Saturday, August 31, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Hiking the Alp Flix.
The weather is not going to be fantastic this weekend, and, since I have some vacations coming up in September, I'm staying in town and working. This also means I can finally get caught up on some posts that I've been meaning to make...
Two weekends ago, also the same weekend that I made it to the Locarno Film Festival, Melissa and I went for this hike in the Graubünden region. It definitely required some commitment, because the train/bus ride was about 2.5 hours, with 1.5 hours of those being on a bus on windy mountain roads, but it was totally a beautiful hike.
We started out in the little town of Sur, which Google Maps has a hard time finding, because it is so small!
Our hike then wended its way up the mountain. Unfortunately, at some point we missed our turn (the signage was pretty terrible), and we ended up walking straight up the mountain, instead of making a more gradual climb. It was very beautiful, but we were definitely not where we were supposed to be.
Once we reached the plateau at the top, we hiked along it towards a lake, with great views of all of the surrounding mountains.
Eventually we made our descent back to Sur, where we were just in time to catch a bus to start our journey back. We stopped along the way in a little mountain resort town (Lenzerheide) for a post-hike Aperol Spritz, a favorite summer drink, before making our way back home.
It was a fantastic hike, and really nice to have company!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
A mini-vacation in Ticino.
This summer has been going so quickly that I'm definitely still playing catch-up, both with life and with blogging. One of the highlights of the past month was a visit from Jessi and babycakes, when we rented a cute stone house in Ticino and had a long, golden weekend exploring Ticino, swimming, and being really really hot. Jessi happened to come during a heat wave, and it was at least 90 or 95 F and sunny every day she was here. After a certain point, I've just learned to embrace the heat, although the Minnesotan in me would really rather be cold than hot!
We headed down to Ticino midday on July 31st (I needed to work in the morning) and found our cute little apartment in Gordola.
The next day was August 1st, the Swiss national holiday, and we had a relaxed day, doing a little swimming in Lago Maggiore in the morning, meeting up with my dear friend Stefanie for a picnic lunch, wandering around Locarno, swimming in the Verzasca River, and watching some fireworks from our backyard.
On August 2nd, we did part of a hike in the Val Verzasca that Kara and I had done when she visited over two years ago. This hike is along the Verzasca River, so we took the chance to do some swimming/wading in the incredibly turquoise (and frigid) waters. The river appeared to be basically a public swimming pool, with people setting up camp the whole length of the river that we hiked, at least. The hike ended at Lavertezzo, which is famous for its old stone bridge. When we were there, people were jumping off the bridge into the river below, which I found absolutely terrifying. It was a very different atmosphere from when I was there with Kara, but still just as beautiful!
The next day, Saturday, we went up to Cardada to see the beautiful view from the top and to take a walk on the trails that were up there. We were very thankful that the gain in altitude brought us to cooler temperatures! We had a delicious lunch on a terrasse overlooking Lago Maggiore and had fun playing with babycakes, who likes to hug trees! Given the history that Jessi and I have hugging trees, I feel very satisfied that this lives on in baby A.
After Cardada, we stopped in Locarno to get some gelato with Stefanie, who works for the Locarno Film Festival. The festival started on the next day, so the whole town was buzzing with preparations. It was fun to see everything before it got really busy, especially the Piazza Grande, which is transformed into a huge outdoor cinema.
On Sunday, our final day in Ticino, we went to the market in Cannobio and enjoyed walking around the small Italian town and seeing what the market had to offer. After we had marketed ourselves out, we took a ferry back to Ascona and spent the afternoon wandering around there by the lake and playing in a park.
It was a really nice mini-vacation and really felt like a summer vacation: lots of sun and water. I'm really thankful that Jessi and babycakes got to come for a visit while I'm still in Switzerland, and it was fantastic to get to spend some time with them in one of my favorite areas of Switzerland!
**Some of these photos are courtesy of Jessica Patton.
We headed down to Ticino midday on July 31st (I needed to work in the morning) and found our cute little apartment in Gordola.
The next day was August 1st, the Swiss national holiday, and we had a relaxed day, doing a little swimming in Lago Maggiore in the morning, meeting up with my dear friend Stefanie for a picnic lunch, wandering around Locarno, swimming in the Verzasca River, and watching some fireworks from our backyard.
On August 2nd, we did part of a hike in the Val Verzasca that Kara and I had done when she visited over two years ago. This hike is along the Verzasca River, so we took the chance to do some swimming/wading in the incredibly turquoise (and frigid) waters. The river appeared to be basically a public swimming pool, with people setting up camp the whole length of the river that we hiked, at least. The hike ended at Lavertezzo, which is famous for its old stone bridge. When we were there, people were jumping off the bridge into the river below, which I found absolutely terrifying. It was a very different atmosphere from when I was there with Kara, but still just as beautiful!
The next day, Saturday, we went up to Cardada to see the beautiful view from the top and to take a walk on the trails that were up there. We were very thankful that the gain in altitude brought us to cooler temperatures! We had a delicious lunch on a terrasse overlooking Lago Maggiore and had fun playing with babycakes, who likes to hug trees! Given the history that Jessi and I have hugging trees, I feel very satisfied that this lives on in baby A.
After Cardada, we stopped in Locarno to get some gelato with Stefanie, who works for the Locarno Film Festival. The festival started on the next day, so the whole town was buzzing with preparations. It was fun to see everything before it got really busy, especially the Piazza Grande, which is transformed into a huge outdoor cinema.
On Sunday, our final day in Ticino, we went to the market in Cannobio and enjoyed walking around the small Italian town and seeing what the market had to offer. After we had marketed ourselves out, we took a ferry back to Ascona and spent the afternoon wandering around there by the lake and playing in a park.
It was a really nice mini-vacation and really felt like a summer vacation: lots of sun and water. I'm really thankful that Jessi and babycakes got to come for a visit while I'm still in Switzerland, and it was fantastic to get to spend some time with them in one of my favorite areas of Switzerland!
**Some of these photos are courtesy of Jessica Patton.
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