Switzerland

Murren, Switzerland was almost indescribably beautiful. I've never spent so much time so close to the mountains. I felt like we could almost reach out and touch them! The Swiss Alps are top notch! It took us almost 10 hours of trains to get to Murren (Florence to Milan, Milan to Montreux, Montreux to Interlaken, Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, Lauterbrunnen to Murren) but it was 100% worth it. We spent 7 nights in Murren and we enjoyed nearly every minute (other than Peter getting altitude sickness or the flu or something towards the end). We slept in, drank coffee, hiked, when to the pool, and enjoyed late night dinners watching football (soccer).

I read books too!

I've read the first 4 books at least a couple times and decided to re-read them again. I think 2 and 3 are probably my favorites of the series. I get slightly less interested in the series as it heads more into the American Revolution but I still find these books wonderfully well written and enjoyable. Plus we're ending our trip in Scotland, so reading these books seemed required. I'm in the middle of Fiery Cross right now.

This was a fun book although nothing special. I was interested in the book given the Jane Austen elements. It's not a direct retelling of Emma although it does have a number of well done references to Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Emily Bronte, and others. Fun chick lit.

This book came recommended for those who enjoyed this book (which I loved). Food Whore read quite a bit like The Devil Wears Prada. Quite a bit vain and I didn't think the character was as mature or interesting. Great food porn though!

Kindle deal! This was fun and made me laugh out loud many many times. I might order another of his books just because it was so light hearted and funny. Basically Property Siblings inherit a house and decide to fix it up and then "adventures" they have while doing it. Great little read.

Picked these up on a Kindle Deal as well and based on the recommendation of a friend. I enjoyed these more than I thought. Another magic series, nothing too serious or involved but well written. The heroine gets into some predictable scrapes which were mildly annoying but I liked the universe that was created and found the books fun and easy to read. Charming stories.

Gaw! I love Mindy Kailing. She is so damn funny. I re-read this book and still found it hysterical. Having read her second book, I like it better. She's grown more as a person and her voice is even stronger. Both books are great though!

Another Kindle Deal but I had checked this book out a number of times before. I enjoyed this book immensely. I wish I read it before we went to Istanbul. I didn't quite know much about Istanbul's role in WWII, but was fascinated. The translation from Turkish to English was sometimes a little off, but you get the gist of the story.

Oh Cary! This was a fascinating read. Started out very romantic and the telling of the relationship between Dyan Cannon and Cary Grant. You can just HEAR Cary's voice in this book. But my goodness, I didn't realize what a controlling acid head he was. Made me sad to hear his tumultuous story.

Anne of Green Gables Series

Oh Anne. What an old friend you are! I hadn't read these books in YEARS but had them all (except for Windy Poplars for whatever reason) on my Kindle. I loved everyone of them. I read these for the first time when I was maybe 11 or 12? Such memories.

Next Up on my list:
Love, Loss, and What We Ate (another Kindle Deal)
American Gods (Pete read this, I started it, haven't finished it yet)
More Outlander

12 hours in Florence

Our buddy Dave -- He's very popular with the ladies. 

We blitzed through Florence in less than 12 hours. We decided to stay one night in Florence because it was much easier to make our train connections to Switzerland than trying to drive from Tuscany (over an hour away) early in the morning, return our rental car and make it to the train station on time. Florence has a special place in my heart, so I was not sad to return for a brief visit.

My wife made me write about Italy

From Drea: I found a bunch of pictures that Peter took in Italy. I thought they were lovely. I thought they would be more entertaining if you heard from Peter his thoughts on Italy. 

Here are things about Italy. 10 things, to be specific. 10 pictures, too. The pictures and the things are unrelated, though. And the things are effectively randomly ordered. It's a very post-modern and edgy article. Hip, or whatever the hip word for "hip" is right now.