Kalt. Bitter, bitter kalt.

So, I'm not sure why I didn't read the memo before leaving home, but apparently Europe is really really cold in the winter. Crap. Today we rode about 1:30 through the snow because we're racing friday and don't want a repeat of last week. I'm getting over my cold but it looks Brian and I should have layed off the snuggling these last few days because now he has it. I'm thinking today's excursion didn't help his condition. On the plus side he has lots of Mullermilch to keep him healthy. To those out of the know, Mullermilch is probably the single most delicious thing in the world, at least from the malty/chocolaty/dairy drink category. He waxes poetic about it on his blog.

Tomorrow we're taking the train to Geneva for our last race together. It might prove more complicated than anticipated because apparently all of Europe's railway operators are going on strike out of solidarity with the French train operators who can no longer retire at 50 and receive state pension. France is running on about 10-15% of capacity and apparently Germany is at about 50%. Couchsurfing.com has also let us down somewhat because we don't yet have a place to stay in Geneva. I have to work on my form a little because we've received about ten rejections so far. Come on Switzerland, don't less us down!

And speaking of French trains, I have another very interesting bit of news from the last few days. Thanks to a family friend there's a vacant apartment in Nice where I can stay for free through February. Who could say no? So rather than return to the deep freeze Germany seems to be plunging into, I'll just continue south to winter on the Mediterranean. Pretty sweet. It looks Dan Harm will also be my partner in crime for the next chunk of racing (including any combination of Vienna, Maastricht, Zurich, and Rotterdam), so that will be rediculous. REDICULOUS. And if anyone from the Netherlands happens to know someone in charge of the the invitations for Maastrich and Rotterdam, we could still use a hand getting in there. In return we can do things like move around heavy objects, perform quality control at the cafeterias, and chaperone podium girls.

I think that's it from Tubingen. It's been really nice staying with Csaba and Emese and I'm sad I won't be living here after all. Geneva also looks like a great event, the track is only 166m long and they've put together a full schedule including points races, scratch races, eliminations, keirins, and even derny racing. I'm a little ambivalent about doing my first derny race on a 166, but I'm not without a strategy; I figure if I can just push a bigger gear, at a higher cadence, for longer than anyone else, I should be able to win. Yeaaah.