May 24

Again, we had amazing weather and decided to get crazy and take the train to the Mt. Santis/ Appenzell area for a hike. We caught an early train for the two hour trip. The travel was definitely worth it. The sun was bright and the views were astounding.

We arrived at Mt. Santis, along with a billion of bikers (this seems to be a favorite location for serious bikers - leather everywhere!), and could not resist taking the cable car to the top immediately. (Our half price cards are coming in really handy). The cable car doors opened and we were greeted by a cold gusty breeze. Hmmm, seems we were a tad under-dressed for the snowy top. Our freezing legs did not keep us from fully enjoying the experience. Plus, you can run back inside anytime to warm up. Trust me, I ran in few times to bask in the warmth before returning outside for more pictures. We were picture taking fools at the top and pretty much all day. We even treated ourself to a snack at the restaurant at the top.

(Panoramic!)

We returned to the base, grabbed a hiking map, and started out on the wanderweg (path) . We started off with a picnic and both decided that brie & raspberry jam sandwiches are delicious and travel surprisingly well. Our four hour hike took us through fields, woods, hills, and scenic farm land. The views were stunning and we had the mountains always in view.

We finished our hike at a small town and took a train to the town of Appenzell. At this point, we were quite tired, but we still took a stroll through the town. It was cute, but because of the holiday, everything was closed. We hopped on the train again to the next bigger town and bought our tickets to get to Zurich. We couldn't believe it was already 8:30 pm. We were starving. We grabbed some bread, chocolate, and what we thought was butter. Disaster, it was actually some horrendously stinky French cheese. Nate took his chances with time and made a mad dash to the store (after we boarded the train) and returned with the best butter we have ever had. We used his half price card to spread it. See, those things do come in handy!

We arrived back in Zurich close to eleven and ready to drop. It was such a great weekend. We truly conquered the city, countryside, and even a mountain!

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bodenstab/Switerland#

May 23

Sunday, the adventures didn't stop. We woke up early, hustled to the free bike station, and signed out bikes for the day. It's a sweet deal: $20 per bike that you get back when you return it in good condition. Naturally, this is pretty popular so you have to be there around opening to snag some wheels. We biked along the river for miles and finally found the Kloster Fahr we tried to hike to a few weeks ago. We never would have made it there and back on foot - it is about 15 miles round trip and far too ambitious for a day walk. But, with our trusty bikes, we made it there easily. After enjoying the buildings and pretty surroundings, we biked back to the city to a lakeside trail. I realized that biking in traffic with speedy cars in a foreign city is not my favorite activity. I was relieved to make it back to a bike path.

We found a park that wasn't completely mobbed, unpacked our blanket, had a little ice cream, and relaxed in the sun. We made it home in time to quickly shower and then head to a bbq with some of Nate's google pals. It was fun and the food was tasty!

May 22 - The start of a long weekend

Nate has a holiday on Monday so, you know what that means, a three day weekend! And, for once, Switzerland was more than generous in the weather department. Instead of drizzle and clouds, we had sun, sun, sun & some more sun. We woke up and decided to go for a morning "stroll" before breakfast or showering. Our morning stroll turned into a four hour walk. We went all over the city and discovered a few new gardens & parks, saw a circus elephant, and did not run into any nudist (this is always a treat). We grabbed some bake goods on the way to snack, but made it home for a late afternoon lunch. We followed up our day with a few hours in the sun by the lake. We weren't the only ones with this idea, the lakeside was swamped with people. We were amazed. Where do all these people come from? To end the perfect & relaxing day, we watched a Bourne movie.

May 17 - 19

My cousin Natalia and her boyfriend Kyle came to visit for two nights while on their "take on Europe" tour. They arrived around midnight Monday night dead on their feet and promptly went to bed. Sadly, there were no seats available on the fast train from Paris, so they had to go slow-mo style which took almost the entire day. So exhausting.

Tuesday was our only day to explore because they had a Wednesday morning train to catch to Italy. But we took full advantage of the day and made our way all over Zurich. Kyle only dozed off a little once on a train ride. I took them on a mini tour of Zurich (trying to recreate the city tour I was given). We saw the sights and tons of pictures were taken- they were even documenting their adventures video style. We had lunch back at the apartment and Natal was thrilled to eat some fresh vegetables. Bread & cheese is economical while travelling, but not super exciting.

