Since I have now figured out our new computer, I am ready to start blogging again! I have a lot to catch up on, so check back often to see new updates. Also check our Share Site (http://ponsteinpictures.shutterfly.com) for more pictures of what I write about here since I can't put them all up on this site.
So...back to Dave's trip to visit us. I had mentioned in a previous post that we had spent the weekends traveling with Dave and the first weekend he was here (May 27-29), we went to Cinque Terre, Italy. Cinque Terre is five cities along the Mediterranean Sea that are connected with hiking trails along the cliffs along the shore. No cars are allowed in the cities except for deliveries in the mornings. It is a unique place and very beautiful! This is probably the most beautiful place in Europe that we have been so far, so it is definitely worth checking out the rest of our pictures!
On Friday, we left after Brian was done with work and drove to Cinque Terre. We drove south through Switzerland into Italy to arrive there. Thankfully it was a pretty uneventful (though long) trip until the very end. When we got closer and closer to the shore, the road became more and more curvy. To add to the experience, it was pretty foggy, so it often felt like we would drive right off the road as we took one of the sharp turns!
Dave had set up a place for us to stay and the man who owned it was running the booth at the parking lot, so it was easy to figure out the parking and find his wife who showed us the room. We stayed in the second city of the five, Vernazza, in a great room right in the center of the city. It was lots of fun to watch the different kinds of people in the city and feel like we were right in the midst of the excitement and beauty of this place.
That evening, we ventured into the city for some dinner (seafood!) and spent some time in the harbor watching the huge waves that were coming in and the fishermen working on getting their boats onto dry land.
Brian and I in Vernazza harbor
After a good night of sleep, we woke up Saturday morning ready for an adventure. We had decided to head to cities 3, 4, and 5 since this was the only full day we had in Cinque Terre. After grabbing some breakfast from a local bakery, we headed toward city 3 along the hiking trail. It was a pretty moderate hike with excellent views every few feet. We stopped a lot to take pictures!
Brian and Dave along the trail
Each of the cities had a cute harbor with lots of people trying to soak up the sun. We had decided not to take our swimsuits along this first day, so we did a lot of hiking and poking around the cities to see what we could find there. There were a couple of beautiful churches and lots of colorful buildings. I also loved checking out the rock formations along the coast and watching the water hit up against these.
Dave and Brian with the Mediterranean.
View along the coast with one of the cities.
The night before, we had seen the fishermen in Vernazza putting their boats on dry ground, and it was the same story for each of the cities that we passed through. It was interesting to see where they had stored boats since there really wasn't a lot of extra land in any of the cities to store a whole bunch of boats.
In city 3, we stopped for lunch at a cute place that had great pizza - we were in Italy!
We continued hiking past city 3 which included a giant switchback staircase, but we were soon stopped by a blockade in the path that said that the trail was not safe. We ended up backtracking a little bit to the train station, and instead took the train to city 4 since this was the only way between the cities. After checking out that city a bit, we headed toward city 5 to which the trail was open.
The path from city 4 to city 5 is the most famous part of this area because it is the road of love. Couples who lived in these two cities would walk this trail to meet in the middle for a little romance. This was a very built-up trail that was definitely the easiest section of all. One thing that makes this unique is the amount of padlocks you see along the path. These couple would confess their love by affixing a lock to part of the trail, locking it, and then throwing the key away. It was interesting to see how many different locks there were and all the places that people found to put them.
We spent a bit of time in city 5 looking around at the different murals and art they have here before heading back to city 4 and the train.
Brian and I in Riomaggiore (city 5).
After taking the train and hiking back to Vernazza, we found a restaurant right in the harbor to have dinner. The guys had the best bruschetta either of them have ever had. We then did a bit of shopping for some souvenirs and watched the sun set over the Sea.
After it had gotten dark, the guys decided to head back to the trail above Vernazza to take some night pictures of the city. Since I didn't have my own camera, I stayed back in the room and read while they were gone. They got some great pictures, but you'll have to check out our Share Site for some of those!
