Not-so-smooth sailing for young adventurer

Should a 13-year-old be allowed to sail around the world by him or herself? That was the question posed on yesterday's "World Have Your Say" on BBC Radio.

Laura Dekker, 13, wants to do a solo voyage around the world, but The Dutch Council for Child Protection has asked a court to intervene in order to keep her from going. A ruling is expected by the end of the week.

Dekker was born on a boat while her parents were sailing around the world. She has extensive experience, but there are concerns for her well-being.

An editorial in the Dutch daily De Volkskrant critiqued: "She simply does not have the experience to anticipate the problems and possible crises that await her."

What do you think? Will it be the adventure of a lifetime or an error in judgment on the part of her parents should she go?

My ode to fellow Competitouristas

I'm having a difficult time adjusting to Eastern Standard Time again. Yesterday, I fell alseep watching TV at 11 a.m. and again at 8 p.m. Then I woke up this morning well before the sun rose, but it gave me time to put together the following memories from the trip. Here are a few things that stick out in mind:

I'll never forget . . .

. . . Ray getting through the labyrinth in seven minutes. Lucky, bastard! :-)

. . . Pat giving it her all despite being ill early in the trip. Next time, don't drink water from the Jet d'Eau.

. . . Teri maintaining her cool despite missed trains and closes venues.

. . . Veronica's extensive knowledge of Broadway musicals and Comi-con lore. A girl after my own heart.


 . . . Dan never needing an excuse to strip down to his skivvies. I'm surprised you didn't film yourself at the FKK area in Munich's Englischer Garten!

. . . Karen describing Dan's edible underwear in front of the chocolate museum. I don't think i would've been able to keep a straight face.

. . . Jan is a seriously competitive adventure junkie with some mad survival skills! If the civilized world would come to an end right now, I'd stick by your side.

. . . Sean's acting abilities and charisma. He can channel Donald Trump, Howard Cosell or a used car salesman. And that's just scratching the surface.

. . . Margaret's ability to warp time and space--doing things in half the time it takes a normal person. She's also capable of leaping tall mountains in a single bound.

. . . Tyler's party tricks. He always kept us entertained with drinking games and human knots. Might I add, he's also a heck of a pianist.

. . . Ally's style and grace. She always looked calm, cool and collected, even zip-lining over Munich's Olympic stadium.

. . . Bob's laid-back attitude. For him, Competitours wasn't about winning; it was all about enjoying the ride. And what he told me outside of Loden Frey in Munich helped me foster a more cooperative relationship with other teams.

. . . Judy's marksmanship. Are you sure you didn't train with the special forces?

. . . Sherri's rebellious nature. She wasn't afraid to say, "To hell with the game, I'm drinking a beer instead!"

. . . Ksenia and I straddling three countries together while we waited for lunch to appear at Dreilandpunt. It still hadn't been served by the time we got back to the table.

. . . Lyndall kindly sharing her wine and her seat with me on the train to Cologne. Thanks!

. . . Radford dressed as a merman as he sang the Loreley song on the banks of the Rhine River. When I saw the video, I knew "As Seen on TV" were going to be a serious threat!

. . . Lanthy on the toboggan run. I nearly rear-ended her after she and Rad got stuck behind some kids.

. . . DeAnna sharing her shoes with me at the Conquest Go Kart Center in Koblenz! Without her generosity, and close-toed shoes, I wouldn't have been able to race at all.

. . . Kelly's superhuman intelligence. I think she was the only one to get that crazy math equation in the underground bunker.

. . . Steve for getting us where we needed to go just in the knick of time (mostly).

AND FINALLY

. . . Sheila's ability to put up with me! You never know how two strangers are going to get along when thrown into a stressful situation. We complemented each other very well and I'm happy to have been her partner. We may not have won the grand prize in the end, but we received the longer-lasting gift of friendship.

Worthy Adversaries

I got a kick from watching videos from other Competitours teams. Here are some of my favorites from the trip:

Day 1:

Sean is clearly a skilled impersonator. He adopted a few other voices during the course of the trip, too.