The clouds were heavy, but there was no rain so we decided a trip to Uetliberg was in order. (I am determined to pose with all our guests at the Uetliberg lookout). It was beautiful and worth the trip.

After the mountain, we went to Google for a tour and even dinner! We weren't planning on eating there, but it smelled so good :) I think that the Google tour was Kyle's favorite part of the day, hands down. He mentioned several times that he "loved google and that his family loved the internet." Of course, we all went down the fire pole and ate a few banana chocolate chip cookies that were out fresh in every room.

We had plans for a movie night but ended up talking (and eating swiss chocolate, bread, & an assortment of cheese) into the wee hours of the night. It was an awesome day!

The morning came too quickly and we sent Natalia and Kyle on to their next adventure. It was so crazy and random to be able to meet up in Europe. We loved it!

May 15 & 16

Needless to say, after all that travel, walking, hiking, eating, and exploring, we were exhausted. Saturday was our down day... well at least for Nate & me. We did a few errands and then crashed, but my parents kept going strong. They traipsed around Zurich, revisited the old town, had lunch out, and took no pictures :) We opted for a movie night with none other than the famous Bond film: On her majesty's secret service. Well, I had never heard of it, but it was filmed in Switzerland where we hiked yesterday, so we had to watch it. It had all that we hoped for and more filled with: cheesy fight sequences, tons of male chauvinism, bizarre plot, Bond's wedding, and beautiful scenery. We couldn't believe that mom and dad bowed out only half way through to go to bed. Nate and I soldiered on and watched the whole thing. Not exactly a top ten (or top fifty!), but fun.

We woke up early to get to the airport. Everything went smoothly and Mom & Dad were off! We loved having them here! After, we went directly home and both fell asleep for an unplanned 3 hour nap. Those old folks wore us out :)

You want more pictures? Ok, here you go: http://picasaweb.google.com/bodenstab/ZurichPaulAndCindy#

May 14

We started our day off right by fully taking advantage of the tasty breakfast buffet spread included in our hotel stay. So much bread, cheese, granola, yogurt, fruit, cereal, eggs, strange meats, croissants, and most importantly - american style coffee. They had an actual pot of coffee brewing. My parents were thrilled and we left stuffed.

Our entire day was dedicated to exploring the area. We hiked a few miles in the Lauterbrunnen valley. We saw tons of waterfalls and faint glimpses of the snow capped mountains. Sadly, it was again very cloudy. We hiked to Trummelbach Falls - a series of glacial waterfalls inside a mountain accessed by an elevator. It really was amazing.

We continued our hike through the valley until we reached the gondola to Murren. (No car access in Murren). Murren was cute but almost like a ghost town. The poor weather and weird timing (ski season over and summer hiking just starting) kept the place empty and it felt a little eery. We considered taking a gondola ride to the top of Shilthorn Mountain for a view because a James Bond movie was filmed at the top of Shilthorn in the revolving restaurant. We were so close! But our Bond experience was thwarted by the heavy blanket of clouds (and the hefty price for the ride).

(The view we should have seen. Maybe next time!)

We continued our hike high above the valley through a few towns and then caught another cable car to Lauterbrunnen. It was cold! We could see some snow on the peaks and winter hats were unpacked. We made it back to Lauterbrunnen station in time to grab a few snacks for the road and board the train back to Zurich. We we exhausted and slept well that night.

(You have to click on this picture, it's a panoramic meant to be appreciated in all its glory)

May 13

Today is Ascension Day, a Swiss holiday celebrating Jesus' ascension into heaven. Due to the holiday, Nate has today and tomorrow off. So, we decided it was a perfect time to take a trip to the Bernese Oberland (mountain area about 2 hours south of Zurich). We started our trip early so we could spend some time on the way in the picturesque town of Luzern before making it to our final destination of Lauterbrunnen. Luzern is famous for being the epitome of a Swiss city. It is on a lake surrounded by mountains, with a scenic river, a few covered bridges, gorgeous old buildings, and a huge medieval wall with 9 towers overlooking the city. Sadly, it was raining and cloudy the whole time we were there, but a lack of mountain views did not keep us from appreciating the city.

