Switzerland- 1 GPS- 0

On Presidents' Day Weekend, we ventured north for our long awaited trip to Switzerland.  I say long awaited for several reasons:

Why would we NOT want to be here?!

1. We have wanted to go to Switzerland for a while now, having heard nothing but good things.
2. We wanted to ski outside Italy.
3. We would be seeing our friends Johnny and Mimi for the last time before they have their baby!
4. Their bulldog Selma would be coming along.
5. Rick Steves raves about a few places in Europe...Cinque Terre (been there), Rothenberg ob de Tauber (Germany- been there) and Gimmelwald, Switzerland (going there).

Passing through Lugano

The ride there took us west through Milan and then north through Lake Como and into Switzerland.  We knew once we got near our destination, we'd have to board a cable car to reach our hotel since it is not accessible by car.  The drive started out well.  It was one of the rare Italian days when you can actually see the mountains from the smog-invested valley we live in.  Heading north into Switzerland, we (well, mostly me as the passenger) caught great views of Lugano and the mountain range around the St. Gotthard Tunnel (which is an amazing 17km long!)

Unfortunately, the drive was not all fun.  Our trusty GPS that has guided us to several tricky European places had an absolute meltdown and nearly got us lost/killed/on an alternative mode of transportation.  Its first debacle occurred in what was suppose to be a scenic gas stop in Lake Como.  Since we needed to get gas before crossing into Switzerland, we hopped off the highway after plugging in a nearby gas station.  As we approached the world famous Lake Como, the GPS told us to take a right up a narrow street.  We drove down the narrow street lined with beautiful villas overlooking the lake and hoped it would come out at our desired gas station- the GPS never lies!  At the end of this "street", the road just ended....and it was impossible to turn around.  My reliable driver put the H1 in reverse and tried to navigate backwards around narrow curves and blind corners.  Needless to say, the gas station was NOT up that road and when we eventually found it, it was, in typical Italian fashion, closed for lunch.  Epic fail.

The second meltdown occurred with about 20k left in our journey when unexpectedly, the GPS told us to board a ferry.  We were in the mountains.  In landlocked Switzerland.  What ferry was this thing talking about?  Still a mystery...

WHAT?!?!?!

We spent the weekend in the quaint town of Gimmelwald.  The town is a traditional farm village with only a few hotels, one restaurant, no supermarkets and more cows than people.  If you ever go, stay at the Pension Gimmelwald.  Aside from it being an adorable old farm house with an honesty shop on the first floor and an amazing view out back, the staff is awesome.  We were quite the motley crew complete with a celiac, a pregnant woman and a dog and they bent over backwards to create gluten free meals, provide pasteurized cheese and space for the dog to roam.  They even hopped right on their computer to help settle our debate about whether or not there is a Hooters in Italy (there obviously isn't one, but there's one in Switzerland!).

Our cute hotel

My favorite picture from Gimmelwald

We spent enjoyable days skiing the Schlithorn under beautiful blue skies and during whiteout snow squalls.  Luckily as we were leaving, the area received much needed snow, as it was quite bare in parts during what I assume is a very mild winter for them.  The ski area was enjoyable, although very steep and narrow near the top.

View from the slopes

Food in Switzerland tends to be very expensive, but we did not have a bad meal the entire weekend.  Highlights included my potato/carrot/hot dog soup, Brenden's teriyaki chicken pizza, traditional Swizz Rosti (a potato and cheese dish) and of course, our lunch from the supermarket in Murren that we ate on the side of the road!

We'll be back!

While we saw this area during the winter, we've heard it's a great summer hiking destination and will perhaps be back to enjoy more of the mountain towns in the Bernese Oberland...but maybe with a new GPS!

We're Not in Italy Anymore...

Last Saturday we woke up with the same mindset..."Let's do something today!"  At first thought, I came up with several things to do on Saturday, such as laundry, cleaning and perhaps even swiffering the floor.  Conversely, Brenden thought it would be a good idea to go to Florence...why not?!  I'm a planner, so the thought of a spontaneous road trip made me a bit nauseous, but I went along with it.  After packing a quick back and booking a hotel, we were off.

Destination: Florence

The drive to Florence was only about 2.5 hours through some interesting scenery.  As we headed south, we ran into mountains and twisting highway roads.  The further south we got, the more snow there seemed to be on the mountains...a strange observation since we have not have snow on the mountains near us in recent weeks.  When we finally arrived in Firenze, we regretted the decision to drive.  Next time, we're taking the train.

Florence- or Firenze in Italian- is a crazy city that is not at all like the Italy where we live.  From what others had said about the city (it's touristy, crowded, tacky) I was prepared to hate it.  For the first two hours, I did.  Imagine Boston's amazing drivers on streets half the size....and add vespas, bicyclists and tourist.  Driving was a nightmare and we certainly won't be driving any further south (as we hear it gets even worse).  In our haste to leave for our spontaneous trip, we failed to write down all the information for our hotel.  Although we had an address, we spent a good 45 minutes on one street walking up and down.  Addresses in Florence are separated by residential and business.  Our awesome GPS sent us to the residential number, which conveniently enough, was at the opposite end of the street from our hotel.  Lucky for us, there were about 50 hotels on the same street and we were working on some weak assumptions- Me- "It begins with an E". and Brenden- "It definitely had a G in the name".  Turns out, we were both wrong. When we finally found the hotel, they had no record of a reservation for us (because it had not come through yet) but they kindly trusted us and let us stay.