Way to pull out "Little Town" from the music cache. It really does exemplify this scene!


Are you sure you're not a used car salesman in real life?

Day 3:

I like Tyler's version of "encouragement."


Same, same, but different!


A very creative solution to the fact that these teams did not get to the actual toboggan run. Some people call it poor time management, but I call it brilliant.

Day 4:

Sherri and Judy proved themselves to be the rebels of the bunch in this act of open defiance against Competitours.


Sorry Sean and Jan, Manuela is the true star of this video with her sign language for bird poop.

Day 5:

I didn't realize how close Tyler and his mom really are until I saw this video!


A bathroom turned nightclub. The 80 cent cover charge is a bit steep, though.


I have to admit that I was worried Bob wouldn't turn off the video at the end. Phew!

Day 6:

Way to channel your inner Merman, Rad. I felt this video showed your range and your potential to become the victor.


Teams Absolutely Fabulous and Shake & Bake really work well together.

This wasn't the first or last time Dan took off his pants in front of people on this trip.

So what if the museum was closed; if this spy had more time, she would have climbed up on the roof to get in through the ventilation system.

Sean and Jan definitely have a way with people; and this video shows they can talk locals into having their way with each other.

Day 8:

Happy Birthday, Sherri! If I wasn't in contention for the big prize, I would've been doing the same thing.

That girl's got skilz!

I'm detecting a recurring theme in Team Shake & Bake's videos.

Team Serendipity Video Highlights

Say what you will, but here are some our our personal favorite videos from our Competitours' adventure.

Day 2, Salzburg, Austria:
Part of the movie "Sound of Music" -- specifically the song '16 Going On Seventeen' -- was filmed at the Baroque Gazebo at Hellbrunn Palace. One of the challenges there was to conjure up and sing a quick verse and chorus of new lyrics based on using your age (ie- 42 Going on 43').


Link to video

Back story: We were exhausted after hitting the ground running on Day One and we hadn't mastered a routine for planning and researching our challenges yet. But, we had a couple hours on the train to Salzburg to start re-writing the lyrics to this song. However, we didn't have anything solid by the time we got off the train. We made some last minute changes at Hellbrun as we approached the gazebo, and this was our second take. The judges didn't award us full points on the Hellbrunn Palace multi-part challenge, but this particular video earned the respect of Judge 2 who said: "I love the team chemistry shown in this duet. It's not hard to see they're enjoying themselves in this self-effacing parody."


Day 4, Munich, Germany:
The challenge was to go to Loden Frey, a large department store that has a wide selection of traditional folk clothing, and pick an item, say its original function/significance and what situation could you justify wearing it in America and why.


Link to video

Back story: When we got to the department store, all we could see were dresses after dresses. I headed over to the men's section and saw a hat with what looked like a duster on it. Perfect, I thought, but no one in that department spoke English. We headed over to the hat section and the sales woman was very helpful. At one point she disppeared and I wasn't sure if she was coming back. She had been researching the traditional function for the trachten hute and gamsbart. We didn't even ask her to do that. I give her most of the credit for this video. After all, other teams were told they weren't allowed to film in the store, but Daniella was an active accessory to our "crime" in the accessory department.

Day 6, Koblenz, Germany:
Speedy is my middle name, which made this challenge appealing. We were to record our fastest laps around the track at Conquest Go Kart Center and the lowest times would received the highest number of points.


Link to video

Back story: While there is not much to this video, we got a good laugh when Sheila went the wrong direction on the track and I caught in on tape. Needless to say, her times weren't so good, but luckily we had two chances to better our lap times. Team Swift (DeAnna and Kelly) actually talked us into doing this challenge with them and it turned out to be a blast. The place required racers to wear close-toed shoes, which Sheila and I did not have. Kelly and DeAnna offered to lend us their shoes and we took turns racing. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for being so generous. I also credit Kelly for giving me pointers on how to take the turns without taking a foot off the gas pedal. I'm now working toward becoming a professional drifter.


