An unplanned afternoon...

So when I arrived at the train station on Sunday on my way back from Madrid, the sidewalks and the area near the lake were packed with people, and there were men in military uniforms all over the place. Apparently, the Swiss Air Force was having an air show over the lake - and since I had my camera with me, here are some pictures I thought you'd enjoy. If you can blow them up, check out the Swiss cross painted on one side of the planes.

Buenos Dias!

Our trip to Madrid was fantastic!!! David went for a conference, so I bought a plane ticket and found my own way there to meet him. Can you believe I did all of that traveling by myself? When I arrived, David met me at the airport - he was done with his sessions of the conference for the afternoon, so first on the list of things to do in Madrid was to find the Puerta del Sol - the center of the city, and of Spain. They actually have a "kilometer 0" plaque on the ground in front of the government building. It also has the first and oldest "billboard" in Madrid!

So if by now you haven't noticed a recurring theme of ours - experiencing cities by their traditional foods - you will after this post! Next on the list was to find some churros and hot chocolate. This kind of hot chocolate has a consistency somewhere between pudding and melted chocolate. Dipping the churros is the way to go!

There are so many museums and galleries in Madrid. We went to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia first - so many famous paintings that were amazing to see first-hand, including Picasso's Guernica.

We also saw two more great sites - Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts! Unfortunately, Starbucks doesn't have eggnog and gingerbread lattes at this time of the year like in the States... sigh...

The Prado, "one of the world's greatest art galleries", was next on our list. You can tell why it's billed as one of the greatest - more masterpieces that I never thought I'd see anywhere but in a book! Favorites were Las Meninas by Velazquez, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch, and the Goya's Black Paintings.

When we left, the moon was shining over a church behind El Prado and it was just such a beautiful scene - this shot doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea.

Tapas was next on the list to experience - I've had tapas in the States at a great restaurant in Boston, and some in Madrid were actually similar! The first night was kind of quiet - we went to one place with friends and then called it a night at maybe 11? For Madrilenos, this is way too early. Many places don't even open until 9, and "dinner" is at 11! But we got enough tapas at this place to call it dinner - our waitress was great, recommending things to us and bringing us little extras. The next day, David had to go back to the conference, so I went on a walk through "Old Madrid" - first back to Puerta del Sol, to Plaza Mayor, where bullfights and Spanish Inquisition executions happened...

past some amazing architecture in all of the different plazas along the way...

and on to Palacio Real, the Palace of the King and Queen of Spain. They don't actually live there, but they do use it for ceremonies and so on - they close it to the public when they're in. Luckily, they weren't in, so I could take the tour! No pictures allowed inside any of the rooms, but here's the view from the Plaza de la Armeria.

Probably one of my favorite rooms in the palace was the Gasparini Room - the dressing room for the king! The ceiling was almost overwhelming with its details - it was molded stucco, but painted, with fruits and vines in dark oranges and greens. There were, I think, 6 gigantic mirrors in the room, all at least 4-5 feet off the floor, because the king would get dressed on a platform. Here's a view of the scene from the palace, back out in the Plaza - I guess it's good to be king!

Still waiting for David to be done with the conference, I went to Madrid's cathedral, Nuestra Senora de la Almudena - only finished in 1993! It had a beautiful organ inside. The outside actually seems to be too simple and almost governmental in its structure to reveal what you see inside - the altars, windows, and sculptures are so intricate and lavish.

I then found my way to Plaza de Espana - with the building Torre de Madrid in the background, an obelisk with a statue of Cervantes, with Don Quixote on his horse and Sancho Panza on his donkey in front. This is one of those shots I saw in all of the books about Madrid, so I had to recreate it!

After a walk down Gran Via and some souvenier shopping, I met David for a walk through Parque del Retiro - a huge park on the eastern side of the city with beautiful monuments, buildings, lakes, and many walkways throughout. One strange site was somewhat of a garden of gatos, as I saw it! There were at least 10 cats in this one small grove of trees. All different colors, and very well-cared for and clean - we have no idea what they were doing there!

We spent Saturday night doing the requisite tapas crawl of Madrid. Starting with Taberna Los Austrias - yum, chorizo, manchego...

