Mike's mother loves to travel (and she loves us) so it was no surprise that she booked a flight to visit us pretty much a month after we moved here. She was here for 9 full days. We spent half of that time in Switzerland and the other half in Italy.
Mike's mom (who I will now refer to as MIL) flew into Zurich on a Saturday morning. We drove up to pick her up. The area for people to meet flight passengers is small. It was super crowded and hard to see who was coming out from the baggage area. If you missed your person it'd be hard to find them in the crowd. The airport is doing a lot of construction, and I hope they expand this area.
After we picked her up we drove back to Bern. The weather was bad; cloudy and rainy. MIL wasn't able to see any of the beautiful rolling hills. On Sunday we did a walk around Bern. Old Town Bern really is beautiful and it was fun showing her around. While it didn't rain, it wasn't beautiful out either. Blah.
Monday morning we dropped Tucker off at the boarders, and drove 6 hours to Verona. It rained the entire time. The only cool thing about all the rain, is when we drove through the Alps there were hundreds of waterfalls. It was too cloudy to take any pictures, but it was amazing to see that many waterfalls.
Once we checked in it was too late to do any sight seeing (and rainy) so we ate dinner and went to bed early.
MIL's birthday was on Thursday and we decided to get here a private photography workshop/walking tour in Venice. Venice is only an hour and 20 minutes from Verona, so it made the most sense for us to do the workshop on Tuesday. I checked Venice's forecast everyday leading up to the trip and everyday it showed rain. But luckily the weather changed and it didn't rain on Tuesday (actually it didn't rain again while MIL was here). We took the train and meet our instructor,
Petro, at the station. He spent the next 6 hours showing us all the hidden gems of Venice. MIL loved the workshop and she got some great photos. Petro was a great instructor/tour guide. After the tour we did a gondola ride, ate dinner and headed back to Verona.
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| No modesty in Venice. Underwear hanging out to dry. |
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| UPS boat |
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| A jam packed bookstore |
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| A super cute old man sporting a cane and a cigar |
Wednesday morning we explored Verona. We saw the Verona Arena, and Juliet's balcony. At Juliet's balcony you could buy a lock, write you and your loved one's name on it, and lock it to a tree to symbolize your love for all eternity. Or until they cut off the locks to make room for more. I went to a fabric store, but the fabric's were too pricey for me.
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| Some people left love letter's at Juliet's balcony |
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| We left a symbol of our love. |
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| A statue of Juliet. Notice the how worn her boob is. All the men took pictures of themselves grabbing her boob (not my man). Which is creepy considering she was 16. |
In the afternoon we left Verona and headed to Bergamo. Trying to find parking in Old Town Bergamo was an ordeal. There most have been an event that day because the street was jam packed with people (in the middle of the day...on a Wednesday). There were no side walks so people walk in the road. We had to slowly drive through tons of people and try to find somewhere to park. The Old Town was a cute little area with only a couple of streets full of stores and restaurants. It sat up on a hill and had a nice view of the rest of Bergamo.
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| This is where we had MIL's birthday dinner |
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| A view overlooking Bergamo |
On Thursday Mike and I took the train to see Milan. We didn't plan anything to do there, so we just walked around for an hour or two. We were not impressed by Milan, and probably wouldn't return. But it was nice to pop in for an afternoon.
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| Duomo di Milano |
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| Galleria Vittorio. A covered shopping area with the upscale brands |
Friday we left Bergamo and headed back to Bern. On Saturday the weather was nice so we went to Lauterbrunnen and Murren. They were just as beautiful as always. We brought Tucker and he had a great time playing.
On Sunday we went to the Cailler Chocolate Factory. They have a very nice tour that you can do. It includes the history of chocolate, the company, a tour of some of the facility and ends with a sample of the different chocolates Cailler makes. We all loved it. We left the factory with full bellies and several pounds of chocolate.
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| A wall of chocolate bars |
Early Monday morning we said good bye to our dear mother. We had a great visit, and can't wait till her visit next year.
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