The Final Post - A Look Back

It has officially been one year (to the day) that we moved back to the US.  The fact that it has taken this long to post this final blog is really a commentary on what life is like as two professionals working in America.  What a contrast to our lives in the UK.  The truth is, a small amount of denial may have also played a role.  What I am truly thankful for is the fact that I actually wrote this very last blog two weeks before we left Truro.  It was a sunny Saturday morning as I sat in our favorite coffee shop in downtown Truro waiting for Katie to join me on her lunch break.  Reading this now, one year later, actually serves as a good reminder for what this experience truly was and the state of mind we were in when I wrote it.  Although we have had our moments of missing our lives there, I can honestly say that every single word I wrote in that coffee shop last March is still completely true.  Enjoy. 

-Saturday, March 17, 2012

18 months ago Katie and I did what we had talked about doing for years.  We took a chance.  We trusted in ourselves enough to believe that our decision to leave behind our families, friends, jobs and the lives that we had built would be a good one.

With 4 suitcases, more unknowns than certainties and great anticipation we landed in England and began a time in our lives that would be a reference point for all things that followed. 

In our final days here, I find myself thinking back on what it was we wanted out of all of this.  We hoped to challenge ourselves to live and think in a different way.  We hoped to gain a new perspective on the world and our place on it and we hoped to learn how to better live together in each moment.

Our travels consisted of 20 cross country train rides and 24 flights, which brought us to 15 European cities in 18 months. We immersed ourselves in a culture different than our own and traveled far to experience new ones.  We built new relationships and strengthened old ones, even from a continent away.  The more we traveled the smaller the world got and with each new experience we were shaped into the people that will return in a few weeks.  With our perspective broadened and our relationship strengthened we will return to the US with no illusion that experience was an incredible gift that we were lucky to have.  

The decision to pursue this dream far from home was ours and the decision to return will be no different.  What awaits us is a life that we love and a life that we choose.  We want to sit on the dock at the cabin with our feet in the water as our growing family enjoys a summer day.   We want to have the windows down and the radio up as we drive through Wisconsin to visit family.  First birthday parties, graduations, weddings, Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas mornings will once again be the individual events that will fill our weekends but together they make up the life that we are resuming.

We choose these things because they are home…and there is no place that we have traveled that could replace the completeness of being surrounded by family.

We learned that we could probably live and thrive anywhere in the world but we choose to live here .  We learned that if you can keep an open mind, work really hard and treat others with respect that good things will happen. 

So as this time in our lives comes to an end and we look back on it with great fondness, we look forward with great anticipation for what lies ahead.  We will do what we have learned to do so well during our time here.  We will take a deep breath, hold hands, and jump.  

The Last Hurrah......

By the time we reached Madrid by train, the mood of travel had definitely changed for John, Dad, Rhonda and myself!  We spent our time in Barcelona and Seville going, going, going and needed a city of chill and low-key…..and Madrid was just the place!

We spent our three days in Madrid taking in the sights, playing Tick until the early morning hours, picking up food and snacks from the local corner market, checking out the weekend flea market and enjoying some local shopping .  We made a point of taking our time during meals and spent an entire afternoon and evening eating and drinking our way around the city.  We were there just long enough that it felt like we were truly experiencing Spanish culture.  And as with most vacations, as soon as that feeling started to settle in, it was time to uproot and move on to the next adventure.  We bid Dad and Rhonda a farewell as they were making their way (and three very long flights) back to the States.

Yummy sangria and paella!

As for John and myself, we had one final adventure before our final travel back to America.  So as we said our goodbyes to Dad and Rhonda at the airport, we hopped a flight to a place we heard so much about from the Brits……the Canary Islands!  We decided the best way to end our time abroad was to have a final week to ourselves in an exotic location to regroup before the reality and absolute insanity of moving back began.  We decided to spend a week on the island of Tenerife, one of seven small Spanish islands off the northwest coast of Africa. 

Leisurely lunch in Madrid

We arrived in Tenerife and it didn’t take long to find out that the bus transfer our hotel provided did not go to the airport we flew into.  After some phone calls and trips to the information desk, we found out there was one bus that came to the airport and took us to the other side of the island where our hotel was located.  Luckily it was early morning and we were in no hurry, so the two hour wait for the bus didn’t seem like that much of a problem.  After an hour and a half on the local bus and a short taxi ride, we finally arrived to our residence for the week. 

