Brussels, Belgium

We took the train from Cologne, Germany to Brussels, Belgium and tried to enjoy all of the beer in town...

The famous little peeing boy statue

A much bigger peeing boy on a nearby wall.

A great shot of the old and new that come together so well in Brussels.

Hitting up the beer museum.  We somehow were given 2 free beers. 

 It was a good day.

Getting some vin chaud (hot wine) from a street vendor.

Its like cider but better (wine-y-er)

Awesome streetlamps.

Observing the arts, and then sitting on them.

A statue of Peter Pan.  Seems like an odd amount of statues

of small boys in this town...

The Delirium Cafe, because its Belgium, thats why.

Winter Travels

After Kelly parents left Spain we headed up to Northern Europe for a little holiday travel with our friends Mike and Michelle.  The trip started in Cologne, Germany where we had brats from the winter market.

Followed by a train ride to Brussels, Belgium where we saw the Superprestige CX race at Diegem and enjoyed plenty of good beer.

Then another train ride to Amsterdam where we rang in the new year in with a bazillion other people and the got some culture at the Rijksmuseum.

And we finished off with another train ride back to Cologne where we flew back to Palma. 

Details to come...

Hiking Coal Creek

Wednesday morning Matt and I headed over to the Grand Mesa for a little bit of hiking on the Coal Creek Trail.

 The sun coming up at the trailhead.

The hike follows Coal Creek toward the top of the Mesa.  It is a very well maintained trail even with some areas that still had 6" of snow on the ground.  The trail also meanders through part of two different fires that occurred in the past three years.

 Matt is a forest firefighter, that's how I know these things.

We turned around after a couple miles and a bunch of climbing at the first place where the trail crossed Coal Creek.  There was a nice bridge and some huge Ponderosa Pines.

 See Matt at the base of the Pondo?

The view of the half-frozen Coal Creek from the bridge.

The climbing involved was a bit of a challenge but the trail is very well maintained and the views are totally worth it.  We also saw a couple elk and several deer out there.  Not bad for a couple hours on the trail.

Indoor Riding

after a bazillion days of cold followed by a million of rain I've been forced back into a life is swore I'd never return to. You are cruel Mother Nature, Chapeau.

So Its A Little Chilly Today

9:zero:7 Fat Bike

We're renting out 9:zero:7 fat bikes at work so I took it upon myself to take one out for a shakedown cruise.

The bike has a 170mm rear hub so that it doesn't have to use offset wheels (like a Pugsley) to prevent chain rub on the tires.  It handles just like a mountain bike should, just with 8 lb. wheels which makes everything a tiny bit more difficult.