This weekend was very different and for once we have no pictures!
On Saturday we went to a barbacue to Carmen and David's house outside Zurich, in a town called Birri. We had fun and managed to prepare spare ribs and baked beans.... it was a success! and our friends (she is from Peru, he is Italian Swiss) are really growing a taste for American cusine. JP and Syd played with little Maurizio and didn't come back home until 10PM.
On Sunday we went to another barbacue to Jo and Chris' appartment where JP and Syd played with twins Carolina and Siena and their little dog Paco. We had tastety burgers made with beef and lamb and we had brownies for dessert.
It was a nice chance of pace for us since we are always on the go. Thanks to our friends for inviting us.
I will try to post some pictures while in America but I can not promise anything. To out friends and family.... see you tomorrow and in the next 4 weeks.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Scandinavian cruise
May 1st is labor day in Switzerland as well as some other countries. As May 1st fell on a Tuesday, we used the opportunity to string together a long weekend and took a five day Scandinavian cruise. The cruise left from Amsterdam, Holland on Friday, arrived into Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday, and ended in Oslo, Norway on Tuesday morning. We took an overnight train to Amsterdam on Thursday night and arrived bright and early on Friday morning. The cruise was not scheduled to leave until 5PM so we had the whole day to explore. We wanted to see one of the famous tulip fields; however, the fastest trip would have taken 4 ½ hours so we decided to make better use of our time exploring the city. We started the day with a canal cruise. Amsterdam is actually much like Venice with its system of canals. There are approximately 2000 house boats all along the canals, which thanks to a government program a few years ago, all have gas and electricity running to them. The number of house boats is now fixed, so if someone wants to “park” his boat on the canal, they have to wait for someone else to leave. Another unique thing about Amsterdam is the construction of the houses. They are very narrow and steep, which made it difficult to get furniture and things to the upper floors. For that reason, all houses have a beam sticking out of the gable with a large hook on it. Pulley systems were attached (and are still used today) to move large items in and out of the house through the upstairs window. The gables of the houses are also very interesting, with some of the more popular styles being the clock, neck, step gables. After finishing the canal tour, we took a walking tour of the city, and saw among other things: The Westerkerk, which is the church where the famous painter Rembrandt is buried, the Anne Frank house, and the Royal Palace. We cut our walking tour short and raced back to ship to start our cruise. On our way, we took a wrong turn and ended up walking through the red light district. Its actually a charming part of town, but as we walked, we realized that the girls standing in the windows were not mannequins and we high tailed it out of there and got to the ship.
We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas and it was the biggest ship in the world at the time it was built 20 years ago. It can hold about 2,500 passengers and another 1,500 crew. In general, we had an incredible time. JP was old enough to join the Aquanots playgroup and did so when he was not enjoying family time in the indoor pool or playing in the arcade. For Sydney, there was a separate playgroup requiring parental involvement, so we participated in this playgroup with Sydney while JP was next door in his playgroup. We did casual dining for breakfast and lunch, but ate in the formal dining room for dinner. We had a three course meal every night, but since the kids eat like birds, Sandy and I ended up eating almost 2 three course meals every night – we must have gained about 10 lbs each! At night, we put the kids to sleep, and went to the nightly show or the movies, and finished off the night in the casino – we were ahead at the start of the cruise, but lost it all by the end.
Our first port of call was Copenhagen, most well known for the famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen, for whom the Little Mermaid statue in the harbor pays tribute. It was a cold day, so we took a bus tour of the city. In addition to the Little Mermaid statue, we saw “The Thinker” statue by Rodan, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum, National Museum, Christiansborg Palace, and Amalienborg Palace (winter residence of the Royal Family) where we observed the changing of the guard. Copenhagen is also home to the Tivoli Gardens, a beautiful landscaped amusement park filled with restaurants, rides, and games. The spent the better part of the afternoon in the Garden’s playground before returning back to the ship for dinner and another late night.
