Friday, March 28, 2008
Un Buon Compleanno!
Fondue in a Swiss mountain chalet while it snows outside - what could be better than that for my birthday? 
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Whirlwind, Part 2 - Paris
Mom, Linda and I got back last night from our very, very busy trip to Paris. We saw so much in just three days, and in their words, I "tried to kill them in Paris." Hey, in three days, I wanted to see as much as possible!
Our flight got in around 8:30 on Monday, and we were to our hotel by 10am. We had some coffee and we were off. First on the list was Notre Dame. The line was so long, we decided to go back the next day to go inside, but here's the outside!
Next we walked around the Ile-de-la-Cite and the Seine, and made our way over to the Louvre. Here's me outside next to the pyramid entrance!
There were so many beautiful pieces in the Louvre to see - DaVincis (including the Mona Lisa - sooooooo crowded!!!), Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, Michelangelo's Slaves that were separated from the Sarah and Rachel that David and I saw in Rome at St. Peter in Chains. My favorite was Psyche and Eros.
After the Louvre, we went outside and it was raining, so we looked around for a cafe to have some onion soup - this place was perfect!
Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We took the lift up to the second level, but it was way too cold to go any further. While we were waiting in line, the lights all came on, so when we came back down, we got shots of the sparkling tower.
The next morning we started early to make sure to get into Notre Dame. My favorite part was all of the stained glass - this is one of the side windows.
We went back outside to stand in the cold for probably about an hour to go into the towers. The very top was closed that day, but that was okay because it started snowing when we were on the walkway between the two towers! The gargoyles were a highlight, and seeing them against the backdrop of the city was a great sight.
Here was Mom and Linda's favorite part of Paris - all the stairs!!! These were coming down from the towers in Notre Dame.
We walked along the river again, saw the Deportation Museum and skipped Saint Chapelle because of the lines. This is a shot of the Louvre from across the river.
Next was the Musee d'Orsay - an art museum that was originally a train station (can you tell?!) with lots of Impressionism as the highlight. My favorite was Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone. I can't believe I've now seen my two favorite Van Goghs that I've been admiring since my high school painting classes!
After the morning at d'Orsay, I drug Mom and Linda to the Rodin museum - a beautiful "house" and gardens covered with Rodin sculptures.
Then the Dome Church, to see Napolean's tomb.
And the Eiffel Tower just kept popping up around every corner! I loved getting different shots of it during different times of the day and in different lighting...
After lunch (by the way, DON'T try to eat in Paris at 4pm) we walked down the Champs-Elysees, mostly just to be able to say we walked down the Champs-Elysees. Here I am in front of Cartier.
Then we went to the Arc de Triomphe - guess what?! - more stairs!
But the views, again, were amazing. Linda had sent me a calendar of Paris for Christmas, and the photo for March was this view from the Arc. I had to recreate it!
My Mom and I on top of the Arc.
They thought I was going to get run over when I stood in the middle of the street to get this shot. Don't worry, there's a little space for pedestrians in the middle so people like me can get their straight-on shots of the Arc!
After a wonderful dinner at a Bistro, (and creme brulee!) we called it a day - a very, very long day. The next morning we went to Sacre Coeur and did a little souvenir shopping.
Then it was lunch in a little cafe and some more onion soup for me! We had to get going to the airport, but we had to make sure to visit a patisserie before we left Paris for some real French pastries!
It was a wonderful trip!
Next we walked around the Ile-de-la-Cite and the Seine, and made our way over to the Louvre. Here's me outside next to the pyramid entrance!
There were so many beautiful pieces in the Louvre to see - DaVincis (including the Mona Lisa - sooooooo crowded!!!), Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, Michelangelo's Slaves that were separated from the Sarah and Rachel that David and I saw in Rome at St. Peter in Chains. My favorite was Psyche and Eros.
After the Louvre, we went outside and it was raining, so we looked around for a cafe to have some onion soup - this place was perfect!
Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We took the lift up to the second level, but it was way too cold to go any further. While we were waiting in line, the lights all came on, so when we came back down, we got shots of the sparkling tower.
The next morning we started early to make sure to get into Notre Dame. My favorite part was all of the stained glass - this is one of the side windows.
