Planning a trip

One of the most exciting things about taking a trip is planning it. Because I like to have a project in January, planning our summer vacation has been it although it's been more work than I thought it would be.

I got Eric to commit to two weeks this year. He says the days of him not taking his allotted vacation time are over. So I've been excitedly plotting our two weeks in Europe. I'm putting it all down here to keep it straight and so my mom can see it all mapped out.

Mom is coming along with us and she suggested going to Switzerland as she's been working a lot on our family history and wants to visit some of the villages and graves of our ancestors. So, we're starting our trip in the Canton of Graubunden (Heidi Country). We'll fly in to Zurich and spend the first four days in a village called Stierva.

Stierva Switzerland

Here's the house where we'll stay. I like that it looks so Swiss Chalet. 

Day five will be spent in Switzerland but I'm still working on accommodations for the one night. We might all have to cram into a hotel room (which I don't want to do). I want to spend one day skiing. They do summer skiing in a few areas in Switzerland. We will be heading to either Zermatt or St. Moritz. Hopefully we'll be taking this train there (this picture makes Bianca squeamish though).

Graubunden Switzerland

After Switzerland, we'll spend the next three nights in Cannes, France. Mom isn't exactly excited about France as she heard the people won't speak English to us on principle. So I told mom to brush up on her high-school French as we'll be looking to her to help us get around. We're staying in this cute house/boutique hotel that has three bedrooms and a kitchen. It's also walking distance to the beach and most everything else downtown Cannes.

We'll spend the last full week in Italy. We're learning a bit of Italian on youtube with Italian 101 and trying to speak it in the house. Mi Scusi? So we'll be in Liguria. We're staying in a small village called Carro. Doesn't it look charming?

Carro Italy

The flat where we're staying is called Paganini House and it named such because it used to be the residence of the famous Italian violinist's paternal grandparents.

Paganini House

Bianca is ecstatic about staying here. I figure we'll take day trips to Pisa and Portovenere. I really hope this is what La Spezia really is like. Sigh...