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I preface this blog by saying that the pictures do not do Switzerland justice. Just imagine you are there with the icy fresh breeze, vibrant green meadows, and gray clouds that make the snow on the peaks of the deep purple-blue mountains glow a vividly bright white.
We toured the gorgeous Swiss mountains with David and Marikka while on our way down towards Italia. David's parents live in a valley that is nestled between grandiose snow-capped mountains and they very courteously invited us for dinner in their home. It was quite an experience driving to their house because, to get there, you load your car onto a train into what look like cattle cars and the train pulls you right under a mountain through a dark black tunnel. It was a little creepy and once again we had a Willy Wonka experience because it looked exactly like the scene where they are on the pink candy wonka yacht being hurtled through the dark passageways with eerie low glow lights swirling by. I'm going to say our whole vacation has been a mix of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings.
After driving off the train car we drove through what David calls the classic is Heidi-Land. Beautiful hilly green pastures full of yellow flowers, classic Wooden Swiss houses displaying beautiful painted shutters, and lots of Swiss cows. We drove past gray swiss cows, brown swiss cows, mottled swiss cows, and black swiss cows that look like Ferdinand the bull. The deep black cows were wearing huge bells. David informed us that a popular sport in Switzerland is to have fighting cow (no not bull) matches. Apparently this special breed of cow keep a very strict hierarchy and the bells sound differently depending on how dominant the cow is. They place the most dominant heifers in a ring and quickly find out who the queen of the cows is.
We arrived at David's parents in the evening and we sat on their glass encased dining room with views of bright green wineries and purple-blue snow capped mountains. Paul and Dominique spoiled us and treated us to foie gras and a fresh salad with asparagus to start! They also treated us to some wonderful wine, tender porkloin with carrots and fries, and to top it off a dessert of fresh strawberries in tart cups with Swiss chocolate. We were in heaven and managed to thank them with our butchered French phrases. Merci beaucoup!!! Afterwards they sent us off into the violet, blue, and pink twilight of the valley towards their cabin in mountains. We drove up and up through multiple hair-pin turns to get to St. Luc, the small town where the cabin is. The views were spectacular and we saw villages and chapels nestled in the cliffs of the mountains.
The cabin itself used to be a storage shed but David's grandfather converted it into a gorgeous guesthouse. The entire cabin has amazing golden brown woodworking throughout it's three stories and is decorated with what look like years and years of family heirlooms. There are two balconies overlooking the peaks of the Swiss mountains and we were so high up that it seemed as though we could be even with the snowy peaks. They even have a view of the Matterhorn from their upper balcony. We slept that night on cushy little beds with down pillows and blankets. I only awoke once to the sound of Matt tumbling down the stairs. To get to the bathroom on the bottom floor you must descend two flights of very steep steps with a thick rope along the wall to guide you. Unfortunately Matt missed a step and slid down a flight of stairs ending in a very loud "boom!!" Three startled voices called out "you ok there." Matt has a nice purple Swiss souvenir on his hiney :) Overall though the trip to St. Luc was spectacular and I felt as though I was on the leg of the lord of the rings journey where they are trekking up towards Cahadras through the peaks of the snow capped mountains. Except of course for the fact that we were able to pass and a wizard wasn't trying to smush us with rocks ;)
Here I am 2312 Zurich time stuffed to the gills after a BBQ that consisted of various meats and the only veggie as corn; what a real BBQ should be like. Well, to think back on the whirl wind week - flying for 24 hours (with the time change) is not recommended. And the best way to get over the time change is to stay up really late and then sleep for 13 hrs like we did. It puts you on a time zone somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. So not fully adjusted to the time zone, the next best thing to do is get in the rental car and drive 6 hrs through the countryside with a gps that you really don't fully know how to work but has a pleasing british accent and tells you that the turn is in 200 yards. Yeah everying talks distances in yards, so I think - okay the turn is two football fields away. Then I really don't know how fast I am going because it is in kph, but again that pleasing voice says BEWARE, BEWARE anytime you go over the speed limit. Also trying to get gas in another country is challenging, the signs are in german, so i was hoping that I put the right gas in the car and that one of the cards would work because I did not have enough cash. The price of gas is €1.659 per litre, about $75 for 3/4 of a tank. Driving in paris - don't do it - it is a cross between go kart racing and mario kart. Hammer the gas, stomp on the brakes, watch out for the people, watch out for the signals, hand on the horn just in case the guy in front of you is a little slow or about to hit you. I thought that the bicyclists and pedestrians in davis were the worst, Paris has it hands down. People jumping out from behind cars, scooters everywhere flying down the middle lanes in between cars at stop lights. The smart cars are everywhere as well and they act like they own the road, must have small car syndrome. Walking was much more enjoyable in Paris. The sights were amazing and the food was even better. The tower de Eiffel was neat. The camera that I bought right before the trip got a good work out while we were here, so far I think I have taken over 1000 pictures, mostly at the louvre. So many things to see and take pictures of. The tower at night was a sight - too bad that everyone else wants to be there at sunset too. Waching the protests were fun, everyone has problems, but it makes it a little better when they are shouting in a language that you cannot understand; easier to tune out. Leaving paris in rush hour traffic is another fun time, avoid if possible. Now that we are actually on the right time, Zurich is a little better, even though it was voted the second most boring city in the world behind Brussels. Lots of banks to see. The mountains around Zurich are picturesque and I got a lot of the views on camera. We saw castles, forign poeple, the sixth smallest counrty in the world, and two chocolate factories. We finally got a day to rest and recover, now we are gearing up for the next leg, Italy - if you want a quick heads up on Italy, go watch the Italian man goes to Malta on you tube or Family Guy's Peter goes to the Itailain Deli in the mustache episode.
