Veloplausch

Saturday, our doorbell rang. My heart did a little leap thinking it was our neighbor to complain about driveway infringement again, but instead it was other neighbors who enthusiastically said, "Hello, neighbors!!!" when we answered the door. What a smile-inducing greeting! Turns out they wanted to let us know the city was sponsoring a bike race/event for the family on Sunday and they thought we might be interested in joining them. We were!

Sunday morning, we gathered up the bikes and Lucky; then we headed UP to the fire station for the start of the event. Up is a bit of theme in this town. Everything is either up or down; there isn't a lot of flat terrain. I'm sure you've heard (read?) me complain about it before, but I'll keep complaining until I get into better shape!

The bike event was a route around the perimeter of the city on bike/walking trails. There were 6 stations where you had to stop and complete activities to earn points. At the end, you submitted your points for tallying and got coupons for food and drink at the local carnival in the town center. There was even an awards ceremony where each team got to pick a prize. We think we got 27th place or something very near the end, but the kids were thrilled to have our team name, Golden State Riders, called for a prize!

Our 6 stations were:

Station 1: Elementary school for our neighborhood. We had to search the grounds for 5 flags with questions about the school and answer multiple choice trivia questions. Some of the questions were:

• How many children attend this school?
• Are there more boys or girls?
• How many kids participate in child care?
• How many teachers are there?

Our neighbors were still with us at this point, so they translated the questions for us. Turns out they are a bit competitive, so they ran off to the next station. We think half the fun is reading the map and finding the various spots, so we were absolutely fine being left on our own. (Well, there was one area we took a little detour, but otherwise, we were absolutely fine!) Considering our limited knowledge of local Swiss schools, we were quite happy to get 8 out of 10 points. (1 point for finding each station, 1 point for each correct answer)

Station 2: The tennis club down the street from our house. First, we had to answer 5 trivia questions about tennis. Questions were: how tall (in cm) a certain player was, who the Swiss played in a big match last week, what were a players' twin sisters named, and others we don't remember. We need to brush up on our tennis trivia. We only got 1 or 2 questions correct. The scorekeeper translated the questions for us. Next up, we headed onto the clay tennis courts where the kids each had to hit a tennis over the net. Points were awarded for where the tennis ball landed -- in a hoola-hoop sized ring (3 points), in the inner square (2 points), in the larger square (1 point) or anywhere else (0 points). C.J. scored 2 points for our team.

Station 3: Somewhere in the hills. First up at this station was an obstacle course. The kids had to crawl through a long tube, then run towards a pole, going under a rope, over a tarp, and under another rope. Once they reached the pole, they had to run around it 15 times and return to the start. In 2 minutes, C.J. and Brendan completed the course and we got Abbie halfway through. From there, we went to a memory game where a bunch of objects were laid out on a tarp, and the boys were given a minute to study them and then had to say what was there. Fortunately, the memory recorder was a boy who spoke English, so he wasn't put off by the boys saying "flashlight, glow stick, compass" instead of the German equivalents.

Station 4: Still in the woods. We got a bit lost on the way to this stop, but we made it. We stopped to ask someone for directions. She said she didn't know the spot, but there were a bunch of bikers "up yonder", so we headed in the direction she pointed. We saw some other people studying a map, and found it together. First, we had to answer trivia about energy facts. Questions ranged from the optimal basement temperature to how you can save fuel driving to whether shutters make the house more efficient. The test giver helped translate the questions, and John and I scored a maximum 5 out of 5 points. Yeah! Next up, everyone but Abbie had to cut logs using a bike operated chain saw. It was harder than it looks! Abbie wanted to do it, but they deemed her too smal since she couldn't reach the petals. We did get a bit frustrated at this point, because we waited in line to complete the challenge and they kept taking everyone in front of us! We're pretty sure it had to do with our lack of German since no one spoke English. Sigh.

Station 5: Near the kids' school. This station was sponsored by the library. First event was a crossword puzzle. No amount of translating would help us come up with German words to complete the puzzle. The station owner took pity on us and just gave us 3 points. Next, 4 members of the team had to take books across a plank walk without stepping off the plank or dropping a book. The catch was that you had to take the planks with you as you went. We got 5 points here.

Station 6: School by the town center. This station was sponsored by the local preschool. First, we had trivia questions about the preschool. Fortunately, the boy running the station could once again translate for us. We got about 75% correct, which wasn't bad since we'd never been to the school! I got points for knowing where it was located, though! Then, we had to build a lego car. The trick was that John had the "model" car on one side of a curtain. The rest of us had a pile of legos on the other side of the curtain and we had to follow his commands to build the car to spec. We might need to work on our communication skills a bit, but the station leader said we did average, maybe a bit better.

The carnival at the end of the race was great. John and Abbie got some great sausages, while the boys and I had raclette that was made by the fire department. Basically, you melt cheese by an open flame or heat source and then eat the cheese with potatoes, onions, and pickles. The boys love this meal. We let the kids run around a bit by themselves, while John got an Octoberfest beer and we shared a table with a family from Canada. They were quite friendly and it was fun to get to know them! The kids are a bit bummed because the local kids get today off school, but we headed home early. No holiday for the international school kids!

We probably biked less than 10 miles total, but with all the hill work, we were wiped. Lucky tagged along with us and she is a tired puppy today. The course took about 3 hours to complete with all the stations and some wait time to start the activity. The big log jam was at the bike operated chainsaw. They really needed another chainsaw or two.

Veloplausch Slide Show