Competitours Europe 2026

This was our last challenge. Heading into this it was a foregone conclusion who the winner was going to be.  One team had the skill and the hustle to dominate every challenge and their win was secure. For the rest of us, it was a tense battle for second and third place (which came with actual prizes).  

We had the option of risking a large number of points on the outcome of this last challenge and since we knew it was a cooking challenge, we decided to bet on Russell's skills to carry us through.  Spoiler alert, R’s skills were not enough to overcome the curve balls thrown at us.  

We were taken to a woman's home where she runs cooking classes out of her house. It was very charming. 

We made two kinds of stuffed pasta (ravioli and tortelli)  and a local dessert (kind of a cross between a cake and a cookie).  Mixing and rolling out the pasta dough was nothing unusual, although we are not used to rolling out the dough using a hand crank. 

The tricky part came when she demonstrated how to make the ravioli and then told us we each had to do it by ourselves, blindfolded guided by our partner only talking.  The tortelli had a similar challenge: we had to stuff and fold up the dumpling one handed. Using our non-dominant hand. 

The dessert challenge was different, in that we were given ingredients we had to include (butter, flour, sugar - in the correct amounts) and then had to figure what else to add, given a range of options. Funnily enough, there were only three missing ingredients: eggs, Marsala (or white wine), and yeast. While many teams (including us) got the first two, not a single team added yeast. Which is funny because I for one have made cookies without including a leavening agent and I know they didn't work.  I will chalk it up to sleep deprivation and heat exhaustion. 

The heat was really hitting us and by the end where they cooked us lunch, including our pasta creations (which weren't bad - just a little lumpy) many of us were too exhausted and overheated to even taste them.Leia mais

Adrian, Alex, Russell, and I headed off to explore Milan a little bit.  First we headed in to the train station to store our luggage and then off on the metro to the stop next to the Duomo. 

We got tickets for 90 minutes later and went off to eat lunch. Even though we were in a really touristy location, Russell managed to find a very good restaurant for lunch. 

Then we headed inside the Duomo. It is a spectacular place, but the heat and the food coma were doing their job and before long Russell and I were napping in the pews. 

We went out to check out the nearby shopping area. Although we did find air conditioned shops, we didn't find any with comfortable places to sit. 

I did find a display in a shop of my new favorite puzzle books, so that was cool. 

We finally ended up in a cafe: AC, seats, cold drinks, what's not to love?

Finally it was time to head back to the train station and retrieve our luggage. Alex is flying out of a different airport so he checked into his hotel while the rest of us got a train out to Malpensa Airport, grabbed the airport shuttle, and then it was a short walk to our hotel. 

There was a single decent restaurant nearby and so by the time we got there, waited for a table and ate, I was seriously dragging. I headed back to the hotel early and collapsed into bed. 

We flew out early the next morning, so this was the end of our European adventure. 

Very much fun and we plan on going on another Competitours trip someday soon.Leia mais