We headed out to see the sites in Florence and made the following observations:

1. The marble of the Duomo is very different in this area than in other parts of Italy.  Instead of dark stone and  brick, the Duomo is a nice combination of green and light color marble.  It makes for a pretty church.

The Pretty Duomo

2. There are so many Americans in Florence.  College students and tourists are everywhere.  We heard English more than we heard Italian.  No wonder they are filming Jersey Shore here.

3.  We saw things in Florence that we've never seen in the rest of Italy....a brunch menu?  take out coffee?  a Ben and Jerry's?  Gluten Free pizza?  (OK not at all complaining about the last one!)

You better believe we are here!

4. Michaelangelo's David is the best statue ever and you should go see it.  Something about it is captivating and you could stare at it for hours....or at least until the American college student ruins the atmosphere by yelling to her friend, "I need to find a man that looks like this!"

Illegal picture of David!

5. The city is a nice combination of southern and northern Italy and rightly so given its central location.  While parts of it reminded me of Rome, the small streets and architecture gave it a more quaint, Renaissance feel.  Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the city.

After dinner and a chocolate festival we stumbled onto, we headed to an Irish pub and decided to check it out.  Inside, we found ourselves lost in a sea of college t-shirts hanging from the ceiling.  Oddly enough, many were from small New England schools.....Bentley, Stonehill, Endicott, Clark, Roger Williams, UMASS Dartmouth...Again, we were in Italy, not Quincy.  We also met some Australian businessmen who wanted to chat it up.  In typical Australian form, they kept trying to buy us drinks and even asked if we wanted to go to a strip club with them....no thanks mate.  We promptly left.

Florence was a pleasant surprise and an easy trip for us.  If we ever want a taste of America, we'll have to head back.

The Curse of the New Skis

Last Friday, Team Hart ventured out for a weekend long ski excursion. We both had the day off, so we decided to leave early and ski for the day, drive to our hotel in Germany and then ski Saturday in Austria and possibly Sunday too before heading back.  We were packed and ready to go and even brought snow chains and a map (because sometimes a GPS just doesn't cut it).

Bluebird skies...beautiful day for skiing...or so we thought

The first sign that this trip might be a bad idea was the fact that I woke up with a terrible cold and slept no more than 30 minutes the night before.  Brenden tried to tell me to go back to sleep and that we could just leave later, but my stubborn self was determined not to waste a good ski day.  We hit the road for Obereggen, Italy, a ski mountain about two hours north of us on the way to Austria/Germany.  The day could not have been more perfect- not a cloud in the ski, small crowds, and good conditions.  This was Brenden's first day skiing on his new skis and he was eager to break them in.  We started the day zipping down the slopes and making our way across the mountain.  By mid-morning, we were enjoying a chair lift and discussing how much we had improved from all the skiing this year.  This was a big mistake.

The next run we did didn't seem to challenging, but it had an unexpected, steep drop off that was hard to see from the top.  I hit this part of the trail doing my best Lindsay Vonn impression and realized as I was in the air that I was going way too fast.  Luckily, I caught myself and stopped before continuing.  I looked around for Brenden to tell him how I almost ended our day with a fall and I found him in a pile at the bottom of the slope surrounded by Italians.  Not good.

Needless to say, he hit the same spot and lost control.  We're not even sure what happened or how he fell, but it caused serious pain in his knee.  We managed to get to the nearest lift and tried to ask for help.  In Italy, there is not a ski patrol like there is at home.  Instead, there are national ski police.  I was able to tell one of them that I needed help and he fired up his snow mobile and got Brenden on the back.  The Italian ski police man put on his siren and the two sped off riding tandem.  I had to resist the urge to take pictures of this comical site.  I was having an Aunt Judy circa 2003 moment when she tried to tell my brother to smile as they loaded him into a sled and that he'd laugh about this later.  Nobody laughed when we found out Shawn's leg was broken.

After the epic snowmobile ride, we had a decision to make- continue to Germany or return to Italy.  We pissed off the Italian police when we refused an ambulance ride to the hospital, but we knew pretty well that it was not a life or death situation.  The decision was made to continue to Germany- we had already paid for the hotel and far better to be sitting somewhere pretty than at home all weekend.

The view from our German hotel room

On Saturday morning, we decided it was time to go to the German hospital to try and get the knee taken care of.  This turned out to be quite an adventure.  The Nothlife (emergency room) was not on the side of the building we entered, so there we were looking like idiots asking where the emergency room was.  Fortunately, many Germans speak English, so a nice lady put B in a wheelchair and showed us the way.  Not surprisingly, the German emergency room visit was the fastest we've ever had- very efficient and in and out.  Unfortunately, we have no diagnosis on the knee and we're waiting on an MRI here.  Safe to say ski season is likely over :(

To cheer ourselves up, we decided to go to the Dachau Concentration Camp northwest of Munich.  This site was on our list of places to go in Germany, so we figured it would be worth the trip. Surprisingly, the camp was very interesting and informative.  It was the first camp and one only to be open all twelve years of Nazi rule.  Visitors can tour the grounds and walk through the famous gates with the inscription "work will make you free".  The museum was full of information and we easily could have stayed even longer, but we were working with only three functioning legs between the two of us.

The gates of Dachau

Although the weekend did not turn out to be the ski extravaganza we hoped for, we were able to enjoy a winter weekend in a nice German ski town....and those new skis will still be new next year too.