Day 8, German/Belgium border:
On our last day of challenges, we opted to take a railbike tour through some tiny villages. Our task was to find out from the locals some quirky fact or legend or event/person that should put those villages on the map.


Link to video

Back story:Very few people speak English in these small towns, but we met Alexandra, who spoke very well. I find the video very funny, because I say in it that there is something very special about the town and ask her to tell us what it is. Alexandra responds, "Yes, that's a hedge." Every time I watch the video, I laugh hysterically at that part. But, you have to admit, that's definitely a quirky fact about Kalterherberg. Apparently, the wind is so bad in the winter, that the locals grow their hedges high enough to block their homes from the cold. They also get frost starting in August. Anyway, Alexandra was so helpful and friendly and I love how she concludes the video: "Yes, come here!" So, if you are reading this, Alexandra, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you!

Also on Day 8, The Netherlands:
From Germany and Belgium, we headed to The Netherlands to go skiing at Snow World. While on the ski slope, our job was to film a 30-second video with some color commentary about how well we were (or not!) skiing.


Link to video

Back story: I always bring Peruvian finger puppets with me on vacation so I can pass them out to kids. Well, this time, they came in handy for one of our challenges. I had an Andean shepherd wearing a colorful manta and knitted cap, so he essentially became the mascot for the ski slope. People were laughing and looking at me as I gingerly made my way down the slope with "Snow Joe" on one hand, and the camera in the other hand. This video is the very last one we did for Competitours. It goes show that we kept our humor intact, despite the crazy pressure we had been under for the entire trip.

Sheila hit it off with Snow Joe immediately and she took him to Paris with her as she decompresses before returning to Canada. It looks like they are having a great time, together!

Second isn't so bad

On Thursday morning, the scoreboard reflected what Sheila and I already suspected. We finished second in the race across Europe with Competitours. But "As Seen on TV" (Lanthy and Rad) brought their A-game and it paid off. We're very happy for them.

"We fell short of first place by 21 points, but in our minds we are very much winners - in many ways," Sheila says. "This adventure and the new friendship was great."

Doing something like this trip can test a relationship, but throughout the week, Sheila and I were rarely, if ever, at odds. We seem to like to do the same things. We always looked deep into what worked, what didn't and how we could improve our game, but never took constructive criticism personally. We were flexible enough to change on a dime and try something else if it was necessary. And most importantly, we kept our head in the game, but had a lot of fun, too.

This trip may not be for most people, but it's well suited for someone who likes to be on the go, is willing to try new things and isn't afraid to talk to people. From the moment I heard of Competitours, I knew I wanted to do the trip and I want to give a shout out to Fran Belkin, who told me all about it.

It's been an amazing race.

It all comes down to this

I can't believe this is the last day of our trip to Europe. It's flown by. To recap, we've been to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and the long lost country of Moresnet.

In Day 7, we slipped to second place, but the challengers, "As Seen on TV" are only 10 points ahead of us. Furthermore, Lanthy and Rad couldn't stay the extra day to compete because they had to get back to NY for work. Instead of getting no points for today, they will receive an average number of points for the last seven days.

When we did the math, it was clear that we would only win if we received full points for everything we were going to do on Day 8. We had to be on top of our game. No pressure or anything.

We picked two challenges that were worth a maximum of 75 points that would make us the victors as long as we won them. Otherwise we would receive a minimum point value and land in second place.

The first was to go railbiking on the German / Belgium border. The task involved interviewing locals in some of the towns the rail bike went through to find out what is interesting about their communities. But many people did not speak English. I used an online translator to write out the instructions in German and French, and thank goodness I did. We did find a woman in Kalterherberg, Germany, who did speak English well. She was very helpful and funny and the video we did with her was one of my favorites from the day. The other two were mediocre, which led Sheila and I to believe that we wouldn't score well on the task.

Hoping that no other teams would arrive, we waited to see who would come for the later tour. Margaret and Tyler were there and Jan and Sean showed up late with Steve, but they still were able to do the tour.