The final stop was Oslo, Norway, probably the most expensive city we encountered in our travels (even more expensive than Zurich). After having breakfast, we departed the ship and made it to the train station where we put our luggage in a locker before starting our tour of the city. We started with a short walking tour of the city and passed the Oslo Cathedral, Parliament building, and City Hall, which is beautifully frescoed on the inside. We made it back to the port area, not far from where our ship pulled in, and took a ferry to Bygdoy, a peninsula where some of city’s more popular museums are located. We toured a Viking ship museum which displayed the remains of three Viking ships found in burial mounds by the Oslo fjord. The ships were buried more than 1100 years ago to carry their royal owners to “the other side”. Close to the Viking ship museum was the Norwegian museum of natural history, which is an open air museum displaying 155 traditional houses from all over Norway, including Gol Stave Church from 1200 AD. We spent some time at the museum’s playground, before catching the ferry back to the city center. On the way, we could see the Holmenkollen ski jump tower (Norway’s most visited tourist attraction), built especially for the 1952 Olympics. We concluded our tour with a stop at the Royal Palace, did some souvenir shopping, and caught a train to the airport where our hotel was located. The next morning, we hopped on an early flight back to Zurich so that I did not miss another day of work.
We probably got 5-6 hours of sleep per night, so with all the activity, light sleep, and heavy eating, we were ready
We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas and it was the biggest ship in the world at the time it was built 20 years ago. It can hold about 2,500 passengers and another 1,500 crew. In general, we had an incredible time. JP was old enough to join the Aquanots playgroup and did so when he was not enjoying family time in the indoor pool or playing in the arcade. For Sydney, there was a separate playgroup requiring parental involvement, so we participated in this playgroup with Sydney while JP was next door in his playgroup. We did casual dining for breakfast and lunch, but ate in the formal dining room for dinner. We had a three course meal every night, but since the kids eat like birds, Sandy and I ended up eating almost 2 three course meals every night – we must have gained about 10 lbs each! At night, we put the kids to sleep, and went to the nightly show or the movies, and finished off the night in the casino – we were ahead at the start of the cruise, but lost it all by the end.
Our first port of call was Copenhagen, most well known for the famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen, for whom the Little Mermaid statue in the harbor pays tribute. It was a cold day, so we took a bus tour of the city. In addition to the Little Mermaid statue, we saw “The Thinker” statue by Rodan, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum, National Museum, Christiansborg Palace, and Amalienborg Palace (winter residence of the Royal Family) where we observed the changing of the guard. Copenhagen is also home to the Tivoli Gardens, a beautiful landscaped amusement park filled with restaurants, rides, and games. The spent the better part of the afternoon in the Garden’s playground before returning back to the ship for dinner and another late night.
The final stop was Oslo, Norway, probably the most expensive city we encountered in our travels (even more expensive than Zurich). After having breakfast, we departed the ship and made it to the train station where we put our luggage in a locker before starting our tour of the city. We started with a short walking tour of the city and passed the Oslo Cathedral, Parliament building, and City Hall, which is beautifully frescoed on the inside. We made it back to the port area, not far from where our ship pulled in, and took a ferry to Bygdoy, a peninsula where some of city’s more popular museums are located. We toured a Viking ship museum which displayed the remains of three Viking ships found in burial mounds by the Oslo fjord. The ships were buried more than 1100 years ago to carry their royal owners to “the other side”. Close to the Viking ship museum was the Norwegian museum of natural history, which is an open air museum displaying 155 traditional houses from all over Norway, including Gol Stave Church from 1200 AD. We spent some time at the museum’s playground, before catching the ferry back to the city center. On the way, we could see the Holmenkollen ski jump tower (Norway’s most visited tourist attraction), built especially for the 1952 Olympics. We concluded our tour with a stop at the Royal Palace, did some souvenir shopping, and caught a train to the airport where our hotel was located. The next morning, we hopped on an early flight back to Zurich so that I did not miss another day of work.
