Category: European Trip Blog, 2017

August 6, 2017. Sunday. Scotland. It’s really not fair to speed date countries like we’ve been doing this summer. Still: Scotland impressed us all. The charm of Edinburgh; the beauty of the coast and beaches; castles (active and ruins) seemingly every few miles; the vast and gorgeous highlands with sweeping vistas and lochs (lakes) lined with hills and mountains; the amazing glens (valleys) that snake between mountains and alongside of rivers, and listening to local radio channels and trying (unsuccessfully) to master a Scottish accent.

This is was our last planned long weekend trip. We loaded up on the early train out of London on Friday morning and arrived at 12:20 pm – an easy 4 hr 20 minute ride, with only a few stops. Edinburgh, as we found out belatedly, is known worldwide for its festivals in August. The population of the city doubles and its streets are filled crowds, vendors, and actors trying to get you to come to their shows. Ironically, August is also the rainiest month of the year in Edinburgh, which makes you wonder if they couldn’t have picked a nicer month.

True to form, we arrived in a cold rain. At any rate, the city was indeed full. We took a bus from the train station to our flat, on the outskirts of the downtown. After settling in, we took the bus back downtown and walked up to the castle (quite literally, as it is high on a hill). Oddly, in the large open space approaching the castle from High Street was a huge half stadium that apparently is only erected for the month of August, primarily for the Scottish military “tattoo” (band). Anyway, the castle would have cost a lot of money for all six of us, plus the stadium would have blocked some of the views, it was raining, etc. etc. So we opted not to go in. Instead, we walked down the “Royal Mile” – a long straight mile downhill from the Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Royal Mile has sections that are mostly pedestrian areas, especially at the higher end, and shops, pubs, cafes, and hotels line the street for the entire stretch. It’s usually quite nice, I imagine, but it was really full of festival attendees and tourists.

After stopping at a few shops, we opted for a free tour from the Chamber of Commerce folks. It turned out to be a private tour, and although the lady was nice, she was too long-winded for our timeframe, so we had to quit after 45 minutes. We were able to take in St. Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile, where John Knox (the famous Scottish theologian and Protestant Reformer) pastored and is buried – somewhere under the parking lot just outside the cathedral (a plaque on the ground of the parking lot commemorates him). We also explored a few of Edinburgh’s famous “closes” – super small side alleys that go down the hill on either side of High Street / The Royal Mile.

From there we walked to the “Car Park” to pick up our rental car – which we later dubbed Rickey Scott (previous rental car names include: Louis – France rental van, after King Louis XIV and Mumbles, the Wales rental car, after the first large beach we got to. Our cars at home have names: our Odyssey is Willy and the Prius is Finn). We drove down the rest of the Royal Mile, past the Holyroodhouse Palace, and to the parking lot of Arthur’s Seat, for what we thought was a relatively short hike up a large hill in Edinburgh. The rain had mercifully stopped. As it turned out, it was quite a hike, although lovely and well worthwhile. The trail wound around, up and down, and finally plateaued just before the pinnacle, where there was high winds, lots of sunshine, and a really pretty full rainbow. The kids got a kick out of using their jackets as sails to allow the wind to carry them across the nice grassy area near the top. A short ascent, and we were at the very top, with panoramic views. We opted for the shorter and easier way back to the car, and back to a restaurant near our flat for a late dinner and eventual bedtime. (BTW, rather annoyingly, Scottish pubs don’t allow kids in them after 8 pm – totally opposite of English pubs, which welcome kids at all times with open arms, even right at the bar, it seems. We got kicked out of one rather unceremoniously before opting for a different place.)

Saturday morning we rolled out of bed early and headed for the highlands. Our route took us past Glasgow and into Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. We stopped briefly at the base of the long, skinny Loch Lomond (as almost all the lakes are here) to see the views and touch the water. Our first major stop was at beautiful Rest and Be Thankful Pass (yes, that’s what it is called). It required a long, slow ascent up the mountains to a pass that afforded lovely views back down the valley. We ate our packed lunch while taking in those views and then continued back the same way to Loch Lomond and then north towards Glencoe. The route to Glencoe takes you really into the heart of the highlands, with almost every turn giving an amazing view of the sprawling valleys lines with towering peaks. After stopping at a few places for pictures, we arrived at Glencoe Mountain Resort, our first planned stop. We paid the 35 pounds to take the ski chairlift to the top (1,000 feet vertical, I’m guessing), where we then hiked up another 500+ feet to the top of a mountain that gave us stunning panoramic views of the valley. Amazingly, the we had gorgeous, puffy blue sky weather – quite unlike August in Scotland, I take it. Unfortunately, Harrison twisted his ankle jumping around on the rocks, so I had to carry him down piggy back to the ski lift. Still, it was an amazing time up there.

Our plan was to simply drive into the town of Glencoe, through Glen Coe (the valley), and then return home. When I (Lin) planned it, I was unsure of our crew’s capacity for a long day of driving. As it turned out, the day was broken up with lots of stops, and the distances didn’t feel as long as I expected. So, on top of the mountain overlooking the valley, we decided to go for it and drive up to see if we could spot the Loch Ness Monster (a full three hours out of the way). We rode the chairlift to the bottom, got some scones, tea, and hot chocolate to go, and hit the road. The drive through Glen Coe to Glencoe (the town) was as amazingly beautiful as advertised. The road wound through the valley with steep and towering mountains on both sides. The lighting was almost perfect, and the feeling was really magical. I only lament we didn’t have time to hike a bit or take in more of the Three Sisters (three large peaks on the south as you drive west).

