Hipskind European Adventure: Milan, Zurich

On Friday morning, we all said goodbye to sunny and warm Tuscany and to the castle we stayed in.  Greg and Cheryl dropped me, Mom, and Steve off at the train station to head to Zurich, while they drove to Venice.

View of Tuscany from the castle

Mom, Steve, and I took a train up to Milan where we had a four-hour layover before our next train to Zurich.  Even though it had been perfectly sunny in Tuscany, Milan was cloudy and rainy, but luckily still warm.  We still were able to see some sites beginning with the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, which is a shopping area in downtown Milan with a beautiful glass and metal roof.  The structure is designed like a cross with a huge domes at each end and in the center.  The Galleria has a mix of designer stores like Prada, upscale restaurants, and more traditional retail shops.  I really enjoyed the architecture and appreciated a public area with a roof when it was raining.  

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan

Right next to the Galleria is Milan's massive Gothic Duomo (duomo means cathedral in Italian).  This cathedral took 500 years to complete and is one of the largest Gothic churches in the world.  I think this is one of everyone's favorite churches because the spires and the roof are so ornate, which is probably why it took so long to build.  We didn't go inside, but instead just took some pictures by it and moved on as it started to rain.

Milan's Duomo

Mom and Steve in front of the Duomo

After seeing the Duomo, we did some shopping for some AC Milan fans back home and had our last Italian meal at the Galleria.  By the time we finished lunch, it wasn't raining anymore so we headed to the "fashion quadrilateral" where lots of high-end designers have stores.  The streets were very cute and well-maintained, and the shops themselves were fun to look at.  I don't have any pictures because I was on navigation duty again.  Mom really enjoyed going to the designer stores in one of the fashion capitals of the world.  After that we headed back to the train station to catch our train to Zurich.

Unfortunately, we had a horrible experience getting from Milan to Zurich.  The train was 20 minutes late arriving into Milan.  Then, two stops into the journey, they made everyone get off and transfer onto another train that was in really bad shape, where we had to fight for seats because our seat assignments were no longer honored.  The Swiss transit system did not live up to their reputation!  It was very disappointing and a terrible way to start the Switzerland part of the Hipskind European Adventure!  

We finally arrived in Zurich 40 minutes late and generally unhappy, but things turned around after that.  It had been raining all day in Zurich, but as soon as we arrived, the skies cleared and the sun came out.  The hotel I had picked for Mom and Steve was great and they were really happy with it.  In addition, we had a fantastic dinner at Zeughauskeller.  If you only eat at one restaurant in Zurich, make it Zeughauskeller.  It is a Swiss/German restaurant that serves sausages and other traditional food in an old arsenal that was built in the 15th century.  It is a fun and lively restaurant, and it was a great way to kick off the Swiss Adventure!

Steve, Mom, me, and Darren at Zeugkauskeller

Me and Darren

My "beer", the Germans love their apple juice and serve it in mugs

Hipskind European Adventure: Florence, Tuscany, and Cinque Terre

A week and a half ago I met my mom and step-dad, Steve, in Florence in the middle of their European adventure.  They had already been to Rome and spent some time in Tuscany before I met up with them.  Also traveling with them was another couple, Greg and Cheryl, whom we have known for a long time from Dallas.  I took the train all the way down from Zurich to Florence, which was about 5.5 hours.  The scenery during the whole train ride was beautiful and I had a good book to read, so the time flew by.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous traveling by train to a country I had never been to without the ability to get in touch with my parents who were meeting me at the train station.  Then I remembered that we used to meet people all the time without cell phones just 15 years ago and people managed just fine, so it would all work out. Luckily my train was on time and Mom and Steve found me easily, so the worry was for nothing.

I arrived at 1 pm, so we only had a half-day to explore the city of Florence, but we tried to fit in as much as we could.  It was only the end of May and the temperature was already at 90 degrees that day we were in Florence.  For a country without air-conditioning, I can't imagine how they handle the heat during the summer. We met up with Greg and Cheryl at the Galleria dell' Accademia, which is a museum famous for housing Michelangelo's giant 17-foot statue of the biblical hero David.  No pictures were allowed inside, but I'm sure everyone is familiar with what the statue looks like.  Besides the famous statue, the museum was rather disappointing.  The museum layout was disorganized, with some rooms housing works of art without adequate labeling and some art was just not that interesting or unique with what you can see at other museums.  But I guess the point is you pay to see the statue of David.

After that we went to the Santa Croce, which is a Gothic cathedral built in the 13th century.  Mom had wanted to see the authentic Italian leather school that was attached to the cathedral.  The leather school has been hand-producing leather goods for 70 years.

The outside of the Santa Croce cathedral

Not only was the leather school really interesting, but the cathedral itself is a resting place for some famous Florentines.  You can see pictures I took of some of the famous tombs or memorials that are inside the cathedral below.

The resting place of the famous author of The Inferno

Tomb of Michelangelo with figures representing painting, sculpture, and architecture

Galileo was reburied here 100 years after he died because the Pope had labeled him a heretic

A memorial to the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who helped create the atomic bomb

After seeing the church, we did some shopping and stopped at the most famous square in Florence, Piazza della Signoria, for a snack and to enjoy the scenery. I must confess that I did not take many pictures in Italy because I was busy navigating for everyone.  Maybe I'll post ones that other people took when they send them to me.

Steve, Mom, Cheryl, and Greg at the Piazza della Signoria

We decided to have dinner out in Tuscany, which I was all in favor for so that I could see some of the countryside in daylight.  We drove along scenic Tuscan roads and stopped on a hill near where we were staying in Tuscany to take pictures during sunset.