We went back outside to stand in the cold for probably about an hour to go into the towers. The very top was closed that day, but that was okay because it started snowing when we were on the walkway between the two towers! The gargoyles were a highlight, and seeing them against the backdrop of the city was a great sight.
Here was Mom and Linda's favorite part of Paris - all the stairs!!! These were coming down from the towers in Notre Dame.
We walked along the river again, saw the Deportation Museum and skipped Saint Chapelle because of the lines. This is a shot of the Louvre from across the river.
Next was the Musee d'Orsay - an art museum that was originally a train station (can you tell?!) with lots of Impressionism as the highlight. My favorite was Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone. I can't believe I've now seen my two favorite Van Goghs that I've been admiring since my high school painting classes!
After the morning at d'Orsay, I drug Mom and Linda to the Rodin museum - a beautiful "house" and gardens covered with Rodin sculptures.
Then the Dome Church, to see Napolean's tomb.
And the Eiffel Tower just kept popping up around every corner! I loved getting different shots of it during different times of the day and in different lighting...
After lunch (by the way, DON'T try to eat in Paris at 4pm) we walked down the Champs-Elysees, mostly just to be able to say we walked down the Champs-Elysees. Here I am in front of Cartier.
Then we went to the Arc de Triomphe - guess what?! - more stairs!
But the views, again, were amazing. Linda had sent me a calendar of Paris for Christmas, and the photo for March was this view from the Arc. I had to recreate it!
My Mom and I on top of the Arc.
They thought I was going to get run over when I stood in the middle of the street to get this shot. Don't worry, there's a little space for pedestrians in the middle so people like me can get their straight-on shots of the Arc!
After a wonderful dinner at a Bistro, (and creme brulee!) we called it a day - a very, very long day. The next morning we went to Sacre Coeur and did a little souvenir shopping.
Then it was lunch in a little cafe and some more onion soup for me! We had to get going to the airport, but we had to make sure to visit a patisserie before we left Paris for some real French pastries!
It was a wonderful trip!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The Whirlwind, Part 1
My Mom and her friend Linda arrived on Thursday morning, and we haven't let them rest since! We've shown them around Milano, Gandria, Lugano, Montagnola, Venice, and Bellinzona so far. We picked them up from an airport in Milano and took them to the Duomo (David's and my third time there!) and walked to the top. It was such a clear day, you could see the Alps!
On Friday, we showed them around the area where we live: did the walk along the lake to Gandria, then downtown Lugano, Montagnola, and finally had dinner at a grotto. Here they are in along the lake in Lugano in front of Monte Bre.
We also went to the Alprose Chocolate Factory! Yum!!!
Saturday was Venice - here we are in front of St. Mark's Basilica. A friend from work, Andrea, came along, too. It was a cold but sunny day for the most part! And it was sooooo much more crowded than the last time we were there. It is definitely not off-season anymore!
We saw the Bridge of Sighs from the Doge's Palace to the prisons - odd to think that a place so pretty had such a sad purpose. If you don't already know (like me before I went there!), the story goes that the moans of the sentenced prisoners could be heard coming from the windows of the bridge, sounding like sighs.
After San Marco, we did a lot of shopping for glass and just walking around the city. The highlight of the day for Mom and Linda's were all the gondolas - alas, no Fabbios...
Today, Sunday, we went to church for the Easter service, then visited the Bellinzona Castles. We finally made it to Castelgrande! Here are my Mom, Linda, and Andrea from the castle walls.
In this shot of me and my Mom, you can see the two other castles in the background.
I still think the middle castle, Montebello, is my favorite. Mom and Linda liked the view of the mountains from Montebello, too.
Even though we woke up to snow this morning, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Buona Pasqua, tutti!
We're off next to Paris!
On Friday, we showed them around the area where we live: did the walk along the lake to Gandria, then downtown Lugano, Montagnola, and finally had dinner at a grotto. Here they are in along the lake in Lugano in front of Monte Bre.
We also went to the Alprose Chocolate Factory! Yum!!!
Saturday was Venice - here we are in front of St. Mark's Basilica. A friend from work, Andrea, came along, too. It was a cold but sunny day for the most part! And it was sooooo much more crowded than the last time we were there. It is definitely not off-season anymore!