By the time we turned north and entered Fort Williams, sadly, the rain and fog had moved in a bit, so we didn’t get a view of Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK, which is usually visible from Fort William. But we pressed on, passing Loch Lochy (!!) and then finally reaching Loch Ness (the lake). We stopped at a pull-over and hiked down to the lake but, alas, we didn’t see any signs of the Loch Ness monster. Sigh. We drove up the east side of Loch Ness to the Loch Ness Experience Center, but it closed just as we arrived. (On the way there we saw the aftermath of a pretty severe accident that looked like a close head-on crash — which reminded us to take it extra easy on these narrow, wet, lake-side roads.) We decided to continue north to Inverness, at the north end of Loch Ness, before turning back home. We walked the pedestrian area of the downtown, found a restaurant, enjoyed some good traditional Scottish food, and were back on the road for the long 3 hour drive back to Edinburgh. Because we are so far north, the sun didn’t set until 9:30 or so, and it wasn’t really dark out until well after 10. And then after that, the full moon rose, playing hide and seek with the clouds, so it was actually not so dark until we were closer to “home.” Before it got dark, we drove through much of Cairngorms National Park, which was less dramatic than Glen Coe, but still beautiful, even at dusk. We arrived back at our flat at 11:30, but of course everyone else had been asleep for two hours or so by then.

This morning we slept in a bit, packed up, and explored some of the east coast not far from Edinburgh. I had a beach/coastal hike picked out for us at Seacliffe, close to North Berwick, and that ended up being really pretty and nice. A walk west along the beach gave us a nice view of the Tantallon Castle, or at least what remains of it. It started to rain a bit as we headed back to our car, which was perfect, since our next destination was indoors – Rosslyn Chapel. This chapel features prominently in The Da Vinci Code (book and movie), and was a cute little indoor place to check out and have a small lunch. It is much smaller than expected, but also really intricate with all of the detailed carvings inside and out. The interior ceiling is made up of small individually carved squares that makes for a nice effect. No photos were allowed, although we snuck one or two in the crypt.

Leaving Rosslyn, we headed to Edinburgh, where we dropped off the car, and Eden and Jo did one little quick tour of The Royal Mile and especially a few significant Harry Potter writing and inspiration sites. J.K. Rowling wrote the first book at two coffee shops in Edinburgh and had some name and character inspirations from a graveyard, which Jo and Eden got to see.

And now, we are speeding back to London on the train, although we’ll be arriving 1 hour and 20 minutes later than scheduled due to some lines being down on the train tracks. Our train is super full, although we are lucky to have seats. All in all, a fantastic weekend! We had a funny conversation about which we liked more: Scotland or Wales. It’s hard because we didn’t get to Snowdonia in Wales, which would have felt more like the highlands. Some of us loved the coastal walks in Wales; others of us were charmed by the highlands. So: a draw, perhaps! Or maybe we need to revisit both in the future for a tie-breaker.

Peace to all.

July 23, 2017. Sunday. Wales. So much to love: lush green landscape; sprawling hills crisscrossed with farms and hedgerows; the high cliffs overlooking endless expanses of water; huge, wide, and seemingly endless beaches; tiny little coastal hiking trails that hug the sides of long hills and cliffs close to the water; the lovely purple and pink heather in the national parks; the ancient cathedrals and castles; welshcakes; extra mature Welsh cheddar cheese; Joe’s ice cream; cows that stop traffic on main roads as they cross; and of course the teeny back roads that are officially two-way but are barely wide enough for one car – with a 60 mph speed limit, sharp blind corners, and little tiny pull over places in case you meet another car.

We’re on the train speeding back from a truly wonderful three days in Wales. Everyone is sunkissed, windswept, leg-sore, but happy. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised at the quaintness and sheer beauty of the landscape. We’ve seen a lot of amazing vistas and places this summer – the Alps, for example! – but Wales was in its own category somehow. We all want to come back and spend more time hiking the coast and exploring. Part of what we loved was the lack of crowds and generally low-key tourism. There were many times that we were the only car on back roads for stretches at a time, and really the only people around on some of the amazing huge beaches. And even when we hit the more well-traveled places, like Barafundle Bay this afternoon, it still wasn’t crowded.

The trip started on Friday morning, when we caught an 8:45 am train from Paddington Station in London to Swansea in Wales. The trip takes 3 hours, with no transfers. In Swansea we picked up our rental car – a little seven seater we soon named Mumbles (more on that soon). We arrived in a downpour, but we wanted to explore a few recommended spots near Swansea before heading to our Air BnB. We drove south out of Swansea along the long but strange beach area called The Mumbles. The beach itself is not really sandy – more rocky and seaweedy. But the town of Mumbles has a pier at the far end of it that people enjoy. We stopped in Mumbles at Joe’s Ice Cream Parlour to continue our ongoing sampling of international ice cream, sorbet, and gelato. Refreshed, we hit the coastal road and immediately saw gorgeous costal vistas and experienced the humorous attempts of our GPS programs to get us to our destinations on narrow roads that felt more like lanes than anything else. We eventually ended up at a beautiful beach in the Gowers region called Three Cliffs Beach. The rain lessened quite a bit, but the trail down was steep and slippery at times. But at the bottom we crossed some large sand dunes and were rewarded with a humongous wide beach at low tide with beautiful craggy rocks all around. We messed around there for while before hiking up another route.

