More slideshows posted

I'm all caught up.

• Lugano, Switzerland and Lake Como, Italy


• Frankfurt, Germany


• Kiel, Germany


• Bremen, Germany


• London and the Cotswolds, UK

European Vacation 2009 - In a word...or two

Chuck
Favorite City - Cinque Terre, Italy
Favorite Hotel - La Torretta in Cinque Terre
Favorite Museum - St. Pauls (Frankfurt)
Least favorite city - they were all good
Favorite meal - Oliveto cooking class
Best memory - sunset over Manarola
Favorite gelato flavor - pistacchio
Favorite cathedral - St. Pauls (Frankfurt)
Favorite purchase - Cuboros for Lincoln

Holly
Favorite City - Strasbourg, France
Favorite Hotel - La Torretta in Cinque Terre
Favorite Museum - History museum (Nuremberg)
Least favorite city - Lugano, Switzerland
Favorite meal - Verrazzano wine tasting & lunch
Best memory - boating on Lake Como
Favorite gelato flavor - dark chocolate or yoghurt
Favorite cathedral - Duomo (Florence)
Favorite purchase - Aged balsamic vinegar for me!

The best laugh.....
Driving from Menaggio, Italy to Lugano, Switzerland on the tiny 1.5 lane roads and coming upon the start of a 5km back up. The cause....a station wagon from the Netherlands trying to pull a catamaran with mere inches to spare. We pulled into a sideroad so we could get around him. Not sure what the poor bugger was thinking. Then, as we got around him.....Beeeep. Beeeeeep. Beeeeeeep. And the horns were blaring!

European Vacation 2009 - Lugano, Switzerland (Days 19-22)

After 15 days of heat and humidity, I was really looking forward to heading north to Lugano, Switzerland and the Lake Como, Italy area.

Cinque Terre was beautiful and this region is just as breathtaking.

Home base was Lugano, Switzerland at the Hotel Lugano Dante Center (more on that later). After leaving Cinque Terre, perhaps my expectations were high, but Lugano, the city, is not that interesting. It is located on Lake Lugano and has very pretty views of the surrounding mountains. The 'shopping mile' is a pure disappointment. My shopping adventure last summer in Lucerne, Switzerland was a thousand times better!

However, the Lake Como region in Italy is fabulous. We rented a boat and motored around the lake for 8 hours. It turned out to be a wonderful day!

A little preview...

The view on the north side of the lake

Chuck braving the chilly and very clear water

Bellagio, Italy

Can you see the funicular from the garage down to the house?

My future home...just a few doors down from Clooney

Searching for food in Lucerne, Switzerland

NB: This was my first attempt at using the video feature on my relatively basic camera and putting it on the blog. Hopefully it will play correctly.

The swans are typically fed tons of bread by tourists, so it surprised us to see swans that weren't so lucky actually searching for food. Here's one Swan's adventure.

Here's what happens when you feed the swans...

European Vacation - Day 14 (Mt. Pilatus)

When I planned our summer holiday several months ago, I stumbled upon a site that featured hotels on top of Mt. Pilatus (elevation 7000 feet). Cool, right? Absolutely.

We drove to Alpnachstad and took the steepest cogwheel train up the side of the mountain. As I posted before, I've suddenly realized that I have a (slight) fear of heights. My palms were sweating the whole way up the mountain. Once we arrived, it was breathtaking. Pictures just don't do it justice, but enjoy the ones I picked out below (out of the 100+!).

There are several trails of varying levels that you can take. I liked the one that was clearly on firm ground, a huge sturdy railing between me and falling to my death. However, I did agree to a walk on a trail that appeared safe. I made it about 15 minutes and then stopped, sat on a bench and waited for Chuck to go around several more bends. His comment, "I bet they don't have too many emergency situations here," was the icing on the cake. I was envisioning walking on a 4-lane highway (while hugging the mountain wall on the 2' path) and then he says that! I immediate thought, hmmm, he's right. There wouldn't be any emergencies; you'd just fall to your death. Ok. That was enough hiking for me. I waited and kept imagining my 4-lane highway.

