Vienna Austria - September 1-5

We had never been to Vienna before, and we booked 5 nights at the marvelous Anantara Palais Hansen Hotel in the city center. For a month before we arrived I had been in email contact with the concierges, Miroslav and Gabor, planning out activities. Vienna has a rich history, being the center of the Habsburg Empire from 1282 to 1916, and the later Habsburgs enjoyed building palaces and other grand buildings in beautiful style.

On Sunday we had booked a 7 hour walking tour, which seemed like a good idea until we arrived in a heat wave. That day it was 91F/33C in the shade, and there was precious little shade! Our tour guide was Oksana and she walked us around most of the city finishing at the Mozart statue and then an hour in the Kunsthistoriches Museum admiring the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

On Tuesday, we booked a private tour of the Wachau, which is a very picturesque region along the Danube River, known for its wine and many castles, about an hour by car from Vienna. The heat wave continued throughout our stay, so it was another hot day, this time for clambering through castles and sampling wines in a vineyard garden. Wachau is beautiful and well worth a side trip if you are ever in Vienna.

On Tuesday evening, back in Vienna, we had dinner at the Vestibul Restaurant, a cracking recommendation from Miroslav.

On Wednesday, our last full day in Vienna, we did some solo exploring in Vienna and in the evening we ate at the hotel's Michelin star restaurant Edvard - a grand finale to a lovely stay. We really enjoyed Vienna and will definitely return soon.

And finally, a shout out to Miroslav and Gabor, the concierges at the hotel who created the perfect game plan for our stay in Vienna. Prost!

One night in Zurich - August 30

Laura finished her swim at 12:30pm and by 4pm we had checked out of our hotel in Nyon and were on a train to Zurich, since we had a flight booked for the next day from Zurich to Vienna. It was all a bit of a rush, but well worth it as we were returning to one of our favorite hotels, the Hotel Schweitzerhof Zurich, which is right opposite the train station.

As a celebration treat for Laura's swim, we had a table booked in the hotel's excellent restaurant La Soupiere and enjoyed a 4 course tasting menu, with wine pairings of course!

Laura swims across Lake Geneva! - August 30

I had not mentioned it in earlier posts, so as not to risk jinxing it, but the real purpose of this trip to Nyon Switzerland was for Laura to attempt an amazing open water swim - The Guided Nyvoirienne - 7km or 4.5 miles from Nyon to Yvoire France!

And ... spoiler alert ... she did it!!! This post will be quite a bit longer than my usual summaries, but there is a lot to tell and celebrate here.

Back in February, after watching the movie Nyad, Laura decided she wanted to do an open water swim and signed up online to do the Nyvoirienne in the last week of August. Thus started 6 months of planning and training, with me in the role of nominal coach, despite my having no open water swimming experience at all. Laura swam 3-4 times per week the last six months, routinely doing 2 miles in 1 hour 15 mins, and entered the Lake Longhorn 1.2 mile open water swim in Houston in June, which she completed in 50 mins. Then in July Laura engaged Jonny Rocket for three serious coaching sessions which transformed her stroke and reduced her mile time by 3 minutes. She was ready!

So here we are, at 8am Friday morning, headed to the Trois Jetees Beach at Nyon, to meet the boat and its driver and lifeguard with the swim starting at 8:50.

Here is my lame photo of the start - I tried to get the dive but only got the splash! At this point I am in the boat with the driver Felice and LGSA rep/lifeguard Tomas. Laura had to jump in from the boat 50 yards out, swim to the beach, wave to signal ready, then the official timer was started and she was off.

And here is Laura settled into her stroke, 15 minutes into the swim, and already the shoreline is fading fast.

This clip shows Laura swimming next to the boat and the cast of characters in the boat - Felice had also brought his sons along for the ride! Laura stayed a few yards off the starboard beam the whole way. Felice was great at maneuvering the boat to block wake whenever a fast craft went by, which fortunately was not too often.

Here is Laura at the two hour point. She took a short break after each hour of swimming to drink some water and chat with us. As you can see here, Laura was very happy at the two hour point when Felice announced we had already covered 4.4km.

Here is Laura at 2 hours 40 minutes, now off the shoreline of Nernier France. From here it is another 2km along the shore to Yvoire. Look at the power of her stroke!

And finally, the finish at the Yvoire Marina, where there is a metal ladder she climbs to get out and Tomas stops the official timer at 3 hours 40 minutes. She did it!!!

There was much hollering and rejoicing! Laura hopped back into the boat and we left the crew at the main jetty of Yvoire where a ferry awaited to return us to Nyon. But not before the medal ceremony. :-)

My lady Laura is truly amazing - Wow!