We saw the Bridge of Sighs from the Doge's Palace to the prisons - odd to think that a place so pretty had such a sad purpose. If you don't already know (like me before I went there!), the story goes that the moans of the sentenced prisoners could be heard coming from the windows of the bridge, sounding like sighs.
After San Marco, we did a lot of shopping for glass and just walking around the city. The highlight of the day for Mom and Linda's were all the gondolas - alas, no Fabbios...
Today, Sunday, we went to church for the Easter service, then visited the Bellinzona Castles. We finally made it to Castelgrande! Here are my Mom, Linda, and Andrea from the castle walls.
In this shot of me and my Mom, you can see the two other castles in the background.
I still think the middle castle, Montebello, is my favorite. Mom and Linda liked the view of the mountains from Montebello, too.
Even though we woke up to snow this morning, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Buona Pasqua, tutti!
We're off next to Paris!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Snow...
Yes, snow. We left (mostly) sunny Ticino for part of our spring break to go to Salzburg, Austria where it SNOWED our first morning there! Our friends all took trips to Egypt and hot, sandy places, but not us! We went off to find more snow! On a 9-hour train ride!!!
The weather forecast did say rain/snow for Tuesday, but we really weren't expecting this when we looked out the window in the morning:
But Salzburg in the snow is beautiful, so we walked around to some of the sights in the city. Most of the major sights have to do either with Mozart since Salzburg is his birthplace and where he spent a lot of his early life, or The Sound of Music since several movie-locations were filmed here. Here are the steps where they sing "Do-Re-Mi".
The Mirabell Garden was beautiful in the snow that morning!
We went next to Mozart's Geburtshaus (birth-house).
By this time, the snow had stopped. We took the funiculare to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which towers over the city (when it's clear and not snowing!). Here is a view of the city from it.
Inside the fortress:
This is a shot of one of the state rooms, or living quarters for the local prince, within the fortress. It was so different from other castles or palaces we've been to because of the dark, wooden detailing. In Madrid and Nurnberg, there were many rooms decorated with bright, colorful porcelain and mirrors - this looked so much more rustic. It is supposed to be one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in Europe.
We took the funiculare back down and visited St. Peter's cemetery, the model for where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazis in SOM, and saw this beautiful view of the fortress from there - and look at the sky!!! This is the same day is was snowing!!!!
So with what was turning out to be a beautiful day, we back-tracked to see all of the sights we had seen in the morning with the snow now melted away. Here's a shot back in Mirabell Garden, of one of the statues that also makes an appearance in SOM.
Look! No more snow! And you can see the fortress from the Garden, too! The snow had also been covering all of the beautiful pansies in the Garden.
To get in some more SOM sights, we went to the Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria really was a novice and the movie shot some more scenes.
On our way back from dinner that evening, we stopped to take this shot from a bridge between the old and new towns.
Austrian food, by the way, was very good. Very similar to what we had in the German cities we visited, but some different flavors. We had lots of meats, sausages, potatoes, sauerkraut, and the BEST dessert - Salzburger Nockerl, which was described as a souffle but we thought was more like creamy meringue. They made it fresh, so it was still warm, and it had warm berries in sauce underneath it. We took a picture, but since the outside of it is toasted brown almost like a marshmallow and it's so huge (it would have been enough for 4, not 2 people!), everyone who's seen the picture thinks it's a turkey - so I'll leave it up to your imagination rather than spoiling the image by making you think of that!
On our last day in the city, we went to Mozart's Wohinhaus, where his family moved when he was 17. It's now a museum with some of his original musical instruments. The audioguide played different compositions in each room, sometimes on the original instruments, so it was very neat.
On our way back to the hotel to get the dogs and get ready to head back to Lugano, we walked one last time through the Mirabell Garden. Auf Wiedersehen, Austria!
But Salzburg in the snow is beautiful, so we walked around to some of the sights in the city. Most of the major sights have to do either with Mozart since Salzburg is his birthplace and where he spent a lot of his early life, or The Sound of Music since several movie-locations were filmed here. Here are the steps where they sing "Do-Re-Mi".
The Mirabell Garden was beautiful in the snow that morning!
