Italy: Milan and Venice

During Ascension weekend, we decided to go to Italy. We chose Milan and Venice because we knew we could take the train for relatively cheap and it was relatively close (3 hours to Milan and another 2 to Venice -- theoretically but we stopped once between here and Milan and there were delays which made it quite a bit longer). Unfortunately, like half of Switzerland had the same idea so it was not a particularly nice train journey and on the way home (the long travel day going from Venice all the way back home), Chase had had enough and had a small breakdown on the train during which the lady next to me turned and asked what in tarnation was wrong with him (except in French and not kindly...). Anyway, getting to Milan is doable (especially on the direct and pricier train), but Venice is a bit too long so if we were to do this again, we would think about flying back.

We had a wonderful time and although we had a relatively short time there, we really got the most out of it. In Milan, we stayed right near the Duomo (actually next to the Galleria), which gave us the chance to visit it and the museums associated with it the first day. Here I have to say that the museum associated with the Duomo was surprisingly awesome and enjoyable. We also spent some time walking around Milan and going to some of the parks and churches around there.

Chase was not into photos in Milan...

In Venice, we stayed not far from Piazza San Marco. We had quite an interesting time finding our hotel (which was marked incorrectly on Google) while Chase was napping in his stroller and we had to carry him over what seemed like a bazillion bridges. We had a great time walking around the area in Venice and watching all the canals. We saw quite a lot of churches and walked through many small alleys and interesting courtyards.

This was taken right when we arrived in Venice. Chase just sat down and stayed like that observing the boats. This is something he does quite frequently: just sit down in the middle of situations and observe. It is very odd to me but is something that Nate used to do when he was young. 

Nate and Chase near the Grand Canal, and Chase and me in front of Doge's Palace -- both spots are actually quite close to each other but the pictures are exactly taken 180 degrees apart. 

The second day in Venice, we took the boats to the islands outside: Murano to watch glass being made; Burano which is known for its lace, but actually has fewer tourists and beautiful colored houses and we had the best lunch there, and Lido for the beach. We really enjoyed the islands, especially the less touristy ones like Burano and were nicely surprised by Lido as we hadn't planned to stop there but Chase loved being at the beach. We visited the glass museum in Murano which was also surprisingly delightful.

Islands off the coast of Venice: Murano, Burano, and Lido. 

Having traveled with Chase a lot, this trip was probably the easiest one yet as he was old enough to sometimes skip his nap, was ok enough eating food (helped that it was Italy where there was plenty of pasta for him to eat), and was interested enough in museums and sights. Although I traveled with my parents around Europe as a child (a little bit older than Chase), I don't remember much of it. I do remember when I went to Italy and Greece with Katie almost exactly 9 years ago, and we went to both Milan and Venice. It was really cool to compare what I remember of our adventures then and now. The general impression of the places was about the same but since our trip was very budget-oriented as we were college students, I felt like I got much more out of it (even with Chase in tow) now as we had more freedom to go places and stay closer to the center of the locales we visited. 

Olga in Switzerland

This spring, Olga came to visit for a week. She took a few days to go to Paris and spent some time going to nearby areas (Chateau de Chillon, Lausanne, Gruyeres with all three of us) but one day, we took the train to Luzern to have a real Oksana and Olga adventure. We left really early as it is a 3-hour trip to Luzern.

Once in Luzern, we did the walking tour, seeing all the bridges, clock towers, and the lion monument.

We then had lunch by the lake and decided to take the boat across to the lake to where there is a cog rail up to Mt. Pilatus. 

The day was just beautiful and the cog rail was really cool. Mt. Pilatus is quite a ways up and even in mid-May there was snow on the ground. 

As seen here, we were not quite prepared for such cold weather but there were some blankets up on top so we were able to keep warm while we looked out on the view. 

To get back down, there are two sets of cable cars. We stopped between the two and "hiked" a bit which involved taking "The Sound of Music"-inspired prancing pictures.

After we got back to Luzern, we took a train to Bern (halfway back to where we live) and explored a bit and had Raclette dinner there. A very delightful and Swiss day that involved many forms of transportation, nature, and weather.