We are back after a whirlwind trip to Switzerland. We drove and it was a long drive, full of beautiful scenery as we had to cross the Alps, or at least the edges of them. We have a little GPS unit called a Tomtom which is great for finding your way through countries and cities when you have no idea where you are. On the way we drove along the cost of France from Nice, into Italy, making our way to Milan and then into Switzerland. It took longer than we thought it would so returned by going through Turin and over the mountains from Italy into France which saved us about an hour of time and one hundred kilometers too.
My son and his family are temporarily in a rental high on a mountain over looking Lugano Lake. To say the view is breath-taking is an understatement. Lugano is right across the border from Italy-30 minutes from Milan-and everyone there speaks Italian. I don’t think there is an official Swiss language anymore. Near France everyone speaks French and near Germany everyone speaks German. I never could make myself understood in English there but French almost always worked. My son speaks Spanish and they never understand that either. He is quickly picking up Italian and now speaks what he calls Spitalian as he mixes up the two. What is great is that his children will probably end up being able to speak three or four languages. The four year old, when playing by himself and doing the talking to himself that children like to do, was doing some sort of imaginary Italian. He had the rhythm and the sound of Italian down already. He just has to learn the vocabulary. This is just from hearing it around him now and then, the little sponge.

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Not too shabby a view.

They were in a little village called Carona, one of those that are probably over 1000 years old and full of charm and ambience.

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This is a painting on the front of the church there.

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A lovely door with a balcony.

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Many of the older buildings there were painted.

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Easter morning we awoke to this view. Overnight there was about 5 inches of soft snow which was gone by afternoon. The children were so excited and couldn’t wait to get out and play in it. Of course, they had no sort of gloves, being from Texas, so we put gloves and plastic bags on their hands which only worked for a while. Jackson, the six year old, couldn’t understand why the snow didn’t last longer. I think it stays fairly warm in this part of Switzerland as there were palm trees here and there. (By the way, I would love to post photos of my grandsons but whenever I do, I can see that all sorts of perverts are trolling around my blog looking for photos of children so I’m not going to post any. I got some great shots of my grandsons taking bites of the ears of chocolate bunnies.)
Soon my son and his family will move to a more permanant rental house down below the mountain close to the lake. The place actually has a chicken pen with chickens which the owner offered to leave but, after seeing the mess that would have to be cleaned up, and what they eat-mash-they decided not to keep the chickens there. It has a lot more room than where we stayed with them and is right by the train station so my son can easily get to work. Right now there is a long, very winding road to take up and down that mountain which my daughter in law calls the vomit road.
I will be returning in May when the new baby comes. I really enjoy being with my grandchildren. They can be so funny. One day I told my grandson, the six year old, to tell everyone that I was 45. I like to think I look that age in my vanity. He told me that I would have to dye my hair and wear a mask if I wanted to pass for 45. Sigh.

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