More cow bell

Seen on our bike ride/run today in a nearby village.

The Other Villages

We also visited Riomaggiore and Manarola

The Walk of Love is between the two villages.

Manarola

One year ago today...

Scott proposed in the garage!  It has been a wonderful year and we look forward to many years to come.

Hiking to Monterosso al Mare

The trail between Vernazza to Monterosso is only 2.5 miles, yet it feels longer.  We left around 11am and the temperature was already starting to rise.  We were in search of the beautiful beach we had heard about it.

A quarter of the way there, hot and sweaty.  Vernazza is in the background.

One of the boats leaving Vernazza, you could take a train or boat taxi between the villages.

As you can see the trail was quite busy and we spent a lot of time stepping aside for people to get by since the path is so narrow at certain points.

Can you see all of the people on the trail across the way?  (You can click on the photo to enlarge it)

An example of just how narrow the the path was at times.

The beach!

So refreshing

My wonderful travel companion and I

Vernazza

Vernazza was my favorite village of the five because of the quaintness and Scott enjoyed Monterosso al Mare because of the beach.  

Vernazza with the sun setting on the bright colored buildings

One of the hillsides surrounding the village covered in grape vines.

A couple enjoying the sunset down on the water

Local white wine

Arriving at El' Eremo sul Mare

As Scott explained in the previous post, we ran into a delay arriving in Vernazza on Thursday. Once we drove out of Levanto, we drove on a narrow winding road along the coast line. The road was so narrow that as you drive around corners you honk your horn to warn cars you are coming. A lot of people were walking on the narrow road too since they had lined the shoulders to watch the bike race. We did something I have never done before, we picked up hitchhikers. Three sweaty, smelly Italian men got into the back of our car and road with us for ten minutes down into the parking lot. They were kind though and in broken English said thank you and offered to buy us a beer.

Scott ready to head into town.

After parking in the lot outside of Vernazza, cars are not allowed in the city, you hike for about ten minutes down hill into the village.

Vernazza - Photo taken from the path out of town on our way to the bed and breakfast. We hiked for about five minutes outside of the village.

The door to our bed and breakfast from the path, it is a good thing we are not large people.

More steps

At last we arrived. We were both dripping (yes, dripping) with sweat after carrying our bags down into town and then back out and up the hill. The other guests were out on the patio enjoying wine when we arrived, we enjoyed ice cold water.

Enjoying some of the wine on the patio after freshening up

Scott's "Blue Steel" expression

Off to dinner

Levanto, Italy - Tour of Italy

It was around 12:30 pm when Heather and I found ourselves in Levanto, Italy on our way to the 5 Terre's. Suddenly we came to a roadblock and a policewoman was turning all the cars around. She explained that the road would reopen at 5:30 PM, but we couldn't quite catch the reason for this inconvenience. She explained our options which were to park and take the train into to Vernazza, or wait until the road reopened to continue the hour or so journey.

As you may know from experience Heather doesn't always enjoy these sudden bumps in her well thought out plans (to be fair I'm not the most flexible either). So after waking up at 6:30 am to try and arrive with a full afternoon at our destination we were basically stuck without a plan. 

As title of the post implies the road was indeed closed for a very valid reason -- the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) was rolling through town. It took Heather and I a while to figure out that it was a bike race, but we were quite impressed that the world's best teams were there competing. Among the competitors was Team Columbia, which as you know is sponsored by my company and was fun to see in person. 

After spending some watching the racers whizz by we walked further to discover the excellent beach in Levanto. We ended up spending about 2 hours reading and relaxing at the beach, which was our plan for the weekend anyways. 

The experience proved that it is possible to make the most of the situation when you are stuck traveling. Granted it's pretty easy to do when there is a nice beach and one of Europe's biggest bike races at your disposal, but I'm hoping that both of us will remember it for the future. 

Best regards,

Scott & Heather Bulloch

The official race poster... note the color? The winner gets the pink jersey (vs. the yellow)

Go Team Columbia!

Levanto Beach!

My good looking wife, enjoying Sunset magazine!

Home from Vernazza

Five and a half hours of driving later we are home from our trip to the Cinque Terres!  We enjoyed the sun, our bed and breakfast, one big hike, the food, the vino and each other.  We will post more photos and stories in the days to come.  

McMahons in September

Kevin, Shannon and Logan will be here in September!  Better start preparing the house for a toddler!  Is there a manual on that?

Cinque Terres

Italy here we come! We are driving to the Cinque Terres on Thursday and will be returning late Saturday. We are in search of sun, hiking and relaxation.

Annecy, France

Yesterday was another gorgeous day in Geneva, minus the breeze that blew the pollen everywhere.  We decided to drive Linda to Annecy, France so she could say she was in two countries during her trip abroad.  We strolled through old town and enjoyed looking at the booths in the market, ate a nice lunch and visited the castle before heading home.  It was the perfect ending to her trip here.

I think vegetables always look more appetizing when displayed beautifully

Does anyone know what type of fruit this is?

Believe it or not, this was a small block of cheese

Lots of meats to choose from to go with all of that cheese

The lake

The castle, if you visit Annecy, don't waste your time

The one moment I didn't have kleenex against my nose and wasn't sneezing

One last view of the lake from the castle

Mount Blanc at dusk

This is the first time I have seen all of Mount Blanc.  We took this photo from a look out point outside of Nyon.  If it is just as clear today, I hope to take some photos from down by the lake of the mountains. 

Caves Ouvertes - Dardagny

The wine caves were open throughout the Canton of Geneva today and we choose to visit the village of Dardagny to partake in the tastings.  One of the best parts of today was the weather, over 70 degrees with blue skies and a light breeze.

For lunch we had grilled duck, roasted potatoes and salad with a balsamic dressing.  The five star meal was made in a small makeshift kitchen right on the sidewalk.

We came home with eight bottles of wines and some fresh honey from the village of Avully