Italy Trip Days 1-2

This weekend was by far our favorite so far! We just got back from our first major trip that took place in Cinque Terre, Italy. It was an amazing experience and was a beautiful and relaxing trip for us. We went as a group of about 15 people, all praktikants and me. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 smaller towns along the coast of the Mediterranean. The 5 towns are all spaced out along the hills that line the coast; some located on the ground with an ocean front and other are on top of the hills. It was extremely neat to see and be a part of. Our group stayed in the first town called Monterosso; which was the main attraction.The hotel we booked was amazing, it was a huge place for 8 people; unfortunately there were 11 of us sharing it. It worked out well though and we all had a blast getting to know each other together.


Most of us on the trip took the train from Switzerland on Thursday morning and arrived in Monterosso at night, it was an 8 hour train ride. That night we met up with the others who were already there and then checked into our hotel. The hotel was super nice and was a really good deal. Brian and I got to share our own room which was really nice and a lot more relaxing for us. As soon as we were settled in we all went out for supper and most people bought wine because we were in Italy and it was a lot cheaper for better quality.

Friday morning we woke up early to the beautiful ocean front view and the sound of the waves splashing against the beach. Then a few of us set off to find some breakfast that consisted of Italian pizza! The plan for this day was to hike through all of the Cinque Terre towns and eventually reach the last one for supper. So that is exactly what we did, we hiked all day up a path that consisted of mainly stairs, going up and down the hills to each little town. The first and the second hike took about an hour and a half, the third one took about 40 minutes and the last was only about 20 minutes. The scenery was really beautiful the whole time and it was also very hot all day too. It was nice but added more of a challenge to the hike. Every town that we got to we got a gelatto ice cream, they were so incredible, by far my favorite right now! When we finally reached the last town we found a restaurant and would seat 15 people and had a fancier meal. Brian and I had a whole pizza each, they were amazing, thin crusts and everything. After that we all took the train back to Monterosso and went out for coffee and gelatto's. Then we all relaxed on the beach for the night.

Our next posting will contain days 3-4 of our
adventures in Cinque Terre so stay tuned!

Above are some pictures of the children I am nannying for.

This is Emma who is 6 and Leo who is 2, cute hey!

I will be working about 3 days a week, starting in June. Typically I will
be with the children Tuesday, Thrusday, and usually Friday as well.
I have had the last 2 weeks off though so I am really looking
forward to getting back into the swing of things in June.

Locarno Trip
On Saturday we headed off to Locarno for the day. Locarno is one of the more southern cities in Switzerland, in the Italian region. We came from Zurich, which is in the north. So we basically travelled from top to bottom of Switzerland in 3 hrs by train! The ride was beautiful, we travelled through the Alps and got to see so much of the beautiful landscape. A lot of the Canadian interns (which are called praktikants here) came along, about 15 or so, it was a big crew.

While we were there we went to this place called Ponte Brolla, which was a very very small place, it took a short train ride (5min's) outside of Locarno to get there. It was amazing, huge cliffs, deep pools and a winding river. Some pictures below show it pretty nicely. Some of the guys we were with were doing some cliff jumping, and this old guy that was already there was doing backflips and standing gainers into a dive from a 19m cliff, it was ridiculous! The 19m cliff overhung a 16m deep pool which was unbelievable! You can see the cliff in the 2nd picture, it is the one the two guys are standing on. Apparently they have diving championships at this place, sweet. Unfortunately it was kind of cloudy and cold so no one really went swimming, but we are definatly gonna go back there again.

It started raining so we decided to leave Ponte Brolla, we headed back to Locarno to check out the city. It was pretty cool, alot of people think of Switzerland as a colder country in the mountains, but in Locarno they grow palm trees and it feels like a tropical place. It is pretty sweet. Locarno is on a big lake so we checked that out, but other than that it was sorta a boring city. We ate a loaf of bread and an apple for supper and headed back to Baden around 7 and got in at 11. It was a fun day.
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Pictures as Promised
Here are a few pictures as promised. More and better ones to come.






Baden River

Baden Castle - Church

River Walk - Downtown Baden

Germany and Cheap Meat
Today we made our first trip to Germany, it was only a 20 min train ride from our town. The main goal was to go shopping for meat because it is ridiculously cheaper in germany. Went to a place called Penny Markt and loaded our backpacks full of groceries. Good times. Devon who is living at our place took us, the town is pretty nice, next time we will take some pictures to show you all. It was a great way to spend a rainy evening in Europe.

Welcome welcome to the first blog of Louise and Brian while we are in Switzerland. This blog was inspired by John Ham, and will keep you up to date on everything that is happening in our lives while we are stationed in Baden, Switzerland. We hope to post quite a few pictures here as well, and look forward to everyone leaving comments and checking the blog everyday, because it is that important.