We took the aerial gondola half-way down the other side of the mountain and got off to ride "Switzerland's longest summer tobaggan run." Honestly....sooooo much fun! For 8 Swiss Francs, you ride on a sled down a metal runway, curving through the meadows and surrounded by Swiss cows with those HUGE bells around their necks dinging and donging. When your run is over, you get hooked up for a 'backward' ride up to the starting point. The picture below is of one person heading down the track and another person being pulled up backwards.

We stayed at the Hotel Bellevue. Where it lacks in plush amenities, it surely makes up for it in the shear beauty of the surroundings. It's quite a feeling to have all the tourists leave the mountain at 6pm and then you have the whole place to yourself (plus about 20-30 other guests) until the next day at 8:30am. There was a welcome on the main deck with drinks and snacks and then we all headed into dinner. What a great way to end our short stint in Switzerland!

European Vacation - Days 12 & 13 (Lucerne)

Lucerne (Luzern), Switzerland has been our location to relax a bit on our whirlwind tour of Europe. We both read several books, walked around town, saw a few of the sites and shopped. I bought some pretty cool Christmas gifts to bring back to the US.


Here are a few photos. The first one is Chuck reading his latest book while sitting in the shade (our balcony still had some sunshine). The second one is of a second covered pedestrian bridge. You can see how clear the water is in the last picture. There are swans all over the place in Lucerne. Even though the swan is the national bird in Denmark, I've seen more swans here!

European Vacation - Day 11 (Lucerne)

When I planned the 3 week trip around Europe several months ago, I thought we might need a break from walking and sightseeing, so I planned on spending about a week in Lucerne, Switzerland. We are staying at the Grand Hotel National in a junior suite overlooking the Lake for 4 nights and then 1 night on top of Mt. Pilatus.


Today we took a quick 1 hour drive to Interlaken, which was the first place opened up to tourism in Switzerland. They are working on constructing a tunnel so I'm sure the drive will be much smoother and little less stressful in the future. We were pretty high up in some mountains with very little earth on the passenger side of the car. Good thing I took my Dramamine!


Interlaken is very pretty. It's a little tourist town located between two lakes. The view is beautiful with mountains and even one snow covered. We shopped a bit and then drove back to Lucerne, stopping a few times along the way to eat a late lunch and take pictures.


Here are a few pictures. The first one is of the mountains surrounding Interlaken. The second one is one of the lakes near Interlaken. The water is so turquoisy blue.

European Vacation - Day 10 (Lucerne)

This morning we drove from Munich down to Lucerne (Luzern), Switzerland. It was just over 4 hours and the roads were quite good. The highways or expressways in Europe are well kept and smooth. For the summer season, I expected a lot of construction and we only saw a little bit of it. And, the construction work doesn’t back up traffic for miles and miles like in the Midwest.

We needed to buy a vignette or highway toll sticker for the car when we entered Switzerland. We also had to buy one when we entered the Czech Republic and Austria; although, in Austria we stopped to buy one (obviously at the wrong spot) and were told we didn’t need one. So when we arrived in Vienna, we asked the concierge and quickly got one affixed to the windshield.

The drive into Switzerland is beautiful. We were winding around a few mountains, but also went under many in some pretty long tunnels. So far, the longest tunnel we’ve been in has been 6.6 km (4 miles). That tunnel kept on going. Imagine what would happen if you got stuck under there!

We arrived in Lucerne just after noon. I could probably live here forever…if I was independently wealthy, but that’s a minor detail. As a reference a grilled chicken breast (with no side dishes is $24USD / 24 Swiss Francs and a diet coke is $6USD / 6 Swiss Francs). I like the conversion factor in Switzerland. It seems like I’ve been doing non-stop math for the past 4 months!

Below is the famous walking bridge and tower in Lucerne.