On to La Casa del Abuelo, which only has shrimp and drinks. There's a picture of Danny Divito on the wall, as well as a "We Prohibit Singing" sign (in Spanish of course). You drop your shrimp peelings on the floor, or get the peeled ones that come in sizzling garlic and hot-pepper oil.

We tried one more before heading in for the evening - Casa Toni - huge plates of fried eggplant and jalapenos. We even met a couple from the U.S. who was there on the same recommendation from Rick Steves. What an experience!!! So this weekend was definitely a whirlwind of a trip, but also definitely worth it. We did so much, and had so much fun!

Fitted Sheets: The only area where America outranks Switzerland in efficiency?

I just spent the last half-hour making our bed. Usually, this is something that David and I do together when we change sheets. However, he's working, and I wanted it done now. I know better for next time. This wouldn't seem like such a complicated event, but in America, we are apparently spoiled with the convenience of fitted sheets. Our cleaning lady (yes, I realize that this somewhat negates any complaints we are allowed to voice about having to do things such as making a bed ourselves, but bear with me) brought a second set of sheets the other day, to add to the fitted sheet we brought from the US and the mismatched top sheet the school provided. With our upcoming trip this weekend and my new full-time duties at the elementary school (did I mention that yet?), we are scrambling to do things like laundry, so instead of washing the fitted sheet and put it right back on as usual, I decided to throw it onto the laundry pile and try these other sheets in the meantime. Two flat sheets. After somewhat successfully folding not-so-hospital-corners on the bottom sheet, I unfolded the second sheet only to notice that it was several feet larger in area than the one I had just spent several minutes folding onto the bed. This, I realized, was probably supposed to be the real bottom sheet, since the one I had already used didn't quite fit all the way underneath. Looking back, I had thought about why it was so short, won't it come out from under the bed? I think I might have actually stood over the bed for several minutes deciding if I just wanted to leave it that way or switch the two. Of course, I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing that the sheets were on the wrong way, so I changed them, folding new hospital-corners and wondering to myself how the Swiss could possibly be so behind in bed-linen technology as to not yet be aware of fitted sheets. On the plus side, the pillow cases have little flaps so you know the pillows will never fall out...

Mercatino di Natale, Bioggio

Boun Natale, tutti! It's time for Christmas Markets all over Europe! Every little village around here has one - we went to Bioggio on Sunday, expecting a few stands, but it was much larger than that! This shot also shows a common sight around here right now - the persimmon trees!

There were craft stands, and it was funny to me how similar the crafts were to those that would be at a similar market in the States. Some door-signs and things were even in English - "Let it snow!" somehow didn't seem to fit in... One craft we noticed that we might have to bring home as a sovenier were painted roof-tiles. Look back in some of the photos from past entries and you'll see the teracotta roof-tiles on so many of the buildings in this area. The craftsmen at the market had painted Christmas scenes or flowers on the tiles. We didn't find one we loved at this market, but since every village is having their version of a Mercatino di Natale in the next few weeks, I'm sure we'll see them again!

There were also, of course, lots of food and beverage stands, both to sample and to buy. They had the usual meats and cheeses, like salame di cervo (deer)... Many stands of crafts also had a little section of home-made jams or liquors. We found Specialita della Nonna - (Grandma's specialty) which tasted a little bit like eggnog. We bought a bottle to save until Christmas Eve. We also found marmellata di castagne (chestnut marmalade), mulled wine, and these adorable little bread-people, called "omina" if I'm remembering the sign correctly. They actually taste a little like choereg.

It's not snowing here, but I have a feeling it might sooner or later - it has been very cold here lately! Fa freddo!!! Oh well, so much for the mediteranian climate! Although we are a little jealous of Pennsylvania's snow during Thanksgiving week! I think I'll be eating ham on Thursday... and David will be in Madrid. Again, oh well!

Apple Pie Better than McDonald's

Hi All! No pictures to go along with this post, but I couldn't resist telling you all about my evening. I had my eight 11th-grade advisees over for dinner tonight. Only one is American, meaning the rest are a very diverse group! I made home-made pizza and home-made apple pie for dessert. Most of them didn't even know what the apple pie was when I brought it out. We had to talk about the expression "As American as apple pie!" One student said he had never had real apple pie before, only from McDonald's. There was almost a drum-roll as they all tasted it (except for the American, of course, I think he got just as much of a kick out of all of this as I did!) I am happy to report that they thought it was better than McDonald's. Although, don't tell McD's that!

