The Professor comes for a visit

One of our friends from The Linguist's grad school days was leading a student group on a tour of England, so he hopped over here to spend a day with us in Ferrara. His wife has a terrific blog on which he's known as "The Professor," so that's how we'll refer to him here, as well.

We haven't seen their family since we left Florida in 2008, so it was a joyous reunion at the Ferrara train station! We were all returning from Vicenza, so the whole family was packed into the van to greet him. We really enjoyed seeing the rest of the family on Skype that night, and I was amazed at how much the kids have changed. When we met them, their oldest son was only 18 months old, and now he's 16! It makes me feel a little (okay, a lot) old.

The Linguist unexpectedly got the day off and we started bright and early with a big breakfast in the middle of our trees and flowers. It's so beautiful out there. The former tenants were English and transported at least one (if not all three) of the huge white rose bushes from England. They just bloom and bloom. In fact, they were blooming when we moved into our house in November!

Anyway, we started at the oldest cathedral in Ferrara that sits next to one of two leaning towers and ate pastries under the umbrellas of a little shop near there. 

One of Ferrara's leaning bell towers (San Giorgio) built in the 16th century.
The church next to this bell tower dates back to the 6th century.

Next we wandered around the castle and downtown area, and out onto the wall, soaking up Italy and buying more pastries for lunch. 

Via delle volte dates back to the middle ages. 

Il Castello Estense (Este Castle) sits in the heart of Ferrara.
It's quite a site to behold out and in...it still has the moat.

Part of Ferrara's wall, one of the best preserved in Italy.

The Linguist and The Professor.

We collected the kids and drove to the Adriatic Sea just to have a look. They played around in the water (it was cold and muddy compared to the Mediterranean) and collected shells. 

We headed back into town for cappellacci and gelato.

Many thanks to the Professor for coming to stay and giving us an excuse to play tourist for a day!  Too bad we can't think of a way to lure the rest of his family to Ferrara!

Switzerland!

I was having some serious doubts as to our sanity as we made our way north from France to Switzerland in the RAIN. From our sunny location in Ferrara, camping sounded ideal. Honestly, I think my only thought was that we'd get to spend some time with our friends, and I figured almost any conditions were worth that benefit! I'm not sure at what point it hit me that April in Switzerland would probably be cold...

We stayed near the town of Interlaken, which you may have guessed -- sits on a lake! The view was fantastic. Just like a postcard (as you can see from the pictures below!) Our tent was located about 20 feet from the bottom of an alp in a little RV park area. We love to camp, but have never had a luxury tent before this one. It had 3 rooms and beds with mattresses that were actually more comfortable than the ones in the hotels where we stayed. It had a refrigerator, stove, table and even little portable cabinets for unpacking personal items. The bathroom facilities were nice and included a shower area with a body dryer! It was a steal at only $117 for 4 nights. My only complaint is that there wasn't a place for a campfire.

Cool picture of the Lake!

Sunset over Lake Thun, Switzerland

On our arrival, we had a boisterous reunion with our friends (you can picture 12 kids together!) and a belated birthday celebration for The Net and me! My friend, bless her heart, even baked us a birthday cake that we enjoyed immensely. She also toted a case of Golden Grahams all the way from Germany to give me for my birthday -- so my joy was complete! And she even hauled presents for The Net. His mean mom didn't even do that!

We spent some time the next day hiking...okay, I guess I should qualify that statement. We started off on our "hike" on the walking trail that ran beside the lake. Picture 4 adults shepherding 12 kids -- 10 of whom are age 10 and under! We had to stop to look at all the bugs, to pick up sticks, to climb onto rocks, to sit on the bench at the top. Without all of the stopping, our hike would have only been 5 minutes long, but with all of the exploring, it stretched to half an hour or so. Having reached the end, we turned around and made our way back. Near the beginning, there was a trail that cut off and actually went up the mountain. We parted ways and sent the daddies and the older kids up the mountain. My friend and I took the younger kids for a walk through the camp area and ended up at the playground where we stayed quite happily...until one of the kids got pushed off the swing...and we went home for lunch.

Some of the happy hikers!

Cool trees we saw on the hike up the mountain side

Swiss mountain slug...as big as The Net's fingers!

Beautiful view during our hiking descent 

The next morning, the adults were able to go into Bern and attend the Temple. We really miss having a Temple close the way we did in San Antonio, but are grateful that there are Temples all over the world.

We pause a moment for a Swiss photo

Later, we headed into Interlaken to find a sport's complex that boasted a swimming pool. What a pool it was! It was actually two pools -- one nice-sized shallow pool and one huge deep pool. One wall of the pool area had a gigantic window that overlooked the Alps. Talk about a view! The trickiest part of the whole adventure was the parking. Switzerland uses the franc, not the euro. They had given us a few when we crossed the border, but it wasn't enough to park both of our vans. The Linguist ran to a casino nearby, but they would only give him cash if he stayed to gamble. So he had a nice running tour of the downtown area looking for an ATM.

Overall, the weather was decent. I think it rained at night twice, but we didn't get any water inside. The days were a little overcast, but we did get some nice sun on the day we left to go home. It was chilly at night, but just enough to make really good sleeping weather. The kids played and played and played. We spent an hour or more just throwing rocks in the lake! The moms talked and talked and talked. The dads did their dad things. And our time together went far too quickly. We spent the next morning loading up and said our goodbyes. Since we've managed to see each other every few months, the kids weren't nearly as distraught this time. Thank goodness!

We headed into Interlaken to explore for a bit before heading home. It's such a picturesque town. We parked along a walking trail that had gardens full of tulips and other blooming flowers. Set against the mountains in the background, it was eye candy. We had to try out pastries and sandwiches at the bakery and chocolate, of course. We exclaimed at the prices of the Swiss watches in the display window and enjoyed looking at all of the tourist "junk." Then it was back in the van for the drive home. We were a little nervous about the van through all of the steep mountain passes, but it did fine.

Lovely photo of Interlaken from the Schiffartskanal

Lovely tulips!

Switzerland is...well, a postcard

Posing on the Swiss promenade

The Net was happy to eat two Swiss pocket knife replicas. 

I thought my golf bag was ugly, but this takes the cake!

Cool photo of one of Interlaken's churchs.

The waterfalls on the way home were incredible. I've seen waterfalls seeming to sprout out of the rocks in the Tetons, but nothing like what we saw in the Swiss Alps. In just one spot, I could see 13 different waterfalls cascading down the mountainside! Unfortunately, it's not something you can really get a good picture of...We also saw some train tracks that I'd like to see a train try and navigate. They were literally straight up the mountainside! I don't know whether the rails are magnetic or what, but from our vantage point I couldn't see how a train could possibly go up such a steep incline. It made the road we were driving on look quite tame.

We had to pull over to get a closer photo of this one!

We were glad to get home...and even more glad that it almost felt like home when we got here. We still have the weird old smell that no amount of Febreze, little scented beads or spraying stuff seems to help, but I don't walk through the door and wish for a hotel anymore! Of course, the ants were here to greet us and it took a few days to get rid of the spiders, but all in all it was good!