Days 23 & 24: Cinque Terre...we'll meet again

forcing Trent to make a heart with me at the Via Dell'Amore sign

Location: Ian and ShaRee's home, Buchs, Switzerland

Hours of Travel: 136 (or 5 1/2 days...)

Cleanliness: 9. YAY!

Comments:

-Trent and I woke up semi casually Friday afternoon for our train ride to Cinque Terre. Unfortunately we kept having bad lucky in our train time schedule so we didn't get there until around 1pm.

stripes on stripes! Trent changed shortly after I pointed is outfit out to him

-When Trent and I got to Cinque Terre, we (or maybe it was just I) were super exhausted. We already hiked over a mile with our packs on so our backs were feeling the stress and Cinque Terre is anything but flat country. We got to our B&B and, of course, NOBODY WAS THERE TO CHECK US IN. For those of you not keeping up with our travels...this is the third time in a row this has happened.

waiting for the B&B lady to check us in...

-While waiting we checked out the B&B and climbed the stairs to the lookout point of Vernazza.

-By 2:30 pm, we were checked in and ready to hike! We basically ran to the hiking trail because we were so excited. But when we got there, each hike cost 5 Euros a person. Trent and I were totally bummed; that met another 40 Euros to spend on just walking. We were already pretty low on our money and late in the day so we skipped the trail hiking and decided to train ride to 2 other cities and explore.

-While exploring we ran into a New Zealand family who were traveling for a whole year! They were awesome to talk to.

-Also, Cinque Terre is a huge destination for English speakers (americans especially). So if your not into that, still go and just avoid the people. It's seriously the most beautiful place I've ever been to (thank you Margaret for suggesting this!!!!).

pretty rocks by the water at Vernazza

Boats and things at Riomaggiore

-Riomaggiore has a trail called the road of love. It's where people put locks on a fence to "seal" their eternal love for one another. It also cost 5 per person...so...we got a picture next to the sign. We figured we already sealed our love once. :)

-At the end of the day, we went to Monterosso which was more of a beach city than the other 4. Here we bought ingredients for a delicious homemade pasta dinner.

-We ate gnocchi, pesto, tomatoes and bread and made our own home-cooked Italian dinner while we watched the sunset. It was so romantic. Honeymoon destination: definite check (if you have the $$$)

dinner for 2

- The following day Trent and I had 5 trains to get to Buchs to visit Trent's brother Ian! Though it may sound gruesome, the rides were stunning. We crossed from Italy to Italian Switzerland and passing beautiful mountain ranges and lakes. Finally we made it to Heidiland, or German Switzerlan, and Ian picked us up one train earlier than we though. We ate hamburgers, caught up on his wife and children (who are in the US right now) and laughed and stayed up real late (Hartman style).

Things we are thinking: We absolutely cannot believe we only have 2 days left before our plain-rides home. We're exhausted but so sad that this life-long dream is quickly coming to a close. I will write plenty on Switzerland area before the end of the trip as well as a full scale review on our trip travel, accommodations, and tourist attractions. Altogether, I couldn't be happier about the finished product. Holidays like this are supposed to not go perfectly and affect the travelers in a way for good!

For now, Auf Wiedersehen!