Final Day of Summer

The end of the summer has come. This morning it is pouring rain after a week of grey skies and it definitely feels like the summer is over. Tomorrow school starts anew. Our days will be full but predictable as routine will set in giving us that steady pace for the next 9 months. I think we are all ready even though this summer has been good. It is always a bitter sweet kind of feeling at summer's end.

This week we went on a little afternoon outing as a family. We kept it relatively close to home just venturing across the regional border into Valle d'Aosta to visit Fort Bard. It is only 40 minutes away and we have passed through there many times always on our way somewhere else. The following two images are from an internet search as you have to be really far back to get a perspective on the location and its complete view.  

Fort Bard

View of the narrow passageway into the valley with the village of Bard, the fortress and the river.

We hiked up a stoney path from the free parking lot on the river side to reach the village of Bard. From there we hiked up from the front side of the fort. Thankfully there were lots of fountains with fresh spring water along the path to quench our repeated thirst from the hike.

Chestnuts are nearing their season. Those green balls might look soft and fuzzy but they are worse than a cactus needle if you touch them!

Looking down on the village of Bard

Slate roofs are so pretty

Fort entrance

Looking down on Valle d'Aosta

There were very few visitors at the fort. Maybe the switchback hike up the hill is too intimidating. We enjoyed the scenic views and getting a geology refresher course on the formation of valleys and the stratus of rocks. Glad I studied all of that with Luca last year. I love that we leave so near to mountains and better yet, the Alps!

At the top we treated ourselves to a cappuccino (I nearly fell over when Jonathan ordered one after 12pm!) and some ice cream. 

We bought tickets to visit the prison and although there was not much to see we did watch a good video of the most recent 1,000 year history of Fort Bard and the strategic hilltop location that guards the narrow entrance into the Po Valley. In 1800, for two weeks Fort Bard with its 400 men held off Napoleon Bonaparte's surprise attack to push through the valley entrance with his army of 40,000 men. The stairs that connect the various buildings alongside the hill are actually covered making it easy to travel between supplies without being shot.

After that we headed back down the same way we came again taking in views and the enormity of the fortress.

View from a gun slit

Sculpture made of marble from the area

Rescue Pod...if you get stuck in the mountains this pod is attached to a rope that hangs from a helicopter that you climb inside to be rescued and carried away to safety.

Fun Fact: Fort Bard and the surrounding area now boasts in being the film set location for the movie: Avengers Age of Ultron.

My Ironmen

We actually went home and concluded our fun day by watching the movie to verify all the locations we just saw in person. That is always kind of fun to see familiar locations on the big screen.

Stop #2: Basel

On our way home from Colmar we made a stop in Basel, Switzerland. This was for the sake of visiting the final home of Karl Barth who is acknowledged as the most influential theologian of the 20th century. His home is now an archive for his life's work that has a resident archivist living there to oversee the preservation of the archives, proofread manuscripts and host visitors that pass by either to study or visit like we did.

We were able to see the first two floors of the home with rooms that have been left in their original state from the time Barth died in 1968. The kids were fascinated to see letters written to Barth that were censored by the Nazis during WWII that had sections either cut out or blackened.

Grand Father Clock about 200 years old (and still ticking!), garden flowers and the kids completing their final questions for a prize of a whole container of ice cream to themselves when we get home.

Living room

Heading to the upstairs study. Barth was a huge fan of Mozart.

Jonathan was drooling over Barth's collection of 10,000+ books!  

At Barth's desk with a familiar picture hanging above it...hmm, I do believe we saw that crucifixion scene in Colmar.

We learned much and were appreciative of the time Peter gave to us to share about the history, works and life of Barth and his influence particularly in Europe.

After our visit we walked 2 km completely downhill to the train station so we could visit Starbucks and grab some lunch. Jonathan said parking would be to difficult to find, thus the reason we walked. Thankfully it wasn't too hot because that trek back up the hill was a killer. We managed to pick up another city mug for our collection at Starbucks and then headed to McDonald's. Did I mention that Switzerland is expensive?! We ordered 2 value meals, 1 happy meal and 1 extra fry for a horrifying amount of $30! Craziness for sure! We did however happily pay for some boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams at the grocery store for the kids to bring back. 

