Farmer Family Vacation: Zurich, Lake Como, Venice

October is the month of visitors! We started out our month of guests with my favorite group...my family!! My mom, dad and brother came to Zurich on Thursday, October 4th. After a few days in the city we all traveled together to Lake Como and Venice, Italy. It was a wonderful trip!!

 

 On their first night in town we enjoyed a dinner of cheese, bread, salad and an assortment of sausages at home. The following night we went to a traditional Swiss meal of fondue. We sat outside on sheep skin seats while eating cheese and drinking Swiss beer!

 

After touring the city they came out to Kusnacht to visit my school and the surrounding areas. We caught the ferry back to Zurich and had a great view of the Alps the entire way.

On Saturday morning we started our trek to Italy. We got a train from the Zurich HB through the Alps to Lugano.  We had a slight hiccup in Lugano and missed our connecting train. However, it all worked out perfectly and we were able to get pizza and coffee at a great restaurant over looking the lake.

 

When we finally made it to Como we headed out to explore the lake, after getting gelato, of course. Como is different from Zurich in that the mountains rise out of the lake much steeper and are much more green. We hopped on the ferry and enjoyed a lovely ride on the lake, stopping at a smaller town for an hour or so to walk around. The scenery was beautiful. That night we enjoyed a great dinner at our hotel where we had the entire dining room to ourselves!

The next morning Richard, Jeremy and I got up early to ride the funicular to the top of the mountain. It was really interesting to see the lake from a completely different perspective.

We found my mom and dad sitting at a sidewalk cafe drinking cappuccino and people watching!

Dad, I think you should trade in the Harley for a Vespa! This is a good look for you!

On Sunday we took the train through Milan to Venice. We did not leave the Milan train station, but it was a beautiful place to spend an hour.

Upon arriving in Venice we hopped in a water taxi and rode to our hotel. This was such a crazy experience! It was like we were rock stars riding in the back of a limo....all that was missing was the bottle of champagne! The boat was zooming through the canals and missing bridges by only inches. At one point Richard had to duck inside so he wouldn't lose his head! The next days were spent wandering around Venice. There are unique and interesting views around every corner. The whole time we were there we kept commenting on how much water there is and that people actually live in these buildings.

 

We stayed at the Molino Stucky (thanks dad!) and took the ferry across the channel each day to get to main land Venice. This was the amazing view from our hotel.

The roof top view wasn't bad either!

We toured the Doge palace with audio guides. This is where the appointed leader of Venice lived. The grand ballroom/meeting room and the prison were two of the highlights of the tour!

My dad's pilot friend, Issac and his wife, Terry, were in Venice at the same time. We met up with them a few times to share a meal and walk around together.

One of the best parts of the trip was our gondola ride. We peacefully floated through winding waterways for about 40 minutes taking in all the beauty and trying not to tip over. This was an experience we will never forget!

We had a wonderful and memorable trip together! It was far too short and I can't wait for the next time we are all in the same place.