We tried not to think about the outcome. We just tried to forget about it and have fun with our last challenge at Snow World. Waiting for the train to take us there, we were pacing. "This is what happens on race days," she says. We just wanted to get a move on, but the public transportation forced us to slow down.

After spending the afternoon under the hot summer sun, we were transported to winter in an instant. I didn't have mittens, but I brought an extra pair of socks to wear on my hands. Hey, you have to be resourceful.

To help with our challenges, I brought along one of my Peruvian finger puppets. I usually carry a handful when I travel so I can give them to kids. I thought for sure I would use them in a challenge or two, but so far I hadn't. When I found out we'd be going skiing, I knew I could use them for something. One of the puppets was an Andean shepherd with a colorful manta and a blue knitted cap. We nicknamed him "Snow Joe," and he became our commentator on the slopes.

I can't begin to tell you the strange looks I got as I skied down the slop with socks on my hands, a talking finger puppet on one finger and my video camera in the other hand. Honestly, I was probably a danger to myself and others, but most people just thought it was mental.

Anyway, it worked out that we got the highest score on that challenge. It was all because of Snow Joe.

We returned back to the hotel pleased with how hard we had played the game over the last eight days and how we had had fun along the way, too. Sure, we wanted to win, but we would be happy with second place, too.

But we would have to wait until morning for the results.

Going Head-to-Head

After 6 days of being on our own and occasionally running into other teams, Day 7 was the four-country, all-inclusive team challenge. We didn't need to record any videos; instead, we were pitted against all the other teams in several objective challenges.

When Steve, our "tour dude," asked if we knew what four countries we were going to, only Sheila and I had the correct answer. It's just a shame we didn't get any points for getting it right.

The answer is a bit deceptive considering the fourth country no longer exists. Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany meet at what is called Dreilandpunt. Back in the late 1800s to early 1900s, Moresnet was a small country that had a little slice of this four-corners region.

Now the spot is a tourist destination and it's home to the biggest labyrinth in the world. We were set loose in side but I quickly realized I would not find my way so easily. And sure enough, the way to go was hidden; looking down the path, it looked like there was a dead-end at the end, but the path took a sharp U-turn and then wound it's way to the finish point at a raised platform at the center of the maze. It was disheartening to lose the first challenge, but it was still a lot of fun.

Next we did skeet shooting. We were in the first group to go and when the guy said "pull," I fired away, nailing the first two points. At that point, people were impressed, but I only got one more shot after 10 pulls. Sheila on the other hand, got 6 points, which landed us in third place. Team Absolutely Fabulous killed this challenge with 16 and Weathehekawi followed in second with 13.

Next was the crossbow competition, which we did not win, followed by giant darts. I scored the highest number of points (86), but they averaged team scores. Our average was lower than "As Seen on TV" when the dust settled.

We took a break for lunch before heading on to our last challenge of the day which involved feeling our way in the dark for more than an hour.

Underground bunkers that were once used for defense, can be explored by flashlight. A local tour company started a game in which particpants are given clues on how to get through the dark tunnels, performing tasks along the way. It was fun and frustrating at the same time. We didn't find some of the answers, and the clues were in Dutch or French most of the time.

Nonetheless, we got 5th place, earning the maximum number of points possible in that challenge.

It was a long and tiring day, and to make matters worse, we slipped to second place by only 10 points. The second place team are worthy adversaries, but we are going to give them a run for their money on the last day of the trip. We still have a chance to win this thing and we'll do what it takes to be the victors--within reason of course.

Day 6 in the Rhine River valley

The incredible scenery along the Rhine River is idyllic to most people. The rolling hills. Hill-top castles overlooking the lush Rhine River Valley. But returning to Koblenz after 18 years memories long buried. Well, not really.

On my first trip abroad, those many years ago, Chris and I floated down this very section of the river. It started off fine, but after a few hours we were out of water and stuck on the roof of the boat under the hot sun. The only water being vended was carbonated, which is not satisfying to my taste.