We hiked to the wall and made our way to the three towers open to the public. Because of the holiday, everything seemed to be closed, but not McDonald's! Yes, there are McDonald's everywhere over here. Sad, but true. But, lucky for my parents, they serve the closest thing to American coffee we could find and they have excellent bathrooms so we visited 2 different McDonald's in Luzern.

After a few hours of sight seeing, we boarded our next train to Lauterbrunnen. We were on a special panoramic train with huge windows and the views were lovely and pastoral. We arrived in Lauterbrunnen in the early evening with time to explore (the sun sets at about 9:00 pm). We checked into our adorable hotel and couldn't resist having hot drinks on the balcony before we started our tour. Our outing started a little later than expected because Dad accidentally locked us all on the balcony while he went to the bathroom and to refill his coffee downstairs. Nate was considering some ninja like plans to scale down the wall Bourne style to save us. Thankfully, Dad came back to free us and we were on our way.

Lauterbrunnen is in a valley surrounded by huge mountains and has 72 waterfalls. We walked to Staubbach falls the first night and fell in love with the area. Small houses, little farms, sheep everywhere, and huge mountains.

We ended our short walk at a local restaurant. Mom and Dad treated us to an amazing meal! (The first time we have eaten out in Switzerland. The prices are a tad high here). Mom & Nate had traditional rosti dishes (a type of potato hash) and we all finished the meal with some tasty Swiss apple strudel and vanilla ice cream. We were stuffed!

(Nate's Rosti smothered in cheese topped with an egg. MMMMmmm)

May 12

No trip to Zurich is complete without a tour of Nate's amazing Google office. And of course, we arrived early to enjoy the free breakfast offered to employees... and family. Well, not family members every day, but Nate assured us that guests once and a while would be fine. Google may rethink that policy after witnessing our consumption. Just kidding! We were entirely reasonable. I promise. My parents were thoroughly impressed with the coolness factor of the office and Nate was even able to cajole each of us into riding the fireman's pole - not that Mom took much convincing! We definitely got the full google experience.

Next on our list was a trip to the Rietberg Museum. Now, we are cultured folks ... kinda, but we do not usually frequent art museums while on vacation. We made an exception because our ZurichCards (that we purchased only for today) provided free entrance to all museums. It would have been a waste of money not to go! The museum was primarily non-European art and pretty fascinating ... at first. We stayed for about an hour and half and then sped through the rest. The grounds were amazing and lush, but I think we got our fill of museums. We went back to the apartment for lunch (not without stopping for a pre-lunch of bratwurst for the parents with my vegetarian stomach rumbling), rested for an hour, and then got back on our feet to attend our 2 hour walking tour of Zurich (half price with the ZurichCard!)

We loved the tour! Out guide was fabulous. She had to be, she was the tour guide featured on the front of our tourist booklet. She conducted it in both German and English (although all but one participant spoke English). We learned so much about the city and saw parts of it that I did not yet know about. I tried to memorize everything to be on my game when giving mini-tours to future guests. Zurich is a beautiful little city and we saw an interesting side to it. The most shocking thing we learned was that women were not allowed to vote in country elections until 1971. 1971!!! Wow! I was amazed. Probably not the tourist take away point the guide was hoping for us, but it was so outrageous. At first, she said 1871 and mentioned how the Swiss were embarrassed about their slow move towards equal rights. The Americans in the group all seemed to hem and haw thinking of our less than stellar date of 1920 for women's suffrage. When she corrected herself and said 19 instead of 18, their was actually a gasp of surprise (mingled, I'm guessing, with relief that we were at least "ahead" of the Swiss) from the Americans in the group.

(Mom and Dad worked hard to coordinate with the blue & white Zurich flag and the red & white Swiss flag)

The tour ended just as it started to sprinkle. We made it home a little wet, but happy with our full day. It didn't stop there- after supper Dad noticed the sky looked clear so we went to the lake to witness a rainbow and beautiful sunset.

May 11

Another day with sun! Zurich was predicted to have rain today (and just about every day for the next 10 days) so it was nice surprise to get some rays. Naturally, we took full advantage of the excellent weather. In the morning, Nate made his way to google and the rest of us headed to the Botanical Gardens. My parents enjoy gardens and this one did not disappoint. Flowers were in bloom, snails were everywhere, Dad got extremely close to a major beehive, and there was even a series of glass domes housing tropical, desert, and rain forest environments. It was awesome!

