Pyramids and Such Happenings

So, we made it over to the pyramids at Giza on New Years day. Some interesting things of note. The city comes up extremely close to the area. I guess I had this image that they are way way out in the dessert way away from civilization, and that is not the case. Also, there is a whole range of different structures and pyramids of many different sizes in Giza. Its not just the three pyramids you see in the pictures.

My mom and dad went over with Helen and I in a taxi piloted by one Mr. Abul Mena (aka Captain Nemo). It was probably about a 45 minute drive from the apartment. Captain Nemo told us how the drive used to be a 3 hours drive before they built the large connecting road. When we got to Giza I was interested to see that just outside the gate to the whole complex was a Kentucky Fried Chicken. So, the Sphinx's eternal gaze is now looking at a KFC sitting 500m away.

We first drove up to a high point that looks across to the pyramids where we took some pictures of the pyramids in the back round. Then, we drove down to the base of the pyramids and walked around the grounds for a while. The pyramids are truly monstrous. The largest of the pyramids (which is the biggest in the world) is made up of around 2.5 million stones which weigh 30 tons each (referenced from Capt. Nemo). So, its really heavy. I walked down into one tomb of a smaller pyramid - which was awesome. Its something else just descending into the earth bellow a structure like that. There was also something called the Solar Boat museum there as well which is something pretty amazing. It was getting towards the end of the day so we zipped down to the Sphinx said hello and then ducked out the gate to meet Capt. Nemo behind "Kentucky" as he called it for short.

The last part of our Giza New Years day was spent getting coffee and tea over at the Mena House - a very deceptive name for one of the most famous Grand Hotels in the world. The hotel shares no relation to Capt. Nemo, but he did tell us proudly that it is the greatest hotel in the Arab world. Kings, Queens, Presidents, Movie Stars, and I have all been there. Out the window of the tea room we ate in was the Great Pyramid looking down at me (with no "Kentucky" in the view). I had a Cappachino and Feta and Tomato sandwich with Tempinade (olive spread). It is amazing how international Cairo is. It is the meeting point of the World - where Asia, Africa, and Europe collide.

Happy New Year Everybody.

Islamic Cairo

So, the last couple of days have been spent exploring the mosques and historic buildings is Islamic Cairo. The buildings are pretty insane and make the cathedrals and castles I've been to in Europe look:
A: new
and
B: small.

We've also gotten to see what some of the street life and scene is like here. Compared to Bangladesh there are many more tourists here (which is expected) but the street life has the same wild feel to it.

Here is a pictorial of the last 2 days:

These places are really big. How big you ask?...

I mean really big!!! That is Helen standing in the Sultan Hassan Mosque. These are buildings for Giants.

This kid was on a one speed cruiser bike with about 100 loaves of loosely stacked bread on his head doing one handed track stands in the middle of Islamic Cairo (bumpy, buisy streets). Damn.

Helen and I strutting our stuff. You have to take your shoes off or get these little shoe covers put on your feet when you go into a mosque.

Booyah!

This is something called the Nileometer. It was used for measuring the water level of the Nile - which was in turn used for adjusting the taxes. M.C. Escher anyone?

Big walls. This is Ibn Tulun Mosque. The oldest in Cairo.

Minarets and satellite dishes. Old meets new.

Mr. Horse taking a break. In Islamic Cairo there is still a fair amount of horse and cart traffic.

We're in Cairo

Helen and I pushed off from the Burlington airport at 11:30 on December 28th. We arrived in Cairo around noon on December 29th. Helen's roommate Molly gave us a much apprciated ride to the airport - and my parents were at the airport in Egypt to pick us up. They had a nice large van there as well and we drove right to their apartment to drop off our bags and take showers and eat some food. Once we were clean and fed - we hopped in a taxi and took a B-line to the Nile. We hopped on a felucca - a cool Egyptian sail boat that has been around for thousands of years. We cruised around on the Nile for a couple of hours and ate snacks and had drinks. Quite relaxing. Now, its time for bed because we hardly slept on the plane last night.

Helen and I with jackets on departing from chilly Vermont.Helen and I with jackets off arriving in Cairo.On the boat - cruising the Nile. Drinking juice and eating pita with baba ghanoush. Life is good!Very Happy, but Very Tired. And my mom wearing a turban

Keeping Some Tradition Alive

So, my sister and I just had our annual Christmas Eve dinner with some of our best family friends down in Charlotte. This year we ended up doing it a day early - so really it was Christmas Eve Eve. None the less, we kept some tradition going and some normality to the holiday season. This coming Christmas day will be the first spent without my parents company. My sister and I will be hanging out together and will probably do some epic ski and visit some friends.

The dinner tonight was good. It was lasagna and I ate a lot of it (and red wine goes well with lasagna). I did a lot of training during my two day off this week and I think I actually over did it a little bit. So, my appetite was kicking and and my body working on repairing itself. I was riding the trainer and x-c skiing and doing some circuit workouts. Lots of good stuff, but I didn't eat enough. Eating's important you know. But, its hard to do when you have too many dirty dishes in your sink...oops.

Well, here's the crazy-awesome nordic skiing euro-techno, makes you want to train and race like an animal, video link of the week - thank's to Helen's brother, one Paul Smith - the freshman phenomenon that is sweeping UVM. Turn the volume to 11 and Enjoy!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=73XmR0pptTo

Pictures from Richard's visit

I finally have a couple pictures from Richard's visit. This was the last day in Burlington without snow. It was already very cold though.

Snow, Egypt, Racing, and Pole talk.