If dehydration wasn't bad enough, we took the wrong train getting back to where we were staying in Heidelberg and by that point in the evening the trams to our friends' apartment was no longer in operation, so we walked five miles (at least) to get back. And when I got inside, I stuck my mouth under the tap and drank and drank and drank. The next day, my stomach was grumbling, and while I was on the tram to the train station, I lost it. Luckily I had an empty Bimbo bread bag to hurl into.

Good times.

Well, I'm happy to report I had a much better day on this go around. Sheila and I got an early start, dashing out of the hotel to catch the direct train to St. Goar, but after calling about the opening hours of some of the sites on our list of challenges, we spontaneously decided to jump off the train at Koblenz instead, which forced us to spend time researching alternatives at a hotel across from the train station.

Sheila and I decided to head south to Marksburg Castle for an in-depth look at the medieval way of life. The guide was somewhat helpful, but rushed us through each room making it hard to film our challenges, but we somehow got it all. For example, we learned the origin and modern meaning of the German phrase "give it one more tooth." The cauldrons in the kitchen were hung on saw-like bars that can raise and lower the pot toward the fire to help it cook faster. Germans use the phrase to tell people to hurry up.

We ran into several other teams at the castle and were a bit concerned about scoring because many of them are VERY creative, and we just weren't feeling it. Sheila had a sleepless night, and I certainly got less than usual. But I think we still did very well considering.

We headed back on the train to Koblenz with Team Swift (DeAnna and Kelly), who convinced us to do the go-carts with them. It didn't take much to change our minds from doing the Koblenz walking tour and soon we were speeding along the race course. The secret, as Kelly told me, was to keep your pedal to the metal and use the brake sparingly. By the first turn, I had become a "drifter," my wheels squealing at every turn. Unfortunately, the proof that I was a speed demon on the first try was not to be had. The printer broke and my lap times weren't recorded for the challenge. I had another turn on the track, but this time, two young children were on the course, too, causing back-ups and slow times.

We'll find out soon enough if I beat the rest of my challengers, but in the meantime, Sheila and I had to beat the clock -- or should I say the glockenspiel. We needed to catch the famous clock in the tower above 1411 Haus in action playing the French national anthem. We made good time and was able to spend 20 minutes in the museum, before filming the tune and the glockenspiel in action.

After the challenges were complete, we headed back to the room to do some uploading. Shortly after, we heard a "hello" coming from outside our window. When we looked up, there was a man in his window flashing us. We laughed at him and shut the blinds. It turned out to be Dan, go figure.

Good times, yet again.

Day 5 in Munich again

Spontaneity is our middle name. That was the theme today. We changed our plan at a moment's notice. Originally we planned to do challenges at the Nymphenburg Castle (where the German Hugh Hefner once lived) and a bike tour of the city.

By morning, everything had changed totally. We opted to join the group heading to the Olympic Stadium to walk along the outside rim of the field's roof (similar to the Sydney Bridge Climb). The way down was a zip line across the stadium.

Sheila conquered her fear of heights instantly as she soared along the tethered wire. I could hear her screaming all the away across. And then the infectious laughter soon followed.

After the fun was over, we had to get our heads back into the game. We decided against going to the castle and opted to visit the BMW Museum that was located adjacent to the Olympic Stadium instead. We didn't think a lot of people were going to do it and we were going to rock our A-Game for sure.

We stopped for a break and began brainstorming some ideas while we grabbed a bite to eat in front of a huge showroom of BMWs. Sheila befriended the man at the front desk and barraged him with thousands of questions and within 20 minutes we had our plan. We filmed our challenges and then headed to the gift shop, where we both bought souvenirs. However, the souvenir Chris wanted me to buy wouldn't have fit in my carry-on luggage.

The last challenge was the mosot interesting to research. It's a bit odd to approach strangers to ask where the famous toilets are! Several people just gave us odd looks, and finally, a clerk at the BMW shop said he knew what we were talking about and off we went.

On the way, we decided to develop lyrics to sing the praises of the fancy toilets, which paid off because we weren't allowed to film inside. Now it's up to the hands of fate to see iif we can maintain our lead.