After the gardens, we walked home by way of the lake. We had a late lunch, changed into more summery clothes, packed a bag of reading material (that we never ended up reading- thanks for carrying it Dad!), and made our way back to the lake for the afternoon. For the first time, the snow capped mountains were visible from the lake and the view kept getting better and better as we slowly made it around the lake. Of course, Mom and Dad did not bring a camera on the trip (they are notorious for never taking pictures) so I made them pose several times to document the fleeting moments of sun and mountain views. They will thank me later, I'm sure.

After much walking (and a side trip to an aviary with an adorable baby sandpiper) we found a great spot in the sun to relax. Dad braved the hordes of ducks and slippery stairs to test out the lake water. As expected, it was freezing! The ducks looked longingly at him, but he had no bread to toss. So sad. Mom and I enjoyed the view of the boats with the dramatic backdrop as we wondered aloud about the levels of swimmers itch in Zurich Lake :)

We met Nate at home for dinner together and planned out our next adventures!

May 10 - Callnans take on Switzerland part 1

My parents arrived in Zurich today- just in time to celebrate my birthday :) They caught a red eye flight and arrived at about 9:30 am and were surprisingly perky. We made it back to the apartment for a short rest and then we decided to hit the town. Once outside, I saw the sun peek through the clouds (a rare occurrence lately) so we decided to shift gears from "casual exploration of the city" to "hardcore hiking." Well, hardcore hiking for us. We quickly ran back to the apartment, put on our hiking clothes, packed a bag and headed for the train to Uetliberg mountain (hill). We bought our passes, hopped on the right train (indicated by the huge words painted on the side: Uetliberg Mountain), and prepared ourselves for the view... only for the train to stop halfway there and return back to the main station. We were not the only ones confused- we met a family of Connecticut tourists who were also trying to find Uetliberg. After looking at the signs, we realized that only every other train goes all the way to the top. Tricky. So, after some laughter and discussion of our CT friends' so far disastrous European trip, we made it back to the station and tried again. Success for round two. Phew. I was more confident of my tour guide skills after arrival (Nate and I hiked up and around Uetliberg yesterday, sorry, no post about that. But, it was great and I had plans to go on the same scenic trail). We made our way up the tower viewpoint for an awesome and somewhat cloudy view of Zurich.

Next on our list was a two hour hike through rolling hills with beautiful views to a cable car to take us back to civilization. Notice the dark ominous clouds in the background. Did they stop us? Of course not! We braved the weather and started our journey. Maybe we should have reconsidered as the thunder rumbled 5 minutes into the hike. But no, we are adventurous athletes who laugh in the face of inclement weather. Plus, we were decked out in our matching LL Bean rain coats and ready for anything. One of the bonuses of hiking on dreary Monday afternoon is the lack of other hikers. We met almost no one on the trail. And after it started raining a hour into the hike, we met zero hikers. Despite the rain, it was a fun and scenic hike. Our timing was perfect as we arrived minutes before the cable car departed. We had the whole gondola to ourselves!

Nate met us at the apartment with birthday flowers and spread of desserts to round out my birthday experience! I made some tasty food and we relaxed for the rest of the night.

Best birthday ever!!! (Although, I do seem to say this every year...)

May 8 - Frozen Pizza

Jake Bodenstab graduated from NNU today! Congrats, buddy, and sorry we couldn't be there. We'll make it up to you with a fancy meal of frozen pizza when you come visit.

Speaking of frozen pizza, there was a great sale at Migros (the local supermarket) today: $1.80 each! We got six. Perhaps it would be prudent to taste test one of these pizzas first before buying six, but in my opinion, you really can't go wrong with frozen pizza.

Perhaps we went a little overboard with our shopping today because we did it right after a huge urban hike. According to the tourist map of the city, there is a Monastery "just up the river" from us. Unfortunately, the tourist map isn't quite to scale and we ended up hiking for three hours in vain pursuit. It was still a lovely hike, though, until we stumbled upon 10+ elderly men out sun bathing in nothing but what the Good Lord gave them. But further on we saw some fly fishermen, kids graffiti-ing a wall, and lots of people working away in their family gardens (10x10 plots of land you buy outside the city because you're apartment building inside the city doesn't have the space). Ahhh, the big city life.