We probably got 5-6 hours of sleep per night, so with all the activity, light sleep, and heavy eating, we were ready
Before the cruise April 21-22
It was the weekend before our cruise vacation, so the kids and I went to the gym so that Sandy could stay back and pack. The sauna at my gym is for women 3 days a week, men another 3 days a week, and mixed on saturday. Saunas in Switzerland are linen free (no clothes - only a towel). I was determined to take a sauna bath after my work out, so I did, only to find it unexpectedly populated with naked men and women - the Swiss are apparently not shy. It was a summer like Sunday so we ventured down to oue local beach front. Each town along Lake Zurich has a park along the lake - some have board walks, beach areas, playgrounds, restaurants, grassy parks for sunbathing, etc. Ours is very nice with everything except a boardwalk. We were fortunate enough to find an apartment practically on lake Zurich, so our local beach is only a few steps away. We brought along a picnic lunch, spread out in a nice shady area and enjoyed the unseasonably warm temperatures (it was snowing just a few weeks earlier so we had a week or two of spring before jumping right into summer). The kids played on the beach and even ventured into the lake despite the cold temperature (around 60F). We were surprised to see many people swimming and playing in the lake, young and old. After finishing lunch and building a few sand casles, we strolled back to the apartment for some front yard soccer and a little BBQ.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Sechselaeuten Fest (April 14-16)
This weekend we attended Zurich's centuries-old festival called Sechselaeuten, which stems from the tradition of driving out evil winter spirits and welcoming the longer, milder days of spring.
The event is always held on Monday and everyone gets a half day off from work to attend the event. On Sechselaeuten-Monday, some 3,500 colourfully-costumed guildsmen, over 350 horsemen, 50 horse-drawn wagons and around 30 bands parade through Zurich to the Sechselaeutenplatz for the burning of the Boegg, a straw snowman atop a 13-metre high bonfire.
The procession to the bonfire is a huge spectacle and attracts thousands of spectators. The bonfire is lit at precisely six o'clock in the evening and horsemen then circle the blaze three times to the accompaniment of the Sechselaeuten March. Tradition says that the faster the Boegg burns, the sooner summer will arrive and the longer and sunnier it will be.
The event is always held on Monday and everyone gets a half day off from work to attend the event. On Sechselaeuten-Monday, some 3,500 colourfully-costumed guildsmen, over 350 horsemen, 50 horse-drawn wagons and around 30 bands parade through Zurich to the Sechselaeutenplatz for the burning of the Boegg, a straw snowman atop a 13-metre high bonfire.
The procession to the bonfire is a huge spectacle and attracts thousands of spectators. The bonfire is lit at precisely six o'clock in the evening and horsemen then circle the blaze three times to the accompaniment of the Sechselaeuten March. Tradition says that the faster the Boegg burns, the sooner summer will arrive and the longer and sunnier it will be.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Easter trip to Italy from 3/31 to 4/8
It was a cold and rainy day to start our trip. On the way to Milan, we stopped off in the city of Lugano, a small town in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. It’s a very scenic spot on the lake and benefits from a tropical climate, complete with palm trees, but offers nothing in the way of attractions. So we cut our trip to Lugano short and proceeded straight to Milan.
Venice
We arrived into Milan on Saturday afternoon and were greeted by much nicer weather conditions (upper 60's and sunny) that lasted the duration of our trip. As we arrived late in the afternoon, we explored the city for a couple of hours, and retired early for our big trip to Venice the next day. Venice is actually an island built on a lagoon. It can be accessed by train or boat. Various canals weave in and out of the city and all eventually lead to the Grand Canal, the main waterway cutting through the heart of the city. We started our trip by taking a water bus down the Grand Canal to the southern part of the island. We arrived at Piazzo San Marco, a great big square where the pigeons eat right out of your hand (see picture). In this area we saw the following amazing sites: San Marco Basilica, Torre dell Orologio, Palazzo Ducale, and more. We completed our walk through the San Marco district by walking up to the Ponte di Realto (famous bridge over Grand Canal) and Mercado di Realto, an open air market where venetian masks, linen and glass products are popular. We then walked through the San Polo and San Croche districts heading in the direction of the train station on the northwest part of the island. We were hoping to take a gondola ride, but between a long relaxing lunch and taking in all the sites, we ran out of time and had to run back to the main station to catch our train (something that became a ritualistic end to all our day trips).
