Biking uphill - ass hurting like hell

You can't imagine how much my ass is hurting right now! Yesterday, Regula and I rode our bicycles up the Salève, Geneva's "mountain". Up until then, we'd thought that the Salève was just a bigger hill, but it's actually 1200m high ... so in the end, we made about 800m in altitude! Man, at times that darn road was so steep, just looking at what lied ahead made me freak out! It was the first time that I rode my bike uphill that long (don't really have a problem riding my bike when the path is flat), and it was a rather tough first I'd say. I was a bit disappointed that I had to push my bike the last 30min because I had really bad cramps in my legs, and my back hurt too :-s Maybe my handlebar isn't high enough...or I'm just not used to it. But anyways, I made it up to the Salève, whoohoo!!! The view was gorgeous...we started out biking in really thick fog, and after about an hour or more uphill, we saw the sun! It's so beautiful to see the trees glowing in all shades of yellow, red, brown and green in the sunlight...I love the changing of the seasons. Up on the very top of the Salève, Regi and I had something to eat (uh, some bread), enjoyed the spectacular view a bit (aaaahhh) and then biked down the mountain again, but this time, taking a different road. Darn, we should have taken THAT way up, it was so much less steep than the one we took, sigh. But riding downhill is so much fun! Don't you just love that feeling when you're so fast that you get tears in your eyes? Chicks on speed :-D
What I haven't told you yet is that we had to "cross the border" twice yesterday: We had to pass the French border to get to the Salève and of course pass the Swiss border again to get back...you can't really call it bordercrossing though. There's some sign telling you that you're about to exit/enter Switzerland, and there might be a little booth with a guy sitting in it, but who won't check your passport. It's so odd that I've been living in Geneva for four years now but that until yesterday, I've never passed the French border! (I mean, I've been to France a few times before, but never via Geneva). After that really cool descent we passed a cute French village called La Muraz (so I think) and then continued in direction of Annemasse (the last time I headed towards Annemasse was about two years ago or more during the G8-Summit in Evian/Geneva when I joined the Demonstration...actually, I just joined to see what it was like. I walked together with Nathalie, we felt a bit stupid....and ended up walking next to some Communist Party, hahahahahaha....."el pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido"...or something like that). Of course, this was was way longer because we had to bike around the whole mountain. At least we decided no to go into Annemasse itself but to pass via St. Julien, and then entered Switzerland at Veyrier-Douane again.
Regula and I were really exhausted after our five-hour bicycle adventure. But it's the kind of exhaustion that's good for your body....and we felt great afterwards! :-) (Have fun at EuroCo in Croatia, Regi!) Stretching afterwards to some feel-good music was another highlight, and the hot shower, ah, wonderful...