oops!

So I've had a couple complaints about my spelling errors...sorry for the rough reading. I've had too much to say and didn't always double check my writing. Thanks for following the blog, I hope ya'll enjoyed reading about my adventures in Spain and my family's journey through Europe. HAPPY SUMMER!

Und Hallo Interlaken!

I'm happy to say that we safely arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland even though the car ride through the mountains with Carl driving and my mother saying Hail Mary's in the back was a little stressful. It was very easy to forget the scary car ride when you are surrounded by a stunning mountain range.

Lake Como was a quick stop on the way to Interlaken since we had some unexpected rainy weather. The foggy lake reminds me of Harry Potter and the lake behind Hogwarts. Creepy!

You can imagine how beautiful Lake Como would be if we just had a little more sun...

Tunnels seemed to be the highlight of the road trips for Carl and Ryan. It was an ongoing competition to see who could hold their breath from entering til exiting the tunnel. They finally met defeat when we came across the 15km long tunnel!!

Finding an Aldi food store on our way to Interlaken was definetly one of our highlights of the trip. There's nothing better than fresh crusty bread and some amazing swiss cheese.

Our second day in Interlaken Carl and Stefanie took the 10,000 ft. journey up to Schilthorn mountain peek. Four connecting gondola rides later and we ended up on top.

I cannot begin to describe the feeling I had when I walked out onto the mountain deck. It was the most majestic things I've ever experienced. The utter silence and clear air blows you away. It feels as if you are dreaming.

And that is what you see when you look over the deck over the cliff. A straight drop off. Yikes!

Yes Carl is eye level with the peek of another mountain.

And yes that is the top of a cloud.

The water is all the rivers, streams, and lakes was the most unbelievable color blue you can imagine. It almost looked fake.

We all enjoyed the fine Swiss beverages the town had to offer. I guess this guys enjoyed a couple of them as well. At first we thought it was one of the campers who had decided to take a nap of the ferry ride back from Mackinac island. But no it was our "little buddy" as Ryan put it who found a cosy place to sleep for the night.

Interlaken was gorgeous! It was nice to kick back and take a break from touring. One of our favorite cities!

Fashion City of the World here we come!

I’m going to keep this one short because Milan is a bit of a touchy subject for this family. Let’s just say we had a hard time finding our hotel when coming into town. We enjoyed driving around in circles in the dark for two hours searching for a street that did not seem to exist. Now we knew that the street signage in Europe was going to be minimal, but we never thought that a city could possibly function with zero directional notification

Since we only had a day and a half in Milan we had to pick only a couple things to see. We took a shot and dropped by Santa Maria Del Grazie where Di Vinci's "Last Supper" painting is located. Apparently you need a 45 day in advance reservation to see the fresco since they only let 20 people at a time in the climate controlled room. Instead we headed toward the famous gothic duomo in the central part of Milan. I have to say that this building blew away anything else I have ever seen. How would have thought. For me it was the most incredible architectural structure I have ever seen. The pillars alone inside are ENORMOUS!

Here Ryan and I are standing against one to show some perspective. We couldn't even fit the whole into the picture.



The video doesn't do the cathedral justice!







I do have to admit that even though the street signs in Milan are nonexistent, the Metro and bus system was fairly easy. Since Milan is an industrious city and houses many working people, the public transportation was great!

Five big loads of laundry later we finally had clean clothes for the rest of the trip. It really surprised us how hard is was to find a self service laundrymat in all the places we stayed. And they aren't cheap either...

Ciao Bella Firenze!

I know it's hard to believe it when I say that these pictures don't do justice to the city of Florence. Unfortunetly it did rain on our first day but all was not lost. Even in the misty rain the buildings and statues look surreal. Also, the rain allowed us to witness the unbelievably persistent street vendors and their attempt to sell umbrellas. Prepared as we were with our cheap, last minute umbrellas from Rome, the street vendors STILL tried to sell them to us for
"very good price".



View from our hotel in Florence.


Palazzo Vecchio




First floor inside Palazzo Vecchio (statue room)


We were lucky in our second day to have amazing, stunning weather and spent the whole day touring around town. Ryan was the double lucky winner in receiving a 20 cent euro coin in his hot dog panini sandwich. A bit of a surprise to his tooth but hey, maybe it's supposed to be good luck!




The Duomo! Constructed with colorful marble and miniscule detail is extraordinary.




If you look closely here you can see Carl "photo-documenting" his "strange vehicle discoveries". And myself towering over this car/gocart thing.

Our last night in Florence we celebrated Carl's birthday with some cold beverages and yummy food. A wonderful way to end our journey in Florence!

P.S. Here's a shoutout to The Amedios and hoping they had an awesome trip in Montana! Also to Jonathan and Jody, wishing them good luck with the house hunt in Chicago!

Roma Day 3!

Once again so sorry for the delay! All this traveling makes it really hard to find a good internet connection. On day three in Rome the Alde family decided to tackle the Sistine museums and St. Peter's Basilica. It is impossible to comprehend the grandeur and beauty of this structure. The Sistine Chapel, the art from Michaelangelo and Raphael, and St. Peter's Basilica is so big and so detailed it's hard to take in all at once. We were told that if a person were to spend a minute on each individual item it would take them 12 years to cover everything!! 12 years!! That's unbelievable! And again there are no words known to me that can describe the experience. Above is one of the many hallways filled with painted ceilings and stunning art work.
And here is a video that can better justify what I'm trying to express.






Here we are in one of Raphael's rooms. Every inch of every wall is covered in fresco paintings depicting biblical and historical stories. For those of you who are curious as to what a "fresco" painting is..it's one of the hardest to create. Basically a plaster substance is applied to the wall and the artist has one shot to paint on the surface. The surface can't be too wet or too dry so you can imagine how brilliant these artists were to put that (above) on a fresco. If you think this is amazing, it took Michaelangelo four years to complete the Sistine Chapel ceiling and another four years to complete the grand wall. I was rendered speechless!






After our three hour tour of the Sistine Museums, we took a gander inside St. Peter's Basilica. Once again a structure so massive it's hard to fathom its existence. Carl (a.k.a. Stefanie's daredevil partner in crime) and myself ventured up into the grand dome of the basilica. This required us to climb 530 steps up to the top for a marvelous view of Rome.
We enjoyed a lot of sitting on steps and watching people walk by. It is very entertaining to see the many different types of characters that visit Rome.

We did a lot of walking around along the Tiber River taking in all the amazing scenery. Rome has sooooo much detail and history packed into the city that it's hard to appreciate everything in a short period of time. You could spend a lifetime here and still not see all the city has to offer.

Seeing that I am a bit behind on my blog, and we are already on our last day in Interlaken, Switzerland, I will try my best to cover our time in Florence, Milan, Interlaken, and Germany!! So hang in there, there's plenty more to come! Ciao!!