On the road again, we had a long-ish 1.5 hour ride to the general area of our Air BnB. After a series of small backroads, we finally hit larger roads and, eventually, a four lane highway of sorts. But even that was punctuated with large rotaries, where traffic was backing up a bit (Friday rush hour in Wales, I suppose – pretty minor). We stopped for dinner at a place in Pembroke Dock, in Pembrokeshire. We tried to more local places first (both pubs), but finally decided on a chain-like restaurant that had acceptable food, even if not really served with a local flavor. The rain and sunshine produced a nice rainbow – the first of several on the trip.

From Pembroke Dock, we finally set our course for our Air BnB in the small town of Hook (just outside of Haverfordwest. The route took us on yet more narrow back roads. And here’s the thing about them: they aren’t just narrow, they are also walled in with dirt and bushes hedgerows. So you feel like you are in a narrow chute, which makes all the corners completely blind. It’s cute at first, but nerve-wracking over time! And a bummer since it blocks out the scenery sometimes. Our Air BnB was lovely – a nice four-bedroom house overlooking a lush field. We felt right at home, and the kids were immediately wishing our flat in London was that large! We were all soaked and a little tired, so the large bathtub felt especially good!

Saturday morning we slept in a bit before packing our lunches and heading out. I went to the local grocery store for supplies and a coffee. Super cute / funny small town! On the road, our first destination was Marloes Beach. The drive there was through an amazing series of tiny backroads and included a wrong turn encouraged by our GPS down someone’s lane and to a field of cows. All fun. We finally found the parking lot, paid, and chose a nice loop down to the beach and back again. The first part of the trail took us through beautiful sprawling fields, but then we turned toward the coast and then walked high above the water on an amazing little trail that give us panoramic vistas of the water, cliffs, and beach. The trail eventually took us down to the huge and wide beach itself, where we plopped our things down and all got a little wetter than we wanted to.

A short hike back up and out, and we were on the road again, this time to St. David’s area, Whitesands Beach, and the Coastal Walk. But we kept getting distracted by cool views, beaches, and places! Our first distraction was a pre-planned stop at the Druidstone Hotel and Pub. Several people highly recommended it to us, and for good reason. It is perched high above yet another super wide and deep beach, with a panoramic view of the water. We ordered a variety of local goodies from the pub inside, along with a local pint for me (Lin). The sun was out, and it was just about perfect sitting there eating our scones, jam, and clotted cream, ice cream, and a local special caramel type cake. The kids and I explored the coastal trail that passed right by and around the corner was yet another long view of the coastline.

We pulled ourselves away and drove to St. David’s, stopping only a few times for pictures. St. David’s itself is a cute sleepy little town – the southwestern most town in Wales. We drove through it without stopping in order to hike some trails around Whitesands before sunset. The beach itself was small compared to the ones we had seen at Three Cliffs and Marloes. But we found the trail and immediately got immersed in the wilderness of the Pembrokeshire National Coast. The path hugged the coast, but was mostly high up on the cliffs. There were few points we could hike down to small remote beaches, but mostly the views were from up high. The terrain varied from the cliff coasts to rocky piles and points to gorgeous sprawling fields of heather with the coast in the distance. We opted not to climb up to the highest point overlooking St. David’s and Whitesand since it was getting late, but it was tempting! We drove back into St. David’s for a yummy local dinner that included local sausages and Welsh lamb, among other things. After a quick look at the old and cool St. David’s Cathedral, we were on the road for our Air BnB. More baths and we were soon all in bed, a bit late, as usual.

This morning we were supposed to get on the road early, but we were all too tired. Around 9:30 am we finally got on the road and checked out of the nice house. Our first destination took us through the town of Pembroke, which has a famous castle that Henry VII was born in. From there we headed straight for our first (real) destination, again on the Pembrokeshire coast: Stack Rocks and Green Bridge of Wales. Both are rock formations on the southern coast of Pembrokeshire: the first a series of tall, independently standing rock formations; the second a huge rock arch connected to the mainland/cliff. It was a chilly and overcast, but we were in awe standing there a hundred feet or so above the water. There were some different kinds of sea birds that the kids enjoyed watching (including one that had broken its neck diving into the water – well, they didn’t enjoy that so much). Back on the narrow back roads, we next headed to Bosherston, to St. Govan’s chapel. It was as cute as advertised – basically a tiny little 14^th century chapel built into the rocks itself. A short hike down into the chapel and then through it allows you to enter the large rocky alcove in which it is situated. It was perfect for climbing around the large boulders and exploring little inlets, all under the towering cliffs overhead. The sun was coming out and it was getting just a tad warmer, but overall it was quite a spot to hang out for a spell.

Our final planned site to visit before catching the train was Barafundle Bay and beach. We had only left an hour to explore this area, which is a shame, because it required a hike back in and was a place you could spend lots of time. A short hike over a sprawling field with beautiful coastal views led to a long stone staircase down to the beach itself. Most of us got our feet wet, and Harrison actually got in the whole way after stripping down to his underwear. The beach is a huge and wide alcove in the cliffs, but it is surrounded by cliffs on one side, sand dunes in the rear, and on the other side a forest! It was a bit unique. But we had a train to catch, so we hiked back out, loaded up, and hit the road for Swansea. The traffic was light and we arrived in decent time. We returned the rental car but were denied the promised ice cream from Joe’s (the branch we found online had shut down). A light dinner of sandwiches at Costa, and we were on the train heading for London.

Overall, an amazing time! We will be back at some point in the future, with more time to explore and enjoy the beauty. We’re heading to Scotland in two weeks, so we’ll be curious to see how it compares.

