Our summer has flown by! Melissa and I are all packed up and ready to go on our end-of-the-summer vacation to Venice, Florence, and the South of France. We are very excited. However, this is not the final blog post of the summer.
Melissa and I will post pictures once or twice during the trip. And we'll post one or two more times when we get back to the States.
For now, here's some pictures from the top of Mount Pilatus. I was so excited, we actually got to go up to the top. It was a great way to end the summer o' Switzerland - with mountains!
Like most cities (that I know of), Luzern has a summer festival every year. They bring in lots of bands, lots of food, and other entertainent and basically shut down the old part of town for a day. Needing to get out of the apartment, we decided to see what the fuss was about.
They had bands (I just had to take a picture of this band's name)
Good weather (although it was pretty hot on this particular day)
Typical festival food (mmmmm, chicken curry :) )
Water skiers (I swear, the announcer said something about Cypress Gardens in Florida, but I don't know if the ski team was from there, or got training there)
There is an imposing mountain that looms over Lucerne called Mount Pilatus. Legend has it that Pontius Pilate (yes, that guy) is buried under the mountain and that his ghost lives there, hence the name 'Pilatus'. Another old wives' tale says that dragons live on the mountain, which is why it always looks like there is smoke at the top.
I (Eric) have been itching to take the lift up to the top of Pilatus. But the day that we attempted, Pilatus looked like the picture you see above. So, given the distinct possibility of being able to see naught at the top, we decided to take the lift up only part way and hike around.
*Quick side note before I show you the pictures* On this particular day, I was wearing one of my University of Florida shirts
Well, we just happened to run across a tour group of high schoolers and their chaperons from...WILLISTON! No, seriously, Williston, FL! I found out when just about every member of the group gave me a 'Go Gators!' I was never really sure why a bunch of high schoolers got to go to Switzerland, but that little bit o' fun was one of the highlights of the day, and maybe even the summer, so I just had to share:)
Switzerland has been briefly held hostage by the World Cup. However, you might be surprised to learn that the Swiss are not as rabid of fans as, say, the Germans. I find this to be a bit strange given the fact that Switzerland is surrounded by Germany, Italy, France, England, Spain, and Holland. Really, the most ardent fans in the country have turned out to be immigrants. Yes, the Swiss like soccer, but not as much as passionately as their neighbors.
But I just needed to experience the world cup with the Swiss. So, a couple of weeks ago, Melissa and I went to a restaurant to watch a world cup game while surrounded by the Swiss (none of whom we knew). It was great - we sat at our table for ~2.5 hours and just had dinner and dessert. They don't seem to mind loitering so much, in fact, I think that it's somewhat encouraged.
Anyway, Switzerland was playing the last match of their group play and needed to win to advance. Sadly, they tied 0-0. We were so distraught :(
Happy 4th of July blog fans! We're not able to celebrate America's Independence Day as much as we would like while in Switzerland, so we're celebrating the best way we know how:
Eric posted about our trip to Lugano this past weekend, I think. I LOVED Lugano - it’s Italy, but in Switzerland (the Italian border is on the other side of the lake from the town, it’s very close to Lake Como), and if you know me you know my feelings about Italian food and culture in general. Gelato is definitely going to be in heaven, in my book.
Our day hiking in the sunshine on Friday was wonderful, especially in contrast to all the nasty weather we’d been having in Luzern, but my favorite was Friday evening, which officially was the best date night EVER. I challenge any husband/boyfriend out there to top it for your lady, because it included:
1. Risotto with fresh porcini mushrooms, with molten chocolate cake for dessert, outside on a beautiful piazza at dusk in perfect weather.
2. A dancing brass band.
3. A walk next to a lake in the Alps at sunset.
4. A live jazz band.
5. Giant boardgames.
6. A live symphony orchestra.
7. Everybody around us speaking Italian and making animated hand motions to go with their conversation, which is always really fun to be around and guess what they’re saying so passionately.
So Eric, well done sweet husband, I’m sure you personally arranged for there to be a music festival the night we were there...
So last weekend Melissa and I headed south to the Italian region of Switzerland, Ticino. We pretty much hadn't seen the sun in Lucerne for two weeks (kind of like Seattle) and we'd heard rumors of cloudless skies to the south. Melissa will post more details on the awesome evening we had the day we got there, but here are some pictures of the trip. I should note that the city we went to is called Lugano.
See, good weather! And of course, if you go to an Italian area, you must get gelato.
Here's some scenery and pictures from around the town
The cafe is fairly old and very delicious. We just had to eat there. And the frescos (paintings) are 'only' 400 years old. Surprisingly, the church in which the paintings were located was literally empty. It was hard to believe that people just don't care about these treasures.