Milan
We saved Milan for Monday so that we could have a chance to go to Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church that houses Davinci's Last Supper to see if there were any cancellations for the week (reservations to see the Last Supper have to be made a month in advance). Unfortunately our travel guide failed to mention that everything was closed on Mondays. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were not going to see the Last Supper this time around, and proceeded to see the best outdoor sites that Milan has to offer. By far the most impressive area was around the main cathedral, called The Duomo (meaning cathedral - there are many "duomos" in Italy, but they called this one simply "The Cathedral"). The outside of the cathedral itself is very ornate with a seemingly infinite number of spires and statues. Piazza Duomo (Duomo Square) also contains the Royal Palace. Connecting Piazzo Duomo and Piazza della Scala, home of one of the most important opera houses in the world, is the most impressive shopping galleria we have ever seen called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (named after the first king of Italy). This gallery has some very high end shops and a very upscale McDonalds to boot. We also walked along some other very nice shopping areas but could not convince ourselves to buy. We concluded that we are bargain shoppers and not fashion shoppers. We walked through Giardini Pubblici, a beautiful park where JP took a carrousel ride (Sydney attempted, but at the last minute decided to let her big brother go it alone). We took a gelato (Italian ice cream - a little creamier than American ice cream) break and decided to let the kids have their own - bad idea - after a few minutes, both were covered in gelato.
Torino
Our race to see as much as possible in six hours started with a trip to the tourist office which was an imposing steel and glass structure in the middle of Piazza Solferino, a spacious tree lined square laid out around two extensive flowerbeds with a very impressive fountain called Angelica representing the four seasons and the equestrian statue of Ferdinand, Duke of Ferdinand. The tourist office was partially converted to a museum after the 2006 olympics. The mostly tree lined streets of Torino are very picturesque with porticoed walkways containing plenty of shops and restaurants. One of our first stops was to Piazza Castello a large open square containing Palazzo Madama, the Royal Palace, Chapel of the Holy Shroud (dedicated to the burial cloth in which Jesus' body was wrapped after the crucifixion, next scheduled for display in the year 2025), Church of San Lorenzo, Royal Library, and Teatro Regio. Most of the big cities have a "royal palace" that served as home to the old Italian kings but now usually serve as museums. We also strolled down to Piazza Vittorio Veneto, one of the largest squares in the world, across from which sits the The church of the Gran Madre di Dio, which was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. We inspected the Mole Antonelliana which is the National Museum of Cinema and the symbol of Torino. It is a unique looking skyscraper, built at the same time as the Eiffel Tower in Paris (1889). We walked through the Piazza Della Republica, Piazza Savoia, and Via Garibaldi, one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe, on our way back to the train station.
Verona
Verona is most well known as the home of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare supposedly based his play on actual characters. Therefore, we saw the "actual" balcony that inspired the balcony scene from the play as well as the tomb where the character based on Juliet was burried. We also saw an amazing outdoor arena, much like the Coloseum in Rome. With the kids down for their afternoon nap, we had a chance to fly through some museums before making our final sprint to the station to catch our train.
