Great train rides on high-speed trains from Bern to Milano to Venice. A rain had just ended as we arrived so that moderated the temperature. It felt really good, but it was a bit sticky. What the rain didn’t do was diminish any crowds. This place was packed. So three things I didn’t remember from my last trip to Venice: very narrow alleys, all these crazy bridges, and packed crowds. We found our hotel via a combination of maps, GPS, and asking. The kids were tempted to go shopping at every turn but we convinced most of them to hold off until tomorrow when we would have a full day. Our first priority was to get to the hotel, drop bags, and go on our walking tour at 4. That mostly worked!

Our walking tour was led by a native. Of course she spoke perfect English and talked about some of the history of Venice that boys would enjoy. We were provided with audio headsets so that we could hear every word as we walked along. The tour included St. Mark’s Basilica in San Marco Plaza.  We weren’t able to get into the sanctuary. We might try returning tomorrow, though being Sunday, it’s doubtful we could enter the sanctuary itself but she suggested the museum and the bell tower. Our tour guide said that the population of Venice has shrunk from over 200,000 to just about 60,000 over the past several years because people just can’t afford to live on the island anymore.

After the tour we looked for a place to have dinner. Our guide had suggested a place her family likes and we weren’t disappointed. We were all famished and would have pretty much eaten anything but most people settled on individual pizzas, etc. We had Italian ice cream for dessert.

It was around 9 when we finished with dinner. The crowds had diminished, temperature was comfortable, and it was nice to walk around the square without being shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. Cruise ships dock here several days a week and they each unload thousands of tourists who have to be back on the ships by this time of night. (Our tour guide, by the way, hates the “tourists” as she calls the cruise ship people. She calls people like us, “visitors.” I wasn’t quite sure of the difference. Something about we stay and spend money on things like tours and restaurants whereas the tourists just shop and get back on the ship for everything else.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to officially check in. We only had time to drop our bags before our tour. Check-in took a while because they had to check all 21 passports, etc. It was quiet time by 10:30.

Tomorrow we’ll have a full day here before our night train out.

We survived our first night in the hostel and were happy to know that most of the visitors would be leaving as most of the guests were Swiss school kids. A MTA group can get loud at times but we set limits and I was thinking the teachers with these kids could care less.

After breakfast we walked to the train station starting with a short funicular ride up a steep slope to start our day. We boarded our train to Interlaken and from there a narrow-gauge tourist train to Grindelwald, an alpine village with incredible views. Kids were pulling out cameras and cell phones and snapping photos with every step. It’s great to see kids impressed by scenery. Grindelwald is at an elevation of something over 6,000 feet with the surrounding snow-capped mountains rising another 1,500 feet or so.

A ten-minute walk through town and we were at the gondola station for our day of adventure on the mountain. We found no lines so had quick passage up the mountains to an area called First. The views in all directions were spectacular. We were treated to impressive and rugged mountains in all directions with plenty of waterfalls and creeks to gaze at. The gondola ride took nearly thirty minutes to First. By now we were in the clouds with a temperature of around 50 degrees F. Everyone pulled out jackets but the wind and the temperature didn’t keep the kids from eating their lunch outside.

The next adventure was getting down the mountain. The thirty-minute gondola ride got us to the top but getting down was up to us. The trip down starts with a zip line trip about 800 meters running at about 50 mph. The speed of the trip varies by weight as does the braking at the end. A couple of boys opted out and they took the gondola down to another station to meet the group. Once the zip line group made it to their short destination, they then hiked down the next leg. This was a good 30-minute hike, and so now they could say they’ve been hiking in the Swiss Alps. Their destination was the gondola stop called Bort and here the group made the final leg of their descent on seatless scooters. Guys picked up helmets, read and “memorized” the scooter rules, practiced their balance and braking, and enjoyed a rough and speedy trip back to Grindelwald. We had about ten minutes to spare before our train trip back to Interlaken and then onto Bern.

The hostel was a welcome site after such an adventure and the boys were ready just to chill. The hostel was definitely quieter and some boys played ping-pong, others started working on laundry, some took showers, most checked their phones, and some did virtually nothing – including me. We had dinner at the hostel, had our usual trip meeting, gave kids free time in the hostel, and called it a relatively early evening.

It was a great day.

And parents, just so you know…several boys decided they had to have a Swiss-made watch and many made purchases. We discussed budgeting and making money last, but I have no idea how each individual’s money is holding up. I’m sure they’ll call or email if they need/want more.

Photos coming, but until then...go to our Facebook page to check them out.

www.Facebook.com/MindStretchTravelAdventures

Photos coming, but for now, check out the photos on our Facebook page. Go to: www.Facebook.com/MindStretchTravelAdventures.