July 7, 2017. Friday. London.After 21 days, 12 countries, driving over 7,500 kilometers (~4,500 miles), 13 different flats/hotels, 100 baguettes, 10 pounds of gelato, and approximately 50 pain au chocolates per person (rough estimates!), we finally arrived back at our London flat this afternoon. It’s funny how what feels like “home” changes depending on where you are coming from. After four nights in Paris and then 2.5 weeks on the road away from Paris, it felt familiar returning to Paris — a bit like home, relatively speaking. And arriving in London and to our flat felt like returning home, even though we won’t really be home in Rhode Island until late August. Home or “home,” it felt nice to return to London today.

Our morning started in Paris, where we had one last impossibly full agenda. We were determined to get to the Louvre Museum since it was closed on the Tuesday we had slotted for it when we were in Paris in late June (before the driving segment of the trip). But we also had to return the van and make sure we left enough time to go through both the French and UK border controls and security at Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar to London. So: I purchased Louvre tickets online the night before (kids are free — whoo-hoo!), and we were up early enough to pack up and drive down, find parking (the van rental didn’t end until noon, so we used it as a storage for our luggage), and make our 9:30 entrance time into the Louvre. Buying ahead is fantastic — the lines for tickets were super long.

Once inside, we were all blown away by how huge it is, and somewhat frustrated by how not easy it is to navigate from section to section. We’ve seen some large castles and museums on this trip, but I think this topped them all (with perhaps the exception of Versailles — I’m not sure how they compare in size, but they are also slightly different). Our first stop was La Jaconde — the Mona Lisa. As expected, it seemed very small, especially because they keep the crowds at least 10-15 feet away from it. From there we tracked down a few other important items, including the Code of Hammurabi and Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People,” had a few croissants and cafe au lait, and then tried…and tried…to get out. Which was not easy, given the poor signage and hugeness of the place.

Lugging our bags through the metro was as much fun as it had been when we first arrived three weeks ago, but we finally arrived at Gare du Nord, where the Eurostar high speed train from Paris to London departs. I had read online that you just get on the train, no issues, but instead, there were long lines for a French border control, a UK border control, and then a slow security line. Fortunately, we had given ourselves a buffer, so we were fine. I grabbed some sandwiches for the road (er, rails?), and we were off on the super smooth and speedy ride back to London (and to grocery shopping, laundry, work, research, boredom, etc.!).

It’s been hard to adequately process this trip — both for the kids and for Jo and I. It was all a bit too fast, but we also saw so much, and then it was on to the next amazing place or site. Still, we will be talking and thinking about it for quite some time, I’m sure — the cultural differences in each city, the diverse cuisines, the amazing topographies, being immersed in non-English linguistic contexts for three weeks, and — perhaps most of all — appreciating the richness and diversity of Europe (and the world through it). All so very amazing. Fingers crossed the kids spend a semester or two abroad in college so we have an excuse to visit them!

Thanks for reading! We now return to our usual programming of sporadic posts from our remaining 6 weeks in London. Peace!

July 6, 2017. Thursday. Paris. Today was the last driving leg of our trip. It was one of the longest days, approximately 7.5 hours from Heidelberg to Paris, with short stops in Luxembourg, Belgium, and Longwy — another four country day (Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France). I think we are all glad the rental company didn’t have the car I initially ordered, thereby giving us the larger van instead. The kids had adequate room, with a seat between them all — an essential component for sibling peace and love.

I think this morning we all felt a bit of travel fatigue. We got up a bit later and lazed around a bit before finally packing up and hitting the road just after 10 am. We were possibly going to walk the 5-7 minutes to the Heidelberg Castle, but I think only I (Lin) was into it.

Today was day 2 on the Autobahn, but I have to say it was once again underwhelming. Yes, there are sections where there is no speed limit, and yes, people do go very fast. But there are so many places where there is active construction, and the speed is greatly restricted (almost unreasonably so), and there are other places where the speed is lower near cities, etc. So the end result is a lot of speeding up and slowing down, plus constantly watching out for maniacs whipping down the fast lane. Perhaps if I wasn’t driving an 8-seater van I’d feel differently…

We could have driven a more direct route from Heidelberg to Paris, but we wanted to at least drive through some of the places Jo was in during her eight months in France in 1995. She was mostly living in Longwy, just inside of the French border, but very close to Luxembourg and Belgium (all places I had been when I visited her back then). Our first stop was Luxembourg, but we only stayed long enough to drive past a few sites and for Jo to take some pictures of the lovely gardens that are in a valley next to the old city. We hit a small corner of Belgium on the way to Longwy, but didn’t get out. That makes twelve countries for this trip, which is pretty fun.

Longwy has the potential to be cute, but to some of us it felt a bit depressing. Somehow it feels very small-town US midwestern, with all the plusses and minuses that come with that. After driving by the house Jo lived in 22 years ago (!), we headed to the downtown for lunch, but really could only find an Aldi open (strangely — during the workday!), so we opted for some grocery items and sandwiches on the road again. (For the record, baguettes are very messy when you have to cut and slice them in a car…)

After leaving Longwy, however, the scenery became really beautiful again, with classic rolling French countryside and endless golden wheat fields. Our GPS rather humorously yet again took us on the scenic route to the highway, but by now we’ve come to appreciate that, as we always see vistas we would miss otherwise. As we neared Paris, traffic got much heavier, so we didn’t get to our flat until close to 8 pm.