It didn’t take us being in Tenerife long to realize that the Canary Islands to the Brits is like Mexico to the Americans!  Though we were on a Spanish island, we were surrounded by the familiar English everywhere we turned.  To be honest, we spent the week doing what most people do when on a beach vacation…..we hung out by the pool and ocean, walked the boardwalk, took naps, ate lots of food and just took it all in.  Towards the end of our week there, we did a final night out where we got all dressed up and went to a nice restaurant followed by drinks at a great place called the Oriental Monkey. 

Some random things we realized once in Tenerife.  Though we hoped for super tropical weather, the weather ended up being so-so as there seemed to be quite a few clouds.  But when the sun was out or poking through the clouds, it was HOT!  So that made things interesting when by the pool.  One second I was covered in a towel and sweatshirt, the next second I was sweating and needing to jump in the pool to cool off.  It also didn’t take us long to realize that though the hotel we stayed in had gotten great reviews, we must have been so crazy busy booking Spain travels that we overlooked the reviews that mentioned our hotel consisted mainly of the senior population!  Let’s just say that the mini mall attached to our hotel had a store just of orthopedic shoes.  Luckily the younger part of the island was just a walk or short taxi ride away!  We’ll know for next time :-)

So as our time in Tenerife was coming to an end, the reality and unknown of what lie ahead was starting to hit us.  We tried our best to really take in the last of our time abroad, as we knew that things were about to drastically change, for both the good and the bad.  So on the night of April 17^th, we packed our bags one last time and began our 48 hour trek back to where it all began……..home.

Holy Week in Seville

Tom & John Shopping for Hats

The start of a procession

After finishing up in Barcelona, the four of us boarded the AVE Train and headed 180 mph to Seville.  The large draw to Seville was the fact that it was the site of one of the oldest and most tradition-rich Holy Week celebrations in the world called Semana Santa.  

The view from our hotel window

To fully explain all of the details of the Holy Week celebration in Seville would truly take pages so I will do my best to summarize.  At some point during Holy Week, each Catholic parish in all of Seville will lead a procession through the streets of Seville from their parish church into the Cathedral (in the center of the city) and back to their parish church. The procession is led by hundreds of members of the parish, often men and sometimes barefoot, all wearing pointed hats and holding large wooden crosses or tall white candles.  In the middle of the procession there is a coach (mostly made of gold but sometimes tin).  Each coach is decorated beautifully with statues, decorative designs and more candles.  Some of the coaches date back to the 17^th century and can weigh over 4500 pounds.  These floats are carried through the streets by up to 20 men for around 8 hours total.  To march in the procession and/or carry the float is viewed as one of the greatest honors of a lifetime and respected widely.   The largest procession are on Good Friday and begin at midnight and last until the early morning. 

One of many coaches

Yes, we were THAT close

We arrived on a Wednesday with most of the larger Holy Week celebrations ahead of us.  Within moments of arriving at our hotel, it was obvious that our time in Seville would be more than just wandering to a few tourist sites and taking in the culture.  The entire city had been transformed solely for the purpose of commemorating Holy Week.  The streets were filled with people and larger areas were lined with wooden chairs in preparation for the large Good Friday celebrations.  Our hotel was right on one of the main procession routes, which made for a convenient place to watch the procession but also made our hotel quite inaccessible when we were away from it while a procession was going on (more on that later).

Men preparing to carry a coach

 Our time in Seville was truly amazing and it would later be looked at as our favorite stop during our 17 days in Spain.  We passed the time on Wednesday and Thursday walking through the streets, stopping for tapas when we were hungry and beer and sangria when we were thirsty.  It was great to walk along the old cobblestone streets, which by this point in the week were mostly covered with candle wax from the multiple processions that had filled these same streets the days and nights before.  When processions were going on, we stopped and watched along the streets just as thousands of people did.  Wednesday night we stopped about a block from our hotel to watch one last procession before going to bed.  What we didn’t plan for was being unable to actually get to our hotel as the streets were filled with so many people that we literally could not move.  The downside was that it resulted in us standing for 3-4 hours before the crowd receded enough for us to reach our hotel.  The upside was the fact that we truly had a front row seat to the procession and were able to reach out and touch the coaches as they passed right in front of us.  After quite the ordeal, Katie and I were exhausted and headed straight for bed while Tom and Rhonda headed to the pub across the street from our hotel where they would quickly make friends with many of the locals.  