We stayed at the renovated castle on top of the hill in this picture, which is part of a winery

A Tuscan sunset

The sweet Fiat we cruised around in

That night, we had a fantastic meal at little family-owned restaurant in the cute town of Greve in Chianti.  All the dishes were simple, but fresh and full of flavor, without being expensive.  After dinner, we headed back to the winery to get some sleep.  I don't really have any good pictures of the castle we stayed in because we were always coming home late and leaving early.  It was a very beautiful and peaceful location though; just what you would expect from Tuscany.

On Thursday, we visited part of the Italian Riviera called Cinque Terre, meaning five villages.  These five villages sit on the rocky Italian coast, overlooking the clear Ligurian Sea.  The steep cliffs make it near impossible to get to the towns by car, but luckily, a great train system runs between each village.  We drove to the large city of La Spezia and took a train into the first town of Riomaggiore.

Looking out to the water from the train station at Riomaggiore

We walked over to the main street of Riomaggiore and had a great breakfast while enjoying the blue skies, the brightly-colored, picturesque buildings, and all the beautiful potted flowers in windowsills.  We didn't go to any museums or learn much history that day, rather the majority of our time in Cinque Terre was spent just walking up and down streets while admiring all the beauty.

Brightly-colored buildings in Riomaggiore

Adorable restaurant on the main street of Riomaggiore

In addition to all the towns being connected by train (and ferry), pathways have also been constructed so that you can walk between each town.  Some parts of the trail are easy, while others are strenuous, so we did a combination of train and walking to see some of the villages.  The pathway between Riomaggiore and Manarola (the first and second villages) is an easy and beautiful 20-minute walk.  For some reason, the trail is called Lovers' Lane and the tradition is to secure a lock somewhere along the trail to bring good luck to your relationship.

Mom and Steve underneath the entrance to Via dell'Amore

 I think this is looking back at Riomaggiore on the way to Manarola

On the way to Manarola on Via dell'Amore

Since we had a scheduled dinner with the owner of the winery that night, we couldn't stay in Cinque Terre too late, so we were only able to see three of the five towns.  The third village we visited was Corniglia, which sits way up on a hill because the coastline geography.  So we hiked up the 400 steps to get from the train station to the village center.  It was a bit of a workout, but the reward was a great ocean breeze at the top that cooled us down.  We ate a late lunch at a another great restaurant and even had a great laugh with the waitress, which I'll tell you about if you ask me some time.

The square where we ate lunch

Looking out to Manarola from the top of Coniglia

After that, we sadly headed out of Cinque Terre to go back to the winery, but then had a wonderful and informative meal with the winery owner.  Usually I am not a fan of really drawn-out dinners, but the owner had so many interesting things to say that the time just flew by.  After a long day, we finally went up to get some sleep.

Fantastic Uetliberg Hike

My mom and step-dad were just here for a week, so I'm behind on posting.  Before I write about all the things we did, I have to talk about the fantastic hike I took a while back.  Two Saturdays ago, before Darren got back from a business trip, I decided to break in my new hiking boots I had bought before moving here.  I decided to hike on Uetliberg, the local mountain I talked about previously.   Darren has been up there several times for work events, but I have never gone.  That Saturday morning the weather was beautiful and I had nothing scheduled that day, so I got on my boots, packed a little bag, and walked a few minutes over to a nearby train that would take me up the mountain.  In just a short 15 minutes the train was out of city streets and winding up the beautiful mountainside.  I got off at the last stop, which is just below the ridge of the mountain.  It was beautiful!

The view from the train stop close to the top of Uetliberg

The train that runs up and down the mountain

I didn't really have a trail map or know where I was going, but I knew there was a restaurant at the top, so I headed in that direction.  The Swiss have excellent trail signs that even tell you how long it will take you to hike to the destination.  I mostly relied on these signs to explore the mountain.

Along the trail to the top of Uetliberg

On the way to the top of the mountain, I ran into the Planetenweg, which means Planet Walk/Path/Trail.  Someone has set up models of the sun and the planets to scale of size and distance along the ridge of the mountain range.  They even still have Pluto on the trail.

The Planet Trail

The Sun

Mercury

I went off the Planet Trail to head to the top of the Uetliberg where I knew there was a restaurant, since Darren has eaten there.  There were benches, picnic tables, and barbecues all around and now I'm dying to have a picnic up there.

The communications tower you can see from all over Zurich

The view from the picnic area, which looks down at Lake Zurich

On the way up to the restaurant, they have these Gaudi-like lamp posts

The restaurant at the top of Uetliberg

There was a gorgeous view from where this restaurant sits and I spent a lot of time just looking around.  The mountain ridge runs roughly north-south, so if you face north, on the right side is Lake Zurich and Zurich proper, while the left side features some "suburbs"(it quickly becomes countryside) of Zurich where a lot of my friends live.  I took a video of some of the view.  You can see in the beginning of the video the signs for all the trails and how they mark the duration of the hike.

Looking to the left to the opposite side of the mountain from Zurich

A funny structure that you can walk up to the observation platform

The view from the observation platform, Zurich city is to the right

I then walked down lots of stairs get off the top of mountain and get back to where the Planet Trail was.  I only walked a little ways past Saturn, though, before turning around and heading back.

Another restaurant on the mountain

Jupiter

Saturn

My attempt at a self-portrait

A beautiful field I came across

The beautiful field

The view from the train on the way down

I am so in love with Uetliberg!  As soon as the weather clears up again, I'll be heading up to try a different trail.