Basel Train Station

After lunch we made a quick stop at the cemetery which was located near the border intersection of three countries: France, Switzerland and Germany. 

The cemetery grounds were massive so we got in another good walk 

Karl Barth's grave

And finally we began our drive home. We had paid for a return passage through the Mont Blanc tunnel on the Italian/French border but didn't realise until later that our alternate route home would have us paying for a different tunnel pass on the Swiss/Italian border. We decided to loop back around Lake Geneva towards Geneva to return through the Mont Blanc pass.  

We came to this decision in Gruyère (yes, where the cheese is made). At the rest stop the painted cows made us think of Young's Jersey Dairy in Ohio.

With several more hours added to our trip back due to traffic we realised that we probably should have just coughed up the extra money to get home sooner. Oh well, the scenery didn't disappoint so it wasn't a complete waste of our time.

Our time away was brief but it was another memory made as a family and we are thankful for the all the amazing places we are able to visit here in Europe.

Stop #1 : Geneva

We departed for our brief little August getaway early morning with the idea of spending most of the day in Geneva, Switzerland. It is just under a three hour drive away but this was our first visit to the city. Jonathan has long wanted to do a little Reformation tour so that is where we focused our attention in touring the city.

Seeing how Geneva ranks in the top 5 most expensive cities in the world, we definitely tried to tour on the cheap. In fact, Zurich and Bern also make the top 10 list, which provides the rationale for finding more economical lodging in France or Germany. Seriously, we have never seen so many Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati and other high end vehicles as we did in Geneva. They are like the Fiat of Italy there. A tall (small) cup of plain Starbucks coffee cost 4.50 Fr (about $5)! Dare I mention how much a speciality drink costs?!  I digress.

For our three day adventure Jonathan made up a trivia sheet for the three cities we would visit. The kids were so cute as they took the task very seriously using their sheets like clues on a treasure map filling out the answers they found along the way. I think they might have learned a thing or two so that is always a plus, right? It definitely kept them excited about getting to the next thing to see. 

We made our way to the Reformation Wall first where four influential men are honored for their role in the Genevan Protestant Reformation. The wall is located in the beautiful Parc des Bastions that made us wish we had more time to sit and enjoy the surroundings and play a game or two of chess.

The Reformation Wall is 100 meters long and the central statues are 5 meters tall. 

The four central figures on the wall are: Theodore Beza, John Calvin, William Farel and John Knox. 

Standing with his heroes of the faith

From there we headed to Collège Calvin after passing the house of Turretini, an Italian reformer that lived in Geneva. 

Turretini's house is on the left where the big brown door is.

John Calvin founded the Collège Genève in 1559 and it is used as a secondary school to this day and has changed its name to Collège Calvin.

We walked back through Old Town Geneva taking in its quaint European atmosphere.

We arrived at St. Pierre Cathedral and spent some time taking in its simplistic beauty (compared to Roman Catholic cathedrals). This is where John Calvin preached.

Bell tower (L), Front facade (UR), Calvin Auditorium (LR) was closed

Post Tenebras Lux (Light after Darkness) is written below where the Bible is placed. The motto represents Calvinism and Protestant Reformation. The latin phrase is also used on the seal of Geneva.

Standing next to John Calvin's chair

Standing under the pulpit where Calvin preached

We took a little pit stop to eat lunch and refuel outside the Cathedral. The kids were lucky not to twist an ankle while goofing off...

We toured the Reformation Museum as our final stop for the afternoon. The museum was well done and if it wasn't for everyone being able to have their own handheld audioguide it could have been pretty miserable for the kids. We all learned a lot and had fun along the way thanks to our amazing tour guide and historian, Jonathan!

Who could resist?

As you drive into Geneva you can see this huge water fountain out on the lake. The tourists were in abundance along the boardwalk.  We ventured over to the lake just for a couple of pictures before pilling back in the car for the 2.5 hour drive to Colmar. And that was our day in Geneva...