Italy Bound!

3/15/13-3/16/13, Grub, Switzerland

After we made a decision a few years ago to spend a year in Europe for Tracy's research, he has often joked that he was taking me to Venice for my 40th birthday and Florence for our 15th anniversary (which happen to be while we are here :-)). Well, he stuck true to his word! We were able to take the first week of the boys' Easter break and head south for some sunshine and warmer temps....not to mention good food, beautiful sights, and great family memories. This year, Göttingen's winter was the longest and darkest winter on record, which is just what we all needed to be thankful for our cheery Carolina winters! All that to say, we really were looking forward to the sunshine and warmer temps as much as anything.

Though we often drive straight through to Kansas from North Carolina, a 22+ hour drive, we opted to stop for a night in Switzerland to break up the 9 hour drive to Milan, which seems almost comical to me. We weren't able to leave on our trip until the boys were out of school so we didn't want to arrive at the Bed and Breakfast in Milan really late that night. Our stop ended up being at a parsonage built in the mid 1700s in Grub, Switzerland, which is near Lake Constance. Two minutes before our arrival, Josiah was too car sick to continue....thankfully, we were able to get pulled over in time!

Philippe, our host, helped us in with our bags and showed us to our rooms. It was quite cold outside that night when we arrived and because the big, old house is expensive to heat, it was cold inside as well. I literally kept on my winter coat until we climbed into bed for the night. In the morning, Philippe fed us fresh bread and homemade jams along with hot chocolate and coffee. Over breakfast, we learned that he is an Old Testament scholar who has led a number of archeological digs in the Middle East. It was fascinating to listen to all of his stories.

The house with many of the windows still boarded up for the winter. As a
result, we all slept later than usual, a nice start to vacation!

The church is just across the street from the house. Philippe's
wife is the pastor there. He calls himself the "pastor's wife."
He is originally from France and his wife is from Switzerland.

The doors into the house were so heavy that one literally
needed to use both hands to be able to open or close them.

Tracy and Philippe getting in some last minutes of discussion about the OT.

From Grub, we took off towards Milan and were excited to find ourselves driving along Lake Constance. We took my parents there in October but happened to be there on a day with heavy fog and cloud cover. This time we could see the beauty of the Alps! Because we weren't meeting our friend in Milan until mid-afternoon, we had plenty of time to drive slowly through the mountains. What a drive! FYI, the Swiss take their speed limits seriously. Tunnels, which are a rather boring place to sightsee, are not the place to make up time. This year, Noah is trying to lose a tooth in each country we visit and Tracy is trying not to get a speeding ticket in each country. So far, Noah is winning that contest.

This is a small part of the view my parents should have had the day we
were in Lindau. Alas, I guess they will have to return for their 60th!

We are standing on a hilltop in Switzerland with Germany across the lake.
Austria was just to our right - it's the Austrian Alps in the above photo.

`

~ Lindau, Germany ~
With my parents, we explored the town down below, in particular, the little
part that juts out into the lake.

As we drove through the mountains, we couldn't believe how VERY many
castle ruins we could see dotting the hillsides. This particular one was close
to the roadway so we stopped for a visit.

Our first attempt to get a family photo...my shoe slipped
off as I was running so I didn't make it in time. The boys
were convinced that I wouldn't be able to pull it off so, of
course, I had to prove myself.

This doesn't capture it at all, but the area below the green pines was
absolutely purple. The line 'purple mountain majesties' from the song,
"America, The Beautiful," kept running through my mind. Wrong
continent for the song but still beautiful nonetheless.

We passed a LOT of these little one room buildings with flat
stones as the roofing shingles. I wish we could have figured
out for what these are used. Might have to google this one!

A Switzerland hillside that begins to capture the size
of the mountains - those little houses dotting the hillside
help show the magnitude.

Beautiful waterfalls were everywhere as well, with
many of them still frozen.

It was all so beautiful that I just couldn't stop taking pictures!