Ready for Bed

Ready to Party

Flamenco Dancing

Thursday was spent with more wandering through the streets and Thursday night, we attended a Flamenco show in an older, historic part of the town.  It was truly a cultural experience and a demonstration of artistic, musical and physical mastery that we will always remember.  After crawling in to bed Thursday night following a long day, we were awakened around midnight to the sound of drums at the end of the street.  As Katie and I threw open the curtains of our third story hotel room we were shocked to see the street filled with people preparing for another procession to pass by.  Needless to day, we got very little sleep that night and Tom, Rhonda, Katie and I all watched the early morning procession from right inside of our hotel room.  After the three hour procession, we headed to bed around 3 a.m. but were glad we stayed up to watch.

Plaza De Espana

Friday was spent at the Plaza de Espana, which was built in 1929 and is now a beautiful site of government offices and a large central square where many tourists fill the grounds.  It was definitely a lot of great photo opportunities and a great place to relax during our final day in Seville. 

As I said before, Seville was by far our favorite city that we visited in Spain.  I think this would have been the case even if it wasn’t Holy Week, but being there for the celebrations was a “cultural experience” in the truest sense of the phrase.  There is a certain charm to the city and a feeling of tradition that gives it a sense of authenticity that we didn’t find in the larger Spanish cities.  If we ever went back to Spain, Seville would be a must. 

ALF and Rainbow's Last Appearance

Barcelona, Spain......Party of Six

Barcelona, Here We Come!!!!

After staying a night in Bristol, we made the short plane ride to Barcelona, where we were going to start our first of eighteen days on Spanish soil!  We met Phil and Debbie in the Barcelona airport (as they flew in from Paris) and the four of us made our way into the city centre, and ultimately our hotel.  Once checked in and comfortable in our modern apartment, we decided to venture out for the rest of day to get a feel for this brand new city.  We took the metro to the Barcelona waterfront and took a nice stroll along the promenade where we saw a working marina, hotels, restaurants and apartments.  We decided it was time for our first taste of Spanish cuisine…..and we were not disappointed!  We ate outside where we each had a delicious dinner of authentic paella and sangria.  After an evening of food and catching up with Phil and Deb on their trip to Paris, we decided to call it a night. 

Saturday morning was a mixture of relaxation and excitement as we had nothing planned for the day other than meeting Dad and Rhonda at the train station later that afternoon.  Yes, you have it correct, we had an overlap of two nights in Barcelona with both Phil and Deb as well as my Dad and Rhonda!  As Phil and Deb were finishing up their almost two weeks of visiting and European travel, my Dad and Rhonda were flying over to begin their almost two weeks of visiting and European travel.  So began the two day overlap with parents that was beyond a success! 

National Art Museum of Catalonia Steps

So back to Saturday morning!  Phil and Deb decided to go on their own for a bus tour and John and I spent a lazy morning at the hotel trying to recoup from a crazy past couple of weeks.  Once late morning hit, we knew it was time to go explore more of the city.  We strolled through Plaza de Espana, stopped for the best churros we’ve ever had, sat on the steps of the National Art Museum of Catalonia listening to live music and ended eating a beautifully two hour long tapas lunch outside in the sun.  Life doesn’t get much better.

Dad and Rhonda have arrived!

Once late afternoon hit, we headed straight for the train station to welcome Dad and Rhonda to the amazing city of Barcelona.  I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my Dad in a train station in Spain.  Never in my life would I have guessed that my Dad would make the journey across the world to travel alongside John and I in Spain.  Luckily (for him and us) he has a wife who pushes him to try new things and she was able to get this man to take time off work and make the journey over to Spain to travel!  Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Inside Segrada Familia

As we met Dad and Rhonda, we gave hugs and said our hellos and then made our way to the apartment where the six of us would be staying.  As Rhonda has endless energy and is always thinking ahead, it was of little surprise that the moment they reached the apartment, Rhonda pulled out a bag filled with food she brought to snack on.  Yes, a wheel of cheese was part of her “thinking ahead” for snacks for the group!  Once the six of us finished catching up and sharing appetizers, we decided it was time to walk around the neighborhood and get some food.  As it was another nice night, we found outdoor dining where we ate our hearts out and shared some more of the amazing sangria.

