France, Switzerland and Italy: Three Gems of western Europe
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Switzerland has been my mom’s dream destination for so long, and, all of a sudden, the dream came true. Thanks to my dad, who also has a dream to travel the world, he brought us to one of the most serene countries in the world. However, Switzerland is just one of our destinations on this trip. We also went to France and Italy, whose beauty is second to none!
This trip is probably the longest one we’ve ever had, so I’ll just show you where I’ve been to and how I feel about those places. I’d say that most of the places we visited are considered tourist traps, but I genuinely never feel bad to follow the mainstream. I always think that popular places deserved to be popular for a reason, so just enjoy them!
France
Our plane landed in Paris, France. By the time we arrived, it was around 10 AM, and we all were exhausted already. Though we didn’t get to sleep that much on the plane, the romantic atmosphere of Paris kept our eyes wide open. The city was beyond beautiful, especially under the blue sky in the summertime. Our first destination is, of course, the Eiffel Tower, the symbol of Paris. This tower was not considered to be a favorite landmark for Parisian when it was done, but nowadays, people absolutely fell in love with this metal structure, so do I!
Apart from the Eiffel tower, we also went to Arc de Triomphe, located in the middle of Place Charles de Gaulle. Then, we were wandering along Champs-Elysees street. To get the sense of being a celebrity, we decided to visit one of the coffee stalls. My mom and dad ordered some food also, and the portion was so immense that we could not finish it. I’d say that was the first time my parents experienced the European food portion. This experience will prepare them for having an American portion!
After that, we got on a Seine river cruise. My father tried to get the best shot of me with the Eiffel tower, but it didn’t go that well. Anyway, we really enjoyed seeing the houses along the river and people walking and jumping into the water.
On the second day, we went to Louvre Museum, the biggest museum in France. One of the highlights in this museum is the most famous painting of Leonardo Davinci, Monalisa. Like the Eiffel tower, the pyramidal dome, which is the museum’s symbol, did not impress Parisian when it was first designed. Its shape contrasted with the old buildings around it, but, in the present, its weird form attracts people around the world and makes tons of money every year.
On the same day, we went to Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. When we saw the line in front of the cathedral, we did not want to go inside at all. Still, we decided to line up because this cathedral is one of the most famous landmarks in Paris, and it would be a shame if we just walked past by. It was pretty crowded inside but worth it because of several gorgeous sculptures inside.
On 15 April 2019, which is around half a year since we’ve been to the cathedral, a tragic fire broke out beneath the roof and destroyed parts of Notre Dame. I hope its renovation will bring it back to us soon.
On the third day of our trip, we went to Reims in the Grand Est region of northeastern France. There are not many places to visit in Reims; one of the must-visit attractions is Reims Cathedral which is very old and as important as Notre Dame. We also stopped by a pizza restaurant. The food was just decent, but the yellow light made the pizza look super yummy. That night we stayed in Strasbourg, the capital city of the Grand Est region. Since there was some time left in the evening, my adventurous soul dragged my parents to the downtown. We got to see Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and place Gutenberg at night. The light beaming from the edges of those structures made this town as charming as Paris.
On the fourth day of the trip, we were headed to Colmar. This city is called the little Venice because of several creeks that runs passed through the town. We took a horse and carriage tour to enjoy the scenery of the town. The horse stopped from time to time to let us take pictures of this city.
Switzerland
In the afternoon of the same day, we crossed the border from France to Switzerland! Yes, FINALLY! The first stop is Schaffhausen, the capital town in the northern part of Switzerland. We visited Rhine falls, the most significant falls in Europe. The power of nature was incredible, and somehow that power broke my camera. (Lucky enough that we brought two cameras! Phewww)
That night, we stayed at Jugendstil-Hotel Paxmontana. As you can see, I haven’t yet reviewed any hotel, so this one must have impressed me a lot! As a matter of fact, the hotel itself is neither luxury nor well-decorated, but it is located in the middle of gorgeous Swiss mountains. We spent a whole hour in the morning walking around and take a deep breath to get the fresh air from this place.
Sadly, the trip needed to be moved on. We went on to see the Lion Monument in Lucerne, Switzerland. (Later, my roommate Annina who has swiss relatives, also told me that she is a fan of this place. Though she thought that it was pretty crowded and touristy.) Then, we went to see the Chapel Bridge, which is made of wood. The bridge ages over 800 years, but it was still being used! Since we had an hour left in the town, we decided to rent a boat to ride around lake Lucerne. I know I shouldn’t brag about my dad, but that was his first time controlling a boat, and it wasn’t as scary as I thought!
Our last destination in Switzerland is Titlis, Engleberg. Titlis is a mountain of the Uri Alps with a height of 3,238 meters above sea level. No words could describe the beauty of it. Since we stepped out of the bus, it felt like the mountains embraced us.
Italy
The last country we visited on this trip was Italy. We crossed the border from Switzerland to Italy on the same day we went to Titlis. Since we traveled by convenience, we didn’t try to visit the Pisa leaning tower nor Colosseum. Instead, we went to the vacation town, Como. We were wandering around, buying some shoes for my brother and having some gelato.
The last day of the trip was well spent in Milan. We first went to Sforzesco Castle. Even though we didn’t get to see what’s inside the castle, several historic sculptures around the castle area are worth a visit. After that, we took a walk to Piazza del Duomo. It was like a dream when I arrived at the square. The ground was full of birds, and there was Milan Cathedral as a background. Anyway, I ended this trip with a cone of gelato, and that was how I remember you, Italy.
After we found out that there are some flights from Willard (a regional airport in Champaign) that are inexpensive, we started flying out from here instaead of Chicago. We got a really good price of plane tickets to Seattle, so we decided to go to more national parks! The two parks that we visited were Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. We thought about going to North Cascade as well, but the time was limited so we planned to visit there next time. Visiting these two popular national parks in the fall was such a good choice–less crowd, nice weather, and fall foliage!
Midwest surprisingly offers us many national parks to visit all year round. One of the national parks near Illinois is the Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky. We rented a car from Champaign and drove around 5 hours, excluding small stops in Indiana. We had never been to Kentucky before, and we believe that not many international students had been there. Plus, this was the first time we visited a cave in the US, and we start with the world’s longest known cave system!
We’d been thinking of visiting South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Badlands national park for almost a year. Then an opportunity came when one of our friends gave us a buy-one-get-one-free coupon from Delta. We did not hestitate even a bit in buying two tickets for a round trip from Chicago to Rapid City, SD. Although it was an impulsive trip, we had a lot of fun observing the wildlife in the great plains of South Dakota and North Dakota.
Although Poy graduated from the Scripps-Oxford joint Ph.D. program in Biochemistry for half a year and already started working at UIUC as a post-doctoral researcher, his graduation ceremony was held way later in May 2024. His family also came from Thailand to attend his graduation ceremony in San Diego. We then spent over a week afterward traveling around the west coast, including California, Arizona, and Nevada. It was my first time (and his family’s first time) doing a road trip in the west coast. We enjoyed a huge variety of natural wonders that the west coast has to offer.