May 6 - Cinqo de Mayo

Today is Paul Callnan's birthday! Thanks to the miracle of technology, Sharon was able to keep tradition alive and sing a very special birthday song to her dad via skype. She was definitely the first kid to wish him a happy bithday because it was 5:30 am EST. (Dad was up early for a work event, I did not wake him up, I swear!) It's hard to believe that we have already been in Zurich for almost a week. Nate is loving his time at google. He is currently in a two week orientation period and learning lots about the company and his work. He has big plans to fully enjoy his crazy office :

http://picasaweb.google.com/zurich.office.images/ZurichOfficePhotos#

As a super added bonus, all employees get free meals during the day! It is a dream come true!

Sharon has everything unpacked and is settling into Zurich life. We have our train passes, registered our residence with the city, and set up a bank account. Yes, we now have a fancy swiss bank accout :) Our apartment location is perfect. We are about a 2 minute walk from the lake and less than 10 minute walk from the Old City. Sharon is catching up on reading, communicating with friends and family, squeezing in a few Buffy the Vampire episodes, and is in super planning mode as her parents arrive for a visit in just a few days! We have gone on many beautiful walks which we know will be more beautiful once the sun peeks through the clouds. It has been drizzly, overcast, and downright gray since we arrived. We keep waiting for glimpses of the mountains, but the clouds have been too heavy. It doesn't keep us from exploring, but it does keep us inside more than we'd like.

Highlights of the week:

We found a little English speaking church that was fun. We attended their Sunday evening service and were excited for the fellowship and familiar songs. Lucky for us it is only about a 10 minute walk away. And, thankfully, we found out the regular grocery stores are not as expensive as the train station variety. We grocery shopped and filled our cupboards with moderately priced food. After paying such high prices on Saturday, everything seemed like a deal!

Also, one of the bright spots of our week was Cinqo de Mayo! Nate searched the grocery stores high and low and came home with a treasured bag of tortilla chips and salsa! Amazing and so tasty! While documenting our chips an salsa feast we almost had a major party foul: Sharon dropped the bag of chips on the floor. Have no fear, dear readers, the chips were fine and we carried on in Cinqo de Mayo style. If Cinqo de Mayo style means eating chips and salsa while trying to watch a constantly buffering version of Narnia's Prince Caspian. It was an excellent night and it has been a full week!

May 1 - On our way to Zurich

We woke up at 6:20 to catch our early train out of Vernazza and made it to the station with time to spare. Nate even had time to run to the store to grab a few travel snacks. Unfortunately, the train was late getting into Genova station and we had two hours to kill before the next one departed. We walked around Genova and saw all the sites: graffiti, boats, and underage smokers.

We caught the train to Milano, but it happened to be late as well :( At least we got a Harry Potter like compartment to practice our witchcraft and wizardry.

A kind Italian lady helped us with our tickets and explained that there was probably no chance we could make our connection due to our slow train. But we did not want to give up easily. After pushing our way to the front of the train, we jumped off while it was still rolling, ran as fast as we could past the reader board, found the Zurich train in lane #7, and reached it just in time …. to see the doors close and it pull away. Bad train luck today. So, we had another two hours to kill in Milano. We walked around the area for a bit, checked out a super sketchy market, and then decided to settle in at the station to patiently wait and not miss the next train. Sadly, there were many people in our situation and not enough seats for us all on the next train. We roamed around the train, sat on the floor, and after about an hour, we snagged some open seats. We arrived in Zurich and made our way to our new apartment around the time all the grocery stores closed. We learned that stores close around 6 pm on Saturday and don't open again until Monday. If you want some food, you are at the mercy of the shops in the train station. We picked a few things to keep us alive over the weekend and almost choked at the prices. A carton of 4 eggs for $4 = painful. We bit the bullet and made our purchases and went back to our apartment, ate well, relaxed, and slept soundly.

