Switzerland and Italy Trip- Long Post

And now on to the reason that finally drove me to create a Blog in the first place….  As many of you probably know by now, Kara and I went to Europe for 2 weeks to start off my sabbatical from work.  It’s taken me about the last 4 weeks to sort through the ~1800 pictures we took and narrow them down to something that most of you will find entertaining enough to look though.  After renaming all of them and resizing them so I could upload them to Photobucket.com (for the blog), I think I’m ready to share them with you.

You can log on and view ~230 pictures of our best pictures on Kodak’s Easyshare gallery, here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ug9bek9.678s999t&x=1&y=45ydik..  I recommed this, as it seems a better way to just view the pictures, but I thought the blog would be better to tell the story of the trip.   If you see a picture that you like and want a high resolution version, let me know and I’ll get you a copy.  

Trip Overview: May 1-14, 2007.  Itinerary: Switzerland- Zurich, Lucerne, Interlaken, Geneva; Italy- Venice, Maranello, Florence, Rome. Here’s a map of our travels (click on map to view larger image).

 

 

 

 

Day 1/2:

On May 1, We flew out of Dallas into Zurich, Switzerland where we arrived at 8am on May 2.  The ~11hr flight was long, but wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, with this being my first trip out of North America.  Upon arrival, we took a train from the airport and began our trip to Interlaken, Switzerland.

 

We decided to grab a bite to eat so we got off the train and stayed a few hours in Lucerne, Switzerland.  Finding something to eat in Lucerne was a little harder than we expected as just about everything was in German, but we definitely didn’t starve.  (Kara copped out and ordered a mozzerella and tomaten sandwich.  Chris got a schinken sandwich….  Schinken definitely isn’t chicken, but it wasn’t bad.)  🙂
     

After our brief stay in Lucerne, we jumped back on a train and headed to Interlaken.  Here’s a few pics of the countryside.

 

Interlaken was very nice and scenic.   The view below (not of the flowers) was what we had to look at from our hotel balcony.

Hotel Interlaken (Lindner Grand Hotel Beau Rivage): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g188081-d290090-Reviews-Lindner_Grand_Hotel_Beau_Rivage-Interlaken_Bernese_Oberland_Swiss_Alps.html

   

Day 3: We took a train up the mountains from Interlaken up the Jungfrau- which is called the “Top of Europe”.   It was a beautiful train ride to the top and a spectacular view of a glacier.   There’s even an area in the mountain that’s an ice palace which is tunnels of solid ice (walls, ceiling, floor).

     

On the way back down the mountain, we got off at a small mountain town called Wengen and hiked down to another small town called Lauterbrunnen.  This place made me really wish I had more time and my mountain bike.   We got to walk through some of the most amazing countryside you could imagine complete with cows with bells and waterfalls off the mountain walls with even larger snow capped mtns in the background.

     

Day 4: After a little logistical issue (missing our train) we made it to Venice just an hour later than we were planning on after a 6 hr train ride.  It was raining most of the train ride and when we first got to Venice, but we still had a great time in this surreal place.  We almost dropped Venice from our itinerary, but I’m really glad we made the long trip here.  It was amazing, though if global warming is real and the seas do rise, this place won’t be around or the same for much longer.  I couldn’t believe how low all the buildings were to the sea level.

Venice Hotel (Antico Fiore): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187870-d504386-Reviews-Locanda_Antico_Fiore-Venice_Veneto.html

     

Day 5: Against Kara’s better judgement, I rented a car in Venice.   And almost against her will, I convinced her to take a small detour on our way to Florence to go to Maranello, which happens to be the birthplace of Ferrari and where’s there’s the Galleria Ferrari.   The Galleria is a museum with about 30+ mint condition Ferraris on display from the early years of Ferrari (1940’s) up to a 2005 $1,000,000 Ferrari Enzo.    I had a great time on this detour, though I’m not sure Kara was so enthusiastic, but she’s just lucky I didn’t force her to go anywhere else, as this area of Italy is known as Motor Valley because most of the famous motor companies (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati, Maserati, etc) are located in about a 15 mile radius. 

