February vacation ended, and we were glad to be back in France. But once you get in that travel mode, it's hard to get out of it. We definitely still had our game faces on and were ready to conquer the world as March fell upon us...
Our good friend in Geneva went on a business trip to the States for 2 weeks and let us stay at his bachelor pad and use his car. Hmmmm, a car? For two weeks!?! What's a girl to do?!
Well, during the week, I actually I had to teach some but we took advantage of the car as much as we could and drove through the swiss countryside surrounding Geneva. Now, if you've never been to Switzerland you've probably got some fairytale-like images in your head of what you imagine it to look like: rolling green hills speckled with sheep and cows with cowbells, lined with vineyards, swiss chalets, old chateaux, mountains in the distance.... right on....this is Switzerland. I've never experienced a place with so much natural beauty. Sometimes I feel like I have just fallen into some fairytale land.
We have been fortunate to have some really beautiful weather in March. It tends to stay pretty grey here in the winter but March has been quite sunny. There are hiking trails everywhere and with the car we got to take advantage of some off the beaten path places and trails. One day we decided to drive to Nyon, a medieval town not far from Geneva, to hike through the vineyard trails. It was a beautiful day but the wind was out of control and freezing cold. So we immediately hopped right back in the car and just drove all along the coast of Lake Geneva right back to our cozy apartment.
When the first weekend in March came along, we got the itch to go somewhere. How about a road trip across Switzerland? But where would be our destination? Well, I have always been curious about the Italian part of Switzerland. It is supposed to have a Meditteranean climate and the lakes there are supposed to be stunning. We also knew that Lake Como was just around the corner from Ticino. Curiosity killed the cat. Next thing we knew we were in the car, windows rolled down, Lady Gaga blaring on the radio, heading on a cross-country road trip towards the Lakes of Switzerland and Northern Italy.
We stayed in a beautiful hostel that was covered with flowers and overlooked Lake Lugano. It was so nice being in the sun. We went on some stunning walks around Lake Lugano in Switzerland and Lake Como in Northern Italy. It was really interesting how much the terrain changed as soon as we entered Italy. It's like all of a sudden, you cross the border and everything looks, feels, and smells so, well, Italian.
My two "kodak" moments that weekend were 1) renting the paddle boat and just paddling around Lake Como, basking in that intense Italian sun and 2) taking the funicular to the top of a mountain just next to Como. After a day of paddling, strolling, and watching all the fashionable italians who live in Milan but come here to escape the city, it was time to enjoy some mountaintop views of the sunset. We made it up to the top just in time to watch the sun set over the lake and saw the alps turn from white to orange. We could see Milan in the distance and what looked like Tuscany just below us. Lauren and I were speechless as we sat and watched God display his incredibly beautiful artwork before us.
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