Varese

February 23, 2014

This week we got 19 new missionaries.  They are a wonderful group.  Very alert, attentive and bold.  None of them fell asleep during my training!  To sit through 45 minutes of training on money after flying overnight here from the states and stay awake is fabulous.  We also had 7 missionaries go home.  This makes the whole week very involved.  We do have the routine down, but with all of the training, meals, transportation and exciting chatter with these major changes in their lives, it does seem to wear out us old folks. I was exhausted Thursday night after it was over.  Friday was a day to catch up.

Saturday we decided to go to Varese, a city north west of Milano that is very near the Switzerland boarder.

 This is the civic center for Varese and it was a marker day there!  I was very impressed with the vendors.  They were very clean, and not the dirty lower quality vendors that we see in most cities.

 After walking through the vendor stalls we walked east toward what we thought was a church bell we heard ringing.  We walked around the corner and there was a bell tower.

 Just past the tower was this piazza with kids riding their bikes and playing ball.

 Turning around you can see the church and the base of the bell tower.

 Here is the bell tower from the other side.

 We could here a street performer singing Bob Dylan songs so we walked  that way.  He had a harmonica and a tired dog.  Here in the next piazza is a little carousel that kids and their parents were riding.

 We next could here a flute playing.  It was playing jazz.  After we walked a block or so we found her.  It was the same Jazz flute gal that we saw about a month ago near the Milano Duomo.  She is great!

Above you can see a sun dial that was etched into the sunny side of this building.  The black line and circle is the shadow from the grey fixture attached to the wall.  I think this a cool wish I had one so I could watch it though the seasons.

 Here is a door - not a great door, but it is open so you an see the way the little door within the big door works.

 We wandered back towards the car, walked past the church and went in.  Nice little church with some great stained glass.

One of the vendors at the market was making fresh mozzarella.  It was fascinating to see him swoop up the curds and shape them into a ball.  Of course they let us sample it and WOW it was fantastic.  We bought some and then bought some great bread from another vendor and drove down to the lake that is near Varese to eat our lunch.

 We found a spot to drive down from the road through a very narrow passage way where we could see the lake.  When it opened up there was a parking lot next to a rowing boat storage barn. Several boats were just getting ready to head out.  We parked, sat down on a bench by the lake, ate our bread and cheese in the sun and watched the boats.

 Peggy fed the ducks

 It was beautiful spot and a spectacular day.  This is FEBRUARY!  It was wonderful.

Same view as previous slide, but zoomed in to see the alps in the back ground