrett and I spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure out how to get to our AirBnb (my dad probably has similar memories from our arrival in Poland). We had a 3:30 walking tour booked with the same company as the previous day, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then met up with our next tour guide, Theresa.

We saw some of the famous monuments including the Porto Cathedral (built in the 1500s to be a cathedral and a fortress), the church of Saint Ildefonso (18th century), the tiles depicting Portugal’s history in the Sao Bento train station, and the clergios church and tower, while also learning more about the living conditions of people in Portugal today. We made a pit stop at a little cafe bar that was covered floor to ceiling with FC Porto supporter merchandise, where they served us common Portuguese food including cod fish cakes, cured ham, and bread. We also caught an amazing sunset over one of the seven bridges in Porto. Toward the end of the walking tour, Theresa gave us a bunch of recommendations for different restaurants and bars around and recommended that we take some time to just get lost walking around Porto.

[livelysonletour]

Part 2 - photos of Palace and Park Biester

The palace was built in 1880 to be the residence of Ernesto Biester (a wealthy 19th-century merchant and playwright). Its conical roofs and neo-gothic windows face the road that goes up the mountain to Pena Palace. It was also the setting for "The Ninth Gate", a film by Roman Polanski starring Johnny Depp.

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We spent Friday with a tour company that likes to go off the beaten path, called We Hate Tourism Tours (we’ve learned that the Portuguese have a very sarcastic sense of humor). They took us to the Mountains of Sintra and beach dunes of Cascais, sites of Portuguese royalty escapism during historical hardships.

We were two of six on the tour group, but the other 4 wanted an exclusive tour in German without any pesky English. So they split us up and we spent the entire day with our tour guide, Mannu, handcrafting a personalized tour.

In the mountains we visited Miradouro de Santa Eufémia, Sintra National Palace, Palace and Park Biester (Cat will add a part 2 with more pictures from the palace), and Palace and Park Montserrate. The mountain would naturally be bare granite, but it's ideal climate encouraged the Portuguese to plant forests of pine trees (lumber for Portuguese ships) and cork trees (cork for wine bottles). The palaces of Sintra were royal retreats especially during the hot summer months and the Castle of the Moors (the right most red arrow below) still stands from the 700s.

Mannu took us to Pão Saloio (roughly translated to Hillbilly Bread) for a classic rural lunch of breads, chorizo, pork belly, cheese, olives, and tomatoes and Cat was introduced to Green Wine - wine made with grapes that are not fully ripened due to the weather conditions of Portugal. We knew it was going to be good when we saw a group of police officers hanging around smoking and having their coffees.

Our last stop on the mountain was the western most point of continental Europe, Farol do Cabo da Roca (the left most red arrow below and pictured below).

We made it way down to the beachy dunes of Cascais. Cascais was a retreat for some King I forget the name of who sought to get away from the throngs of people following him all the time so he went to the village or fishermen as he thought the smell would keep the bourgeois away...

After many stops admiring the waves (Mannu was a surfer and could not believe the conditions on the day), we circled back to Lisbon where we had a lovely dinner of tempura green beans, steak, cod, clam rice, truffle mashed potatoes and another glass of green wine for Cat. I struggled to stay awake during dinner, so Cat only made two pit stops for shopping as we walked back to our airbnb.

I was asleep by 8 :)

[livelysonletour]

Thankfully, we made it to Lisbon only a day late. Our flight took off from London without any further meddling from Gerrit.

We arrived at our Airbnb around noon, and Garrett was starving so we walked down to the Time Out Market for some food (similar to Armature Works in Tampa or Ponce City Market in Atlanta). It was nearly impossible to find a place to sit and the food was underwhelming. I think we fell for a tourist trap. We did have a really good pavlova for dessert.

We then spent about 40 minutes trying to buy a bus pass so we could go visit the Jeronimos Monastery. Up to this point in the trip, the people we had interacted with had not been very friendly or helpful. (With the exception of our Airbnb host, who was wonderful.)

