Sugar and Spice!!!

Last day in Vernazza and trip home...

For those who might not know, this trip was very last minute... we have a trip to Greece coming up in early September which I have been focusing my attentions on, and although we had slotted this trip onto this space on our calendar we hadn't done any booking a week before we left.  I had just been too focused on planning Greece - but we finally decided that we had a day off of work for Bas, so why not?  Makes me feel very blessed and thankful that we live somewhere we can make such trips at the drop of a hat!  But it also meant it was a quick trip!

Here we are having breakfast the day before we left.  Picked up some pastries at a bakery and ate them on the pier.

Then got our spot on the beach before the crowds showed up.

Luna has a bit of a stone obsession that translated nicely to the beach...

Kept trying to snag a picture of the Cinque Terre train leaving Vernazza and heading into the tunnel to Monterosso, but someone kept walking into the frame...

In the afternoon we hiked up to the fortress on the top of the hill... it wasn't much of a climb from our room - which was already half way there at least!

This is the best picture I got that comes close to the actual color of the water... still not quite as deep blue, but close!

For dinner we headed back to Monterosso again... spent a little more time discovering the old town.

Found this great restaurant sitting up on the cliffs, overlooking the ocean... ate lots of seafood.

We always beat the dinner rush!

Sat and watched these kids climb the rocks and then jump into about a 10 foot diameter that was deep enough to jump into!

And that was it!  We packed up that night and got up early for our drive up and back over the mountains.  But this time instead of taking the eastern route through Innsbruck and Austria and up to Munich, we decided to take a slightly longer route, even though we were doing it in one day, and cross the Alps in Switzerland so that we could stop and have lunch in Lichtenstein!

The drive over the Swiss Alps was AMAZING.  I highly recommend crossing them by that route if you have the chance!  Spectacular waterfall after spectacular waterfall... and the whole time we pointed out houses to Luna that "might" be Heidi's... wish we had more time to stop and explore - guess we will just have to go back!  Perhaps with Lake Como as the destination?

Anyway - we stopped at one of the Swiss rest areas, and although I didn't get any pictures of the spectacular surroundings (I was driving) I did have to make sure that I got a picture of this toilet...  the bowl was about 3 feet wide, and the seat had a permanent "up" feature, until a dame came along and pulled it down.  It was a bit tricky getting Luna on, she almost wasn't heavy enough to hold it down!  Then when you flushed water came out of one of the spigots on the side and swirled around that huge bowl.  You could also wash and dry your hands there in the same manner!

Unfortunately, by the time we got to Lichtenstein it was pouring.  The plan was to find some guesthouse or local place down town to have lunch, but once we started walking around we discovered that the town was having a big summer fest, and everyone was out celebrating... in the rain.  Which wasn't for us.

So after snapping just a couple pictures, we got back in the car and went to McDonald's... but how many people can say they've eaten McDonald's in Lichtenstein???

The Cinque Terre Day 2

"Cinque Terre" means Five Lands, and is the name given to the stretch of Italian Riviera dotted by 5 beautiful, little towns along the Ligurian Levante coast.  They include Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.  Here was our little view of the Vernazza hillsides when we woke up after our first night!

These shots are all from our walk down to get breakfast... LOTS of stairs to our room in these allies!

Much less people around first thing in the morning!  I think most of them come in on the train for the day!  (We can thank Rick Steves for that I think...)

The buildings and the rocks they sit on are arched over this little cove...

Luna had a blast...

After a morning at the beach, we decided to escape the tourists stopping into Vernazza for the day by heading out to some of the other towns ourselves!  We took the train to Riomaggiore, and walked the "Via dell'Amore" along the cliffs to Corniglia.

Lots of isolated little spots like this to sun yourself on the rocks... if you don't have a 4 year old anyway...

The rocks and tunnels along the path are full of inscriptions of love...

People leave padlocks and other little paper and plastic bundles to somehow signify and bind their unions...

A shot of Corniglia on the opposite cliffs...

This guys was waiting for the train with us... wish I could have gotten a better shot, but we got quite a kick out of him.  It was hot... the temperature that is...

Then we took the train over to Monterosso... which has the biggest beach, much better road access, and seems to be the largest of the five towns.  Each of these umbrellas represents a 17 or 21 Euro rental, they were all full... what a killing!  We found much better prices for food here, so stayed and had dinner.  My favorite of our trip... it was so cheap I just ordered everything... caprese, bruschetta, spaghetti...

View out our window again...