Travels to Switzerland

I Love London!

2008-08-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Last evening, after 24 straight hours awake, we returned to Sacramento from London. While there is certainly "no place like home," I have to confess that London is one of my favorite cities in the world. My question about that city is: how long would one have to live there to do everything once? What a rich, interesting place!

Just to give you an idea of some of the places we saw:

We visited the Tower of London, where prisoners were kept by kings and queens of long ago.

The Tower is famous for its ravens,

and its guards.

Back in the day, it was also home for jousting knights.

The Traitor's Gate is where boats brought the prisoners.

Outside of the Tower is the Tower Bridge. Prisoners would have loved to travel across that!

We got a rare chance to go inside Buckingham Palace, one of the castles housing the queen of England.

We went to several museums (all free!), like the British Museum:

And probably my favorite-- a walk AND a nighttime boat ride along the Thames River.

We traveled nearly everywhere either on double-decker busses, or on a train that run underneath the city, called the Underground.

Overall, the thing I can say most about London was on a poster in the underground:

Everyday Life in Lugano

2008-07-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

As we near the end of our time here, it occurs to me that all I've written about is trips we've taken. That's the glamorous part! I thought I'd give everyone a look at day-to-day life here in Lugano. Since it's a couple miles each way, on foot, to town, we don't go too often! The biggest part of our time has been spent in our little dorm room. If you go to college someday, your room might look something like this:

We've enjoyed cooking nearly all our own meals with one tiny skillet and a small pot with the handle broken off!

The view from our window is indeed fun to look at:
When we walk outside, we see the front of our building. Notice, more stairs to get to our room after the uphill walk from town :( !!

This picture shows what we always see if we look the other direction: construction equipment.

One of our biggest challenges in this month has been nighttime. They do road work overnight, so each night from about 10 pm until 3 or 4 am, we hear jack hammers or trucks scraping up smashed pavement. Ahhh, relaxing...! (You can click on the little movie at the end of this post, taken from outside our room at 11 PM, if you dare. But be warned: it's noisy.)

As we walk downtown, we pass lots of interesting signs. The first warns cars of an upcoming street crossing for pedestrians. Notice that the pedestrian is wearing a suit and a hat!

The next shows a path that is only for pedestrians, not cars. Again, the father and daughter are both dressed up.

In this sign, which warns drivers that a school crossing is ahead, two very happy children run off to school!

Finally, the sign we seem to see most often: road work. The weather here is such in the winter that road work must be done quickly in the summer. It's EVERYWHERE!

It is fun to look around as we walk. The houses here are beautiful. In this first one, you can see both the beautiful colors of local houses, and the friendly pets that are often there!

As we walk on a path near our house, up through grape vines and a beautiful, old catholic church, we meet a little cat who always comes out to say hello!

We also meet many, many lizards, often outside our door. This fellow actually stopped to get his picture taken.

Nearly all houses have lots of brightly colored flowers. One local house has a collection of statues of Snow White and her pals in the garden.

One absolutely critical thing that Switzerland and Italy have are many drinking fountains. They are often both beautiful and welcome sights, when it's very hot. The first one is 2/3 of the way to our room. It tells us we are nearing home, and quenches our thirst until we get there. (And, of course, notice the construction warning tape nearby!)

The next one is near the train station--or halfway home. Also a welcome sight!

Speaking of trains, since we don't have a car here, transport is really important. Trains play one big part, helping us to take all of our trips this summer.

If we aren't taking a train, we walk in a large tunnel under the tracks so we can get to town.

By the time we are done in town, facing 87 big steps, 15 small ones, and two steep ramps often sounds like too much. Then we take a "funiculare," or small train-type car, up from town to the station. It's a great way to miss at least a bit of the steep climb, and takes only about 2 minutes.

Funiculares aren't ALWAYS a way around the climb. When I took my crazy climb down Mt. San Salvatore, we took a large funiculare up the mountain to begin with. If you look closely, you can see the red car beginning its climb. Most smart people will also take that car DOWN...!

In the end, the most common type of transport we see in Lugano is motorcycle. (though we don't have one. Darn!) They are fast, fuel-efficient, and help folks travel the small, curvy streets here.

We have, indeed, had some fun in Lugano, too. We've been to several outdoor concerts, which happen late every Friday and Saturday night in July, as well as some day time shows. The first picture is a mandolin orchestra from this area, which was a quiet, daytime concert.

The next picture is a jazz group named Marcus Miller Band, from Brooklyn, New York. Lugano has a huge jazz festival each summer, and lots of different famous bands play here. The concerts are on a huge stage outdoors, and the street along the lake is closed. Kids ride bikes and scooters up and down the street, people dance to the music, and the concerts last until 1 or 2 am!

The last concert photo is of a group from Milan, Italy, named Figli di Madre Ignota. They call their music "spaghetti Balkan." (It's a LONG story! If you want to learn about the Balkan region, look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans . It's really interesting!) Their music is a lot of fun, and very energetic. You'd love dancing to it during our dance circle!

