Back in Milan and going home via Paris VERY early in the morning.

BTW, you can check out www.offexploring.com/rayborja for the photos that Ray uploaded from Switzerland. Pretty cool, huh? Today was interesting because it was a lazy day wandering around by local train and the occassional walk---no long intense hikes. David left in the morning, so I was alone after that. The people watching was great especially from a cafe in Manarola. Apparently Rick Steves has pretty much promoted the heck out of Vernazza. Each time I visi...

I met with David from London on 28 Sep and we took the train down to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre. 29 Sep was filled with a 5 or so hour hike from Monterosso down to Riomaggiore. Honestly I didn't think hiking these footpaths between the five towns was going to be a big deal after the Alps, however the hike into and out of Vernazza was rather challenging. Perhaps it was the humidity and heat. Although it was a great adventure. Every couple hours it's sna...

just in town for the night to meet up with David coming from London. Check out http://www.offexploring.com/rayborja Ray was nice enough to upload photos from our trip to Switzerland.

CLICK on the full map to see route. Photos will be updated at some point later. Down the mountain---whew! who knew it was tougher down than up. On thing even our experienced team member discovered is the Alps is serious up and down and that's the challenge, not elevation itself and breathing.