and once more back in Riva

Today was a very long, long travel day. Started off the morning at 6:15, showered and then packed up, met Liz at 7 and walked over to the train station and left on a train from Den Haag at 7:20. We changed trains a couple of times in the course of about two hours or so and then when it came time to get on our long, ICE connection, we had difficulties. For one, the train from one station to the station where we were supposed to pick up the ICE was cancelled, and then we found out that the ICE came through our current station, but it was cancelled as well, so we were diverted off to another station where we were told the ICE train had already passed but there was another one coming in an hour and a half. So, we chilled there and waited and that put the whole trip two hours behind schedule, which ended up not being that bad in the end anyways. So we made that train, transfered in Frankfurt, then tranfered in Basel again until we made it to Lugano and then home. The whole ride ended up taking 15 hours and we got into the Casa around 10 at night. Ugh! It wasn't too bad though because I did get a lot of work done on the train and finished my EU paper finally and got lots more pictures uploaded for ya'll. And the highlight of the day and quite possibly one of the top five things I've done in Europe was the last three hours of the train ride as we wound through Switzerland as the sun went down. This is why I say I'm somewhat thankful for the two hour delay, because it was just incredible to see. I've never seen such beauty ever than I did during that ride. Switzerland in the spring is just magnificant. :-) :-) I can't begin to explain how cool it was and how fun and exciting it was to see. The train we were on was about empty so I spent the three hours literally bouncing from seat to seat trying to get the best views and pictures of stuff. The Alps are just incredible!! I had so much fun and you can see the pictures up on the trip page now. They're great. :) So, anyhow the trip back ended up awesome and we got back to the Casa to check email briefly, then walked up to the Pab, unpacked and I'm so ready to jump into bed!