We decided to celebrate being in Paris again by gorging ourselves at a creperie one last time. Yum. It’s great to be back in Paris again — different in so many ways from Rome, Barcelona, and London, although each city we’ve been to has had unique features to appreciate. It’s hot here again, but as I write (11:15 pm), the cool breezes are blowing nicely through the flat. (As with most of Europe, no screens and no bugs — we are still puzzling over this one!)

Tomorrow: Back “home”: London.

July 5, 2017. Wednesday. Heidelberg, Germany. The 4th of July is pretty interesting to experience while overseas. And by interesting, I mean we pretty much forgot about it yesterday. Next year we will return to the usual celebrations of our democratic experiment, but in the meantime it was sort of refreshing to remember, as Eden said, the U.S. is not the center of everything. I think that has been a recurring theme for all of us this summer — appreciating local food, culture, music, and cuisine, while cringing at the Subways, McDonalds, and Burger Kings in almost every city.

Today we woke up literally in the shadow of the Alps. We ate our (complimentary) breakfast on the deck overlooking the mountains and valley. We all agreed that we we wanted to take the gondola up the mountain, and the kids were really into taking one or more forms of wheeled modes of transportation down. In the end, to save money, we took the gondola most of the way up and then rode the go-carts from the 2nd level to the first level, and then the trotti bikes (stand up large scooters) from the first level to the base. Both were a blast, and the scenery was amazing. It was a little nerve-wracking as a parent to have the young ones in full control of their destinies on some of the steeper trails, but overall everyone did great and emerged unscathed.

After a short grocery stop in Grindelwald (for sandwiches on the road, as we do most days!), we were on our way to Heidelberg, Germany. Our route took us through beautiful Interlaken again, but west this time along the western lake, and then north through Bern and Basel. Once in Germany, it was Autobahn time! No speed limits, although our van only made it up to 165 km/hr (102 mph) before I decided to ease up. Speed is limited near cities and in construction zones, so we ended up not really going that much faster most of the time. And the unlimited speeds meant that people would fly up and drive fairly erratically. In general, a much more demanding experience than elsewhere.

We arrived in Heidelberg around 7:30 pm. Our flat is just outside the old town and close to the famous castle. After settling in (a game of pool and jumping on the trampoline), we walked into the old city. I (Lin) was on a mission to introduce the kids to currywurst, which we were fortunate to find quickly. After that it was gelato and a nice stroll through the Markplatz and then onto the old bridge to view the castle. As we head north again, the sun is setting much later, so we were able to walk back to our flat at 10:15 in soft late evening light.

Heidelberg seems like a nice university town. We keep on suggesting to the kids that these towns and cities would be great places to come study for a semester! It is a clean old part of the city, but with fewer narrow streets than Aix, Barcelona, or Rome. Still, the river is nice, and the ambiance fun yet laid back. Even on a Wednesday evening, the old city was hopping, but in a tame way.

Tomorrow we return to Paris, and then (on Friday) to London. I think we are all sad to have this driving tour come to an end!

July 4, 2017. Tuesday. Grindelwald, Switzerland. It’s 10:45 pm, and I’m sitting on a deck at our hotel. Towering high above me in 180 degree panorama in the moonlight are approximately five 13,000 foot peaks, most of which are snowcapped. The sun has gone down, the moon us up right over the snowiest peaks, but they are still bathed in the late sunset light. The Swiss Alps are as advertised: stunning.

We have been to a lot of beautiful places on this trip, but in some ways, we saved the best for last. Since Friday we have been in various parts of the Alps: Italian, Austrian, German, Lichensteinian (?), and now Swiss.

The day started in Zurich. We slept in a bit, loaded up, and took the tram to the old city. Everything is much more expensive in Switzerland. I haven’t been here since 2008, but the prices seem higher. Our first stop in the old town was for breakfast at a little cafe. 55 Francs later (and all take-out, “cheap” stuff!), and we were on our way. (!!) We stopped to see Grossmunster, the large church in the old city that Ulrich Zwingli pastored in the 1520s, leading the reformation in Zurich. And here, too, our theological ancestors, the early Anabaptists, took their stand and some paid for their lives by being drowned in the Limmat River in town.

We walked from Grossminster down to the bridge at the end of the old city that overlooks the Zurich lake. It was a brilliant blue sky day, so you could see some jagged Alps in the distance at the far end of the lake. Since we were in Zurich, we had to have sausages and bratwursts, which we did for lunch at Zeughauskeller, a nice restaurant recommended by a friend (thanks, Owen!). A short tram ride later, and we were back to our hotel and on the road again, destination Interlaken and Grindelwald, both in the Swiss Alps.

The ride to Interlaken was lovely, winding through some mountain passes, through several long tunnels (15 kilometers!), and alongside several lakes. Interlaken itself is, as the name implies, between two lakes. After happily finding an Aldi for reasonably-priced groceries, we had a picnic lunch near a playground where we could see the mountains all around us and watch the hang gliders land near us. There are so many hiking trails and gondola options in Interlaken, but we moved on and drove the short but beautiful drive to Grindelwald. Interlaken is down in a valley; Grindelwald is really up in the mountains at the foot of a line of gorgeous peaks. At one point, we rounded a corner and were all just blown away at the endless and continuous beauty of the sprawling green lower mountainside contrasted with the gray granite upper portions and the snowcaps on several of them, all perfectly lit and against a nice blue sky.

Our hotel sits a little above the “downtown” of Grindelwald, with a spectacular view of the mountains in approximately 180 degree panorama. It is, as our Austrian friends would say, “nicht schlecht.” Not bad. We took a short walk to “downtown” Grindelwald and back, and then spent a few hours watching the sun recede slowly up the sides of the mountains. Lovely. Hard to believe this trip is coming to an end in a few days!