Visiting Paris in May was a breathtaking experience. Even our 6 hour drive from Zurich to Paris was full of beauty. We passed through the French countryside with its bright green pastures and shockingly yellow fields of mustard flowers. Storm clouds passed overhead in multiple shades of gray, which only made the mustard flowers stand out more vibrantly.
The drive to Paris was a straight shot and an easy trip but once in the city I thought we were going to get run off the road. There was no time to enjoy the beautiful views of Paris when we drove into the city because all the zip cars were constantly accelerating from 0-60 and honking their horns mercilessly. There are no traffic lines indicating lanes and what you think is one lane is actually three. And let me tell you, the drivers surrounding you are pissed when you are taking up three lanes of traffic. I had to stare at the gps and scream out directions to Matt. Matt said he had to pretend he was in a video game. Ahhh!!! old lady on the left, car jolting across traffic on the right, frick.. kid kicking ball into street, jwalkers everywhere...shit Matt just gooooooo!!! I thought I was going to have a heart attack and I'm pretty sure Matt wanted to evict me from the car. But, despite my nagging screams, eventually he started having fun and joined in the sprint car race fun. With only minor roundabout mistakes and some major honking fests, we successfully made it to our little hotel near the Louvre and were surprised to find that our room was larger than expected, painted a pale yellow, and featureing cute little paintings of red flowers that matched the planted red flowers on the terrace right outside. We wasted no time on the room though, grabbed our map of Paris, and took off to see the sights.
Day One - Napoleon's Tomb and the Eiffel Tower:
For our first outing in Paris we decided to visit Napoleon's Tomb in the Hotel des Invalides and the Eiffel Tower. We walked from our hotel through the center of the Louvre where the glass pyramid stands and I was immediately blown away by the architecture. The Louvre is an impressive gray stone bulding surrounding a cobblestone courtyard. Everywhere you look on the building there are sombre faced statues and dark glass windows. You feel as though you are in timless place and everyone is standing in quiet awe. No one speaks and it is eerily quiet in the Louvre courtyard.
From the Louvre, we walked along the Seine which was reflecting the passing storm clouds in it's mirror-like waters. We ended up a little lost and a little nervous considering we accidentally stumbled upon protesters that had encouraged some very scary looking soldiers to emerge carrying large guns and tear gas canisters. One of the gunmen saw our confused faces and pointed us in the correct direction. Yikes! Marikka says we should brag about the fact that we survived a protest in Paris. We even saw police buses full of protesters holding signs up to the windows asking for people to call certain embassies. I'm guessing you probably wouldn't want to accidentally get caught up in all of that. But we successfully made it to the Hotel des Invalides that houses Napoleon's tomb and were again blown away by the grandeur of the building. It was like walking into a huge marble cathedral with beautiful painted ceilings. The only difference is that you look down into a huge chasm in the floor to see Napoleons' black marble tomb. If you look up while in the center of the Hotel des Invalides, you get the feeling you are very small and insignificant. I just wish I knew the history of Napoleons' reign more fully. Someone will have to explain it to me. He is idolized by the French but the French exiled him to an island and poisoned him??? After touring the Hotel Invalides we walked through the military academy and the war museum within. The military academy was amazing because you could easily picture soldiers in bright blue uniforms riding white Lipizzaners through the cobblestone center court that is lined with brass cannons.
