The month of May...

Vaduz Castle in Liechtenstein

For some reason life has slowed down a little the last month or so, it may have to due with that little detail in our lives that we are expecting one very special little lady to make her debut anyday now. Although it was difficult convincing us to stay close to home (after all over the past six months it has been a rare occasion that we have been in Switzerland's borders for more than a month at a time), we figured our reasoning was well justified. We did contemplate going to the French Open, as Paris is only a 4 hour train ride away, but we decided to hold off until next year so our little one can see her first grand slam.

Anyways, don't think that the month of May was boring and all we did was lounge around the house (although we did some of that as well because as rumor has it we won't be doing that for a long time again), we made two day trips and Steve made a very quick trip back to the U.S. to see his brother, Andy, get married to our wonderful new sister-in-law Rachele!

Steve with the bride & groom!

I lied when I said earlier that we didn't get outside of Switzerland's borders in the month of May, as we actually made our way to the tiny country of Liechtenstein for our first day trip. However, it's funny to think we went to an entirely different country when it only took us 1.5 hours to get there by train and bus and they use the same currency, which is the Swiss franc! Liechtenstein is home to only 35,000 citizens and is 60 square miles, making it the sixth smallest nation in the world. For the most part I can't really claim that I felt like I was outside of Switzerland, but it was still fun to know that we were exploring another country. We spent our day exploring the capital city of Vaduz and saw several beautiful castles that are still inhabited as the country is operated under a monarchy.

Views of the Castle of Gutenberg also in Liechtenstein

In Liechtenstein they drive cars smaller than a Smart Car - big enough for only one person!

Our second day trip was within Switzerland's borders, but it left me feeling more like I had left the country than going to Liechtenstein did. We made the 3+ hour train ride to the city of Lugano, which is in the far southeastern part of the country, and it was our first venture into the Italian region of Switzerland (although Switzerland is dominated by the German speaking region there are 3 national languages as a significant amount of the country is actually French and Italian speaking). It is amazing to know that you are in the same country but feel like you are somewhere completely different. From the moment we stepped out of the train station it felt like we were in Italy and not Switzerland. The trees and plants were different, the mountains were no longer snow covered, and the gorgeous lake that Lugano is positioned on felt more like a tropical oasis.

Beautiful walk along Lake Lugano

Unfortunately for us the day did not end up with the sunshine we had hoped for, but between meandering through the city, eating amazing pizza, and securing a seat on the inside of a boat ride around the lake we managed to escape the worse of the downpouring rain!

Lake Lugano shortly before it started raining

Needless to say it hasn't been a boring month and a half but it has been a very relaxing one. One that I'm very grateful to have had, but one that also leaves me excited for life to get a little busier very soon as well!