Eventually, I hope someone will get a chance to read these posts from Europe. I’ve had a frustrating time getting decent wi-fi signal to work on webpages or post photos. With each day, I keep hoping the situation will improve. I know this is frustrating for parents, family, and friends wanting to read about the daily adventures of this group of hardy travelers.

Thursday started with our walk across the street to the train station and we boarded our train for Bern, Switzerland. We had a “regional” train to Basel where we needed to switch trains. The first train was a “hop on with pass” train meaning the seats could not be reserved. No problem because with the Eurail passes being first class, there’s generally more room in that section than the rest of the train because riders don’t worry about going “first class” for such a short run. I don’t think there’s much of a difference between first and second…but the boys like the idea that they’re in first class. In Basel we were to take a train where we had reservations but no actual seat numbers. I was told by my booking agent to either listen for a PA announcement or look for a sign posted in a window with our group’s name on it. I knew I would never hear any such announcement so it was a relief to find our name (MindStretch Travel Adventures) actually posted in a couple of windows. The kids loved this train because our car had plenty of room to stretch out, play games, sleep. And there was a food car, however only a small handful took advantage of it. The total riding time was under two hours and we arrived in Bern right on schedule.

The next adventure is always finding our lodging and even with a map this usually proves to be a challenge. It wasn’t too bad this time and the “ten minute” walk was only about a 25 minute walk and soon we made it to our abode for the next two nights – an Hostelling International Association hostel. I explained to the kids what hostels were and that it was NO hotel.  We arrived prior to check-in time but were able to store our packs in a workroom so that we could go out an explore the city and find lunch. We enjoyed an afternoon of eating, shopping, site-seeing, playing in a fountain (at the national capital building), and just relaxing a bit.

We returned to our hostel to check in. They were ready for us. Now, I had explained to the boys about what a hostel might be like…but perhaps you don’t know. It’s not like any other lodging experience most people have ever encountered. We had a dorm room with bunk beds for our entire group. (To confess, I had a different room but that’s a different story). The hostel provided us with bed linens (bottom sheet, top sheet, pillow case) and a towel. Now to watch 17 boys make beds was quite a show. It was apparent some didn’t have a clue and others were experts. Boys and leaders weren’t quite sure what to expect of this new lodging option. (We’re staying in a hostel only because there were no hotel rooms in the city during our exact stay because of a bike race coming through. The leaders and I agreed months ago to take the hostel instead of passing up our chance to go to Grindewald the next day.)

This hostel is also packed and most of the travelers are school kids between the ages of 10 and 16. They’re all on school trips. Their schools aren’t out for three weeks yet, so this is apparent an end-of-the-year experience for them. And maybe you can imagine the noise level this many kids can make. Our boys engaged in spirited play with some of the other travels, mostly boys from Switzerland.

Dinner was buffet style with seconds and thirds being offered. Not to bore you, but it consisted of pasta with meat sauce, bread, green salad, soup, apple sauce, and dessert.

The rest of the evening was spent taking showers, washing clothes, having more spirited play with the other travelers, a discussion about the spirited play with the other travelers. Let’s just say it was getting a little too spirited. And finally, we ended with a slow-down, calm down story told by yours truly.

And that was our first day in Switzerland.

Photos coming, but for now, check out the photos on our Facebook page. Go to: www.Facebook.com/MindStretchTravelAdventures.

Dead Body on the track!

Okay, so that’s how our travel day from Brussels to Strasbourg started out. This was meant to be a long travel day, but it became even longer. The train was several minutes late getting started and that’s actually pretty unusual. But then we started hearing these PA announcements in French (and some English) about a delay because of a dead body on the tracks and that the train would have to take a different route. Or, that’s the best we could tell. So that was a first. Our 5 ½ hour train ride became an 8 hour ride and that was without a food car on the train. (That’s about equivalent of our flight from Newark to Europe.) We did finally crawl into the Strasbourg station ready to get off that train and walk.

The good news is, we didn’t have to walk nearly as long as our first days. Our hotel was literally three minutes from the station.

We checked in and twenty minutes later walked to the city center which is dominated by the impressive Cathedrale Notre-Dame. We had hoped to get to see inside, but the church was closing as we were arriving. Just as well as we were starving so found the hotel-recommended restaurant where everyone had some sort of Alsacien specialty. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but the boys polished off their selections without any problems. We had some ice cream as a dessert treat at a stand next door to the restaurant.

