mostly photos and a few words about what we are doing, seeing, eating, and everything else in between... 8/18/2024 - 8/24/2024
Back to Florence for a quick pit stop on our way to Switzerland. The heat wave was finally slayed by a full day of rain.We of course celebrated this victory with gelato from our favorite spotTyler was selected to demonstrate a flip of at least 5lbs of ravioli during a cooking class. While out of his league, our instructor was full of passion, and shouted "Do it! Do it! Yes! Very nice!" during any student's time to shine at the front of the class. Tyler only spilled one, i.e., success!You can see the heat, wine, and gluten getting to Tyler's cheeks despite spending much of the past 6 weeks hiking, but keep your eyes on the homemade pastaReed found a cocktail bar where you simply descibe what you like and the bartender handles the rest. It's called "Bitter Bar" if you're ever in town.Off to Switzerland (Zurich)! Pristine lakes, mountains, and air surrounded our senses in every direction. Clean streets, immacuate subways, and "laid back sophistication" surrounded us. While perhaps known for their watches, we also loved their chocolate.While walking along one of the lakefronts, we found a pedal-powered boat for an hour or two of funwhich naturally had turf, lawn chairs, and an umbrella in the backand after pedaling hard that afternoon, we celebrated with another classical Swiss stereotype — fondue!From Zurich, Reed returned to the states and we made our way to Bern!We're a bit fuzzy on the history, but Bern hosts several bears in the middle of the city. It's not a zoo, just a nice hillside with shade, pools, and walking areas for the bearsA short train ride away from Bern is Grindelwald — a stunning landscape of mountains and destination points that sound like they belong in Harry Potter. We took lots of breaks to sit and watch the paragliders against the mountain backdrop.The end of our hike left us a small glacial lake. It was hard to look in any direction and not love the breath of fresh air and sights to be seen. Not pictured: the 3 mountain goats that had made the picnic rest stop area their home - we sat and laughed as the goats would sneak up behind people and to try and steal their lunch.And it wouldn't be a summer trip to Bern without a river float! It was the activity Makenna was looking forward to most. We purchased a dry bag in town, and started making our way down to the river. After about a 45 minute walk, we settled on our jumping spot and tried to pack our dry bag only to realize we had too much stuff, mainly Tyler's large sandals.We unpacked everything, walked back to the cafe we had past 15 minutes prior and purchased another dry bag. Dry bags in hand, we floated from one side of the city to the next in crisp, refreshing glacier water. It was an afternoon filled with floatingAnd a perfect way to end our time in Switzerland
