Well...we're home! London to Philadelphia (8.5 hrs). Philadelphia to Denver (4.5 hrs). DIA to Boulder on the RTD ( 1hr). Walking from the bus stop to our house (20 min.) With customs, layovers, baggage claim, etc... we travelled for 23 hours today. We made it home at 10:20, and were able to sleep until about 5:00 a.m. Not bad considering. Good to be home.
By the way, keep tuning in to the blog. We'll be updating it from time to time even though our trip is over.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Paris to London (Day 18)
We woke up this morning, packed up our packs and headed for the train station for the last time. That’s right…today we took our last train ride in Europe. The train ride was a quick 2 hours and 15 minutes. Twenty-five of those minutes are through a tunnel that goes 150 ft below the floor of the English Channel. Crazy! We got to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and went to grab some lunch. After lunch we walked around Leicester Square and Covent Gardens. We went back to the hostel and crashed for a good 2.5 hours. Woke up, went to dinner, then went to an expensive movie! Tomorrow we head home. This has been an amazing trip, and we’ll be sad that it’s over but coming home is always great too! See you soon Colorado.
Canyoning in Interlaken (PHOTOS)
Here are some pictures from our Canyoning adventure in Interlaken, Switzerland. The pictures are of Mike and the group because we only bought his personal CD full of pictures, but Katie did all the same CRAZY stuff! This was definitely a highlight for us. It was intense, and so fun!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wadenswil to Paris (Day 17)
We were originally supposed to leave really early (7:00 am) this morning for Paris, but decided it would be better to extend our stay with the Beutel’s. Good choice! We woke up and had a great breakfast with Klaus and Uta. Everything from fruit, cereal, spek (prosciutto), and even toast! The coffee was great too. We packed up our bags, and headed out for the afternoon. We went to a beautiful park, Klaus bought us some groceries for our travels, and had lunch together. Then we headed to Zurich where we’d be catching our train. We walked around the parts of Zurich we hadn’t seen yet. We walked up to an old Fort and had a great view of the city. Then it was time for us to start our journey back to Paris. We had to change train 3 times along the way on our 6.5 hr journey. The trip was smooth, and we even made it back to Paris in time to catch the Eiffel Tower light up! Thanks Klaus and Uta for a wonderful time. We wished we could have stayed longer. Tomorrow we take the Chunnel to London. We plan on relaxing our last day in Europe.
Interlaken, Bern, Zurich, and Wadenswil (Day 16)
This morning we checked out of Happy Inn Hostel in Interlaken, and took the train to visit the Beutel’s in Wadenswil, a small town overlooking Lake Zurich just 20 minutes from Zurich by train. On our way we stopped for a couple of hours in Bern, the country’s capitol city. We enjoyed our walk up and down the main street in Bern, stopping to take in the beautiful buildings and architecture along the way. We weren’t sure where to eat, and in an effort to save money just decided on Burger King. Then we were off to Wadenswil. Klaus and Uta were there to greet us, and take us to their home. We chatted a little while, and upon their suggestion took a ship from there to Zurich to meet Valeska. It had been 13 years since Katie had seen her, but she spotted her as soon as we got off the ship. Valeska was nice enough to show us around the old part of town, and as we were walking Switzerland scored a goal against the Spanish in the World Cup, something that wasn’t supposed to happen. Valeska said it was a miracle, and all of Zurich went crazy! It was a lot of fun to see. We then headed back to Wadensil on the train to have dinner at the Beutel’s. We had a great meal, and after watched some old videos of the Fischer/Beutel kids playing in Midland, MI. Definitely a blast from the past! After a great night of catching up and reminiscing, it was time to say goodbye to Valeska and Jurg, and off to bed we went.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Interlaken (Day 15)
Today we started the day out right…LAUNDRY at an actual laundromat! We then set out on our hiking adventure. We weren’t really sure what to expect, as the information desk told us that trail 50 was a “lovely hike”. We hopped on a train headed into the mountains. About 30 minutes later we arrived to a small town. It took us a good 45 minutes to find the trail head (45 minutes of searching uphill). Eventually, Mike, the fearless leader found trail 50. The hike was beautiful with flowing waterfalls and green all around us. However, I would not call it “lovely”…it was pretty much straight uphill for 2 hours…OUCH! Luckily there were AMAZING views and a Snickers bar awaiting us at the top. We thought about taking the train down but ended up hiking back down. We are so hardcore :) So, here we are blogging in our pajamas, drinking beer and eating brie. Life is good! Tomorrow we head to Zurich to see our friends. It has been 13 years, we are excited!!!
Interlaken (Day 14)
This morning we went to the grocery store and picked up some cereal and milk among other things! First time that breakfast wasn’t bread! After breakfast we walked around Interlaken just exploring the town. It’s such a beautiful place, and the people are SO nice. We went back to the hostel, and ate some microwaveable spaghetti bolognese before heading out for our CANYONING adventure. If you don’t know what canyoning is let us tell you. We got all dressed up in wetsuits, lifejackets, and helmets and drove 20 minutes up a canyon. Our group was prepped about the crazy stuff we’d be doing in the water, then we were off. It’s a mix of rapelling, sliding, and jumping through the rapids flowing through a narrow canyon. It was INTENSE! We had so much fun. We will be sure to post pictures when we get back to Colorado. We got a cd full of snapshots. By the time we got back, we were EXHAUSTED. We took showers and an hour nap. We decided to go grab a drink before dinner at an outdoor cafe. We then headed to the bar under our hostel for some DELICIOUS ribs and wings while watching the World Cup. Tomorrow we’re going to go hiking up in the mountains!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Cinque Terre to Interlaken, Switzerland (Day 13)
Long day of travelling. We took a train from Monterosso to Milano, Milano to Spiez, and Spiez to Interlaken. We arrived in Interlaken late and ate McDonald's for dinner (only cost us $17). Katie had a salad though that she was really excited about because she hasn't had salad on this trip because it's been so expensive. Katie has already planned the first week of our dinners back in CO; different variations of salads! No pictures today, but the train ride coming into Interlaken was beautiful!
Cinque Terre (Day 12)
Today we decided to hike AGAIN! Our legs were pretty tired from the nearly 4 hour hike we did yesterday, but we were psyched to do some more hiking. We wanted to hike up to a church overlooking the town of Monterosso. Mike led us down the wrong trail to start. It was beautiful for a little while, but then we would have needed a machete to get anywhere so we turned around. We found the correct path and started hiking UP! It took around 50 minutes to get up to the church. It was definitely worth it; beautiful church and beautiful view. We came down, and decided to explore the town of Manarola. So we got on the train. The wrong one apparently. It took us to Riomaggiore and from there we had to buy another ticket and wait for the train to Manarola. Once we got to Manarola, we were starving so we got some slices of pizza and ate on the steps right along the main street. We spent a little time walking up the main street before heading back to our room for a nap. We were spent! We woke up, went to dinner and then to the pub to watch England vs. USA! 1-1. The English gentleman we were watching the game with was not happy about the tie. Another great day in Italy. Tomorrow it’s off to Interlaken, Switzerland!Cinque Terre (Day 11)
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