We are three years old! #2

Now to tell you about the hike trip that David and I took today. Originally we were planning on biking to the Pragondran from where we would set out on two different hikes in our hike book, but we never made it there because we took a side road and climbed a nearby mountain that provided us with some beautiful views and celebratory pictures, but was not our original destination. In fact, we were so exhausted by the time we got to L'Essart, which happened to be a different hiking location, that we were actually having difficulty walking. That has never happened before. Usually getting to our destination is very difficult (because everything is uphill from Chambéry) but this time it was insanely difficult, with terribly steep climbs, so steep we had difficulty walking our bikes up the hills. At that point we were fairly sure that we had chosen a bad road to get to our destination, but we figured since we had already worked so hard, why not figure out where this led? However, once we got there we only did about a 1 hour round-trip hike including about 20 minutes of picture taking because our legs were so tired, and we did still have to bike home, haha.

However, I would definitely not classify our trip as a "fail" because it turns out that we discovered some beautiful roads with some gorgeous views of the nearby mountains, and we got some serious exercise which is never too complainable, except during and immediately afterward (= In following with my usual technique I will let the photos do the speaking for our third year anniversary celebration:

Us leaving behind Chambéry. And this was only the start of our climb...

This is a rather prominent rock face that overlooks our apartment. It is also right by the "Croix de Nivolet" A very famous cross on top of a mountain that overlooks Chambéry as well as many of the other surrounding towns. We have some pictures of it too, but I just thought this was pretty stunning and gives you an idea of what our bike ride looked like.

David and I finally hiking (no more biking). And if you click on the photo and you look behind us you can see the Croix de Nivolet. I personally am just proud of myself for being able to get into this timed photo because I only have 10 seconds to get from the camera to my pose, and my legs were total jello.

This is me on a different little rock formation also in front of the Croix de Nivolet

This is the view of the mountains behind us. It was so hard to take a photo that could give justice to the view, but I think this does a fairly decent job. The mountains were quite breathtaking today.

I timed this photo to try and get David and I with those mountains but they didn't show up in the background so you'll just have to pretend. However, I did do a very good job of getting that nearby stick in the picture... well done me! But happy 3 years us!

On the way back down to try to show-off our view.

This is right before descending back down into Chambéry. It almost looks like fake mountains from this angle but I assure you they are real. David and I just couldn't get enough of looking at them. Plus breaks were necessary coming down too because the hills were so steep that our hands were exhausted from braking! However, I still preferred that direction (30 minutes to return as opposed to 2 hours to get there)

Once home David and I ate a very large and fulfilling lunch and willed ourselves to do the dishes so that they wouldn't be cluttering up the kitchen. Since then we have sat down to write our respective blogs and I cannot promise you that either of us will be getting up for the rest of the day while we let our legs recover. Overall, however, I would rank this as our best anniversary so far, with two exciting Europe trips in one weekend to celebrate. Oh and for breakfast this morning I made a new recipe that my mom just sent me for Apfelfannkuchen, and it was excellent and will continue to be repeated! 

Our love from Chambéry, and thanks for all the anniversary wishes!