We finally make it to the monastery, only to find that there is a super long line and the ticket office was closed. It felt like another bust. We walked down to the river and then stopped at a little cart that was selling oysters and grabbed a half dozen for pretty cheap.

Feeling like the day was being wasted, I wanted to stop at a modern art museum that was nearby. We both were getting pretty sleepy from the jet lag, but we powered through the museum. It probably wasn’t worth it because the museum turned out to be pretty mediocre. Overall, the day was an unfortunate pursuit of sightseeing. Even the best laid plans, as they say. We went back to the Airbnb and napped for three hours before waking up for a late dinner.

Dinner was at a tiny hole in the wall restaurant that our host recommended to us called Restaurante Cabacas. We cooked our steaks on a hot stone and enjoyed the cured meats, cheese, olives, and bread they included as an appetizer. Garrett cooked his meat perfectly, while I overcooked a few pieces of mine. Our server was a really sweet guy, and he restored our faith in the hospitality of the people in Lisbon.

(I’m probably scolding Gare for something here. Who knows?)

Don’t worry, although our first day was mostly fine, our second day in Lisbon was awesome! I can’t wait to share more about it.

[livelysonletour]

If you guys know Cat, you know she LOVES an unavoidable disruption to her meticulously planned itinerary! But I suppose there are worse places to be stuck than London.

After deciding to book a hotel as close to the epicenter of London tourism as possible, we minded the gap and took the tube to Hyde Park. The weather was exactly as you'd imagine London in the winter, but we ventured through rain and crowded streets of Carnaby over to a very popular and busy Indian restaurant, Dishoom. Undiscouraged by the hour long queue, we waited outside in the drizzle and made friends with the doorman.

We were finally seated inside around 4pm, so we delved into what would be our lunch and dinner. We had some delicious and bottomless house chai, fried okra, black Daal, ruby chicken and whatever the chef's special was. Even for combining the two meals, our eyes were bigger than our stomach could handle, and whatever we were able to finish up was ultimately the dagger that ruined any plans of us making it past 7:30 awake.

It was dark by the time we left the restaurant and the rain had picked up, but we took the long way back to the hotel making detours to the Green Park, Buckingham Palace, and the Victoria Memorial.

We made it back to the hotel and jetlag and the Indian food caught up to us. We were both snoring seconds after hitting the pillow with plans dashed to read a new book and watch the Chelsea game.

We're currently back at London Heathrow hoping for an on time departure to get into Lisbon a day late and more than a few euros short. Security knocked us both for a loop... An unsuspecting security agent forced us to check our bags. We obliged him with the ignorant American tourist schtick. My TSA pre-check conditioning had me holding up the line as literally every single item was taken out of my bag and resent through the X-ray machine. And Cat, still cursing my namesake for the chain reaction that led to her bag being checked, forgot to pull her film out before sending it through the X-ray. ☹️

Stay tuned to see if the conspicuously named Storm Gerrit further wreaks havoc on our American privilege!

Dog check:

(Charlie pictured with his daycare bestie, Hank.)

[livelysonletour]

Hello!!

If you’re reading this, we’ve made it to London. Upon landing we received the bad news that our flight to Lisbon was cancelled due to storm (and I’m not making this up) Gerrit… so we booked a swanky hotel off Hyde Park with my hotel points (all those trips to San Jose paid off), and Garrett (not to be confused with the storm) is looking at tickets for a Chelsea game. We’re rebooked on a flight to Lisbon tomorrow morning. More to come!!

Cat

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"I Can't Believe We Didn't Have Time to Play a Single Game"

[livelysonletour]

I’m home now, and Garrett is en route. But there is still two days left to cover (we’re on a bit of a lag).