We then walked around the area around the Cathedrale and then walked around and through an area nearby called Petite France. It’s an area of cobbled streets lined with medieval and Renaissance timbered houses. Little France got its name in the 16th century when sufferers of syphilis were isolated here to keep them well away from the “worthier” citizens.

We took the train to Bruges, a town about 40 minutes away. The kids were impressed from the moment they saw the first buildings. This graffiti-free town was what they were thinking all of Europe would look like. It’s a great small city of 20,000 or so…but tourists certainly double that number. Much of the architecture dates back three, four, and five hundred years.

Our first stop (well after a chocolate store) was Church of Our Lady. Even the boys were impressed with the size and beauty of this church. We finished inside by viewing the Madonna and Child sculpture by Michelangelo. This statue was looted by the Nazis in World War II and was rescues by the Americans and returned after the war. This artwork was featured in the recent film, “The Monuments Men.”

We enjoyed walking around and exploring the Markt Square, the heart of Bruges. We had lunch here and then the group climbed to the top of the 272-foot bell tower by climbing the 366 steep steps to get a tremendous view of the city.

We finished our day in Bruges by taking a guided city tour by boat along some of the canals. It was nice change of pace from all the walking we’ve done these first days.

Dinner was late and ended up being quite memorable. It was an Italian restaurant called Mamma Mia’s and the menu had no English translations and the waiter spoke very little English. This was one of the very few times I’ve had this happen in the past four trips. It was a hoot to watch the waiter and the boys and leaders interact to figure out what we wanted. It worked out perfectly and we loved it. And it was also an evening to celebrate Brooks O’Hanlan’s birthday. After explaining to the waiter that I needed to order a dessert for the birthday boy, I finally ended up having to sing the Happy Birthday (in English of course), to be understood. Then ten minutes later as dinner was ending all the lights in the entire restaurant went out and out came the dessert complete with candles and the waiter and cook singing. Within seconds all our boys and a few innocent bystanders were joining in.

It was a fun day.

Preface: These blog posts are being posted days late. We've had very limited decent Internet access during our first days in Europe. So, info is coming late.

All photos will get posted soon, but for now...the best place to follow us is on our Facebook site at:
www.Facebook.com/MindStretchTravelAdventures.

First blog from Europe and I will start by saying that Internet connectivity from hotels in Europe is spotty. So occasionally these posts will be a day or two late and links to the latest photos might not go to the very latest photos. But, do know we’re trying.

You might want to consider checking out our Facebook site for a quicker looks at photos. Those go up in low resolution so doesn’t take quite so much time and less chance for connection error.

But having said all that, we’re here and we’re excited to get started. We had good flights out of GSP and Newark and arrived in Brussels pretty much on schedule on Monday morning. We had a smooth clearance through Belgium customs, collected our luggage (it was all there), and made our way down to the train terminal within the airport to validate our Eurail passes and find out which train to take downtown.

So in less than two hours after landing we were walking out of the Central train station in the heart of Brussels. By this time most of us had been up around 24 hours. The first two days of the Europe trips are always very long and tiring. We attempted to get our bearings and figure out how to walk the 20-30 minutes to our hotel. And that, as usual, is our first adventure on European soil. Not to bore you, we did get to our hotel but those 20 minutes ended up taking a lot longer than that. Along the way we did have lunch from a stand-up counter. Nothing was written in English on the signs so the boys had to ask a lot of questions.

We eventually made it to the hotel and checked in. Rooms wouldn’t be ready for another 90 minutes so we stored our luggage and went out for a short walking tour. Our biggest attraction is a silly statue of a little boy who for some reason attracts thousands of visitors a day.  Along the way we saw some great Belgium architecture and many boys sampled their first Belgium waffle or chocolate or both.

Returned to the hotel for about three hours of rest before walking two minutes to dinner in a neighborhood restaurant. It was nice to sit down. According to leader Doug Williams, our pedometer keeper, we walked 11 miles on Monday. And that was it for the day. I think most kids were asleep before 8:30.

Plenty planned for Tuesday.

In just days we'll be starting our summer adventures. Many boys have been signed up for over a year while most have been enrolled for months and months. That's a lot of time to anticipate the adventures ahead. 

We have totally packed trips this year and even had to add a third trip to handle all the interest. I'm hopeful and certain these boys will each have the time of their lives...on their own level.

Being it hiking in the Alps or the Appalachians, visiting a world-class museum in Vienna or in Cherokee...these adventures will long be remembered by this set of MTA boys. 

I occasionally hear from boys (now grown with families) who still remember their trips...and for some of these travelers it has been over 30 years ago.

We hope you'll be interested in following our travels via  our blog right here or on our Facebook page.

It's going to be an exciting summer!