Genoa
Genoa is a beautiful old port city and home of Christopher Columbus. We started our day with a trip to the aquarium, the largest in Europe. From there, we went on a walking tour on a board walk along the coast and then through the winding narrow alleyways of the historic center called caruggi. The caruggi are filled with shops and restaurants and are the exact mental image that your mind creates when you think medieval Europe. The corrugi are connected via various plazas, one of which was the most impressive we had seen so far called, Piazza de Ferrari. We saw the home of Christopher Columbus in Piazza Dante, a very beautiful cathedral called San Lorenzo, and some very architecturally impressive buildings and museums along the street Via Garibaldi. Of the various cities we saw on this trip, the two port cities of Venice and Genoa had to be our favorites.
Como
The next day, we took a 40 minute train ride from Milan to Como. Como is known for its large lake, along which are several small towns, one of which is Belaggio. This is the town that the famous Las Vegas hotel is named after. So we made our way from the train station down to the water. After having a quick bite in an open air market, we hopped on a boat for a tour of Lake Como on our way to Belaggio. The town is quite small so we were able to take a lap around and see the highlights in about an hour. There was nothing special about Belaggio besides the name, and it seemed to be somewhat of a tourist trap, so we did not prolong our boat trip back to the town of Como. Upon our return, we had quite a pleasant surprise. While I was checking out the inside of one of the churches, oscar winning actress Hilary Swank walked right past Sandy and into a cafe. We walked into the cafe to confirm the sighting, and sure enough, there was Hilary, in spandex, t shirt, and no make up. She is shorter than she appears on camera and not as elegantly proportioned as you see her in photos. However she has a great big smile and is very polite. She had just declined the restaurant owner a photo when we walked in citing that her attire was too casual. Sandy pressed and said we would just do the face. Hilary apologetically declined, indicating that she was without makeup. Not wanting to disturb her vacation any further, we said we understood and said that we were big fans - she thanked us and went on her way. She went back to her table outside and sat with what appeared to be a gay male friend, and an older couple, most likely her parents. We were disappointed about not getting her photo, but were happy to meet a famous person. We finished up our tour of Como by checking out some churches and other buildings and caught our train back to Milan to eat, pack, and rest up for our final stop in Florence.
FlorenceWe wanted to re-establish our Italian hub from Milan to Florence, given a 3 ½ hour train ride, but having been unsuccessful in making a hotel reservation on Easter weekend, we were forced to do Florence as just another day trip and take the night train back to Zurich. Thanks to Sandy always packing plenty of games and activities for the kids, the jam packed train ride was not as bad as we thought it would be. Florence is probably the most culturally impressive city in Italy, filled with beautiful cathedrals and museums. The city itself was packed with tourists, so lines to get into the more popular places were quite long. We went first to Galleria dell Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David, but we found the line to be too long and moving too slowly to wait. We instead visited the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, and the green and white marble Baptistry of San Giovanni. From there, we proceeded south to Palazzo Vecchio and the Basilica of Santa Croce, which houses the tombs of Michelangelo (last name is Buenarroti), Galileo, Marconi (inventor of the radio), and Machiavelli among others. We crossed Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in the city containing a plethora of jewelry shops, to Piazza dei Pitti containing the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. The square in front of the palace is slopped and was filled with hundreds of sun bathers when we passed by. We visited the church of San Spirito and then proceeded back to the train station. We passed by another merry-go-round where this time Sydney summoned up all her courage and took a ride with her big brother. Despite a look of terror on her face throughout the ride, she was determined to maintain her role as JP’s shadow, and was very proud of her accomplishment. We found a café where we sat and had a coffee before catching the night train back to Zurich.