On Wednesday, we did museums. We first went to the Rodin museum in the morning. The museum had impeccable gardens with bronze statues. In our walking tour of Paris we learned the French style of gardening is to bend nature to the human will, which was evident here as the trees were shaped as squares. The museum itself was relatively small, so we were able to see everything within two hours.

We then made our way to the Louvre with the undeserved confidence of a 20-something, thinking we were on track to accomplish everything we planned during this day. But alas, the Louvre wrecked us completely. Not the art, it was the stairs. Up and down and up and down. At one point, at the foot of an unanticipated staircase, I told Garrett to just leave me behind so he could go on to live the rest of his life. There was no way I could go on. We did see the Mona Lisa, various Catholic artworks, art depicting French history (some of which were the largest paintings I’ve ever seen in my life), Egyptian artifacts, and Napoleon III’s apartment. One of the biggest annoyances of the whole experience were the people who, and this makes me irrationally frustrated, would go to each. freaking. artwork. and take a picture of it on their phone… barely glancing at the artwork IN REAL LIFE. Like it was COMPLETE insanity. And it wasn’t like oh just a few people, it felt like we were the only two people in the entire museum who were not doing this. I don’t get it. It’s mind boggling. They even took pictures of the little cards next to the artwork. Are these people ever going to look at those pictures ever again?? I highly doubt it. Like if you want to look at it later just google it. Why not experience the artwork when you are actually there. Anyways, sorry for the rant but this and the innumerable stairs overshadowed our experience of the Louvre. After aging at least five years, we managed to escape the Louvre.

From here, we walked back through the Paris arcades that we learned about on the previous day to do some shopping. Garrett found a familiar shirt in a vintage store, I found a cafe that proves Ratatouille (one of my all time favorite movies) was real. We planned to visit Montmartre during the evening on Wednesday, but we were just too exhausted from the stairs. So instead we just went to dinner, and discussed how we were disappointed in French food. Most of the food we ate just was not as flavorful as we’re used to. And absolutely nothing was spicy. Our best meal in Paris at this point was still the Korean place. I was so glad I made Garrett go there twice.

On Thursday, we woke up early for a day of … shopping at Le Bon Marche. I know. Of all the things we could do in Paris. And I bet you’re thinking, Garrett must have hated that. But it’s what he wanted to do and I would never turn down shopping. We got a couple of pairs of colored jeans for Garrett. He was showing me the fit and said I think they’re too tight? To which the sales woman looked at him and said “no they are perfect.” Well she made the sale. He also got sunglasses to replace his $25 pair from CVS.

After 3 hours and two trips to the tax refund department in Le Bon Marche, it was time to see some final sights. We had tickets to the D’Orsay Museum, but since the Louvre completely burned us out the day before, we decided to go to Montmartre to see the Sacre Coeur basilica instead. Unfortunately for us there was, again, a ridiculous number of stairs to get to the church. And after we caught our breath, we made the hilarious decision to get tickets to climb the stairs in one of the towers to go to the top for panoramic views of Paris.

And then it was our final night in Paris and we had reservations for a tasting menu at Maison. This was the best meal we had in France. Most unusual item on the menu was smoked pigeon. It tasted like duck. The ambiance, service, and food were excellent. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

There’s still so much that we didn’t get to see in Paris. I really hope we get to go back one day soon. Overall, we had the most amazing trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

- Cat

P.S. While this is the end of the trip, I don’t think it’s quite the end of the blog. I have a feeling there’s some pictures of me sleeping on various busses and trains that Garrett is itching to share.

[livelysonletour]

A few more days in Paris

On Monday night, after our naps, we went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. We walked to the park in front of the tower and saw a huge crowd of people lounging on the lawn and enjoying the view. A singer with an acoustic guitar and a microphone sang only the most romantic songs he could think of. The last three were a “hit parade” of songs that would make me cry (per Garrett). Two songs that I have previously cried to, Shallow (who hasn’t?) and I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You (Jeff and Karen’s wedding), and then finally La Vie En Rose (which I danced to with my dad at my wedding). Don’t worry I held it together because we were non-stop berated by street vendors to purchase wine and beer. The photos below are from 10 pm.

