To the Alps!

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Grenoble
July 31st 2009

Published: July 31st 2009

Edit Blog Post

Matticus

St. Nizier

The start of my journey

Wow, a great couple of days there in Grenoble. The city itself wasn’t all that special, but the mountains surrounding the city are awesome. Yesterday I had the pleasure of hiking to the highest peak around the city and I think it was really the highlight of the trip for me so far. I love doing athletic things and I love being in Nature. I really should make an effort to go hiking or camping more often. Open invitation for anybody who wants to come with me.

The hike was actually less challenging than I was expecting. I think I overestimated how fatigued my legs would be and underestimated how good of shape I’m in. I was definitely going at quite a faster pace than the signpost estimations, and that included stopping to take pictures. At one point I even took a longer route because the trail I was following wasn’t clearly marked. I realized I wasn’t on the right trail but it was going to the same junction and was a lot nicer, i.e. it was a narrow trail through a wooded area as opposed to a wide trail out in the sun. I always have a very strong

Sweet!

Gotta love a trail like this

urge to take narrow trails through the trees when they branch off to the side. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know where the trail goes or even if there are signs telling me not to go that way.

After admiring the view and taking pictures at the top I headed down the other way towards a small village where I could catch a bus back to Grenoble at either 3:10 or 6:10. At one point I realized that I had a chance to catch the 3:10, so I started hauling ass down the trail (making sure to be safe as I did so, of course). I was making good progress but it didn’t seem that I was making up enough time relative to the estimates. The last part was sort of confusing and mostly followed a road that passed through the village At that point I actually thought that the bus left at 3:00, so I sort of gave up and was walking fairly leisurely. The bus was supposed to stop at the tourism office and I finally saw a sign indicating that the office was just 200m down the road. Then I saw a bus making a

Also sweet!

turn, let’s say, I don’t know, 200m down the road. Then I saw another bus doing the same. And then I started running. 200m later, victory was mine.

To follow up that total success of a hike, today I hiked up to the Bastille, an old fort situated right above the city center that therefore had great views of the city. This hike was shorter but still involved a lot of climbing, most of which I chose to do by way of an old series of stone stairs. Once I got to the top and ate, I noticed signs pointing towards “Mont Jalla”. I had noticed another old stone structure farther up on the mountainside and based on the distance listed on the sign this seemed to be what that was. So I continued on and found that the structure was the sight of a memorial for French soldiers. It commemorated soldiers who had died in various conflicts as well as the resistance fighters that had helped liberate Grenoble during WWII. I, of course, wanted to continue to the next place the signs pointed to, but I did not have the time.

With all the walking I’ve been

Nice View

View from about halfway up

doing and the workout I’ve gotten these last two days I’m definitely going to end this trip in the best shape I’ve been in in a long time. I think that means that it’ll be time for my annual attempt to start running again. Hopefully all of the walking I’ll be doing in Boston will be good for my back and will keep it from ruining my running ambitions.

Additional photos below

Photos: 17, Displayed: 17