Impressions

Now that we are back, I've put together some random impressions about the trip.  Phil says we can't call it a vacation, since we are retired and not taking a vacation from anything.  So we'll refer to our wondrous European odyssey as a "trip".

Random impressions: Switzerland


The Chagall windows in the Fraumuenster cathedral: contemplative, deep.  Coolest stained glass I've ever seen.  The view from the Grossmuenster, the larger cathedral that Charlemaine built, was more impressive (we climbed the tower to see a birdseye view of all of the old city), but the smaller former women's convent, the Fraumuenster, was lovelier.


Other random thoughts:

Uetliberg was a scene out of an Audrey Hepburn movie: wine, brats and rosti potatoes on an open air terrace looking out at the shimmering luminescence of the near Alps.  Classy, serene, alpine.  And we got there by trusty tram, followed by an easy hike up hill.

Fondue: who knew it could be so good?  The scrapings at the bottom, where the cheese burned, were scrumptious.  Chris was wonderful to treat us, and later in the week we had another traditional Swiss meal at Chris and Antje's house.  Nice!


Geneva: big and imposing with blocky important looking stone buildings.  Even to the casual tourist it looked officious.  The lake was beautiful, the fountain impressive, the ride in on the train was beautiful as we passed vineyards on precipitous hillsides spilling down to the lake's edge. 

French speaking.  We got confused coming out of the train station, trying to find the old city.  Tres embrouillant. But it was a gorgeous day and wine by the lake at the end of our tour was good in any language.

Fribourg: ancient and steep.  An old city hidden below river banks and cliffs, a newer city atop the cliffs, connected by a funicular, all of it very old. 

It was a Saturday and a festival and farmer's market was in full happy swing.  Food stalls everywhere, selling the kinds of goods Julia Child fell head over heels for.  French everywhere.  Tres heureux.

Random impressions: Menaggio

Our room had a balcony overlooking the little square below and the lake's edge.  Alps in the distance, the village of Bellagio across the lake.  All from our window where the gauze curtains billowed in the lake breeze.  How could you not fall in love with such a place? 

I would ride an hour on a rattly bus that was way too big for the narrow streets and threatened calamity at every turn to get to a place like this.  Oh, wait, I did.

Random impressions: Italy

Florence: The Duomo.  We wandered among tall buildings, turned a corner, and there it was waiting for us.  An awesome first impression.

Michelangelo's David.  You must see it. 

The crowds.  Oy.

The Boboli gardens at the Pitti Palace.  We wandered them on a cool morning, up and up and up until we saw the dome below us in the near distance.  Jim saying "but where are the flower gardens?" 

We are both conditioned to expect English mixed borders at public gardens.  The Villa Carlotta at Lake Como and the gardens at the Palace in Florence showed us that gardens in medieval Europe were green spaces, shrub mazes, walled gardens and structured walks, but no flowers, except on the occasional rosebush or in the medicinal herb gardens.

Venice: there are no roads, only canals.  Even the FedEx delivery vehicle is a boat. (enlarge the photo... it says FedEx on the gunwale, which is Italian for FedEx).

The Peggy Guggenheim museum -- what a treasure.  Famous works of art, Picassos, Max Ernsts, Chagalls, Calder sculptures, all crammed in the tiny rooms of her villa where she lived in the 1950s and 60s right on the edge of the Grand Canal.  She's buried in her small garden there which was a little creepy.

The Ospedale. 
My good friends with me the whole way, navigating the vaporetto to the hospital stop, wandering the corridors with me murmuring "anyone?  help?  hello?  which way to the visita ocula?" 
 (if you enlarge the photo you will see the most welcome vaporetto sign of all: "Ospedale".  The right place, and the most welcome sight in Venice my first night.)

The view of red rooftops from the top of the campanile at St. Mark's --- seeing all of Venice below, tiny, watery, compact, alive with water traffic, afloat in its lagoon, sinking a little bit each year. Already, in late September, the winter acqua alta (high tide floodwaters) had invaded the square when we descended from the belltower.  Big pools of standing water were in parts of the square around the foot of the Doge's Palace.  What will happen to Venice in 20 or 30 years? 

There was so much more ... the art, the awe inspiring church interiors, the Alpine villages, the palace rooms, the gilt and gold and grandiosity, the convents and cultural upheaval.  Becky's big warm extended family, and her friend Georgene from the US.

The history, the museums, the gelato and spritzes and Chianti.  The sculptures (medieval Italians never saw an empty spot that couldn't be enhanced with a statue). The boat rides and vaporettos and efficient Swiss trams and gondolas and trains.  The tiramisu, and Schwartzwaldentorte on the boat on the Zurichsee.

It was a great trip.

But why is the rum gone?