Then we walked over the Pont Alexandre III bridge (from Midnight in Paris) and when it was almost midnight we went home.

On Thursday, we went on a walking tour with some of our tour group. We learned the history of the architecture in Paris, found art from Invader, appreciated the early designs of the metro. We also learned about the history of shopping in Paris and went to a few early indoor arcades, the precursor of the shopping mall.

After learning about the history of shopping in Paris, I was itching to go to the first ever department store called Le Bon Marche, which happened to be a five minute walk from our AirBnb. So after our walking tour I went and got myself a little souvenir of my first trip to Paris. 😉

Our legs were dying from the walking tour, but after a bit of rest we pushed through and left the AirBnb again, even though I think we both wanted to stay in with our feet up. We walked around the Luxembourg Gardens in the evening, taking advantage of the late sunset to squeeze in another attraction. - Cat

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Stage 21

Paris - Champs Élysées

Waking up in Paris was one of the most magical moments of our trip. It's hard to describe the feeling of sleeping in... wandering down to a breakfast buffet that you've already paid for months ago... being greeted with "bonjours"... being seated next to upside down coffee mugs... wondering what options of espresso you'll have to choose from... and then, as if we were still dreaming from our exhausted stupor, the server approaches our table with an enormous carafe of...... COFFEE. It truly is the city everyone makes it out to be in the movies.

The final stage of the Tour de France is almost always a celebratory event for the riders that have made it to the end, and is customarily not used to gain time advantages to win the yellow jersey. Thus, Jonas Vingegaard rode into Paris adorned in yellow and in tow with one of the most dominant teams the Tour has ever seen. Jumbo Visma won 3 of the 4 jerseys as well as the Combativity Award (the Tour's most aggressive rider), the first time a single team has done so since 1969, when Eddie Merckx won every jersey himself. Wout Van Aert won the Green Jersey and the Combativity Award and Vingegaard doubled up with Polka Dot Jersey. Our boy Tadej Pogacar (Team UAE) won the White Jersey (the Tour's best rider under the age of 25) for the 3rd year in a row.

The first half of the race in Paris is ceremonial. The riders pose for pictures, drink a glass of champagne, and slowly parade through the streets of Paris toward the city's most iconic street.

Our tour group was stationed 75 meters from the finish line in some grandstand seating. We were accompanied with the usual open bar and light fare. This certainly wasn't the hottest day we have endured on our trip, but the prestige surrounding the stage saw a PACKED crowd in the VIP area... So we were uncomfortably warm the whole day. I would say Cat was not happy to be there, especially as we watched the riders goofing off and lackadaisically pedaling for 2.5 hours before we got to see them in person. We were also unfortunately stationed directly above a porta potty. Everyone was complaining of the smell, and I unfortunately couldn't convince Cat that it was just the smell of Paris (not completely untrue). But fortunately our seats were saved, so we got up frequently and hung out in the shaded park behind the grandstands. I also ventured to nearby food stands to buy crepes for our second breakfast (another magical element of Paris you really have to experience to understand).

Once the riders circled around the Louvre, the race kicked off. All of the sudden, the peloton was going 60 km/h, jets were flying over head, people in the grandstands were jumping barricades to get up close to the road... It was pandemonium.

The riders completed 8 laps on the Champs Élysées, around the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre on opposite ends. Attack after attack broke out, including from Pogacar. But the teams with the strongest sprinters set a blistering pace, and every attack failed in a matter of minutes. The sprinters' teams kicked it into another gear because, although the Yellow Jersey is not contested at this point, this is the most prestigious stage for a sprinter to win. In the end, a rider named Jasper Philipsen positioned himself for the victory, blowing away the field in the final 50 meters. Jumbo Visma pedaled to the finish line together, embracing each other and celebrating the nigh total victory the team had achieved.

