Modena center

On Saturday morning, I was pretty sad to leave Parma, even though we had a full day ahead of us before we reached Bologna. I feel like Parma is really a place you could live. It is a manageable sized city, and I think it would be easy there to get to know people. I also found out later that there is an international school in Modena, which is right outside Parma. I'd be all set!
It turns out that outside of Parma, it is rather rural. In Germany, on the outskirts of a city, the suburbs tend to still be rather full. Yes, we have farmers who live in our town, but there is little room for anyone to have much land here. You have to go much farther outside the city to see the kind of land that people have outside Parma.

I had made reservations at a traditional acetaia, or vinegar producer, in Modena where balsamic vinegar originates. Since we were a bit early to go to acetaia, we decided to check out the center of Modena.
Modena is a very old city, and at one time, because of its location on the Via Aemilia, it was an extremely important city.
The city center is positively charming. We parked as close as possible to the center, and were immediately overshadowed by the Palazzo Ducale. The once palace now is home to the Modena Military Academy. Unfortunately, I couldn't caputre the size of the building in the picture, but it is really HUGE!

It was in this parking lot that we had our first real view that things have changed in Italy. Joern and I have been talking about the change in northern Italy we fist noticed last year when we visited Venice. We noticed the extreme number of new large German cars. On our many trips to Italy years ago, I always felt that we stuck out a bit. Joern always had his BMW 5 series, and somehow, it was larger than most cars, and well, German. Last year, we were like the lower end of the crowd. In the Parma area, which is very rich, we were like the little guy on the block. In Modena, we parked in front of a brand new Aston Martin, the third I had seen in 2 days. We saw more BMW X6s than I have ever seen in Germany. Not to base everything on cars, but it seems like the Euro has really brought a change to northern Italy, which they deserve because they are hard workers, and saw lots of their money go away in the past. It can be difficult in Germany to see the effect of the Euro, namely because the most it has done here is to raise prices.
We walked into the center of Modena to discover another charming, wonderful town. We wound our way through the cobbled streets to the Piazza Grande, which is bordered by the town hall and the cathedral.


I wish I could have accurately caputured the lean of the church. I have read in guidebooks about the leaning bell tower, which was covered for restoration, but the church has a crazy slant too! But, it is quite old, from the year 1000 and really quite beautiful from the outside.
Due to time constraints, and our pending appointment with the vinegar producer, we could not really go into the museums or cathedral, but have put it on our "to do when we return" list.
As we explored, there was an open doorway, these usually lead to courtyards. I took a peak inside:

I'm pretty sure it depicts a scene from a literary work, but not sure which one, this was a private courtyard and not public. Of course, it could also serve as a warning to those who enter the courtyard.
The synagogue was extremely beautiful on the outside. It was so large, and the marble columns were incredible.

We were happy with our "taste" of Modena. Of course there is much more there to see, but we had an appointment to keep, so it was time to go.

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.

A bit overwhelmed, more to come

Well, I am finally back home. I flew back to the States two days after school got out. It was supposed to be really the day after school was finished for the year, but Air France had to cancel my flight to Paris, and they rescheduled me to the following day. And although it may seem like this was an inconvenience, I was so relieved to have a day to collect my thoughts and pack before the trip.
The day I was supposed to travel, Joern and I went to his aunt's house to celebrate her birthday. I was really happy to have been able to go to her birthday party, as we truly do not get to see her enough.

I arrived home on June 28th, and I was home for a month. Joern flew over on July 11th and spent two weeks with me. We had an incredible time traveling in New England. Lots of time was spent at the beach.


We traveled to Boston, Salem, and Cape Ann, Massachusetts.



We also traveled to Stowe, Vermont.



And I can't forget, I spent a lot of time with my family.



Of course we did much more, but I am a bit overwhelmed right now deciding how to write about the trip (my Eee PC was only as useful as my lack of internet.) Plus, I have to wade through 1200 photos of the trip!


I arrived back in Germany on Tuesday, July 29th, and we were already off again on Wednesday morning. I went to work with Joern, and he decided to go to some of the customers located farther from home, which allowed us to stay overnight on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday, we made our way to the Swiss border, and went to France for groceries and dinner.


Thursday, we went to the Black Forest, and spent some time swimming in the Schluchsee, a clear mountain lake.


We got back late Friday night.

It is nice to be home now, I can catch up with my blogging, photographs, and of course, my laundry. I guess I have lots to do with my last three weeks of summer break!