Day 4 in Munich

It's Friday, it must be Germany. We came back to Munich for a couple days-worth of challenges in this large, cosmopolitan city. We definitely saw quite a bit of it trying to find an elusive building that was in a photo scavenger hunt challenge that we did.

After two cloudy days in Austria, we were happy to see the sun again. It was perfect for exploring the the large park in the city called Englischer Garten. We had five things to find there, and we enjoyed seeing the masses of people out in the park, riding bikes, drinking beer, surfing in the Einsbach River and sunbathing in the nude.

Sheila and I knew we had to come back (no, not for that). So, we rushed back to the hotel, grabbed a bathing suit and came back to the park to swim in one of the man-made rivers.

The river rushes through the park much like a lazy river at a water park, except the water is anything but lazy. We hopped in the freezing water and floated briskly downstream to the spot where we had left our towels and cover-ups.

It felt spectacular after a long hot day. We climbed out and sunned ourselves dry on the banks. Across from us in the FKK area that is designated a nude bathing spot, a naked man was reading a book and writing in his journal. Coincidentally, our rickshaw driver that led us through the park early in the day told us that the locals call the FKK area the "nut meadow." Explanation not necessary, I'm sure.

Anyway, the sun was starting to set and the chill in the area sent us running for a nearby cantina, where we stuffed ourselves with fajitas with guacamole and bean mousse.

So much for having an authentic German dinner. I can't help that I don't like to drink beer, either.

Day 3 to the Austrian countryside

We checked out of the hotel in the morning and left our baggage at the train station. We were headed to the countryside, where we planned to tour the Schellenburg Ice Cave. Together with Lanthy and Rad (As Seen on TV), we hopped on Bus #25, which dropped us at the cable car that would take us to the top of a mountain on which we would have to hike a few hours. But the woman behind the counter told us the trek would be dangerous without the proper footwear. Three of us didn't make the cut, so we quickly scrambled for a Plan B.

Luckily, there are several challenge options from which to choose; and we were soon on our way to the town of Hallein, where we planned to do three challenges that were all located fairly close to each other: summer tobbagoning, salt mines and the Celtic Village.

Yes, we were still bummed out that we couldn't go to the ice cave, but quickly entertained ourselves on the ski slope. The goal was to get the faster time on the tobbagon run than any other team doing the challenge and we had to video the whole thing to prove it.

Lanthy, Sheila and I all had technical difficulties on the way down. I accidently hit the button, which caused the video to stop. Same story for the other two. So, we went again. This time, Lanthy and Rad got stuck behind slow-going kids, and in turn, caused us to slow down, too. So, we had to go a third time. This time, we FLEW. I can't recall one time that I put on the brake.

But it was Sheila that got the fastest time, which she attributed to her aerodynamism. She had crouched down really low.

Exhilarated, we headed down to our next challenge: the Hallein Salt Mine, producing what was once considered white gold. For one of our challenges, we had to recruit four tourists for a fashion show using the stunning white uniforms given to us before the tour. No one else spoke English, except our guide, who enthusiastically helped us with our homework. Before we ascended from the mine, she announced that we were going to do a fashion show and a German family taking a weekend holiday stepped up.

Wolf Dietrich von Ratineau, the lord of the saltmine, once commented, "If it's on fire, let it burn." Our fashion show was infernal. The pieces will be sold under the brand name "House of Brine." Keep on the lookout.

Already on day three, we'd gone to incredible heights and equally incredible lows, but our last challenge remained at ground level. We just had to film a couple facts about the Celtic Village. As we discovered, the village was economically self sufficient thanks to the mine. Plus, they only could work during the winter. Sounds like the good life.

Speaking of the good life, Sheila and I recaptured the lead after day three, despite losing timee after being turned away from the ice cave.

Downtime in Salzburg!

One of the advantages of rushing through our challenges in Salzburg is that we had a lot more free time to do other things. The first priority was to eat.
The hotel clerk recommended the oldest restaurant in Europe called Stiftskeller St. Peter. Even though I was hoping for a quick, hearty meal so I could get to bed, Sheila convinced me that we should go. It was worth it.