We are having the best snow year in Vermont in a long while. It is only December 20th and many of the downhill ski mountains have already had 100 inches of snow so far! I distinctly remember going out for a classic roller-ski the second weekend of December last year. This year I was doing a double ski race weekend - 10k skate race in Lake Placid and Craftsbury. Lake Placid wasn't so good - it was a mass start and as usual I got pretty tangled up with people on the first hill. I felt "off" the whole race and skied almost 5 minutes back from the winner. Crafstbury was an individual start and a course that I'm much more familiar with and I really enjoy the race. I placed about the same (low 20's) but I think it was a deeper field so I was happier with that for now.

Then, last weekend I raced the 5k skate race that my sister put on at Bolton Valley. I thought I'd be feeling tip-top and ready to go from the two 10k's the weekend before. It was 3 laps on a short course that had some sweeping turns. Well I had a nice quick first lap (maybe a little two quick) and then in the second lap as I came off the sharpest turn on the course I lost my balance. Well, before I knew it I was down on my keister. I can't remember when I last dumped in a skate ski race (I did take 2 spectacular falls in last years Icebods Revenge race, a 10k classis at Sleepy Hollow). Ooops. That put a fork in my race. I got up and tried my best to get my rythm going again and ski it in. I ended up 6th.

I've gotten some new ski poles this week from Madshus. Thanks Charlie! They are the Carbon Race 100HM. I skied with them today for the first time and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. The shaft is pretty standard for a rediculously high-end pole - really light and really stiff - but the handle and strap seem to be well thought out. They fit great and they seemed to help my skiing immediately. I've been using Swix poles for the last couple years and still have them (and like them) but if I had to choose I'd take this strap over the Swix strap (something I never thought I'd say) . All that being said - I am still pretty intregued by the Force 10 pole from Swix. We've been selling them at the Skirack and it definitely seems to me like that's where high-end pole shaft technology will be heading. I know a lot of the WC skiers are choosing to use the Swix Star instead (old-school preferences) but I you'll see other companies doing things like that Force 10 shaft for Vancoover (the next Olympics).

My sister gave me an early christmas present - some rechargeable AA batteries for my digital camera. So, its official - but blog is going green - so hot right now. Renewable resource - ecofriendly - climate change - carbon neutral. Wait, no - I love carbon fiber!

And now its time for the lightning round!!!!!
(the round for dropping knowledge, info, and names)

-Former CCB rider Tim Johnson dominates in Kansas and wins the National Cyclocross champs
-For my birthday this year (January 7th) I'll be embarking from Cairo on a 7am flight to Sharm el Sheikh and will be walking through a remote desert on 3-day Camel trek in the Sinai Peninsula by 11am.
-My dark horse pick for the U23 national cyclocross championships, teammate Will Dugan, was not able to race as hill elbow is still messed up, but Burlingtonian Jamie Driscoll got 2nd (in a tight sprint) and won the college title for the second year running.
-I think I've been drinking too much coffee lately. Oh well.
-Those two CVU boys who I had a picture of a couple entries ago have been dominating the high school ski races thus far this season. John Dixon and Adam Terko - taking care of business.
-I think I've been eating too much chocolate lately. Oh well.
-A US skier won a cross-country ski World Cup race this past weekend for the first time since 1983. Kikkan Randall lit it up in the women's sprint final and showed everybody who's boss. Killer stuff.
-I got a voice-mail from CCB-West SuperMaster's racer and all around good guy John McKone today. He was looking for Mike Cody's phone number. Classic.
-Kim Loeffler was in the Skirack the other day checking out dimensions on the Cervelo bikes. I guess we may be helping her get a P3 to zip around on next season.
-The Great Pyramid of Giza covers 13 acres - stew on that.

You're A Peeing? No...European!

So, we had one Mr. Richard Geng (the German sensation of Fitchburg '06) visiting Burlington last weekend. He and his girlfriend came to Burlington after visiting another friend down in Southern Vermont. They were just here for a day and a night, but it was fun. Helen and I and the two Germans went to see American Gangster on Saturday night. It was a great movie. Its long (2 hours 40 minutes) but the story is really interesting and I'd definitely recomend it. They stayed over at my sisters apartment and then we took them over to Bruger's Bagels the next morning. Dan and Erin met up with us and we all talked about biking and bike racing way to much. It was fun. Richard's girlfriend is actually a physical theropist for the T-Mobile mens bike racing team. As in Tour de France and all that jazz. They ended up heading back to Boston early though because of the huge snow storm that was coming (and has since made the skiing amazing!)

Then, the next day I got a call from Sasha. He is in search of a road bike to send back to Belarus to his dad. His dad was a bad-ass racer back in the day, and is getting back into riding. I heard he was on the USSR "A" squad back in the 1970/80's. For those of you who don't know, that essentially means he was a Tour de France level rider. The USSR had the best amateur team in the word back then. Sasha and I also talked about Sasha's winter visit to Vermont. We're going to do some x-c skiing like last year, but some downhill skiing as well this year. Should be good.

Speaking of skiing, the first races of the year are this weekend. The NYSEF Opener on Saturday in Lake Placid, NY - and the Craftsbury Opener on Sunday in Craftsbury, VT. It is going to be a great weekend. I was out skate skiing this morning over at the Catamount Family center with my friend Anja and I had an "ah-hah!" moment while skiing. I sit a little bit too much in the "back-seat" while skate skiing and all of a sudden really shifted my weight forward by bending more at the ankle and pushing my hips forward. That change really made things a lot better. Its really interesting how long you can do a sport and keep tweaking things and trying to improve.

Here's a seasonal picture from Richard training last year in South Africa (a popular place for German Pro's to go train). He was sporting the CCB colors on this day of training.