Pre-Trip Planning
June 5, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F
Here's the plan:
June 19: Fly to Zurich
June 20: Arrive Zurich
June 23: Fly to Amsterdam
June 25: Start Competitours trip (going someplace, doing something, who knows what!)
July 6: Fly to Zurich
JulyRead more
Pre-trip videos
June 12, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F
We had to make two videos for Competitours before we started: one introducing our team name and one introducing our team mascot. Here they are in all their cinematicRead more
landed in zurich.
June 20, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
We are on the train from the airport. Flight went fine.
Swiss horns
June 20, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F
So, this was what happened right outside our hotel our first night. I didn't get a photo of the other part which is a large brass band playing oompah music. Guess we are really in Switzerland!
Lost (and found) Phone
June 20, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
In less than 24 hours, I have managed to lose my phone twice. First we were checking in at the airport and I realized it was missing. It had fallen out of my pocket in our friend's car. Fortunately heRead more
Exploring Zurich
June 21, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F
Spent the day wandering around the old part of Zurich. Then took a short boat ride and wandered through a much less touristy area.
I finally figured out the reason I kept getting disoriented and lostRead more
I'm on a boat!
June 22, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F
It was the first warm sunny day for Zurich so the entire town came out on the water it seemed.
And so we leave Zurich
June 23, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F
New word of the day: verspätet (delayed).
I spent the morning exploring more of Zurich by bike while Russell put in one more day at work. Then I had one last lovely lunch. Russell bought two bottlesRead more
Amsterdam
June 24, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F
I realized I never said anything about our day in Amsterdam.
We got in very late, and went and had dinner at Envy. It wasn't as good as we remembered, but it may have been our mood.
The nextRead more
Starting Competitours!
June 25, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F
We boarded the bus in Amsterdam and are now heading to IJmuiden where we will be doing our first three challenges: archery dodgeball (?), kite buggying(??) and kite fighting.
The two teens on theRead more
Day 1: Archery and Kite Flying
June 25, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F
We went to this very wide, flat, windy, beach for our first set of challenges. First we tried our hands at archery. Since the equipment was not that high tech, we were all in the same boat and evenRead more
Day 1: Escape Room
June 25, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F
The kite flying was super fun. Unfortunately, the buggy and kite flying took more skill than we could learn in one afternoon, but it was still a blast.
It ended up taking much longer than originallyRead more
Day 2: Rotterdam Scavenger Hunt by Boat
June 26, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
Our challenge this morning was to drive this little boat around the canals and rivers of Rotterdam following GPS instructions to look for sites that we had either text or photo clues to find. We wereRead more
It has been a long day
June 26, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
Day 3: Maastricht tunnels
June 27, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F
Maastricht is a town built on limestone (which is easy to carve out). When gunpowder was introduced and city walls were not that effective as before, they started constructing tunnels for advancedRead more
Maastricht lunch
June 27, 2016 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌧 61 °F
When they say burger, they ain't messing around!
Day 3: Hedge maze in Vaals
June 27, 2016 in Belgium ⋅ 🌧 61 °F
Three countries meet at a single point (near Vaals): Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Russell and I posed at the marker straddling the three countries.
There is also a really large hedge mazeRead more
On the way to Brussels
June 27, 2016 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F
It was a very full day: Maastricht to Vaals to Brussels. Early tomorrow we fly from Brussels to Florence and the day after that we head to Venice.
It was Steve's (the guy who is running the trip)Read more
Early morning flight to Florence
June 28, 2016 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F
Late night followed by an early morning makes for a groggy group.
Welcome to Florence!
June 28, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F
Day 4: Florence and art
June 28, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F
Our challenge today was to sketch a Florence scene and then to later paint a watercolor. Since Russell and I have previously shown zero artistic talent, we kind of surprised ourselves with how well weRead more
On the train to Venice
June 29, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F
We slept in so late that we missed our opportunity for one last meal in Florence. So we are on the train to Venice. I hope to have time to grab some food before we start our mask-making challenge.
Day 5: Venice mask challenge
June 30, 2016 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 72 °F
Today we went to a workshop where they showed us how to make traditional masks of Venice and the history of these masks (very interesting) and the we each had to replicate an existing mask (let's justRead more
Venice hotel
June 30, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F
Here is the view from our room in the hotel. Not a bad place to be stuck for 2 days, eh?
It is a very old fashioned hotel with big clunky room keys that you leave at the desk when you go out. ThatRead more
On a boat to Burano
June 30, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 77 °F
We are on a vaporetto (water bus) on the way to the island of Burano for a scavenger hunt. We are running late but we are with 2 other teams so it's all good.

















































