Well as boldly promised by Julie, we are now actively
catching up on our blogs now….
Not too long after finding out that Julie was pregnant, I did
the most adult thing I could imagine: I turned 30 years old. Once upon a time Julie and I dreamed up this
wild idea that we would fly to New York and invite our closest family and
friends to celebrate our 30th birthdays. Well I guess that was the 25 year old version
of what turning 30 would be like, because we ended up celebrating in the
complete opposite manner: in a 12th century stone chalet in the tiny
Swiss village of Lavertezzo.
Julie has a special talent for not only finding the coolest
places to visit but also the coolest places to stay. And this time around she outdid herself with
the most amazing place ever – we had the entire chalet to ourselves! Luckily we got to share it with our good
friends Jason and Melissa who made the trip from Baltimore just to be with me
(and I guess to see the rest of Europe as well).
Our trip began with the 4.5 hour drive from Munich to the
tiny village of Lavertezzo in the south of Switzerland. The Honda Jazz had just enough horsepower to
get over the Alps through some incredible mountain scenery. We were a bit surprised to see how small the
“village” was where we were staying, but at least it was easy to identify our
chalet amongst the church and 4 other residential buildings there. The owners greeted us at the front door and gave
us a tour of the place. Poor Julie banged
her knee on a sharp corner of the staircase and is left with a permanent memory
of our trip.
Sadly due to her morning sickness + cold combination, I
didn’t have my trusty photographer to capture the interior. But Jason later took a photo of the stone
path leading up to the house – that patio and table you see is a part of our
chalet.
We spent some time settling in and unpacking the car, then
made ourselves comfortable on the patio.
A few hours later, Jason and Melissa arrived in their rental car with a
look of “what the hell are we doing out here” on their faces. I don’t think many people make it out to
Lavertezzo on a 2 week European tour. I cooked
up some ravioli and we had a nice dinner out on the patio.
We woke up the next day and went out looking for some
adventure (well Julie stayed back to rest).
One of the top things on our agenda was the contra dam where the
Goldeneye bungee jump took place and people can still take the plunge
themselves (for a hefty sum of money).
We watched as a bunch of kids insanely took the jump and shuddered each
time in disbelief. On my 20th
birthday I might have considered it, but now at 30 with a kid on the way, this
was no time to be doing anything crazy.
The main attraction in this area is of course the
scenery. In particular, there is the
beautiful Verzasca river with a 17th century Roman stone bridge
called Ponte dei Salti. When we returned
from watching the James Bond imitators, we collected Julie and made our way
down to the river for a swim. Normally I
would not waste any time jumping in, but this water was painfully cold (I read
online the temperature ranges from 45-50 F).
So we (Jason and I) waited for the sun to warm us up before taking the
plunge. We watched as people jumped off
the stone bridge into the river, and I totally would have if it weren’t for
Julie asking me not too. Maybe in my
20s…
One of the bridge jumpers |
The largest jump Noah took that weekend |
The two swimmers |
View from the bridge |
After dinner, Jason and Melissa surprised me with a delicious black forest birthday cake. After blowing out the candles and all enjoying a piece, three of us (again, Julie stayed behind due to her not feeling the best) took a stroll around the
village and around the river. The area really
is incredibly gorgeous, and I tried to capture it through photos.
The next day Jason and Melissa headed out early to drive up
to Paris. When I woke up, I also felt a
bit under the weather. Maybe that swim
was not the best idea, because I soon realized I caught a cold (perhaps Julie’s
cold – though I won’t blame her). So Julie
and I spent our last day in the chalet relaxing and reading. Like everyone says, getting old really slows
you down. So instead of partying it up
New York City, we were laying low in a Swiss village taking turns blowing our
noses.
When the day of my actual birthday arrived, it was time to
head back to Munich. However Julie
demanded we get at least one photo of us together by the water regardless of
how we were feeling. So we made our way
back down to the river one last time for a quick photo session before starting
the long drive back home.
When we
returned to Munich, I picked up my favorite Thai food for dinner. Between
Julie’s fresh knee injury, the shockingly cold water, the
memory of being sick, and the impression of our ancient chalet along a gorgeous
Alpine river, I could not have asked for a more memorable and picturesque 30th
birthday.
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