     

After some difficulties with Italian (especially the Italian pay phones) and some missing street signs in Florence, we found our hotel and spent the next 3 days discovering Florence and the Tuscany region. 

Florence Hotel (Casci): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187895-d195703-Reviews-Hotel_Casci-Florence_Tuscany.html

Day 6, 7, & 8:  Florence was packed with sculptures and art, none more famous than Michelangelo’s David which was impressive to say the least.  We toured the Galleria dell’ Accademia (where David is) and the Uffizi museums and the Duomo (a very large church) while in Florence, among shopping and just walking around the city.  The David below is a replica of the one in the museum, but they wouldn’t let us take pictures in there. 

     

On Day 7, we drove the rental car through Tuscany and had one of the best days on our trip.  Tuscany was filled with vineyards, rolling hills, and lots of small medieval towns.  We stopped at a random hillside restaurant and had what was one of the best meals of our trip.  We stayed here for about 3 hours just enjoying the Tuscany sun which was a nice change from the cold, rainy weather that we had for the previous 2 days. 

 
   

On day 8, after spending the morning in Florence, we drove to Rome.   I was completely humbled by the experience of driving in Florence (where most streets weren’t well marked) and Rome because in both places there’s no lanes marked and everyone races from signal or traffic circle to the next signal or traffic circle which consists of about 30 cars and another 30 mopeds/motorcycles in a space that would be filled by about 15 cars in the US.   The guidebook that we had for Rome stated the following “Getting Around:  By Car: Don’t drive in the center of Rome.  Period.”   That was some good advice that I should have listened to, had I read that ahead of time, and before making the reservations to drop the car off at the Rome Termini (central train station) during rush hour.   Long story short, it took us 4 hrs and a few years off of my life to turn in the rental car in Rome at 10pm.  🙂  Quote of the day:  Kara to Chris:  “I told you so.” 

Fortunately, day 9 was much better, as Rome was amazing.  We spent the first day touring ancient Rome.   The history and the details in the construction methods which date back 2000+ yrs were overwhelming.  You could almost feel the history in this city.   Not to mention that Rome is a huge modern city as well.   We definitely wished we had more time here and would definitley like to go back though we packed 3-4 days into the 2 full days we had here.

Rome Hotel (Apollo): http://rome-hotels.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187791-d240831-Reviews-Apollo_Hotel-Rome_Lazio.html

               

We spent most of day 10 at the Vatican.  We went to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel which were both overwhelming, so much so that words really can’t begin to describe these places.   The magnitude and vast amount of art contained here was well beyond my expectations.    Quote of the day:  Chris to Kara:  “Do your legs feel like they weigh 1000 lbs?”  Random Stranger to Chris:  “YES!!!”

    

On day 11, we flew to Geneva, Switzerland to visit with Kara’s friend / college roommate Jeese who’s been working/living in Geneva for the last year and a half.   Two other friends of Kara’s (Alex and Heena) were also there visiting as well.  Jesse rented a car so we could check out the Geneva Ouvertes Caves, which is a local wine festival celebrating the opening of the local wine cellars.   After this, we spent most of the afternoon, driving into France and up the Saleve (mountain) to enjoy some great views of Geneva.

    
 

On day 12, we rode in a panoramic train car across Switzerland to view the Swiss Alps from Geneva to Zurich, where we spent the night before flying back to the states.   The views on the train were fantastic though we were so tired by this point, that Kara had to fight not falling asleep.  🙂  We spent the evening walking around Zurich, but not until we experienced our very first Swiss riot.  We got off the train in Zurich and there was a group of ~200+ young men chanting something German.  We thought they might be celebrating the victory of their soccer team, but shortly thereafter, the riot police showed up with their tear gas guns about 10 feet in front of us and they scattered….  Needless to say, we didn’t get any pictures of that.  🙂

Zurich Hotel (Fly Away): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g198838-d266699-Reviews-Fly_Away-Kloten.html

  

Overall, the trip was fantastic and exceeded my expectations.  I’d definitely like to do more traveling overseas now.   Can’t wait until the next trip!!