a natural tour

in between touring roman ruins and prague castles, we stopped to reset ourselves in some lovely, quiet, country places. so, in chronilogical order, these places helped keep us sane:

hiking outside lausanne, suisse


and the savage beast roaming the land (apparently cheese tastes better when it's made from cows who live at high altitudes)



and, of course, hiking in cinque terre...one day along the coastline and one day up and over the hill



i verified...and reverified...that wine does in fact help heal blisters



bicycle tour outside florence (note to self: tiramisu before biking up hill in the heat is not wise)



we were the only people in italy wearing helmets



stressa, on the edge of lake maggiore - hiking, swimming, eating, drinking...and looking at the view from our room



and then, to end our tour of european nature, we found this lake on the outskirts of prague...with a waterslide!!
(confession: i didn't actually go down the waterslide because i was too far gone in a fog of harry potter addiction.)