Venice
We arrived into Milan on Saturday afternoon and were greeted by much nicer weather conditions (upper 60's and sunny) that lasted the duration of our trip. As we arrived late in the afternoon, we explored the city for a couple of hours, and retired early for our big trip to Venice the next day. Venice is actually an island built on a lagoon. It can be accessed by train or boat. Various canals weave in and out of the city and all eventually lead to the Grand Canal, the main waterway cutting through the heart of the city. We started our trip by taking a water bus down the Grand Canal to the southern part of the island. We arrived at Piazzo San Marco, a great big square where the pigeons eat right out of your hand (see picture). In this area we saw the following amazing sites: San Marco Basilica, Torre dell Orologio, Palazzo Ducale, and more. We completed our walk through the San Marco district by walking up to the Ponte di Realto (famous bridge over Grand Canal) and Mercado di Realto, an open air market where venetian masks, linen and glass products are popular. We then walked through the San Polo and San Croche districts heading in the direction of the train station on the northwest part of the island. We were hoping to take a gondola ride, but between a long relaxing lunch and taking in all the sites, we ran out of time and had to run back to the main station to catch our train (something that became a ritualistic end to all our day trips).
Milan
We saved Milan for Monday so that we could have a chance to go to Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church that houses Davinci's Last Supper to see if there were any cancellations for the week (reservations to see the Last Supper have to be made a month in advance). Unfortunately our travel guide failed to mention that everything was closed on Mondays. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were not going to see the Last Supper this time around, and proceeded to see the best outdoor sites that Milan has to offer. By far the most impressive area was around the main cathedral, called The Duomo (meaning cathedral - there are many "duomos" in Italy, but they called this one simply "The Cathedral"). The outside of the cathedral itself is very ornate with a seemingly infinite number of spires and statues. Piazza Duomo (Duomo Square) also contains the Royal Palace. Connecting Piazzo Duomo and Piazza della Scala, home of one of the most important opera houses in the world, is the most impressive shopping galleria we have ever seen called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (named after the first king of Italy). This gallery has some very high end shops and a very upscale McDonalds to boot. We also walked along some other very nice shopping areas but could not convince ourselves to buy. We concluded that we are bargain shoppers and not fashion shoppers. We walked through Giardini Pubblici, a beautiful park where JP took a carrousel ride (Sydney attempted, but at the last minute decided to let her big brother go it alone). We took a gelato (Italian ice cream - a little creamier than American ice cream) break and decided to let the kids have their own - bad idea - after a few minutes, both were covered in gelato.
Torino
Our race to see as much as possible in six hours started with a trip to the tourist office which was an imposing steel and glass structure in the middle of Piazza Solferino, a spacious tree lined square laid out around two extensive flowerbeds with a very impressive fountain called Angelica representing the four seasons and the equestrian statue of Ferdinand, Duke of Ferdinand. The tourist office was partially converted to a museum after the 2006 olympics. The mostly tree lined streets of Torino are very picturesque with porticoed walkways containing plenty of shops and restaurants. One of our first stops was to Piazza Castello a large open square containing Palazzo Madama, the Royal Palace, Chapel of the Holy Shroud (dedicated to the burial cloth in which Jesus' body was wrapped after the crucifixion, next scheduled for display in the year 2025), Church of San Lorenzo, Royal Library, and Teatro Regio. Most of the big cities have a "royal palace" that served as home to the old Italian kings but now usually serve as museums. We also strolled down to Piazza Vittorio Veneto, one of the largest squares in the world, across from which sits the The church of the Gran Madre di Dio, which was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. We inspected the Mole Antonelliana which is the National Museum of Cinema and the symbol of Torino. It is a unique looking skyscraper, built at the same time as the Eiffel Tower in Paris (1889). We walked through the Piazza Della Republica, Piazza Savoia, and Via Garibaldi, one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe, on our way back to the train station.
Verona
Verona is most well known as the home of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare supposedly based his play on actual characters. Therefore, we saw the "actual" balcony that inspired the balcony scene from the play as well as the tomb where the character based on Juliet was burried. We also saw an amazing outdoor arena, much like the Coloseum in Rome. With the kids down for their afternoon nap, we had a chance to fly through some museums before making our final sprint to the station to catch our train.