Cioccolati e Castelli a Bellinzona

We didn't think we'd be able to manage a trip this weekend since it was Parent's Weekend, but after a spur-of-the-moment chat with some other faculty members, we ended up in Bellinzona - the town of castles. It also happened to be Giornate di Cioccolato (Chocolate Days!) so that didn't hurt! The cioccolati was fantastic, of course, it's Switzerland! All the stands were in a palazzo, which is a kind of courtyard. The building itself was fascinating. It had canton flags, and noble-family crests in some of the upstairs rooms. One thing we really enjoyed was the hot chocolate, made with melted chocolate bars and cream - so thick and rich! And there were so many other stands for tasting - I think I mentioned before that samples here seem to be very generous. They even had a room set up where you could get chocolate body-painting, buy chocolate shampoo, or get a chocolate face-mask. After we had our fill of chocolate, we visited two of the three castles. They are so well-preserved and they are now historical sites, so you can walk through and explore them. One even has a restaurant in it now, another has a picnic areas outside where you can sit and pretend you're living hundreds of years ago. From Castello di Sasso Corbaro, the most "recently" built castle, you can see the other two castles, since this one was built after a battle so that the inhabitants would have a better vantage point for protecting the area. You can see Castelgrande (the biggest, hence the name) from this shot - and if you look closely enough through the trees at the bottom of the shot, you can see the third castle, Castello di Montebello, which we also visited.

Here are some more shots from inside the Sasso Corbaro walls. The dogs had a fun, tiring day. They don't seem to understand the concept of looking at the camera, though! This next shot is probably one of my favorites that I've taken here. The castle (again, Sasso Corbaro) behind the fall leaves is just so beautiful. It was the perfect autumn day and with the yellow leaves falling all around and the castle as a backdrop, it just was amazing.

From there we went on to Castello di Montebello (named for the "beautiful mountain" it sits on). The inside of this castle was just what you imagine a castle to be - almost a little town inside of the stone walls. There was a chapel and little buildings built into the castle walls, courtyards and stairways that led to what looked like dungeons and you could even see signs of "plumbing" - troughs dug into the ground. But the best part was that it had a moat!

Okay, so there was no water in it, but you at least got the effect! Logan of course was completely freaked out by the drawbridge because it wobbled as you walked across it. This was actually part of the outer wall - you could walk along the top of this wall and see the surrounding area. They've of course put up metal walkways for safety, like you see in this shot of David and Lucy.

So for not planning on doing anything this week, what a great day trip! And Bellinzona is only about 30-45 minutes from Lugano. David's on duty this coming weekend - we'll see what else we can find in the area...

Como

This weekend, I was on duty - so why not make the most of it and offer to take the students on a trip to a place we'd like to see as well? David and I thought we'd go to Como to see the sights and explore another area town - it's only about 45 minutes away, just over the Italian border from Lugano and Chiasso. Como's current claims to fame are the various movies that have been filmed there - Star Wars Episode II, Casino Royale, Ocean's Twelve... and George Clooney loved it so much he bought a few places on the lake. Unfortunately, we didn't run into him, but we did see some pretty fall views and sit next to the lake drinking our cappuccini and sfoglie cioccolata (puff pastry filled with chocolate!) So you'll never believe what we did see while we were there - yep, churches! Here's Saint James:

This was one of those churches that just popped out of nowhere while you walk along one of the cobblestone pedestrian areas, and just towers above all the other buildings around you so that you can't imagine why you didn't or couldn't see it before then. We walked to the lake, which has a walking path and parks along it near the main part of the city. I love this shot because of the swan gliding on the lake as I took the picture.

We then took the funicolare to view the city from the top of the mountain - one of the best things about this was that we could see the AutoStrada which we travel on all of the time - and we were higher than it! If you could see that far through the haze, you'd be able to look at Switzerland from this shot!

If we make it back, next time we're going to take a boat ride on the lake where they apparently point out GC's house, and visit Villa Balbianello, where they filmed the wedding scene for Episode II -but we'd have to wait for the spring since it closes in October!