Group Shot Outside Segrada Familia

As Monday was the last day all the six of us would be together, we decided to enjoy it together and made our way to the famous Segrada Familia.  Segrada Familia is a church in the heart of Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudi (not the last time you’ll hear his name).  Building of the church began in 1882 and to this day, is not yet complete.  It was no short wait to see the inside of this church, but once inside, you quickly realize it was worth every minute.  The design is like none you’ve ever seen before and it has such a different feeling than any other church or cathedral I’ve been in.  Pictures just don’t do it justice. 

After walking through and learning about and experiencing the Segrada Familia, we decided to head to Las Ramblas which is a gorgeous tree-lined street that cuts through with heart of Barcelona and ends at the port.  The street is filled with entertainers, shops, restaurants, statues and more.  After taking a nice stroll through the craziness of Las Ramblas, we decided to make a stop at La Boqueria.  La Boqueria is a public market that has an extensive array of foods and goods to offer where your senses are hit at every corner.  The colors are vivid and the scent is strong, a good indicator of what each stall sells.  Everything from the mundane to exotic, from fresh fish and meat to fruit and candy. 

After a day of touring the city, it was time to relax and have a final dinner with John, myself and our four travel mates.  We made our way to a cozy restaurant down the street from our apartment and had a delicious dinner where the six of us had great conversation and one of the best meals in our Spanish travels.  Hosting two sets of parents at once in a foreign city ended up being a success!

Park Guell on a Sunny Day!

Come early Tuesday morning, Phil and Deb sadly had to make their way to the airport and ultimately, back to life in La Crosse.  It was sad to see them go, but we were happy to know that they had a great two weeks in Truro, Paris and Barcelona.  As Tuesday morning was rainy, dreary and cold, we spent a little extra time at the apartment in the morning until we finally made our way back to the waterfront harbor of Port Vell.  We decided to explore the long dock which leads out past the sailboats and to a mall located in the middle of the harbor.  After some exploring there, we then made our way to the popular Park Guell designed by Antoni Gaudi.  The park has multiple facets and contains some amazing and distinctive structures such as the long and multi-colored tiled bench overlooking the city, a mosaic dragon, a twisted rock walkway and even a home Gaudi once lived in while building this park.  It really was a sight to see, even on a gloomy and rainy day!

Despite the weather, we decided to take some time, sit outside and have a couple drinks at a café by the park.  From there we headed back to the museum where we sat on the steps overlooking the city and then made our way to a tiny, local restaurant where we had an authentic experience of being in the midst of Spaniards watching a Spanish football game.  It just seemed fitting that this was our last experience in Barcelona before we hopped on the train the next morning for our next desination…..Seville.   

Time to Say Goodbye

Catching our final Truro train

As most of you know, John and I made it back to the States safe and sound.  And yes, we have been horrible bloggers in the past handful of months due to a variety of reasons.  Depending on the day, these would give you an idea of what our excuse would be:

- Just too busy getting back into the swing of things

- Denial, absolute denial

- It just being too hard to look back

- Too busy eating Chipotle every night since we’ve been back

As easy as it would be to just never wrap up our blog due to above stated excuses, I know that it’s important to take time to look back and share in what our final days/months looked like for us, because the transition from our home in Truro to our home in the States didn’t magically happen.  In fact, there were a whole lot of laughs, tears and memories along the way.  So as we have a whole lot of ground to cover, bear with us as we take the time (and multiple blog posts) to look back. 

Truro

So let’s go all the way back to 38 Richmond Hill in Truro mid-March where John and I were doing our best to juggle moving out of a home in England, saying goodbye to jobs and friends, hosting parental visitors, getting ready for three weeks of Spanish travel (with two separate sets of parents) and doing our best to prep for figuring out logistics of living back in the United States.  Yep, things were a little chaotic and to be honest, I don’t really know how we did it.  But as everyone knows, in times of chaos, you just need to get on with it.  So that’s just what we did.