Peace.

July 3, 2017. Monday. Zurich, Switzerland. I’m currently sitting in the lobby of the first hotel we’ve used on this trip: a Hotel Ibis, a cheap European hotel chain. We were in four different countries today: Austria, Germany, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland — many beautiful miles logged in the Alps. I love water and the ocean, but these mountains move me in different ways, for sure.

It’s been a fun past few days, but I decided to take a break from blogging while we were with our friends in Austria. Friday morning we spent the morning and early afternoon seeing more of Venice. We all decided we just really like that city, even if it is somewhat of a pain to get around quickly! The food and sights were amazing.

Around 2 pm on Friday we headed towards Innsbruck, Austria, which took us past Verona (of Romeo and Juliette fame) and up through the northern Italian Alps into Austria. Our good friends Andreas and Michaela Eyl and their four kids were kind enough to host us for three nights in their flat. We got to know them before our families were complete in the early 2000s, so it was really nice to have everyone meet each other. Despite their busy schedules, we got to hang out quite a bit. On Saturday morning we walked from their flat (5 minutes) to the trailhead that would have (if we had the time and stamina) taken us straight up the towering mountains right at their doorstep. Innsbruck is nicely nestled in between huge Alp ranges to the north and south, in a long valley with the Inn river running through it. Almost everywhere you look you see the Alps.

We hiked up part way and then took the gondola up the entire way, which was both expensive but breathtaking. The clouds hid most of the view of the city, but the north-facing view was astonishing, with just rows of granite peaks in the distance. In the afternoon we explored the old part of the city, which is also really lovely.

Sunday after attending their church (he is a pastor), we had a proper Austrian meal and climbed up to see the Olympic long jump stadium. We were lucky enough to see a skier make several jumps. That evening we saw the musical version of Everyman / Jedermann, which is very popular in Austria (and the Eyl’s son was a child extra in it).

On Monday morning (today) we said our goodbyes and drove up through the northern Austrian Alps into Germany to see the Schloss Neuschwanstein — the huge castle that inspired the Disney castle you see in Florida and at the beginning of every Disney movie. The weather was not so great to start but got much better as the day went on. We were lucky to meet up with Jo’s dad and his wife for a few hours at Neuschwanstein, which included a nice luncheon.

By mid-afternoon we were on the road again, destination Zurich, Switzerland. We intentionally chose the slower route through the Arlberg Pass, which meant some pretty sketchy secondary roads perched high above the valley floor with no railings and busses coming head-on! But there were also wide, flat, and gorgeous valleys lined with towering peaks that we all enjoyed, too.

We also took a little detour into Lichtenstein, which was very picturesque.

Once in Switzerland, the route south of the two large lakes was really impressive in the late evening sun. The initial approach was driving straight towards a wall of jagged peaks — with no clear route through them! At one point we stopped to take in the views along the Walensee and had some lovely views across the water.

We arrived in Zurich at 9:30 pm — having taken longer than was necessary, but having really enjoyed the scenery all day. Below is just a sampling of the sites from the past few days.

Peace to all.

June 30, 2017. Thursday. Venice. We’ve noticed an absence of something from the highways of Europe: billboards. In the US, they are so ubiquitous that you really don’t get a sense of just how obnoxious they are until you drive through endless miles without a single one. It’s not that Europeans don’t do the advertising thing. After all, metro stations are plastered with product and pop culture ads. But the highway landscape seems protected somehow, and it is glorious.

We said arrivederci to Rome this morning after two visits to places that were right around the corner from our Air BnB. The first was the Pantheon, built in 27 BCE as a Roman Temple. Sometime after the conversion of Constantine in the 4th century, it was turned into Christian church, which it remains to this day. So many of Rome’s buildings and spaces seem to be a fascinating combination of Roman religious/civic use and later Christian re-use and reconfiguration. We also joined to masses to see the large Trevi Fountain, which someone described to us as the Times Square of Rome (kitschy/touristy, but kind of need to do it).

After some last minute shopping (and a reverse navigation of the very tight parking garage quarters!), we hit the highways for Venice. The day was stunning — deep blue skies and puffy white clouds all around. Central Italy is really lovely — somewhat hilly with mountains in the distance. From Florence, when you turn northeast, you cross through some of those mountains and emerge on the other side in a totally flat, gorgeous agricultural flatlands from there to Venice. We hit our first major traffic jam heading through the mountains northeast of Florence, but it was only a 30 minute slow down or so.

We arrived in Venice and found parking in one of the main parking garages (which accommodated our van perfectly). After purchasing tickets, we were soon off on the water taxi to our Air BnB. The route took us through some of the more central canals and then out into the sea along the north side of Venice. We were immediately smitten. The canals are really the streets, so there are very few sidewalks as such. Most of the buildings are right up against the canals. Many buildings are brightly colored and super cute, even if not impeccably cared for at times. The breezes, the water, the waves, the colors, the boats, the gondolas — it was all magical. Even Elliot–who has been missing home mightily–said that he really likes Venice, which I consider to be a victory of sorts.

After dropping our bags at our newly remodeled flat (we were the first customers, we were told), we lazily walked to Piazza San Marco, site of the largest church and plaza on the island, stopping at almost every alley and canal, it seemed, to take pictures. San Marco is beautiful and the plaza was bustling with people and lined with restaurants. We hung out there for a while so the kids could feed the pigeons (they would sit on them and eat out of their hands) before walking to the waterfront and grabbing a water taxi up the main canal to a stop close to a recommended restaurant. The main canal was really beautiful in the soft sunset glow, with water taxis, private boats, and gondolas criss-crossing back and forth the surprisingly wide and long main canal.