Finally, the very best thing in this part of the world is still gelato, and this is our favorite gelato stand near the Parco Civico in Lugano! "Uno biscotto, per favore!"

At last, our journey home from town is over. This sign is the one we treasure most, because we actually live in the village of Sorengo, and it means we are only around the corner from our room. We are hot and tired, but usually have had fun in downtown Lugano.

Wow, if you are still reading at this point, you are quite a reader. (If you are a room 6 student--past or present--and you have read all this, come see me when school starts. I'll let you choose a free book from the first book order, because you've spent a lot of time reading here!!)
Coming up this Friday, we leave Lugano and fly to London for a week before we come home. Cheers!

I leave you with a night at Franklin College...!

Three Castles

2008-07-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

After being here for a month, we finally discovered the town of Bellinzona, just 30 minutes away by train, and it has three spectacular old castles on its hills. Yes, it would be another day of walking!

The first castle, closest to the town, is Castelgrande.

It's believed to have been inhabited in Roman times, and has been rebuilt in the 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries.

This one is 50 meters above the town, and one of the battlements extends right down into the town. Follow the green line and see how far it extends into town!

The castle was built on a giant rock, and it can still be seen in places around the castle.

The next castle, up the hill further, is Castello di Montebello, 90 meters above town. This castle was built to defend the town , probably in the 13th or 14th century. It has amazing views for miles away, including great views of both the Castelgrande and the highest castle of all, Sasso Corbaro.

Like the Napa Valley, there are many vineyards (grape vines) in the area. The climate here is very much like Sacramento and Napa.

Here you can see the drawbridge, designed to close out those enemies attacking the castle!

One current castle resident is a very friendly cat!

The final castle, Sasso Corbaro, is 230 meters above town (all steep hills again...!) It was built in 1479 and took only 6 months to build! Since it was so high, and offered a complete view of the area, it gave the very best protection of the Ticino Valley. It is a much smaller castle, but has amazing views and architecture.

On our walk to Sasso, we met many lizards, enjoying the warm sun!

This was a tiring, but spectacular, day!

Svizzera to Schweiz

2008-07-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took a trip from Lugano (in the Italian part of Switzerland) to Zurich (in the German part). It's not much further than Sacramento to San Francisco, but the language and culture change completely!

Like Lugano, Zurich is also on a lake, called the Zurich See. A large river called the Limmat runs through the whole town. In the distance, the huge, snow-capped Alps appear. Yes, they even have some snow in mid-July!

The lake is filled with ducks, swans, and birds of many kinds.

We enjoyed replacing pizza and pasta with German food, like Donor Kebaps, Bratwurst and Schnitzel. One night, we enjoyed a traditional Alpine dinner of fondue and raclette. Raclette is a meal AND an evening's entertainment! You have a heated machine with little pans, just big enough for one thick slice of Swiss cheese. You pop a slice in, wait until it melts, and then pour it over something on your huge tray of foods--potatoes, small ears of corn, mushrooms, even pear slices! Then you melt another slice of cheese, and choose different food to cover with gooey, melted cheese. It's delicious and fun, too!

The best part of Zurich was getting together with friends from Germany, who took the train down to meet us there. This picture shows (L to R) my son, Ian, and our friends, Carl and Stephen, on a wall overlooking old town Zurich.

Es war eine gute Reise! (It was a good trip!)

An "Afternoon Walk"

2008-07-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

Well, room 6 students, it turns out to be good that I ran with you when we did laps outside. If not, I might still be stuck halfway down a Swiss Alpine mountain!

Yesterday my son, Ian, and his friend, Crystal, and I took a funicular to the top of a 925 meter mountain. It was a beautiful view, and everything started out great. A teacher at the college here had told us we should walk back down. He insisted it was a do-able walk, on well marked paths. He said it would take about 2 hours, and we would end up with a boat ride on Lake Lugano. Well, we packed a lunch of cheese, bread, water, and fruit, wore good shoes, and took off for a scenic afternoon.

We quickly found out that the "paths" were steep, sharply curving trails, with large rocks to climb over and much loose gravel on the ground.

We walked, and walked, and walked, and after 2 hours were no closer to the end of the trail, which was not well-marked. In desperate Italian, I found some construction workers and asked, "Dov'e Melide?" (Where is the town of Melide?) He said, "Lei va..." (you go...) and pointed the palm of his hand straight down. We met two different Swiss people who asked us where we were walking, and when we told them, they gave a common Italian sound of "Oooofff," which means, "Wow!" One lady said, in rough English, "You have good legs?"

Three and one-half hours later, we finally came out in a little town that is at least 5 miles away from Lugano. We had not only walked down, but a distance of five miles away. If you look waaayyy in the back of this photo, you'll see a tiny TV tower. That is where the walk started. This photo was taken when we reached the town!