April 30

Most importantly, today is Jacob Callnan’s birthday. We had to abandon family tradition and only send Jake happy birthday vibes because we didn’t have a phone or internet access. I’m sure he had an excellent day without our famous vocal stylings. Look at that cake Whit made for him! Oh my! It looks to die for and we are hoping that cake makes another appearance during our visit to Maine. Yes, she will be caring for their new baby, but I’m sure she’ll have lots of extra time to cook us chocolate delights J

Nate gathered a breakfast of focacia bread (our new favorite), brie cheese, blueberry yogurt, and a couple of oranges. We ate the picnic breakfast on our hotel’s private cliff-side patio. Since we had the patio all to ourselves, we stayed for 3 or 4 hours reading and enjoying the sun and the view. Sharon finished her book. Nate fell asleep.

We decided to rally from our reverie and hike to Corniglia where we had a light lunch of (surprise surprise) a focacia, tomato, and mozzarella sandwich followed by some gelato. It was enough to fortify us for the hike back.

We ate dinner at a “fancy” restaurant with a view of the entire city. We had to climb 400+ stairs to get there, so we were nice and sweaty by the time we sat down. The good part about being far from the city center was that there were only 3 other couples (all of which were Americans).Maybe that wasn’t a good sign. Sharon got the pesto lasagna and Nate went out on a limb for something described as mussels with spices and bread soaked in milk. It actually was quite tasty, but the portion size was something you’d feed your 3 year-old. Since Nate’s motto is quantity, not quality, he was a little disappointed, but all was set right after we stopped by a small pizza place on the way home to make up for lost food. We ended the night on our balcony looking out over the water. A great ending to a wonderful trip. More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bodenstab/Vernazza#

April 29

We slept great but, the loud Italian conversations in front of our room at 5 am, neighbors noisily getting ready at 7am, and the cleaning ladies knocking on our door at 9am put a damper on plans to sleep in late. We snagged some pizza for breakfast, it’s the Italian way, and started our hike to Monterosso… our favorite hike. It felt like “real Italy” with steep stairs, amazing views, and an old man selling lemonade. We almost bought some until we learned it was 20 proof lemonade. It would have made the hike a tad more interesting and definitely dangerous. We decided to err on the side of safety and only buy one of his oranges.

We arrived to the beach town of Monterosso, rented chairs with an umbrella and relaxed for hours. Sharon read her book and Nate got sunburned while parasailers assailed us from the sky. We had a tasty beach snack of focacia bread with tomatoes and mozzarella with a basket full of fried assorted things. They all seemed meaty so Nate graciously offered to eat all of it. We had an actual lunch in the late afternoon on a patio overlooking the ocean. More focacia bread and a cream filled croissant. We hiked back while the sun was going down. So many gorgeous vistas and far fewer hikers. We loved it, although our calves didn’t.

We had a late dinner of a mushroom pizza and caprese salad at the pizza place on the pier. So tasty. And we couldn’t resist getting dessert when we learned that tiramisu was on the menu. Yum!

April 28 - Exploring Cinque Terre

Vernazza does not allow vehicles in the main town, which is wonderful, unless your room overlooks the edge of town parking lot. We were awakened by car, trucks, and motorcycle noises. We were happy to have new reservations lined up. Sharon still felt guilty, but not too guilty to not take full advantage to the amazing breakfast provided by the B&B. Nate ate for three. Sharon ate for one. It was delicious and we were sad to say good bye to a breakfast like that for the rest of the week. After breakfast, Sharon waited outside while Nate broke the news that we were leaving. The receptionist seemed confused that we are checking out early, but the language barrier helps to cushion the blow of loss profit.

We arrived early at our new hotel and stashed our bags until noon when we could get into our room. We took a mini hike to fill the time. The views were breathtaking and we met lots of interesting and chatty people from Australia, Canada, Kansas City, and Eugene, Oregon. It was an excellent morning.

We checked into our place at noon. It was even better than we hoped with the bonus of having a queen sized bed! We stashed our stuff and hit the trails. We hiked 10k through 4 of the 5 towns that make up cinque terra, along with about a billion other hikers. This seems like a popular place. The weather was perfect. For lunch we bought some strawberries and blood oranges. Of course, we had a gelato for a snack as well.

We even made a small detour on one of the hikes down to the ocean. We got a little wet and the place smelled like rotting fish, but it was nice to cool down. We grabbed a train home. Sharon was excited to sit on the second level of a train for the first time.

