I've been home for over a month. I need to finish this soon or I never will.
So we'll lump the last two locations in one last post.
First off, we spent the day at Lake Garda. It was a pretty, picturesque (albeit touristy) little lake (okay, not so little ) where we spent the afternoon.
We walked around, took in the sights and the ambiance, ate crepes at a cafe, shopped, and skipped rocks in the lake. Okay, so I didn't skip any rocks, I am deficient in that area, my "skipping" is more of a "plunking" so I watched Nolan and Mindy show off their skills. John got my camera away from me in a rare moment and busied himself taking some pictures.
Later we drove to Milan. Our flight was leaving the next morning from Milan so that's where we stayed. We got there in the evening and wandered around. I was amused by the fact that our hotel was on Via Giorgio Washington. As in George Washington - First President of the USA. I guess we were in Milan after all. It is considered one of the fashion capitols of the world. Plain old "George" must not have been good enough. Ü
With very little time we visited the duomo in town. Unfortunately, it was closing time so we didn't get to go up on top of the duomo. I hear it is amazing walking around the spires and statues. We did get to go inside and check out the stained glass and other artwork, and even a couple of dead people on displays (priests? bishops? cardinals?) While many other people felt the need to take pictures, I didn't. **soapbox alert** While mildly interesting, it sorta bothers me how tourists wander around talking and snapping photos inside cathedrals or duomos or whatever they are called. I may not have the same religious beliefs as the people worshipping there, but I think I would be really annoyed if tourists walked around my church talking and snapping photos while I was trying to worship peacefully. I may find dead corpses on display a little morbid and even a little humorous, but I still think snapping pictures while church is in session is a tad on the disrespectful side. I do give huge points to the fashion police who stood outside the doors and turned away anybody who wasn't dressed properly. (no bare shoulders or bare knees) stepping off the soapbox now...
As the duomo was right next to the galleria, we stopped inside to see the one attraction I found more interesting than all the high end stores- the floor tile mosaic in the center of the galleria. In the mosaic there is a picture of a bull, and legend has it that if you spin on your heel on the bull's testicles you will have good luck for a year. You wouldn't believe the divot in the floor where the lower half of the bull once was. My ever accommodating husband spun for me so I could take a picture. (I've taught him well, once upon a time he would be totally annoyed everytime I asked him to pose for the camera)
That's it, I guess. Except for the random painted elephant statue we'd see here or there.
The next morning we said good-bye to our travel companions at the airport. We were sorry to see our time with them had ended, we'd had so much fun with them and sharing all these experiences with them, but I think they were more than ready to get back home. I think we wore them out dragging them all over the place. But as they were headed back home, our fun wasn't quite over yet and we were headed to Belgium. Since we were over there anyway, John was asked to swing by NATO to help out with some stuff. And since that meant we would be on separate continents for our 15 year anniversary, we decided I should stay and hang out for a day or two.
Of course, since he had to work very full work days to get everything done, and since there isn't much to see and do in Brussels, especially since I've already been there before, and since Paris was a short train ride away, after spending an evening wandering around Brussels together, I headed off on and adventure of my own for a couple of days.
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