Phil, Deb, John and I at the Blue Bar

Our first logistical challenge was not only figuring out how to get our stuff back to the States, but figuring out which stuff would even come back with us.  We knew getting things from the UK to the US would be difficult (especially given that we would be traveling and without a home for at least a month), so we did some research and found a company that would send suitcases “door to door”.  So we packed up a large suitcase and large box with everything we knew we wanted back in the States (and didn’t need during traveling) and sent it on its’ way!  I say this as if it were easy, but I must admit, it was definitely time consuming as US Customs is a bit strict.  So we had to go through and write down every last thing we packed up (yep, down to counting how many pairs of socks we were sending), assign it a value, fill out lots of paperwork and then wait for it to get picked up.  A pain on the front-end, but so incredibly worth it when the postman knocks on your door, takes your suitcases and you won’t have to think about it again until you’re back on US soil!

Phil and Deb at Charlotte's Tea House overlooking Truro

On top of sending our important stuff back to the States, we also had to figure out what to do with all of the house stuff we accumulated over the time we lived on Richmond Hill.  The solution involved a camera and both of our workplaces.  We decided to try selling as many of our household items as possible and donate whatever items were left over.  So off I went around the house taking pictures of the most random items in hopes of selling them to a loving and needing home.  Once the pictures were taken and a fair price set for each item, we printed them and took them to both of our workplaces with the caveat that the items weren’t available until the end of March.  I mean, come on, who wants to go without dishes and towels?!?!  Our plan panned out because we were able to sell off the majority of our things to people who were randomly “looking for a cheap DVD player”, “hoping to replace my kitchen clock” and “needing a new tea kettle” (to name a few). 

Fun times renting a car!

Along with slowly disassembling our home, we also had house guests the week before and the week of moving out of our place.  John’s parents were wonderful and brave enough to make a return trip to Truro just as we were saying goodbye.  Though things were a bit crazy, we had some really nice moments with them both in Truro and in Cornwall.  Since we hadn’t rented a car the last time they visited, we decided to do so this time.  We had a wonderful day leisurely enjoying Cornwall and its’ beautiful beaches, stopping for lunch overlooking the ocean and just taking in the things we had grown to love about our England home.  We were also able to take time to just enjoy Truro and our home with Phil and Deb. 

My bosses Angela and Mo at my Going Away Bowling Party

As we entered the last week we would live in Truro, Phil and Deb jetted off for a short trip to Paris before we all met up again in Spain.  Along with Phil and Deb leaving came goodbyes in regards to our jobs.  I finished my job at Trevails at the end of the prior week and was lucky enough to have a goodbye party thrown for me by my coworkers.  We ended up having a pretty awesome night that started with bowling (have I ever mentioned that I love bowling?!) and ended with an amazing Indian Dinner with some great friends from work. 

The Trevails Crew

As I ended my time at Trevails, I couldn’t help but be thankful for the experience working there gave me.  Was I bored out of my mind most of the time? Yes.  Did I dislike having to work weekends?  Absolutely.  But being there allowed me to really experience what living life in England, namely Cornwall, means.  I was able to learn some fantastic English phrases.  I made some close and dear friends.  I learned how to have a good laugh about my American-isms.  And more than anything, I learned what kind hearts the Cornish have. 

John's work Farewell Party

As I finished work the week before and then spent our last week at home wrapping things up, John worked until the very end.  He had a bittersweet ending at the Royal Cornwall Hospital as he loved his job there, yet knew the program he put together was finally up and running on its own.  I must admit that in moving abroad, I was a bit worried about John.  He is very much a creature of habit and likes to know what lies ahead, so I was a bit nervous for him as he was jumping into a complete unknown and leaving a job in the States he really loved.  But he surprised me in multiple ways.  He not only took on all the challenges of moving, living and working somewhere completely foreign, but more than anything, he embraced and enjoyed it.  He showed me how amazing he was at what can be an incredibly hard task – adapting.  Not only did John take on this adventure of living, working and traveling abroad, he excelled at it.  I felt like in our relationship I already knew so much about this wonderful man, but here I was learning even more.