Podiums were placed, victory laps taken, ceremonies completed and our tour of the Tour had come to an end... Fade to black

Or so we thought.

Walking back to our hotel with our friends Kevin and Jennifer, we strategically passed by the Team Paddocks at Jacinta's behest. And we, ahem, legally and with full permission from the innumerable police, slipped through an opening in the metal fencing surrounding the team buses. We walked up to and stood inches away from many of the riders we had been cheering from afar over the past week. We stood among wives, girlfriends, mothers, and children.

And we totally played it cool. You know the way. Looking over both shoulders before raising your camera, snapping a pic, and then scurrying off. Walking up to a group of people, seeing they are checking IDs, turning about-face, and checking your phone for a call you must be getting soon. Confidently walking into a dead in.

We blended right in.

We didn't grab a ton of photos of any autographs. We just took in the moment as the sun set in Paris. It was an extremely unique, memorable, and poignant cap on one of the most unforgettable adventures we'll ever take.

Fade to black

Back at the hotel, Cat was hungry and her "blood sugar [was] low." So we spent all of 30 seconds at our farewell dinner with our tour group, which turned out to be a farewell happy hour with some tiny hors d'oeuvres. So we unceremoniously left all the friends we had made over the past week and tried to find anything open that was serving a full meal (why does this keep happening?).

The true perfect ending to a perfect tour.

Fade to black

... But just like the Return of the King, here's another another another ending for ya.

Fortunately, we were able to give proper goodbyes as everyone we cared to see again was present at the hotel restaurant for breakfast... Because it's the only place in Europe that serves REGULAR. NORMAL. WORLD COMMODITY. ABUNDANT. INEXPENSIVE. COFFEE.

Fade to black coffee.

- Garrett

[livelysonletour]

Stage 19

Lourdes > Castelnau-Magnoac > Lourdes > Paris

We got to see the setup and prelude to a departure town the day before, but for Stage 19 we finally got to see the race-side logistics. We left Lourdes about an hour ahead of the teams that were still staying in Lourdes so we could have some time to explore the small castle town the race would begin at. There wasn't much to explore. We did, however, leave around the same time as the traveling caravan. It was pretty glorious watching some of these vehicles maneuver down highways with such elegance and grace (similar to that of my sleeping wife).

The town was less than 5 square miles and had one major road going through it, which happened to be the road the race would take place on... so it was closed down. We did have plenty of time to explore the "Departure Village" though. The Departure Village, like the other VIP areas, was a mobile sight that was built up and torn down daily at the location for each stage's starting line. It was filled with tents showcasing tour sponsors, a mini-museum of tdf history (including signed jerseys of current title jersey holders), local food and drink demonstrations, pétanque (French bocce ball), and a stage with local performers.

When the tour had first kicked off, it was planned for us to have team paddock entry on this stage, but many COVID cases had caused tour officials to take a cautious approach and nix that experience after a few stages. It looked like our only chance of getting up close to riders and teams had vanished.... Fortunately, we did get to see ALL of the riders going by even slower than they had at Hautacam the previous day.

About an hour before the race begins, each cyclist rides up from their team bus and is announced on a grandstand where they officially sign in for the day's stage. We positioned ourselves between the stage and the team buses so that we could see every rider up close, pedaling by at a leisurely pace (roughly my top speed).

Meanwhile fans crowd the streets and cheer as each cyclist passes by.

After every rider is signed in, the day's jersey wearers are gathered at the front of the peloton, and the race kind of begins. All the riders start pedaling, but aren't allowed to do anything except stick together until the officials give the go ahead, about 2 km out from the start.

After the departure, we took our time returning to the Lourdes where we would spend our final night. I watched the race on French TV, whose commentators couldn't contain their exuberance as a stage was finally won by a Frenchman, Christophe Laporte, for the first time in this year's edition of the Tour.

