Valuable Time

I met a new friend a few months ago in a very unlikely place. There is a store that sells a little bit of everything right around the corner from our apartment. I went there in search of some yarn for knitting. While talking to my friends in English, a lady walked up to us and started speaking to us in perfect English. I was astonished. I had been here for almost a year and a half and had never had this happen. She invited us over for dessert that afternoon and we politely agreed. I had no idea at the time that this would become such a sweet, cherished friendship.

Throughout the past couple of months I have called and visited Luciana several times. If she doesn't hear from me for a few days, she usually calls me. She likes to make sure that I'm feeding Jason appropriately. :D While I was at her house last week, she began to tell me about her neighbor that lives above her. She's a 90 year old woman with the closest family member (her son) living all the way in Milan. She said that her neighbor's son is a busy man and she only hears from her son every few months and he tries to visit once a year.

She then proceeded to thank me for the "valuable time" that I take out of my "busy schedule" to come visit her or to call her. Just coming to see her for a few hours once a week was so small a sacrifice for me, and such a incredible blessing to her. I've often talked myself out of going to her house for fear of being a "bother" to her. So, I wonder now...how many blessings have been cast aside because I allowed my fear to control my actions?

Last week, I went to see Luciana two times. She's been wanting to meet Jason, so I took him to her house with me and tried to teach her to make a cheesecake. We had lunch with her and her youngest brother (who they joke is the only one still under 70).

While were there at her house for lunch, I realized something. I knew I liked her from the beginning, but I couldn't figure out why. But now I know.....it's because she reminds me so much of my Granny. Not in appearance, but just in her personality. I know it's been way too long, but here's Luciana:


I love her because she makes me laugh....really hard.


We took about 18 pictures...this was the clearest one without any eyes closed.


In the end, Luciana is more of a blessing to me than I may ever be to her. I only wish we had met sooner.

Dec. 6 - Venice

We headed back toward Italy on Dec. 6th. And wouldn't you know...I had another one of my headaches. What is that all about? Both the cities in Italy that we visited, I had to see with a headache. Oh well. The drive was not bad, but it wasn't as entertaining as the previous two. About an hour and a half into the four hour drive, the snow had disappeared and I felt like we had been robbed.

But all that changed as soon as we pulled into our next hotel. Let me start by saying...This is by far the best hotel I've ever stayed in my entire life. It was heavenly. Everything about it was perfect. The area was gated. The grounds were beautiful. The room was more than decked out. The bed was far beyond comfortable. The bathroom was incredible. The people were genuine and very nice. We both agreed that this was the most incredible hotel on earth. :)

The outside view of the building where our room was.


The stairway up to the rooms.


View of the room from the entrance.


Chocolates on the pillows.


The window in our room.


The wardrobe in our room.


The bathroom, from the doorway.


The sink.


The toilet and bidet.


These pictures, while very good, do not even begin to do this place any sort of justice. I cannot say enough about this wonderful hotel. So, instead of wasting time, we'll move on.

After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we set out to see the city. It was not looking to be a wonderful trip for me. My head was pounding by the time we arrived and parked the car, the wind and rain were unrelenting, and it was freezing outside. We only had about 2 hours of light left and I was not looking forward to this visit. But despite all the bad thoughts pouring into my head, we set out to walk to San Marco square. I've never actually heard of this place, but it's apparently something famous. Who knew?

Here's a few pictures of the walk to the square.

Bridges are everywhere.


Not sure exactly what this is, but it's pretty, right?


Nice building.


Skinny....street? Water street.


San Marco's Square. Ain't she perty?


We finally made it to the square and Jason had already told me he had dinner planned. And he was so excited about it and just sure that it would be the highlight of our trip. I, however, was just looking forward to Italian food....ANY Italian food would have sufficed. The German food was just not cutting it for me. Plus, we didn't eat lunch that day, so really...anything would have been fine.

On the other hand, the entire time we were walking....my head pounding, my toes freezing, my hair and clothes soaking wet...I was thinking to myself, "I'm really not going to enjoy telling Jason I don't want to go on a Gondola ride and eat dinner on a Gondola...but I will!" I was so sure that he was taking me there. And when we arrived at that corner where all the Gondolas were waiting on someone to step in, my heart sank. He turned to me and said, "We're here. Do you want to keep walking or just eat at the closest restaurant?" I just looked at him and agreed that we could eat at the closest place. Then he pointed in one direction and said, "Let's keep walking." I looked up and there it was....Hard Rock Cafe! Now, I've never actually eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe in the states. But it's been a wonderful treat on this side of the world.

By the time we finished our dinner, my head was getting even worse. We decided to go ahead and pay the fee to get a boat ride back to where we parked. We jumped on the boat just in time and I was able to take a few more pictures of the city on the way.

How cute is this place??


Another water street.


Lights are coming on. Have I mentioned that I love city lights?


Beautiful, don't you think?


Nice building.


This is the "metro" stop. Pretty neat, huh?


We finally made it back to the hotel and I was so excited to get into that nice, soft, fluffy bed with two pillows and cold sheets. I fell asleep almost immediately. It was the best night's sleep I've had in a really long time.

The next morning (this morning, actually), we woke up and headed to the main building for breakfast. They brought us homemade bread (that was delicious), butter and pear preserves for the bread, strawberry yogurt, "biscuits" (which were really cookies), orange juice, and coffee. We were both really full after eating this typical Italian breakfast. But they weren't sure if what they gave us was enough, so she tried to make us an apple pie. We politely declined and assured her that we were full.

This is Jason admiring the view one last time before we checked out.


This is the arena where the horses at our hotel get warmed up before practice and exercise. This particular horse that was "warming up" while we were watching, was a ham. I wish we could have gotten a closer look at it.