The last day of our lives in Truro - one last drink at Uneeka

So as all the craziness and chaos continued, it came time to finally say our goodbye to Truro.  We spent the week doing things and then saying “this is going to be the last time we…..” as most people do before they leave a place for good.  We spent time on our back deck wondering what the future would hold for us in the States.  We did a final dinner at our favorite restaurant, Chantek.  We walked by the Cathedral and made a point of really taking it in.  We tried to soak up as many of the mundane details of our lives in Truro as we humanly could.  And on our last day, we walked hand-in-hand to our absolute favorite place in Truro, the coffee shop Uneeka.  We sat upstairs both trying to take it all in, yet not have a public breakdown.  A hard line to walk. 

Right before we left for the train station :-(

After a mocha and a latte, we made the final walk through town and up Richmond Hill to grab our bags and say goodbye to the place we made a home.  It was a hard goodbye, but as most know, easier to do since the empty place no longer resembled the happy home we had made there.  The time then came to grab our bags and head to the train station.  And as we made our way up the hill, we realized that we were cutting it close (as we always did when it came to catching a train).  Due to a long line we barely got our tickets printed out in time, proceeded to run across the platform with our suitcases and hopped on the train with little time to spare.  So here we were leaving in the same way we came……in a whirlwind of unknowns, both fear and excitement about what lay ahead.

Keep Calm & Carry On

Cool video about the iconic phrase that is seen and heard throughout England

Do You Speak English?

Over the past year and a half, we've gotten a chance to really get to know some great British phrases and sayings.  I have had more laughs than I can count with friends and colleagues surrounding British sayings and what they mean.  Funny how we all speak the same language, yet often don't understand one another. There are more sayings than we could count, so here are some of our favorites:

Bingo Wings – Old lady flabby underarms

D’Reckly – Some time in the future (Cornish saying)

Fab – Fabulous

Lost her lot – Going crazy

She is about as useless at a chocolate teapot

He lost his phone at the tip – He lost his phone at the dump

It’s OK if you have a bit of a blub – It’s ok to cry

Friday is POETS day - Piss Off Early Tomorrow’s Saturday

He’s not fit for a haircut – Patient is so sick they can’t tolerate any treatment

How Jammy is that! – How great is that!

The weather is pants - The weather is crap

I am well chuffed - I am excited

Aw Bless her - She’s so sweet

Brilliant - Fantastic

Lovely

Done and Dusted

Straight-away – Right away

I’ll get that sorted – I’ll get that figured out

How long is a piece of string? - There’s no way of knowing

Sack the Juggler – Said when someone drops something loudly

Blimey

Jolly Good

Poppet – Term of endearment for young kid

Having a wobbly - Throwing a fit

Silly Sausage - Silly goose

Taking the Mickey out - Giving someone a hard time

He’s a bit camp - feminine

Gobbing off - Mouthing off

Bobs your uncle - There you have it

Spend a penny - Go to the bathroom

What’s she like? – She’s a bit crazy

Cheerio - Hello

Spring

Daffodils will forever more represent spring in England

"I'm sorry, how much does that cost?"

Beer and a latte on Mt. Pilatus

As our time here in the UK is winding down, Katie and I are doing our best to make the most of living close to so many great travel destinations.  As a result, we have just returned from a 4-day weekend in Switzerland.  It’s not very often you get to say “We’re going to Switzerland for the weekend,” but it’s not very often you get to do a lot of things we have done this past year and a half.  We decided to stay in the smaller town of Lucerne, which is about an hour south of Zurich and set at the base of Mount Pilatus, one of the Swiss Alps. 

Lucerne and Chapel Bridge behind us

We were excited to have found cheap flights from London but with that, came a very long night of traveling before we arrived in Lucerne on Saturday morning.   Upon arriving, there were a few things that struck us right away.  For example, we immediately noticed how incredibly modern, clean and safe everything was.  This goes for the small amount of time we were in Zurich as well as Lucerne.  The streets are very clean and everything from ticketing counters to information desks were electronic and in multiple languages.  This came in especially handy since 75% of the Lucerne population speaks German as their first language.  Fortunately for us, like most people in Europe the majority of people we met also spoke English. 