After the race, we headed down to the bar to hang out with our tour group. Fortunately, the bartender had some mocktails she had created on the menu. A woman and her husband sat near us and told us about the wealthy neighborhood in Denver they lived in. I didn't catch their names.

After dinner, most everyone returned to their room because we had a 5:45 AM departure time the next morning. Cat and I had washed some clothes in the sink the day before (with some detergent we caught from the caravan), so I used the rest of my night hair-drying our clothes that still hadn't air dried. And thus, we both improved our hair dryer skills on this trip.

The next morning, by the Grace of God, we woke up to our alarms and everyone made it to the train station. (Cat note - the context here is that we were late for breakfast every day before this, so I was understandably super nervous about waking up on time.) My first high-speed train experience was pretty awesome. We were given a brown bag breakfast of breads and cheeses. And who knew the train would be the first place we could find second breakfast and a proper latte? (Cat note - Garrett brought me the latte and excitedly told me “I even watched them steam the milk!” Also not sure what he means by second breakfast here since he came back with coffee and a candy bar..)

We were soon in Paris and I think Cat's recap picks up here. I'll just add that the Tour was still taking place with stage 20's individual time trials. Wout Van Aert capped off one of the most incredible individual Grand Tour performances with a time trial stage win.

The Tour would conclude the following day on the Champs-Élysées. - Garrett

[livelysonletour]

Some sparkles

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Our first few days in Paris

There’s still more to write about the tour (Stages 19 and 21!), but since Garrett is writing those posts I figured I would write about our time in Paris so far.

On Saturday, we arrived in Paris midday by train and arrived at our uber fancy hotel, only to find out that we couldn’t check in yet. We went in search of food and found a Korean restaurant about two blocks from our hotel. Most of you probably don’t know this, but in the states we have Korean for dinner almost weekly on Mondays. I also realized we haven’t had any spicy food since we arrived in Europe, which might be the longest we’ve gone without spicy food in the entire time we’ve known each other. Anyways, here’s Garrett at my favorite Korean restaurant in Paris!

After we came back from lunch, we checked in and quickly got ready for our dinner cruise on the Seine. Without a hair straightener my blow dry skills have really improved. A life skill I truly needed. For dinner, we were lucky with our table mates (just as I planned it) with Kevin and Rebecca and Jay and Cheryl. Jay and Cheryl are from Kansas City and have a daughter close in age to Garrett and I who is planning her wedding. We had the good fortune of sitting at the end closest to the window, which actually turned out to be a misfortune as we were sitting directly in the sun, both blinded and sweating our way through dinner. Oh and Garrett would want me to add that he was filled with glee at my double take of the mini Statue of Liberty clearly flabbergasted to see it outside of the US.

(Sunday was the final stage of the Tour de France, and Garrett will cover that piece. It was AMAZING, I can’t wait for us to share it with you!)

On Monday, it was time to check out of our fancy hotel. But first we had breakfast with our group and got to say goodbye to almost everyone. We did some packing and then trekked off to the Arc de Triomphe to kill time before we could check into our Airbnb. Since we’ll be here for almost five days, we got unlimited metro cards that required our photos. (No name or other personal information.. only our photo.) I took mine first and then waited for Garrett to take his. When the machine spit it out, I yelped in horror at his photo. My first comments were “Garrett they aren’t going to let you on the metro with this photo!!” And “if you commit a crime this is definitely the photo that will be used with the news story.” According to Garrett he looks like this because the screen said don’t smile, to which I replied, but why did you frown!? Apologies in advance to anyone who gets nightmares…

Also, how about a fun creative writing exercise. What headline do you think would accompany Garrett’s photo? Write it in the comments!

We did make it to the Arc de Triomphe, after many many stairs (my nemesis), for 360 views of Paris. It’s really hard to believe that just yesterday this was completely shut down for the race, as the cyclists circled the Arc eight times.

