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Competitours Europe 2026
  • Sarah McCabe
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  • Sarah McCabe

Competitours Europe 2026

Russell and Sarah traveling Europe on a Magical Mystery Tour Read more
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    🇮🇹 Paratico, Italy
    Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 3: Lac Léman (Fondue dinner)

    July 30 in France ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    After the chocolate adventure, they drove us to the village of Gruyeres, which is obviously famous for their cheese. 

    We wandered around the little village and ended up at a nice little restaurant with an amazing view.  We had a great fondue and then after dinner we all headed back to the hotel. 

    About half the group then went out for karaoke.  Russell and I skipped that, but the front desk did have some beer and wine for sale so he stocked up there.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 3: Lac Léman (Swiss chocolate making)

    July 30 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    The next morning I was really dragging due to an entire week of sleep deprivation. 

    However some of that tiredness evaporated when I walked into the breakfast room and saw the stunning view of Lac Léman and the surrounding mountains.  This trip may not be relaxing, but it is worth it!

    It was about a 30 minute bus ride to Maison Callier, the oldest chocolate company in Switzerland. 

    We knew we had to do something chocolate related and we were a bit intimidated when they displayed this beautiful statue, but they were great at guiding and teaching and before long we were molding and assembling pieces like … well, not like pros but like enthusiastic amateurs.  

    Our first lesson of the day, “Chocolate senses fear.”

    We had to build the elements of the statue (cube, ball, tentacles, flower petals) and then assemble them into our vision. Our flower petals set up too flat and so our flower started to fall apart so we decided it was the Empress of Spring who was running away from summer and holding her fallen petals. 

    We thought we were pretty clever with our concept, but we ranked dead last in presentation, so it seems we were the only ones who did.  Oh well, at least we had fun.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 2: Kilkenny to Switzerland

    July 29 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 79 °F

    We had to rush the end of the drumming not so much because we were in danger of missing our plane, but rather because the bus driver had someplace to be after dropping us off.  This meant we have no time for lunch after we stopped drumming.   

    We were so sad to leave and a big shout-out to Kate O'Brien and Tommy Hackett for planning and implementing such fun and engaging and challenging events. 

    On the drive to the Dublin airport, they finally told us that we were heading to Switzerland and we had a 2 hour drive from the airport to our hotel.   This means that for those people who managed to find food at the Dublin airport (we did) it had been about 8 hours since breakfast. For those who didn't it was even longer. 

    By the time we landed, and got our luggage, and found some food at the airport (for those who didn't find anything in Dublin), and boarded our bus, it was 11:30. Well we did lose an hour to time zones, but nonetheless, it was late.

    We got to the hotel at 1:30 and even though I kept telling myself we had to be up and on the bus at 8 am, my brain wouldn't listen and I didn't fall asleep until 3 am. 

    Russell bought a bottle of wine at the airport, but there were no wine glasses in the room. So he decided straight from the bottle was better than paper cups.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 2: Kilkenny (Irish drumming)

    July 29 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    Our final Irish challenge was an introduction to the bodhran (rhymes with SOW-lawn), which is a handheld Irish drum. Since it is a relatively small instrument, we could each hold one in our laps. 

    We learned two slightly different rhythm patterns and then played along to music with (much slowed tempo). And then we did it again with two more patterns.

    It may sound simple but it was really challenging.  I tried to channel my inner Mom, since she is so proficient on washboard, but it was not to be.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 2: Kilkenny (Irish dancing)

    July 29 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    The next morning we had to get up and packed and checked out and breakfasted and luggage dropped off and down to reception by 10 am.  Which wouldn't have been so hard except once again it was 3 am before I could fall asleep and 4 am before Russell could.  

    So we were dragging, and tired (and sore from hurling) so it was a bit rough to discover our next challenge was … Irish dancing!   

    This was a two part challenge.  First we had to learn a line dance as a pair in a group. When you combine my lack of rhythm with my general physical ineptitude with my sore legs, it was guaranteed we would be less than stellar.

    Let's just say even though I was trying to concentrate on the footwork, and ignoring the hopping I was supposed to do, I still looked like a puppet with its strings cut.  Russell, however, wasn't terrible. All those hip-hop dance classes paid off!

    The second part of the dance challenge involved learning and then performing an Irish jig.  Which should have been easier, except the jig was split up into two parts. For the first part they took Russell away and taught him the dance. Then he had to come out and teach it to me.  For the second part, I had to teach my part to him.  

    Then we had to perform it.  Again, I totally sucked.  And that was even after we after they slowed the tempo down significantly. 

    At least we had a lot of fun!    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 1: Kilkenny (Pulling pints)

    July 28 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    After hurling, we had a more leisurely paced walk back to the pub where we had a new challenge!

    This one was testing us on whether we could pull a perfect (or at least pretty good) pint of 3 different types of Irish beer: a lager (Harp), am ale (Smithwicks) and a stout (Guinness). 

    We each got to practice on a half pint of the lager. Practice went well for us. To make the actual lager pour even more difficult, they peppered us with simple math problems while we were pouring in order to simulate the distractions a real bartender would have to endure from inquisitive customers.  We were implacable and poured well.  