Genoa
Genoa is a beautiful old port city and home of Christopher Columbus. We started our day with a trip to the aquarium, the largest in Europe. From there, we went on a walking tour on a board walk along the coast and then through the winding narrow alleyways of the historic center called caruggi. The caruggi are filled with shops and restaurants and are the exact mental image that your mind creates when you think medieval Europe. The corrugi are connected via various plazas, one of which was the most impressive we had seen so far called, Piazza de Ferrari. We saw the home of Christopher Columbus in Piazza Dante, a very beautiful cathedral called San Lorenzo, and some very architecturally impressive buildings and museums along the street Via Garibaldi. Of the various cities we saw on this trip, the two port cities of Venice and Genoa had to be our favorites.
Como
The next day, we took a 40 minute train ride from Milan to Como. Como is known for its large lake, along which are several small towns, one of which is Belaggio. This is the town that the famous Las Vegas hotel is named after. So we made our way from the train station down to the water. After having a quick bite in an open air market, we hopped on a boat for a tour of Lake Como on our way to Belaggio. The town is quite small so we were able to take a lap around and see the highlights in about an hour. There was nothing special about Belaggio besides the name, and it seemed to be somewhat of a tourist trap, so we did not prolong our boat trip back to the town of Como. Upon our return, we had quite a pleasant surprise. While I was checking out the inside of one of the churches, oscar winning actress Hilary Swank walked right past Sandy and into a cafe. We walked into the cafe to confirm the sighting, and sure enough, there was Hilary, in spandex, t shirt, and no make up. She is shorter than she appears on camera and not as elegantly proportioned as you see her in photos. However she has a great big smile and is very polite. She had just declined the restaurant owner a photo when we walked in citing that her attire was too casual. Sandy pressed and said we would just do the face. Hilary apologetically declined, indicating that she was without makeup. Not wanting to disturb her vacation any further, we said we understood and said that we were big fans - she thanked us and went on her way. She went back to her table outside and sat with what appeared to be a gay male friend, and an older couple, most likely her parents. We were disappointed about not getting her photo, but were happy to meet a famous person. We finished up our tour of Como by checking out some churches and other buildings and caught our train back to Milan to eat, pack, and rest up for our final stop in Florence.
FlorenceWe wanted to re-establish our Italian hub from Milan to Florence, given a 3 ½ hour train ride, but having been unsuccessful in making a hotel reservation on Easter weekend, we were forced to do Florence as just another day trip and take the night train back to Zurich. Thanks to Sandy always packing plenty of games and activities for the kids, the jam packed train ride was not as bad as we thought it would be. Florence is probably the most culturally impressive city in Italy, filled with beautiful cathedrals and museums. The city itself was packed with tourists, so lines to get into the more popular places were quite long. We went first to Galleria dell Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David, but we found the line to be too long and moving too slowly to wait. We instead visited the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, and the green and white marble Baptistry of San Giovanni. From there, we proceeded south to Palazzo Vecchio and the Basilica of Santa Croce, which houses the tombs of Michelangelo (last name is Buenarroti), Galileo, Marconi (inventor of the radio), and Machiavelli among others. We crossed Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in the city containing a plethora of jewelry shops, to Piazza dei Pitti containing the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. The square in front of the palace is slopped and was filled with hundreds of sun bathers when we passed by. We visited the church of San Spirito and then proceeded back to the train station. We passed by another merry-go-round where this time Sydney summoned up all her courage and took a ride with her big brother. Despite a look of terror on her face throughout the ride, she was determined to maintain her role as JP’s shadow, and was very proud of her accomplishment. We found a café where we sat and had a coffee before catching the night train back to Zurich.
Last ski weekend
On the last weekend of March, on Saturday, Jim and I ventured to skateboard and ski by our selves (a good friend babysat for us); It was a challenge and we had a lot of fun. On Sunday we took the kids sledding for the last time this season. We also got ready for our Easter trip to Italy.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Zoo and St. Patrick's day
3rd Week of March
JP at the Irish Fest holding a whiskey bottle
All dressed in green... Happy St. Patrick's day
JP and Syd at the Zurich Zoo holding an elephant tooth
Checking the elefants
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