Chapel Bridge

We spent Saturday catching up on a little sleep and exploring the beautiful lakeside town of Lucerne.  The majority of the activity in the city takes place along the lake and river as well as the old town square.  We were very happy to find that our hotel was three blocks from the train station and within walking distance of everything in Lucerne.   Unfortunately, the weather on our first day was rather cloudy, which included low clouds that blocked what we would later learn was an incredible view of the mountains.  Making the most of our time, we strolled along the streets and crossed many of the very old, covered wooden bridges that Lucerne is famous for.  The main bridge and primary tourist attraction is Lucerne’s Chapel Bridge which was built in 1333 and is Europe’s oldest covered wooden bridge.  At the end of the bridge stands a tall water tower that over the years has been used as a prison, torture chamber and later a municipal archive.  Now it’s the site of a small tourist shop. 

Another thing we found rather interesting was that all pedestrians (and I mean ALL pedestrians) patiently wait for the green “walk” signs on every corner before crossing the street.  It’s not that we are typically “those” Americans always in a hurry to get where we need to go; we’re actually usually pretty good about that.  It was just that it stuck out since this happened even on side streets with short crossings and no cars in sight.  Just an interesting cultural observation. 

Dinner at a Swiss Restaurant

The more time we spent in Switzerland the more curious we became about why their economy is so stable and started doing some research.  This raised the question, “So what exactly is the big deal with Swiss bank accounts?”  After some research we were interested to learn that the main draw to Swiss bank accounts is that you are able to open and maintain these accounts with absolute secrecy from your own government.  In other words, if I had $500,000 sitting around, (Note: $500,000 is the standard minimum initial deposit required to open some Swiss Bank accounts.) and I didn’t want the US government to find out that I had it, I could safely keep it in a Swiss bank account.  By Swiss federal law, they could not reveal any information about my account to the US government or they would undergo immediate prosecution by the Swiss government.  It is often compared to doctor-patient confidentiality in terms of seriousness and the only way any information can be given is if the money is proven to be from insider trading, drug trafficking or organized crime.  The issue with this is that if Katie and I ever actually had $500,000 sitting around, it would probably mean that we were involved in insider trading, drug trafficking or organized crime so this doesn’t really help us. This reputation has resulted in a consistently strong economy with the unemployment rate in Switzerland staying around 3% for the past 10 years.  Not bad compared to America’s 8.3% right now.   This is very good for Switzerland but very bad for those who travel to Switzerland because this also makes Switzerland by far the most expensive city we have traveled to.  I’m not talking about Paris and London expensive, I’m talking about $9 bottles of water $16 sandwiches expensive.  Needless to say that we were happy when we found a local market near our hotel that contained a few more reasonably priced snacks and food items.  Just something to keep in mind for any future trips to Switzerland. 

Our Sunday plans to go to the top of Mt. Luzern were spoiled by more bad weather, resulting in equally poor visibility.  Fortunately our hotel told us of a website that contained live webcams of the mountaintop which ultimately confirmed that we would have been able to see about 10 feet in front of us.  Instead Sunday turned into a very relaxing “café” day (our favorite kind of day) since no stores (including most grocery stores) are open on Sundays.

Fortunately for us, Monday morning we were met with clear blue skies and our first view of the mountains that the brochures of Lucerne promised were there.  This day would turn out to be one of the highlights of our travels in the past 18 months.  We decided to make the journey via bus and gondola (basically a large covered ski lift) to the top of Mt. Pilatus.  It was a very scenic ride up to the top at 6,982 feet and clear skies all around.  It was there that we saw snow for the first time this year even though the bright sun brought the air temperature up to a comfortable 40 degrees.  With 360-degree views of the Alps and the town of Luzern looking even smaller, Katie and I settled into a few outdoor lounge chairs along one edge and relaxed in the sun.  It took our eyes quite a while to get adjusted to the brightness, which meant a lot of squinty-eyed pictures were taken before we finally got used to it.  It didn’t take long for us to shed layers, find a spot for a beer and coffee and Katie and I both were surprised to find out that one hour in the sun at that elevation could result in sunburn.  Never in our packing for our February trip to Switzerland did it occur to us to bring sunscreen. 

Katie loves macaroons!

After a great day with amazing views, we made our way back down to Lucerne where we spent our last night in this amazing city.  The people we met on this trip were incredibly nice and very willing to help.  The chocolates were as good as their reputation promised and we even found a new favorite treat called Luxemburgerli, which is basically a specific kind of macaroon.  There is not much more you can ask for than the kind of weekend we had in Switzerland.  It was just the right amount of time and the perfect way to spend one of our last weekend adventures abroad.