I’ve had a tour hangover all day. I miss traveling with our big group and our fantastic tour guides. Maybe I also miss being told what to do and just showing up. Luckily, we’re getting together with a few people from our group tomorrow for a walking tour of Paris.

We ate at the Korean place one more time before taking a taxi over to our Airbnb. After a quick tour of the place, we fell asleep for about 3 hours. Hopefully we can fit in everything else we want to do in the next three days!

- Cat

[livelysonletour]

Stage 18

Lourdes > Hautacam and back again

Our tour guide built up this stage from the beginning as the most memorable experience we would have on the tour. This was the day I had envisioned when originally thinking "I'd love to go follow the Tour de France someday." Beyond category climbs. Switchbacks. Mobs of people with costumes, flags, and signs cheering the riders on as they inch up mountain. Phallic drawings everywhere.

Lourdes happened to be the departure location, so we got to see the build up overnight and the local excitement. However we would spend an official day in the VIP "Departure Village" the following day. We left ahead of the Tour since we were going to the finish, and it doesn't make much sense to be behind 150 racers when you want to see the first person at the finish line.

Part of the day's experience was the journey up. Mountain top finishes often have one road up and down the summit. Officials often close the lone road to motorized traffic on these stages a few days in advance. Many fans arrive a week in advance in campers and pick out their spot on the mountain. Others hike or bike up the day of the race. We were fortunate enough to be traveling in an official tour vehicle. In addition to the breathtaking views, you'd also hold your breath as you squeezed past pedestrians, cyclists, and campers.

Fun aside: the French are apparently infamous for protesting just about anything. Several protests broke out during this year's tour, including some of our stages. Usually the racers would, at worst, have to stop for a few minutes in the middle of the race, and resume with their time gaps in place. TV was very careful to give no airtime to protestors in order to discourage the acts as significant methods of gaining publicity. There were rumors one would break out on this day. The cause? There had been wolf sightings in a nearby town.

At the summit, we returned to the Izoard, the mobile VIP area we had attended in Foix, exactly 200 meters from the finish. We were told we would be able to visit a cafe at the top, but alas, the course had changed a bit from the original plans. Once again second breakfast and coffee were thwarted. From the top, you could look down and see the track we had just ascended, and would later be able to see the cyclists slowly moving up like tiny ants.

The stage will go down as one of the iconic stages in history. Another American, Sepp Kuss, did for Jonas Vingegaard what Brandon McNulty did for Pogacar the day before... Only this time Vingegaard had Wout Van Aert, further up the road to help him deliver the knockout punch to Pogacar's title defense. After Pogacar tried many times unsuccessfully to attack the Jumbo Visma team (and after a crash that Vingegaard sportingly waited for Pogacar to recover from which Cat detailed earlier), Vingegaard used his teammates to launch an attack on the final climb and put a minute on Pogacar, effectively sealing the yellow jersey on the final mountain stage.

It was an exhilarating stage, and it was great to finally see the riders go by at a slower pace.

Another crazy part of these mountain finishes is finding a way to accommodate roughly 350 vehicles that arrive and exit within about an hour.

We had been warned to be extremely prompt to return to our bus upon the conclusion of the race. There is a hierarchy as to who gets to go down the mountain when, and we wanted to camouflage our huge coach bus among the tour officials. Other groups were stuck on the mountain top for 3+hours after the race before being allowed to go down. Lionel, our driver, and Jacinta, our tour guide, made nice with police and security in the area throughout the day, and we were part of the first group down. So it turned out to be a quick journey back to the hotel, after all. Getting our 40 person group in a giant coach bus up and back down the mountain was nothing short of a miracle.

For dinner, we picked one of the tables where no one else could sit with us so we could go to bed a little earlier. We also were the first group to get to the dining room (as we never had our second breakfast nor a proper lunch), and we just couldn't handle the rejection of each couple as they selected an empty table over our thrilling company. After dinner, it was straight to bed to get ready for tomorrow's stage, where we would finally see a departure... Kinda.