The war museum housed gruesome paintings of destroyed corpses and dioramas of war scenes from WWI and WWII. One of the painting displayed a man with a horrified look on his face as two of his friends were blown away by mortars and bullets. Nothing in this museum was for the faint of heart. There were even plaster casts of faces that were horribly disfigured in the war. I am quite convinced that I would have quickly lost my mind in the war trenches.
From the war museum we walked through back streets to the Eiffel Tower by keeping the tower in view. I was surprised to find that the Eiffel Tower looks pink in the sunlight. We ended up sitting on a bench watching the sun shining on the tower and people picnicking in the grass below.
We were laughing at a dad playing fetch (no not catch) with his 3 year old daughter. After taking in the Eiffel tower we walked back toward the Louvre along the Seine that was now reflecting the setting sun amidst the storm clouds.To end our first day in Paris we sat in a little cafe near our hotel, and shared a nice Bordeaux at a candle-lit table. We had no problems speaking to our waitress because she was ironically from San Diego (so much for ambiance).
Day Two - The Louvre:
We got up early on day two and headed over to the Louvre to be some of the first people in line. I ended up getting in for free under the kids price (25 and under) which made us laugh. In order to avoid the Mona Lisa lines, we headed over to see her first. It was indeed a small painting but it was fun to see considering it is such a famous painting. We left Mona after a few minutes and continued on through the amazing French, Italian, and Spanish paintings. There were a lot of paintings of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and scenes of the Resurrection. But of course there were also paintings of dogs, horses, and club footed boys ;)
The details in the paintings were incredible and the colors were insanely vivid. One of my favorites was a painting of the great flood because of the emotion portrayed in the scene. In the forefront of the painting a man was desperately trying to pull his drowning horse out of the rushing flood-waters.
From the paintings we moved on to the sculptures and the bright white stone and marble was displayed in the well lit portions of the Louvre, making the sculptures glow. My favorite was an Italian sculpture by Antonio Canova of Cupid Awakening Psyche (1793). It was a delicate statue of cupid embracing psyche and was described as "love carved in stone." Not to be outdone though, the French sculptures of Triton's Seahorse and Dianna the Huntress with her faithful dogs were equally impressive. The sculptures were my favorite because it seemed as though they could come alive and walk off of their stone pedestals. It is amazing to me that the artists were able to sculpt such lively detail into such hard stone and marble. We also toured egyptian antiquities, the medieval louvre and Greek antiquities. We walked for 6 hours straight and by the end of the day, I could barely stand on my feet. But it was definitely worth the pain :)
We left the Louvre and bought fresh Pain au Ciocolat from a nearby pattiserie. The Pain au Ciocolat was flaky on the outside with a perfect chewy center filled with melt in your mouth fresh cocolate. Nothing will ever compare and I won't be able to enjoy my Pete's coffee chocolate croissants in the same way that I used to. Back at our hotel room we had a peppermint foot soak and a nap. Once I could feel my feet again we decided it would be fun to actually pay to go up the Eiffel Tower at sunset and see all of Paris in the light and the dark on one ticket. Once again we decided to walk to get the most out of our time in Paris and we walked to the Eiffel Tower by way of the gardens outside the Louvre and on past the Arc de Triomphe.
The Arc was of course gorgeous in the setting sun and the sculptures set into the giant structure were dark against the light stone which made it seem as though they were jumping out of the arc. We made it to the Eiffel Tower just in time to catch the setting sun and we took the elevators all the way to the top of the tower. It was somewhat of a daunting experience to be in a tiny elevator packed with people climbing the giant tower at fast speeds. They were glass elevators and I felt a bit like Charlie in Wonka's glass elevator as they were being hurled upwards towards the cieling after pressing the up and out button. But once again we survived and could see all of Paris from the top of the tower (it was a clear night) and the view of the Paris lights in the dark while standing on the lit tower was spectacular.
All of the major structures glowed in multi-colored lights. The moon was 3/4 full and we were so high up it seemed as though you could reach out and touch it. The only downside to this treck were the obnoxious rose pushers who attacked us when we were on the ground again. These guys were literally stabbing me with roses. Their game was that they would get the rose into any open pockets, yell no givsies-backsies, and then try to force money out of the guy you were with. After feeling on top of the world these pushers were very unwelcome. But we made it past them at a brisk pace and stood on the bridges of the Seine watching the glowing tower shining and reflected in the black waters of the Seine with the bright yellow moon in the background. And we made it to a nice cafe just before midnight closing time and once again sipped a nice Bordeaux and ate the most amazing creme brulee that I have ever tasted.