    So the next pint they made the pourer (me) wear a blindfold while their teammate (Russell) talked them through the process.  Let's just say that not all our beer went in the glass.  

    Of course that could  have been due to the fact that a whole bunch of practice pints and competition pints had been poured by that point and were just there for the drinking. Russell and I did not abstain. 

    The Guinness pour was the hardest of all. Then we were asked if we knew what it meant to “split the G”. We guessed correctly that it meant to drink the beer down to the middle of the G on the glass labeled Guinness. We weren't quite successful, but we made a pretty good try!

    After a very full day, we went off to a local restaurant and had a good dinner. By the end, we were both sure we would quickly collapse into a good night's sleep.   Spoiler alert, we didn't.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 1: Kilkenny (Hurling)

    July 28 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    After lunch, Tommy led us on a short and leisurely (neither) stroll (hike) to a hurling field (pitch?).  There we were introduced to the Irish sport of hurling. This is similar to lacrosse or field hockey, in that you are trying to move a ball around on a field with a stick. 

    We learned some basic moves and then had a challenge to demonstrate our proficiency in those moves. The first move was to use the bat (“hurley”) to get the ball (“slioter” pronounced “slitter”) off the ground and into our hands. As you can see from the video, Russell was a machine, but he wasn't good enough to overcome my incompetence. 

    The final challenge was to shoot on the goal (with a goalie who wasn't cutting us much slack).  Russell made two impressive shots (for his only two attempts) and carried our team to second place with zero help from me.  

    After the challenges, most of the people played a short game just for fun. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and named myself official photographer.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Day 1: Kilkenny (Kilkenny Castle)

    July 28 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    After another very bad night’s sleep, we woke late and barely had time to get coffee and stumble down to the hotel lobby for the official start of Competitours Europe 2026.  

    Ari (our fearless leader and mastermind of all we will endure) and Steve his mentor/henchman led us off to a short walk to Kilkenny Castle.  Our first challenge was a brief scavenger hunt that was just to ease us into the game. Russell and I teamed up with Lauren, whose teammate had to drop out at the last minute, so she is running solo.

    After the scavenger hunt we gathered at a pub where the owner, Tommy, fed us Irish stew made from his dad’s recipe.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Dublin last day

    July 27 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    We are both still fighting jet lag so we didn’t wake up until 10:30.  It was noon by the time we checked out, far too late to get a traditional “full Irish breakfast.”  So Alex, Adrian, and I headed off to a pub for lunch and then off to do a little sightseeing.

    Russell rented a city bike and biked off to the Google office for the day.   He got there eventually and had lunch before a getting some work done. 

    Alex and I saw the inside of the Guinness tasting room where they sample their experimental flavors.   Then we went to see the inside of a whiskey tasting room. 

    Then it was back to the hotel to meet up, pick up our luggage and off to the train station to catch the train to Kilkenny.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe

    Nametag challenge

    July 26 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    We had one last task before we start the Competitours part of the trip and that was to come up with name tags that identified us as individuals and our team. It didn’t take long before we came up with the idea of using those cardboard coasters that they give away in every pub.  Done!Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe
    1

    Dublin: Historic home and street scenes

    July 26 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

    The flight was somewhat empty so Russell and I ended up in 4 seats between the two of us. Which made it possible for me to relax and stretch out and actually get some sleep.  Russell however spent the entire trip watching videos.  

    So after we made our way to the hotel and found some lunch and checked in, Russell and Adrian zonked out while Alex and I went off to tour this historic home (14 Henrietta). It was built as a wealthy aristocrat’s town house in the 1700s and then in the 1800s was converted to a tenement house. They have restored some of the rooms to match what the looked like.  I found it very cool, except I kept nodding off due to jet lag. 

    Then we wandered off back to our hotel, with a quick stop in a pub with live music.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe
    1

    Leaving SFO

    July 25 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    In an effort to speed up my adjustment to jet lag, I woke up at 4 am for our 5:30 PM flight to Dublin, Ireland.  My goal was to be so sleepy by the time we boarded that I would just sleep the entire way.  

    Plus this gave me plenty of time to actually pack, as opposed to just thinking about packing, as I had done all week. 

    Russell and I were tasked with coming up with a logo for our team.  And with our team’s superpower.  And with making a short video introducing those. 

    Since we had plenty of time at the airport, we did all of those tasks while sitting in an airport bar.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeCompetitours Europe 2026Sarah McCabe
    Team introduction video

    Who? What? Where? When? WHY???

    July 23 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    Russell and I are heading off on a Competitours.com adventure. We did this 10 years ago, and had an absolute blast, so we are looking forward to this immensely.

    This is a 10 day trip around Europe. We know the city we are starting in, and we know the ending city, but everything else will only be revealed en route. We are paired in teams of two and will compete with the other teams on tasks each day.

    One of the other teams is Alex & Adrian, Russell's brother and nephew. So expect some sibling rivalry!

    I plan to start adding travel content this weekend, so check back then to see the fun. To tide you over until then, you can watch the video we made to introduce our team name and mascot. Let's just say, we don't understand what a mascot is supposed to be, and leave it at that.    Read more

    Trip start
    July 25, 2026