But our walk still wasn't over. It turns out we weren't "right at the boat." It was probably another two hundred meters away, and it was getting ready to leave. At the end of our long walk, we had to sprint 200 meters to catch the boat! All I can say, though, is tht it was at least a beautiful, cool ride across the lake to home.

We treated ourselves to a spaghetti dinner in town, then started the 1 1/2 mile walk home for the night! So without all those laps at school, I might not have survived this "nice afternoon walk!!!"

Venice/Venezia

2008-07-14T02:27:00.001-07:00

All I can say is that, for all my travels, I've never seen a place like Venice! It is absolutely amazing. Venice is a city with no cars, only small alleys for pedestrians and canals for boats. There are small streets, smaller streets, and those that look like a crack between buildings! While there are some big tourist attractions in Venice, like the Piazza San Marcos, the best thing to do is wander around in those tiny alleys. After every third turn, you run into another small canal with a little bridge to cross to the next street.

We did go to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, which is about the best museum I've seen (even compared to Paris--sorry Paris!) It has a collection of paintings that she used to own when the museum was her house. It's full of modern artists like Picasso, and Jackson Pollack. If you had Mrs. Tenenbaum for an art teacher, you've seen prints of some of these paintings, like Mondrian and Kandinsky. The house is right on the Grand Canal, so you can take a break from looking at art and sit on marble benches in front of the canal.

We also went to the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the Grand Duke of Italy, back in the day. His palace is spectacular. It also has a prison attached to it. If the Doge got angry with you, he could send you to the dungeon--no light, tiny rooms, and no hope. To get to the dungeon, you had to cross the Bridge of Sighs. They called it that because as each prisoner crossed it, he supposedly sighed at the beauty of Venice, which he would never see again.

We rode on big taxi boats called vaporettos, and tiny gondola taxis called traghettos.

We ate LOTS of gelato, as well as pizza, pasta, and paninis (sandwiches). But mostly we walked and walked. Venice is the world's largest art museum, and it's spectacular art!!

Tutto Italiano

2008-07-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

After landing in Milan, Italy, we took a bus to our home for the month of July, Lugano, Switzerland. Switzerland is one country, but is divided into three languages and cultures: French, German, and Italian. Now, I speak some French. I even know ein bisschen Deutsch. However, I am in the one section with a language I don't speak! And nearly no one here speaks English. Ah, non capisco!

Mr. Stoner is teaching at an English-speaking college here, and we are living in a dorm room. Our room is probably 1 1/2 miles from town, so I am doing lots of walking. To make it more interesting, it's all downhill going in, AND all uphill coming home (when I'm carrying groceries...)! Lugano is in the Swiss Alps, so it's very hilly everywhere. I counted one day: I must walk 87 regular stairs from town, to get to 15 smaller stairs. That takes me to a steep slope, ending in 25 more stairs. That walk ends at the train station, which is about a mile away from our room--all uphill, of course!

This is a beautiful town on the shore of a large lake. Across the border is Italy. This town is filled with music in the summer. Most concerts happen outside in the Piazza de la Reforma, down by the lake. The best concert we've heard was by a collection of guys from Surinam, Cuba, Congo, and Paris! Languages and music--definitely some things for me to like here.

This weekend, off to Venice. Stay tuned! Arrevederci!

Enjoy some views of this amazing town! Che bella!

Hiya, England

2008-07-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

Our first stop on this tour took us to Durham, England. It was a very busy week. While Mr. Stoner worked with another professor, I visited some English schools that have Interactive White Boards just like the new one in room 6. I saw some other amazing technology, too! One computer draws 3-D designs, which can then be "printed" on a 3-D printer. Yep, they come out to be solid shapes, not plane figures. For those of you coming into room 6 in the fall, we also got hooked up with a pen pal class at a school that does international stuff, and a lot of technology. Should be interesting to get to know them!

We also did some visiting of sites in northern England. First, we went to the home of George Washington's ancestors, in a town called Washington. One interesting fact is that George's family flag had stars and stripes on it long before America came to be. Could that be the source of our national flag? Some folks think so.

We also visited Hadrian's Wall. It is a wall that goes from northeastern England, near Durham, clear across to the west coast. It was designed to keep the Scottish "invaders" from attacking Roman troops in England beginning in 122AD by the emperor Hadrian. Now, room 6 students, think about the big blocks during Free Choice time, and how long it takes to build a single tower from them. Now imagine a wall 80 miles long and 8 feet high. AND you have to cut out each individual block before you can build with it. That's what the Romans did. Amazing! This picture shows a section of the wall.

Finally, we just had fun visiting with our friends in Durham. One of the best parts was our little friend below, named Ula! She kept us busy with games of fetch and chew toys!

Finally, it was "goodbye" England, and "ciao" Switzerland!

Ciao, Lugano!

2008-06-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

This summer I will be living in Lugano, Switzerland, near the border of Italy. My goal is to learn about the language and culture, and come back speaking some Italian. I encourage room 6 students to follow my posts, and learn about Switzerland and Italy, too!