Last Swiss Hurrah!

We managed to squeeze in one last fantastic day in Switzerland before leaving for Trento, Italy, the 4th main leg of our sabbatical.

Marcel (a Swiss English student I met in New Zealand) was again our intrepid driver and guide and took us first to Ballenberg, an open-air museum of rural culture divided into 13 architectural groups which include typical examples of farmhouses from all over Switzerland. All the houses are furnished in Swiss country-style and there are numerous demonstrations of traditional trades and crafts, such as hat-making, sawing, spinning, lace-making, etc. There are also farm animals: ducks, turkeys, chickens, cows and pigs. The European varieties were different than what I've seen before.

One of the staff said it would take a couple of days to wander around and see everything. We only had a few hours to spare and saw a good portion. Not only were the exhibits interesting, the setting of this "village" is spectacular. Everything is green, green, green and the very steep cliffs surrounding the valley have numerous waterfalls spilling downward. We really enjoyed just meandering around and would highly recommend Ballenberg to others.

Half-timbered building

Miles and Marcel in front of a farmhouse typical from the Bern region

Vest and hat with flowers

Painted wooden wardrobe

Gigantic cow bells

Swiss cows DO wear cowbells!

I never knew turkeys could have such beautiful feathers

The Swiss really know how to stack their wood. I loved the roof with the little planted trees.

This is what we saw when leaving Ballenberg

Our next venture was to drive through mountain passes just to see the magnificent mountains up close and personal. This is something we wanted to do at least a month ago on our trip to southern Switzerland, but because of the long winter and rainy spring, there was way too much snow and the passes were closed until very recently.

You may be thinking, "Oh no. More mountains." But pictures can't capture their majesty. We just love, love, love mountains (and coastlines--you remember our other pictures!)

Well, it sure was worth the wait! Our first was Grimsel Pass:

Grimsel Pass

Grimsel Pass--still LOTS of snow up here!

Nufenen Pass-1

Nufenen Pass -2

Gotthard Pass

On the way home we stopped for coffee along Lake Lucerne.

Beckenried

Thanks for a wonderful 4 months, Switzerland!

What a hike!

Yesterday we joined up with Judith who took us on a terrific hike from Regensberg to Baden (1/2 hour train ride from Zurich). The views of the green, lush valleys were beautiful and we walked along the top of a ridge that was not for the faint of heart. Take a look for yourself:

View from the beginning of the hike

Up, up, up we go...

This is the ridge. Zowie!

Yikes!

Hang on, Miles!

Toscana!

My father had this fantastic idea to celebrate his 85th birthday by bringing the whole family to Tuscany for a week. Well, it actually happened! My parents rented a villa (large, beautiful, newly renovated farmhouse) in Guamo, a small village 6 kilometers from Lucca. We were 11 strong: Mom, Dad, Miles, me, Adam, Daniel, my brother Doug, sister-in-law Gwen, daughters Cora, Amy and our newest member of our family, her husband Jonathan. We all converged from points around the globe: California, Israel, Zurich and Italy.

Daniel, Dad and Adam in front of our villa

Great pool area, but the water was too cold to swim--boo-hoo

There was a lot to explore walking right from the house. For example, here's a shot of a "waterfall" which is part of an aqua-duct system.

After some of us catching up on jet lag, our first big outing was to Pisa, about 40 minutes away. Well, the tower doesn't disappoint: it is indeed leaning! The entire square is filled with numerous church buildings, all a beautiful white (after lots of cleaning).

A dorky tourist am I!


Adam and Daniel in front of the Duomo (cathedral)

Of course, we had to walk up to the top of the tower. It's a windy, slanted staircase and I felt a little dizzy going up.

Doug, me and Gwen partway up the tower climb

The cousins at the top: Jonathan, Cora, Amy, Adam and Daniel

See that little yellow spot? That's Mom (Dad sitting on the step above) looking up at us on top of the tower. (Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of Mom. There were so many of us taking pictures during the week, we missed a good one of her! Sorry!)

Another day, off we went to Cinque Terre. This is a most picturesque place and we had glorious weather to boot. (Remember, these shots have NOT been Photo Shopped!)

Five sea-side and hill top villages are accessible by foot path, train or boat. While Mom and Dad stayed in the first village enjoying the sun and reading, we 9 trudged off on the hike to see how many villages we could walk to.

We were able to hike from Riomaggiore to Corniglia along the coast route. Recent mudslides closed the coast route to the 4th and 5th villages, but we found an inland trail and got to Vernazza #4. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get to the 5th village Monterosso. We took the train back to Riomaggiore from Vernazza.

Riomaggiore--#1

Manarola--#2

Spectacular! See the footpath at upper right?

Can't get enough of these views!

Corniglia--#3

Wonderful rocks along the trail

Corniglia...ahhh....

Vernazza--#4--from the inland trail

A closer shot of Vernazza

Eating much-deserved ice cream in Vernazza at the end of our hike

The next day we explored Lucca. The Old Town is surrounded by a fortification wall. We had fun just meandering around the small streets--just beautiful. Dad, Cora and I rented bikes one day and rode on top of the wall. There is a wide path perfect for biking, jogging and walking--about 4 1/2 kilometers (6 miles) around.

View of Lucca from a bell tower

Daniel in the "amphitheater"--a large circular public area with shops and cafes

Courtyard

The next day, the 4 of us decided to visit Viareggio, a nearby sea-side resort town. Boy, were we lucky--great weather and we were there BEFORE the season started. There were hardly any people and the umbrella vendors were getting ready for the onslaught of visitors that start coming in June.

Viareggio from the promenade

Empty chairs waiting for tourists. We loved the views of the mountains.

We got a kick out of this shot: literally hundreds of chairs/umbrellas

The next day, back in Guamo, everyone (minus Mom, Dad, Cora and me) went on a hike in the nearby hills.

Daniel, Gwen, Doug, Amy, Jonathan, Miles, Adam

View from their hike

Guamo

Parting shot of me on the last day at the gate of the villa. What a trip! Mille grazie, Mom and Dad!