According to Fodors: "Legends swirl about the famous St. Peter's Beer Cellar. Locals claim that Mephistopheles met Faust here, others say Charlemagne dined here, and some believe Columbus enjoyed a glass of its famous Salzburg Stiegl beer just before he set sail for America in 1492."

We ordered weinerschnitzel and a bottle of wine, enjoying our meal in a 1,200-year-old building. The original part of the restaurant was carved out of the side of the rock cliff on which the Salzburg Fortress sits.

The walls originally had ox blood-stained walls, but that is no longer thet case. The wait staff happily explained the history of the restuarant in between courses.

At the end of the evening, we strolled along the river back to our restaurant taking in the nighttime skyline.

It was a wonderful ending to a hectic day.

Day 5 Munich part 2

Spontaneity is our middle name. That was the theme today. We changed our plan at a moment's notice. Originally we planned to do challenges at the Nymphenburg Castle (where the German Hugh Hefner once lived) and a bike tour of the city.

By morning, everything had changed totally. We opted to join the group heading to the Olympic Stadium to walk along the outside rim of the field's roof (similar to the Sydney Bridge Climb). The way down was a zip line across the stadium.

Sheila conquered her fear of heights instantly as she soared along the tethered wire. I could hear her screaming all the away across. And then the infectious laughter soon followed.

After the fun was over, we had to get our heads back into the game. We decided against going to the castle and opted to visit the BMW Museum that was located adjacent to the Olympic Stadium instead. We didn't think a lot of people were going to do it and we were going to rock our A-Game for sure.

We stopped for a break and began brainstorming some ideas while we grabbed a bite to eat in front of a huge showroom of BMWs. Sheila befriended the man at the front desk and barraged him with thousands of questions and within 20 minutes we had our plan. We filmed our challenges and then headed to the gift shop, where we both bought souvenirs. However, the souvenir Chris wanted me to buy wouldn't have fit in my carry-on luggage.

The last challenge was the mosot interesting to research. It's a bit odd to approach strangers to ask where the famous toilets are! Several people just gave us odd looks, and finally, a clerk at the BMW shop said he knew what we were talking about and off we went.

On the way, we decided to develop lyrics to sing the praises of the fancy toilets, which paid off because we weren't allowed to film inside. Now it's up to the hands of fate to see iif we can maintain our lead.

Detour to Salzburg

From Geneva, we flew to Munich, Germany,but surprise! We were handed train tickets to Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Mozart the famous composer.

Sheila and I plotted our strategy on the train, coming up with new lyrics for the tune "16 going on 17" from the "Sound of Music" for one of the day's challenges. We were going to have that ready when we got to the Hellbrun Palace, where scenes from the musical was filmed.

Rolling into Salzburg, we crossed a river with steep cliffs on one side. At the top of the cliff, the imposing Salzburg Fortress stood guard over the town. As we learned during a tour of the structure that day, it had near been impenetrated or damaged, However, there was one small nick that occurred during a peasant revolt. We had to search the entire fortress to find it. We thought it would take forever, but we finally found someone who knew where it was and she told us the story behind it.

Then we rushed off to Hellbrun Palace to sing our song, as well as do a few other challenges. The highlight was a tour of the Trick Fountains that catch unsuspecting tourists unawares. We knew what to expect, so whenever we saw a lot of water on the ground, we figured that was an area to avoid. But, we still got wet a few times nonetheless.

We rushed through our challenges to save some time, but we both realized that was a mistake. We should have taken more time to enjoy these historic sites, but we were chasing points. And it hurt us in the end. We dropped to second place on the second day with an abysmal score.

Despite the bad scores, one video stood out among the rest and the judges made special note of it. Our "16 going on 17" rendition knocked their socks off: You can tell these two have amazing chemistry. They are having a great time and it shows.

"That to me was a huge compliment," says Sheila, "and it reflected how I feel."