swiss trains and milkmaids...

after milan, we continued on our way to the lauterbrunnen valley. rick steves told us to go to the berner oberland, and nowhere else. i guess we'll have to save zermatt for when we are royal like william and kate. but lauterbrunnen is beautiful, and so is the train ride there from milano!

the mountains get less green and more snowy as you climb. 

i brought some parmesan and asiago on the train from venice. 

and now we're in switzerland. 

alpine lake...

we took the train along the edge of the lake, and then went in a tunnel below it. oh yes. 

and then we had to get on the local swiss train, at interlaken, so that we could make it up to lauterbrunnen. 

this town is about thisbig. so you can just walk from the train station to your hotel. no big deal!

ryan's a creeper. i don't know what to tell you. this is another of his "susanne from behind" series. i think it'll be a life-long series. 

this is an adorable graveyard! 

see, there's a little garden in front of every tombstone. 

this valley is called the valley of 600 (i think) waterfalls. we didn't count 600, but there were LOTS. 

i like the roofs with grass on them. 

swiss sheep. 

do not set of fireworks. do not do it. do you understand??

look, this is the number you call for when you want to paraglide in the mountains. we did not do this. mostly because i am not completely stupid (not that paragliding is stupid-- it is-- but doing it for the first time in the alps? that's pretty stupid. even the people in this valley think it's stupid. only tourists do it. so there.). 

firewood sheds. i guess the mountain people like to have 3 years of firewood stored up, because they like to "season" it for 3 years before they burn it. so there's a need for firewood sheds, you see. 

also, there are gnomes. get ready, there will be more. i found out when i got home that gnome ownership is a very big deal in switzerland, especially in the rural areas. people collect gnomes from all over, and often paint them themselves. you just wait. i LOVED it. 

swiss are fond of their flag too. what's not to like?

i liked the pasture land here. it's all sort of different leaves and weeds and grasses and flowers. i imagine the milk from the cows that eat this highly varied diet is very nutritious. 

we went to the hotel oberland for dinner, which is my favorite restaurant in the whole world, probably. this is a crazy salad. there's actually 4 different salads (one of chickpeas, one of carrots and raisins and mayo, one of corn and green beans with curry powder, and one of lettuces) all together. weird but good. 

i enjoy having my picture taken. 

ryan and the scenery. 

my dinner. this is oberland rosti. it's shredded potatoes with onion and bacon bits, which is fried into a big hashbrown, and then topped with gruyere and put under the broiler. then there's a fried egg on top. it is DANGEROUSLY good. 

ryan got indian curry rosti. this area of switzerland is often used in bollywood films, and so the area is very popular with indian tourists. all of the menus have some indian variations

i ate it all up. yikes. 

oh jerry- that's how i feel about cheese too!! 

ciao, italia, and a minute in milano!

we woke up this morning with a plan to take the 9:30 wetro to the train station, where we would move along to switzerland. we were very efficient with our packing and so we had 25 minutes to check our internet at the hotel before we had to leave. so i had the first 10 minutes, and ryan had the second 10 minutes. as i was writing some postcards next to ryan, i realized he had frozen. one of his friends had written to tell him that all the major online poker sites had been shut down. so there was some panic as we thought about what the lack of online poker would mean for his career (by the way; it's all okay, as I write this 4 months later he is dominating the peppermill game and pretty much dominating!). so the wetro ride was pretty quiet. i took a lot of photos...

do you see that open window?

she's reading in there. and i want to start each morning reading in the early morning light as i overlook a canal. just in case stating a wish makes it happen; that's mine. 

arrivederci, rialto! i will see you again!

this is where the important guests park their boats. if you don't have your own boat, you're not an important guest. 

i loved this church. 

oh, that's my friend sabrina's boat. she's a pretty important person, it seems!

lunch at the milan train station. this was fast food pizza, obviously, but it was quite tasty too. 

europe loves the smurfs. they're all over. did i mention that i can't wait for the movie to come out? i loved the smurfs when i was little! 

also, you can have that rat. i don't want him, thanks. 

twilight wetro ride...

rather than take a gondola (we were feeling a little poor by this point), we decided to take a twilight ride on the wetro. if you catch a mostly empty one, you can sit in the front, and get great photos. plus film:

so we have some excellent video clips, if you want to come over, or if i ever figure out how to upload them! meanwhile, here are some pictures from ryan: 

i love these rose-colored street lights. 

rialto bridge. much prettier off the bridge and at night. 

when we were walking by here the other day, we saw a couple sitting here, and when a boat went by, they got SPLASHED. and the girl was PISSED! haha, don't sit that close to the water. 

then we went to dinner. we were a little late (the ride took about 45 minutes longer than we thought; make sure you get on the right wetro, if you do this!), so we were the last ones there, and they were out of their veggies, which looked amazing while we were waiting. boo. oh well. 

pesto pasta for moi...

langostine marinara for ryan. he had to take all the shells off. it was kind of a mess. how are you supposed to eat this??

ryan's fried seafood. that zucchini was AWESOME. 

more salad. 

and another cheese plate. also too much cheese. but delicious. i think italian and spanish cheeses are my favorite. take that, france. 

if you can't tell what this is, you are silly. Ryan is silly, though, so i'll tell you: it's waiting for godot. 

scenes from a shop window...

cat portraits. they love cats in venice. probably because they kill the rodents that love it here. 

i loved this little fairy sticking her tongue out. 

me near st. mark's. there were 4 bands, with singers, all around the square outside st. mark's. it was beautiful, and romantic, and lovely, and there is video.