Our Trip to Italy- the drive

Now that we're back from our vacation, I've started the task of going through the photos and am finally beginning my review. Since there were so many incredible experiences on this trip, I have to warn you all now that the posts will be long and photo-heavy. Hopefully, you aren't too bored. If it is overwhelming, may I suggest a good red wine!
Although we had planned on leaving directly after work at 3:00, our plans fell through a bit. We finally got on the road at 5:00, which may have worked to our advantage. Since the German schools had already started their break a few days prior to ours, the roads had been full of tourists for days. The traffic report was rather ominous, especially in our direction. Typical me, I was nervous that we would never make it. Joern just told me to relax and we'd see what would happen.
Our route took us down to Lake Constance to cross the border. Once in Switzerland, Joern got off the autobahn to avoid any traffic. I am so glad he made that choice because the traffic was horrible through Switzerland on the autobahn and because our ride was much more beautiful.
We took a low-lying mountain pass through the countryside. We wound through the Alps and through some adorable towns. My favorite find though was the Fondue Automat.
Apparently, the Swiss take their fondue quite seriously.

As we rose up in the Alps, we were welcomed with the most amazing views.

As we descented the pass, this is the view we found:

From the pass, we headed towards the infamous, for many reasons, St. Gotthard Tunnel. Because the tunnel is so long, a little over 10 miles, they heavily regulate the amount of traffic in the tunnel. A traffic light allows cars into the tunnel once every 2 minutes or so. While it is necessary to keep cars to a minimum in the tunnel, it wreaks havoc on traffic entering the tunnel. We lost about an hour due to traffic.
Once we were out, the trip went relatively quick. In another 3 hours, we pulled into Parma, our first destination. We were tired, but happy because our hotel was lovely.

Romantic weekend in Venice, Friday & Saturday

Joern really surpised me last week Wednesday by telling me that he booked a hotel in Venice for 2 nights. Since I am still on break, it worked very nicely. I went to work with Joern on Friday morning. Joern planned his route for the day so that his route brought us to the Swiss border, in the direction of Venice. We were able to start our trip around 2 pm. We drove through Switzerland, through the Alps, and through the St. Gotthard tunel. Our drive got a little worrysome as the lightning started really strong as we neared Venice, and there was a huge accident which really slowed traffic.Since our hotel was on Venice Lido, one of the Venetian islands, we had to take a ferry over to the island, and we were a bit concerned about time (we got to the ferry dock at 10 pm,) and the weather. But, we were lucky, and got on the ferry at 10:15, and made it to Lido by 11:00 pm.

Our hotel, Hotel Ville della Palme was really everything I could have expected from a hotel in Venice. As this was our first time staying directly in Venice,it was a pleasure to stay in a converted mansion. The rooms had high ceilings and huge windows, and the walls were covered in a beautiful jaquard fabric.


The hotel also had a wonderful rooftop terrace that affored amazing views of Venice and the Alps beyond on one side, and the Meditteranean on the other.



On Saturday after breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to the beach. The great thing about Lido is that it is the beach of Venice. Our hotel was about 7 minutes from the beach on foot.Plus, walking from the hotel to the beach took us on some quiet, lovely streets and through the center.

Although it is part of Venice, it hasn't been taken over by tourists the way Venice has, so we were able to appreciate the quiet Venetian charm. We really enjoyed relaxing at the beach and swimming in the marvelously warm Mediterranean.
In the afternoon, after getting showered and changed, we hopped on the Vaporetto and headed over to the main island of Venice. It is truly amazing to me that no matter how many times I see Venice, my heart skips a beat. I find it so incredibly romantic there.

We meandered through St. Mark's square, and made our way over to the Museo Correr,which served as a home to Napoleon.

From the museum, we met our tour guide for our tour of the clock tower. We really enjoyed the tour clock tower in St. Mark's square. Our tour guide was very informative, and with only one other person on the tour, it was very personal. We learned all about the clock and the tower, that was completed in 1499. Much of the clock remains today as it did in 1499, which is simply amazing. We wound our way up beautiful iron spiral staricases to see the mechanisms of the clock, and to find breath-taking views of the city. Most amazing of course was the top of the clock tower, where the two Moors (named so because of the dark copper used,) ring the bell over the city.

It was beautiful! After the tour, we wound our way down the main shopping passage to the Rialto Bridge, one of the oldest bridges in Venice.
We returned to Lido for an amazing dinner of Carpaccio di Bresola, pasta with arugula and tomatoes, and pizza with ham and mushrooms.

I give up

I´ve been waiting to post because we are having a big problem with windows on our laptop (Joern needs to buy Windows- it´s that simple!) But, our laptop is the only computer with a card reader, so without a card reader, I can´t get pictures off my camera. And, our weekend was so cool, I really want to include pictures.

The weekend´s greatness really started on Thursday. Joern´s work day followed the Wuerttemberg Wine Trail! While driving to one customer, I saw a sign for the Rolf Willy winery. It is a funny coincidence, because two weeks ago, we were turned on to Rolf Willy´s wines at a tasting in our grocery store. Of course, I got all excited, and Joern decided it would be a good idea to stop there! Rolf Willy is a pretty major wine producer in this area, and had a tasting room set up. When we walked in, this guy gave us 2 glasses, pointed to a bunch of wines on a table, and said, "try whatever you want!" After trying some, Joern had to continue working after all, we decided to buy some. While Joern was paying, he called me over, and told me the guy (that I thought was completely lacking in personality) was Rolf Willy! It was so cool! Of course, even he had to admit that he isn´t good at the sales end of the business, and that his son is in charge of sales for the company. It was just so awesome and unexpected!

Friday was another great day. My friend Erica, from high school, was in Germany all last week for a training. Unfortunately, Germany is slightly larger than CT, and so, I had to wait for the weekend to visit here. Erica was in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, a small town nestled in the Bavarian Alps. Erica´s husband and ADORABLE daughter came down on Thursday, so Joern and I met up with all of them for an overnight in the Alps! Garmisch is a beautiful town, and is only about 3 hours from us, but it is a completely different world! Friday night, we went out to dinner, which was really nice. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, enjoyed some wine and apple martinis :) The hotel, the Edelweiss Lodge (Armed Forces recreation hotel,) was INCREDIBLE, and the price was great!

On Saturday, we tried to go up the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. Turns out that getting up the top was highway robery, it was over $40 just to go up to the top to see the view! So, we decided to drive into Austria, and try from there. Too bad, it was the same price. In the end, we decided to drive back to Garmisch, and explore the town. Garmisch is one of those typical German story- book towns. It was really cute, and we got to have a great lunch!

The rest of the afternoon was just spent hanging out with Erica, Ben, and Alex. It was so wonderful to be able to hang out with them. I really have a kindred spirit in Erica, and it´s so nice to be reunited with this spirit. And of course, since her little one is the CUTEST little girl in the world, it´s always wonderful to spend time with her!

On our way out of Garmisch, we decided to call my friend Mandy, who was also in Garmisch for the weekend. We got ahold of her and met up at a restaurant for drinks. It was so much fun, it was hard to pull ourselves away at 11, but we had to because it was so late and we had to drive home!! Of course, on the drive home, we were plagued with super-thick fog, and could only drive 35 mph. So much for the autobahn!!

We made it back by 2:30 and went to sleep right away! What a great weekend! I can´t wait to see Erica again!