The recommended restaurant was totally booked, so we opted for a little out of the way one that turned out to be simply excellent. Everything except the steak was delicious and filling — the mussels and clams, risotto, pasta, wine, salad, and tiramisu. (BTW, I [Lin] cannot believe how affordable and delicious a glass of wine is: 4 – 5 Euros is the norm, and the quality is excellent.[

A short walk back through some cute narrow streets, over little canals, and through softly lit plazas, and we were “home” — at 11 pm, of course! Our late eating continues in these lovely southern European climes.

We’ve been having an ongoing conversation about which city we’ve liked the most. We all loved the main cities so far — Paris, Barcelona, and Rome, but Venice ranks pretty high so far. As does Monaco, although we didn’t really get a chance to experience it fully. I think Venice combines the two things I love: old European cities and water. We will be back.

June 28, 2017. Rome. [Eden] CIAO from Rome!!!

When in Rome, speak as the Romans do?! Except we barely know any Italian. It’s not really necessary though because most people speak at least some English. I’m still hoping for an experience where we have to resort to charades, but that hasn’t happened yet.

This is Eden, by the way 🙂 I guess my time to blog is long overdue.

At seven this morning, us kids woke up to a Moana song blasting from our portable speaker. Thanks, Dad. It seemed extra early, especially considering none of us were asleep by midnight last night, but that’s the price you pay for early tickets to the Vatican!! We were out the door soon after 7:45 and walked forty minutes, through adorable Roman streets, to the Vatican City. It’s the smallest country in the world and enclosed almost entirely by a super tall brick wall. We were sort of laughing at the state of both the wall and the surrounding land: it’s all pretty dirty! Public garbage bins are barely a thing so people pile their trash at various locations.

We expected it to be less crowded because it was so early in the morning, but there were still tons of tourists lined up. Our special tickets allows us to essentially cut the line and we made it through security, etc, within half an hour. After looking at a really cool wooden model of the entire country (ha), we wandered outside and then wandered back inside after realizing we went the wrong way. Thus began a long walk through the Vatican Museum, which is packed full of sculptures and other really old stuff. I didn’t know where to look: the crazy realistic paintings that looked like carvings on the ceiling, the gold that lined the paintings, the stone sculptures and busts and their inscriptions, the ridiculously elaborate mosaic floor. Thinking about the amount of time that went into each minuscule detail made me depressed because I’m not sure what I’m doing with my life. In other words, it was absolutely spectacular. Two of the rooms that stood out were the Gallery of Maps, which reminded me very much of Versailles with a horribly extravagant amount of gold, and of course, the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel had almost too many paintings to focus on a single one!! It was super amazing to be in that place because I’ve heard about it so many times and then we were right there, right under the Creation of Adam. Also, Elliot was playing a game on his phone and one of the security guards TOTALLY chewed him out for it: “no. no video games. you look up!!!!” Awesome.

Unfortunately, the jostling flow of the crowds pushed us through it all faster than I wanted but perhaps that was okay because there was no air conditioning!!

Our next plan was to walk a mile around the walls to the St. Peter’s basilica, but that took way longer than expected because all of a sudden it began to POUR. Apparently that’s a rare thing in Rome but the street vendors totally took advantage of it, shoving umbrellas in our faces. The heaviest of it only lasted like ten minutes so we waited it out under a gelato cart’s overhang and then walked to the basilica. Along the way we passed maybe a dozen brides and it was really weird until we found out that the Pope had had an address in the morning. While that was cool to hear that we’d been less than a mile from the Pope, it sucked because that meant the basilica was closed for the day. We asked like eight different people to confirm and all of them gave different answers so we gave up and left. But I was really looking forward to climbing the dome!!! 😦

We went back mostly the way we came, walking both on main streets and mainly pedestrian alleys. Everything is cobblestone and the pedestrian alleys are super narrow with restaurants and shops and tourist shops lining either side, and apartments on top. The building are really colorful compared to the uniform creaminess of Paris buildings! Also, on literally every corner, you can find a gelateria. We took advantage of that and stopped for some on the way back. I highly recommend the pure chocolate at Gelateria del Teatro. It’s like bittersweet dark chocolate. YUM.

My siblings were tired from our short night and the “boring” Vatican so we chilled at the flat for maybe half an hour. Harrison is obsessed with Peppa Pig right now so he and Helena and Elliot watched that while my mom and I slept (and Dad booked a new place in Venice since the old one canceled on us last minute). That was okay until we left the flat and when to get some food and Harrison fell asleep!!

From the cafe we walked to the Colosseum!! That was another crazy moment of omg-we’re-actually-here, because that like the iconic Rome landmark™ and we were THERE. The sky had cleared up nicely and so Dad got his nice pictures. We went inside and took more pictures and just were in awe, or at least I was, of the things that have happened at that very spot. I wondered aloud how many people had died there and that was freaky to think of.

Then it was a long walk back, up a main boulevard full of people trying to make money however they could: a beatboxer, a spraypainter, a guitarist, a couple invisible men, a floating genie, some singers, and lots more. People get creative!!

We met some of our friends from RI at a main plaza place and walked to the banks of the Tiber, where a long line of tents was set up with lots of good food. We got our good Italian spaghetti meal in, and then walked to yet another gelato place and got some of that too. I got chocolate again, this time with coconut, and the bittersweet/sweet taste was amazing.