While I thought that Switzerland and the hotel in Germany would be the highlight of the trip, I have to say that this hotel was most definitely the highlight of our trip. It was wonderful!!! The trip was unforgettable and I'm thrilled we had the opportunity to make it, but we are glad to be back home. :)

Dec. 4 & 5 - Austria

We got up early on the morning of the 4th and started the long drive from West Germany, through Switzerland (of course), to East Austria. We were in the car for close to 12 hours. That makes me a very grouchy person. Thank goodness for patient people like Jason. :D He's a wonderful man. Here's some pictures of our journey....however, there aren't a lot because for some reason, in Austria there were hardly any roads where there weren't either trees planted side by side along the road or tall borders on both sides of the road. I may never know why they don't want travelers to see the beauty of their country.

Still in Switzerland. I can't get over the magnificent mountains.


And I loved the look of the trees outlined in snow.


More trees.


Less snow...but still really cold!


See the mountains peeking over in the background?


Beautiful.


Cute little village.


Glorious mountains.


Nice little town on the way.


Even the trees without leaves were beautiful covered in snow.


Gorgeous!! And the mountains aren't too bad either. ;)


Snow, snow, and more snow. I love it!!!


We finally made it to Graz, Austria...only to not have any idea where our hotel was. We stopped and asked a few people and they all pointed in the same general direction....but, since there were each speaking in German, we could not understand any specifics they were telling us. Finally, Jason found a man who spoke English and he told us exactly where the hotel was. It was disguised....as a pub. (This picture was taken the following morning...it was too dark to take a picture by the time we got there the first night).


I'll be the first to admit, I was not thrilled to find out that we had left such a wonderful hotel in Germany to stay in a room above a pub. And while it had no chance of comparing to the previous hotel, it wasn't half bad.

Here's the view from the door. (Don't be jealous of our tv.)


Looking to the left from the entrance.


Our bed...which wasn't bad, but not near as comfortable as the one in Germany.


Instead of chocolates on the pillows, there were....pumpkin seeds?? Yes, pumpkin seeds. And I can't even begin to tell you how happy I was to realize that it was seeds and not....something else. ;)


Our bathroom.


View of the room from the bathroom.


Okay, after the really, really long car ride from Germany to the hotel in Austria, we decided sleeping in was a must. We slept until nearly 10am. We slowly got ready to go out and face the blistering cold to visit the Christmas market in Graz. However, the town was like a ghost town. It was Sunday...so absolutely nothing (other than the Christmas market) was open. I took a few pictures on the walk to the Christmas market, but I didn't get my camera back out after we got there. After seeing the one in Basel, this one didn't seem like much. But that could have been because it was Sunday. At any rate, here's a few pictures of the area we visited in Graz.

Across the river.


Another view across the river.


On the bridge.


Little boat in the river.


In the end, I'm glad we visited Austria. It was harder (for us) to get around and find things since we do not speak any German, but it is definitely a beautiful place and the people were nice. I just wish we had been there on a day other than Sunday so that we could have seen more of the town. Nonetheless, the Christmas market and the pub and a few tv shows on the computer provided enough entertainment to keep us occupied.

Dec. 2 & 3 - Basel, Switzerland

The next morning, we woke up in Pisa, Italy and packed the car back up and headed to Lorrach, Germany. Because of hotel prices, we opted to stay right across the border from Basel, Switzerland in Germany.

The drive from Northern Italy, through Switzerland, and into Germany was amazing. By far, Switzerland is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Here's a few pictures of the trip.
You really can't see how amazing the mountains were in this picture, but trust me...they were incredible.


At this point, we were so high up we were in the clouds. :D


Cute building.


Neat little village on the side of the road. I wish all those power lines weren't in the way.


Amazing!


The snow covered trees were astonishing.


Tunnels in the mountains.


Beautiful.


See the snow capped mountains in the background?? That's not just clouds.


I felt like I was in the Narnia movie all through Switzerland.


And we finally made it to our hotel. The drive was not really all that long, but it got dark around 4:30pm. Oh well. This is the front of our hotel in Germany.


The wardrobe right outside our door.


View of the room from the entrance.


The most wonderful bathroom.


Sitting area with a tv.


Such a wonderful bed!! But, then again, just about anything could have beat the hotel in Pisa. Nonetheless, I loved this bed. The yellow sheets just made my day. I knew that they were not the normal bleached clean sheets that most hotels choose to use. And they were soft. AND...there were two pillows for each of us! I absolutely loved this place.


The view coming out of our room.


The stairs to get up to the rooms.


View from our bedroom window.


We went out that night after we dropped all of our stuff off at the hotel in Germany. There was a little Christmas market, closer to the hotel. We visited for a little while, but then decided it was too cold to enjoy it...plus we were both ready for a good night's sleep.

Dec. 3 - Breakfast in Germany, Lunch in France, and Dinner in Switzerland
The next morning, we woke up and ate breakfast. Then, we set out for France. It only made sense to go see a little of France while we were that close. However, I was not feeling good, so we didn't end up staying in France very long. We had lunch there and then drove around one little neighborhood. So...this is the only picture I have of France.

It was a cute little house with Christmas decorations all over the lawn.

Then, we headed back toward Switzerland to visit the big Christmas market in Basel. We found a parking garage and then headed out to find the market. It took us a while, but we finally found it!



I love all the lights!


Blue lights!


The actual booths at the market.


Cool candle shop in the market.


Beautiful blue-lit shop. I loved it!


Christmas tree on a building. It's blue, so I had to get the picture.


We both really enjoyed Switzerland and decided it is most definitely on the list of places to see again. It was beautiful and breath-taking. Can't wait to get back some day.