Schaffhausen- Swiss/German for 'nothing going on here'

Um. Yeah. There's a reason this town isn't suggested in any guidebooks. This was a total of four hours we'll never get back.

On the bright side though, we leave for Rome tonight. We are taking the night train and will arrive there around 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. Because we are taking a train that leaves after 7 p.m. our Eurorail passes will be dated using tomorrow's date, giving us the entire day tomorrow to travel for free, too. We plan on getting in to Rome, then hoping on the train to Naples then to Pompeii for the day and return home that afternoon. We are there until the 21st, our plans are to then head to Bologna. The things I've heard about Bologna all seem to revolve around food as opposed to sights and history. My kind of town. We aren't sure if we'll stay one night or two there, play it by ear and wait to see if I find more than four places I need to eat at before we leave town.

From Bologna we will head to Venice and a town called Vicenza where a friend of Jim's lives. We plan on being in that area until Thursday morning when we take the first train back to Zurich, come to the apartment and change out the clothes in our small backpacks and head to Paris. I went to Paris when I was in college and just detested it, I am giving it a second chance. Jim's sister-in-law is from just south of Paris and her niece, Elodie, lives 15 minutes from Paris, she has promised me through emails lots of cheese and wine. I love her already. We will also be in Paris for the end of the Tour de France, something I am very excited for. I've followed the tour religiously since college and am finally getting to see some of it. I have to say this might be the highlight of the trip for me.

From here we aren't sure where we will go. We've talked about storming the beaches at Normandy ourselves and I'd like to see Provence, something I didn't get to do on my first trip to France. The best part of having the Eurorail passes is that we don't really have to plan much and can come and go when and where we please.

Look for an update on the 24th when we hit home base here in Zurich for a few hours before heading to Paris.

Ciao!