And then, back to the flat!! Somehow walking through Rome at 11 at night seems a lot less sketchy than walking through Providence at night would be. Hm. The city is still quite active.

Also, today we walked the most we have this entire trip: over 25,000 steps, or 18.5 km!

Ciao for now! 🙂

DCIM103GOPRO

DCIM103GOPRO

DCIM103GOPRO

DCIM103GOPRO

June 27, 2017. Rome, Italy. (Harrison: blog content; Eden: stenographer.) Today was our first morning in Italy. We had a very nice house for our Air BNB [in Savona]. There was a balcony and on the balcony, Elliot found a cat on the railing. He told me and Helena to come outside so we did. The cat was black with gray stripes and looked like it was stuck. We decided to help it but we didn’t exactly know how but we decided to bring it down to the floor. But then it looked like it wanted to go inside. Mom said it couldn’t go inside. So then we brought it to the front door and down the stairs. When we left, it was really hard to get out of the driveway because it was really tight. Dad wanted to get some coffee so we stopped and when he came back out he was laughing, because the coffee shop guy forced him to take a tiny little metal spoon about the size of two and half inches. We also had to get diesel and so we stopped at a place and me and Helena wanted to clean the windows with a cleany-thingamabober.

Then there was a long drive through tunnels and bridges until we found a place close to where we were gonna go next (La Spezia). We parked there and then we got to the place where we were, which was a train station. We had to get tickets but the one machine didn’t work so we had to use the other machine, which did work. [From La Spezia we took the train to Riomaggiori, the southern most of the famous Cinque Terre — the Five Cities, which are beautiful coast mountainous towns that perch at the edge of the sea.]

When the train came, it wasn’t a double decker train but it was still a nice train. And it was a train ride about seven minutes long and when it was over, we were a little confuzzlized so Mom asked someone where to get to the place where we were going and the person said it was under a bridge and so we went under the bridge and came up to the place. It was like a town/road thing, I don’t know how to explain it but it was really small with lots of things to do like eat and shop and eat and shop and eat and shop more. [It is a bit unique: Riomaggiori sits right up against the sea on the side of a mountain, so the streets are windy and small and curve up the side of the mountain.] So then we walked up a TON of stairs for like FOREVER.

When we got to the top of the mountain thingy, it was a super nice view of the sea. The Mediterranean Sea. There were a couple of restaurants and I also did a cartwheel. We saw a little castle but it wasn’t much of a castle at all. We walked all the way back down tons of steps through the town and put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea. (Mom: which is the third country that you’ve put your feet in!) True fact. And then when we were done we went back up to the place with lots of places to do [the main town street, which curves steeply uphill] where you could shop and eat and shop and eat and shops some more and eat some more. We shopped to eat at a place called Mama Mia and I don’t know why they named it that, it is SUCH a weird name, but they had good food so I don’t really care. I got hot dog pizza, Helena got Hawaiian pizza, Dad got a ham sandwich thingymajigger, Eden got pesto pizza, Elliot got French fries and fish, fish and chips, and mom didn’t get anything, she had a little bit of everything sort of.

Then we went back to the train station where we got all confuzzlized and mom had to ask another person where to go. Me and Helena decided to save our weird pizza stuff until the train. But it took a long time for the train to come so I sorta regretted not eating until the train arrived and I don’t know if Helena regretted it too. When we got on the train, once again it was like seven minutes, and me and Helena STILL didn’t finish our weird pizzas when we arrived at the train stations. When we went to the parking place me and Helena ate our pizzas in the car-car. Then once again it was a looooong ride to the next place [1.25 hours!] and the next place was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Before it was a leaning at a degree of 5.5 but when we saw it was leaning at a degree of 3.7. I learned that from the book. (Helena: No, I told you!!) No, I learned it from the book, not Helena.

We stayed there for like half an hour and did perspective shots with the leaning tower of Pisa. When we got back to the car-car, we got some ice cream on the way and dad dropped some of the ice cream. We got the colors of the Italian flag: pistachio as green, lemon as white, and strawberry as red. It wasn’t a very long walk to the van and when we did get to the van we had a three hour drive to Rome and we did two stops for the bathroom on the way.

The entrance to the parking garage in Rome wasn’t very big and we almost scraped the side with the van. [We are lucky to be in the very center of Rome, in the old city!] We had about one inch, maybe less than, on either side. But thankfully, Dad was a good driver and got us safely through. Even though the parking garage wasn’t very big, there was still a couple of spots where cars could park. We only took out two suitcases, three bags, and four backpacks. It wasn’t much so we quickly arrived at our new house. It was sorta strange because the door was a little overlapping with a restaurant right next to us. [Because it is on a pedestrian street that is lined with restaurants and shops!] It was also weird because the door was glass with black bars across and we could see in the house. It was an apartment so there were lots of stairs that we had to climb to get up to the house.

The house [flat] was not very big but all of us could fit in and there were enough beds. There were two beds where two people could fit, and two beds where one person could fit. Eden and I are going to sleep in the ones where only one person could fit, Mom and Dad are going to fit in a bed where two people can sleep, and so are Elliot and Helena. We didn’t have much time to set up because we were going to meet some of our friends from Rhode Island [The Denzy-Lewis family!]. We were going to meet up at a water fountain place thingy and go a pizzeria and eat pizza and eat ice cream [ahem: gelato!] for dessert. By the time we were completely done eating it was like 11:40pm but I wasn’t really tired.

Now my parents are making me go to bed because it’s midnight. Goodnight.