As we were trudging up the many stairs to return to our hotel (everything is connected by stair streets here) we almost crashed a wedding! We got out of the way just in time for the bride to make it though with her dad. Hopefully, we looked good in their pictures. After a quick clean up, we had a late dinner at an outside pasta restaurant. It was very romantic until the local crazy man made the rounds to loudly berate the restaurant workers in the square and feral cats starting eyeing Sharon’s food. And feet. We moved the party to our hotel room and had a dessert of chocolate and fruit on our balcony.

April 27 - Vernazza

We awoke to a delicious breakfast spread made by our hosts: fruit, cereal, granola, bread, and homemade banana chocolate chip muffins. We ate like royalty, stashed a few muffins for the trip, and made our way to the main train station to catch our train to Vernazza, Italy. Our first leg took us through some beautiful Swiss alp mountain scenery to Milan, Italy.

We had an interesting unplanned stop while the train was searched by Italian police. We waited anxiously as they police did their work. We had only twenty minutes between trains in Milan and the police took close to twenty minutes to do their thing. We had a friendly Italian woman sitting with us who got more info about train connections from the train staff. Her wise advise to us was to “run, run, run” when we arrived in Milan to catch our next train now scheduled 2 minutes to leave after our arrival. And run, run, run we did. We made it! Phew. It was a close call. We hopped on to the practically empty train and had an entire car to ourselves. Sharon learned that she must sit facing the direction the train is headed or motion sickness set in. She also learned that she loves napping on trains. Nate was again reminded that he has a stomach of steel as he sat comfortably facing any direction. After a short layover and failed bathroom break attempt (they wanted a euro, we only had swiss francs) in the somewhat dirty and smoky Genova station, we boarded our final train to Vernazza.

We arrived into Vernazza and were instantly in love with the adorable town.

We were checked into our B&B by a kind of creepy guy, but the room was nice. We explored the town and sat on the rocks overlooking the Mediterranean to watch the beautiful sunset. We had dinner at a great pizza place on the pier and were accosted by some friendly (somewhat drunk) Canadians who strongly believed that Nate was “that guy from the Mac commercials.” After all agreeing that Mac owed Nate (and probably Sharon just for being with him) free merchandise, the Canadians gave us some excellent hiking tips. After dinner we explored other hotel options and decided to ditch our place the next day in favor of staying at the most romantic hotel in town. As a bonus, it was cheaper, and had a balcony with an ocean view. Nate was pumped by the deal and Sharon was worried about upsetting the current B&B owners by cutting the 4 day reservation down by 3 nights. Nate agreed to do the dirty work with the manager and Sharon slept peacefully.

April 26

We met up in Boston to start our European adventure! We left in the early evening and set our sights on London. We had ambitious plans of forcing ourselves to sleep the entire flight to get a head start on the 9 hour time change in Zurich, but it was too early, we were too excited, and British Airways has tiny “media centers” for each passenger and two free meals! So much food, so many movies, and so little time. We arrived in London wide awake and just in time to see the sunrise from the airport windows (with the aid from some treats from Starbucks! Yes, American gift cards work at British Starbucks. Phew.)

After a short wait, we boarded our morning flight to Zurich. It seemed that we were the only non-business people on the flight. We felt somewhat underdressed without briefcases and fancy overcoats, but we pulled through.

We arrived in Zurich quite tired and looking forward to naps. But there is no rest for the weary; we had a big day planned and accomplished all of our goals without getting too lost (just kinda lost a few times). We stopped by google, dropped off some excess baggage to store, had a delicious free lunch with Nate’s new google pals, made our way to our new apartment, met the landlords, signed the lease, and headed back to google to meet our gracious hosts for the evening: Keith and Andrea (Americans living full time in Zurich). Keith is Nate’s boss for the summer. After settling into Keith & Andrea’s fabulous guest room set up, Keith & Nate left for a computer party. Sharon & Andrea decided to bow out of the nerd night in favor of a tasty homemade meal in the backyard with some great conversation. Through swapping stories, Sharon & Andrea soon learned that they both previously worked at Travelers Aid Family Services in Boston. What an incredibly small world we live in! Sharon succeeded in keeping her eyes open until 8 pm in a valiant effort to defeat jet lag, Nate groggily made his way to bed a few hours later. First day in Zurich was a success!