Tour de Suisse

Early Friday morning, we caught the first of many trains for the day and headed back toward Zurich for the one and only Tour de Suisse.

Justin was pretty excited.

Having left early, we had plenty of time to drop off our bags at our hotel in Zurich before making our way to the nearby town of Gossau for the Tour de Suisse time trial stage. Or so we thought.  Unfortunately, even with all of the extra time we had allowed ourselves, getting to the race was a struggle. Between confusing train platforms, fighting the language barrier, and disruptions to the bus schedule and road closures due to the race, it took us forever to get out there. A few trains, several information desks, a bus or two, and a long walk later, we were thrilled to finally find it! 

The race took place in a beautiful area surrounded by rolling corn fields and snow-capped mountains in the distance.

One thing that surprised us was how accessible the cyclists and their teams were. We were able to walk right up to the team buses and could have chatted with the riders preparing for their time trials (had they not been so focused on their warming up).

We had a great time taking in the race atmosphere and watching professional cyclists zip past us.

We were only there for a few minutes before people starting handing us all kinds of Tour paraphernalia. As you can see, we didn't fight it. 

Justin loved getting to see some of his favorite cyclists and experiencing a race right in the midst of the action that he has previously only watched via video streams several time zones away. And I had a good time too!

It as a fun day and worth the trouble to get there! Thankfully, the trip home was much more easily navigated and we spent another evening exploring Zurich. We were staying in a different part of the city this time, and were able to see some new areas that were really neat.  

Back at our hotel with many of our spoils!

We enjoyed our final evening in Switzerland and were eager to begin the next phase of our journey: Italy!