The Talmadges European Vacation

Post by Thomas In the span of three days we went on two very different boat rides! One of them was a boat tour on the Mediteranean to see the Cinque Terre coast. And the other was a gondola ride through the water ways of Venice. On the Cinque Terre coast we got to see the cliffs, mostly made of sandstone, which apparently leads to landslides, especially during the winter when it rains. Also on the bottom of the cliffs we saw many caves; the driver of our boat even took us part of the way in to a cave.

Posted by Thomas I n Ven ice we had free time and decided to go to the park. We brought our soccer ball with us to kick around. We tried to play alone on a part of the path but it didn’t work very well. Then we decided to go to another part of the park. There turned out to be some Italians playing pick-up soccer there. The older ones, named Galileo and Tomas, spoke a little english so we were able to join without too much trouble. We played with them them for a few hours before it got too hot and they had to go home. All in all, it was a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon.

Posted by Thomas One of the fun things we've done on this trip is ride a scooter in the Alps! The thing I liked about it was that it was mostly all downhill which made it easy to go really fast. You might be thinking that going fast down a curvy mountain path would be dangerous. Well, it wasn't all that bad because the brakes on the scooters worked very well.  Here is a picture of me and Jonah on our scooters: Stay tuned for live action video that my dad shot with a GoPro! And here is that video (sped up to improve your viewing enjoyment): One more thing--if you're ever in the Swiss Alps and want to ride a Scooter, you should know that they call them Trotti Bikes.

 Posted by Jonah Today we decided to take a short hike up to Reichenbach Falls. Little did we know, a thunderstorm was on its way. After we’d taken the funicular (train on a mountainside pulled by a cable) to the top, we began to hear thunder in the distance. We decided to continue and, right as we entered the trees, it started pooring down rain. It got steadily worse, and even started hailing. Suffice to say, we made it back home. But not without getting thoroughly drenched. Here are some pics of the storm:

Posted by Justin Amazingly, the Swiss have created systems that allow folks of all ages to access nature’s beauty. Case in point, Rosenlaui Gorge high above the town of Meiringen in the Haslital region of the Berner Oberland. Granted, the drive up there is crazy with it’s limited-width, slightly bigger than a one-lane road carrying pedestrians, bycyclists and—shockingly—a local transit bus, which blows its horn in warning as it approaches blind curves. But if you’re willing to make the drive, you are rewarded with a short hike through a canyon carved out by glacial outflow over the years. It’s a one-way loop that takes you less than an hour to complete. At the bottom, you can even partake of a fine dining outdoor meal at the Hotel Rosenlaui restaraunt.

Posted by Justin Today as we traveled from our temporary accommodations in St. Gallen to meet up with the rest of our party in Hasliberg Reuti, we decided to take a longer route so we could say we'd been to Liechtenstein. As often happens when you have a loose plan and are open to deviations from the plan, we happened across a wooden bridge spanning the Rhine River. Interestingly, as the Rhine forms the boundary between Switzerland and Liechtenstein, there is a spot halfway across the bridge where you can stand in both countries at the same time! Here are some pics below as proof.  Have you ever stood in one spot and been in two different countries before? Imagine what has to happen from an international relations perspective for that to happen.... One last thing, this actually is the last remaining wooden bridge over the Rhine . Pretty cool, eh? Thanks to serendipity for this experience!