We went next to Mozart's Geburtshaus (birth-house).
By this time, the snow had stopped. We took the funiculare to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which towers over the city (when it's clear and not snowing!). Here is a view of the city from it.
Inside the fortress:
This is a shot of one of the state rooms, or living quarters for the local prince, within the fortress. It was so different from other castles or palaces we've been to because of the dark, wooden detailing. In Madrid and Nurnberg, there were many rooms decorated with bright, colorful porcelain and mirrors - this looked so much more rustic. It is supposed to be one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in Europe.
We took the funiculare back down and visited St. Peter's cemetery, the model for where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazis in SOM, and saw this beautiful view of the fortress from there - and look at the sky!!! This is the same day is was snowing!!!!
So with what was turning out to be a beautiful day, we back-tracked to see all of the sights we had seen in the morning with the snow now melted away. Here's a shot back in Mirabell Garden, of one of the statues that also makes an appearance in SOM.
Look! No more snow! And you can see the fortress from the Garden, too! The snow had also been covering all of the beautiful pansies in the Garden.
To get in some more SOM sights, we went to the Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria really was a novice and the movie shot some more scenes.
On our way back from dinner that evening, we stopped to take this shot from a bridge between the old and new towns.
Austrian food, by the way, was very good. Very similar to what we had in the German cities we visited, but some different flavors. We had lots of meats, sausages, potatoes, sauerkraut, and the BEST dessert - Salzburger Nockerl, which was described as a souffle but we thought was more like creamy meringue. They made it fresh, so it was still warm, and it had warm berries in sauce underneath it. We took a picture, but since the outside of it is toasted brown almost like a marshmallow and it's so huge (it would have been enough for 4, not 2 people!), everyone who's seen the picture thinks it's a turkey - so I'll leave it up to your imagination rather than spoiling the image by making you think of that!
On our last day in the city, we went to Mozart's Wohinhaus, where his family moved when he was 17. It's now a museum with some of his original musical instruments. The audioguide played different compositions in each room, sometimes on the original instruments, so it was very neat.
On our way back to the hotel to get the dogs and get ready to head back to Lugano, we walked one last time through the Mirabell Garden. Auf Wiedersehen, Austria!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Snow Boglia
Remember that mountain we hiked last weekend? Yesterday we had a cloudy, rainy day in Montagnola. When it rains here, you don't even know there are mountains around us because it is so cloudy. But this morning we woke up to a bright, beautiful blue-sky day. We looked up at Monte Boglia from our window - yep! It SNOWED up there yesterday! We can't believe it was in the 70s last week and now this!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Hiking Monte Boglia
What a beautiful day in the Ticino! It was one of the clearest days in a long time, and in the 70's! We went with a group of friend and hiked "the bowl" - you know, that mountain I'm always taking pictures of? The one we said we have to do before we leave Lugano? That one!
Here's a shot of it from the parking lot of the school before we left. It was so clear and sunny! Usually in the mornings, it's hazy until around 10, but this morning was sunny from the time we woke up.
David drove a van of seven of us up many, many switchbacks to the village of Bre. We took a wrong turn and ended up turning around with the side mirrors of the van pushed in - that was fun! From Bre, here is the sign we saw. Luckily, even with me bringing up the rear, we made it in only about 2 hours instead of the 3 listed on the sign. 
From the beginning of the hike, it was really interesting to look up at the bowl to see different angles of this mountain we see every day. I think we might try to do it again later in the spring since it will be greener then!
We had great views of Monte Rosa, the highest mountain entirely in Switzerland. It's really strange to see snow when you're standing in shorts in 70-degree weather!
Here is the ridge of the bowl - we're almost to the top! (Actually, I'm almost to the top, everyone else is there already at this point!)
Here's the summit! 1516 meters/4973 feet.
After we were at the summit for a while, a family with this dog arrived - he loved this patch of snow at the top. Talk about a Swiss mountain dog.
A shot from the summit - when we zoom into this photo, we can actually see the campus and the church with the cypress trees!
A shot from the summit - when we zoom into this photo, we can actually see the campus and the church with the cypress trees!
Our group at the summit - what a great day!
The descent.
Victory!
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