Gardaland, Italy

Gardaland, Italy

I first visited Gardaland, an amusement park in Italy, in 2001. We had just bought a new car and off we went on a ten-day European tour. First we stopped in Salzburg Austria, where we went for a stroll in this charming medieval town, where everything reminds of Mozart. On the same day we arrived in Buchs in the Swiss 'kanton' of St. Gallen. There we stayed at my friend's who I met on a school exchange in 1998. Although we have only managed to organize one exchange, Julia and I have been in touch ever since. After a few days we went on to St Desert, near Dyon in France, where another friend put us up. I met Jean-Paul, an English teacher, at a seminar called 'New technologies in modern language teaching' in Turku, Finland. Easter in this cute French town was an unforgettable experience.
The tour ended in Lasize on Lake Garda, where we didn't have any friends so we stayed in a hotel. We had a great time, the kids enjoyed themselves immensely.

On my second visit I chaperoned 22 students. On the first day we visited Verona and Julia's balcony. The Arena was a great sight, but the Croatian Arena in Pula is even more magnificent. We spent the night in Lido di Jesolo, which I guess is a vibrant city during the season. In April it was a bit on the quiet side.

The kids loved the rides in Gardaland. When it comes to amusement parks, I'm a real safe player, unlike my friend Snjezana, who has just come home from her Gardaland visit and who went on the roller coaster, free fall, rafting and the like. What I enjoy most are the carousels with horses that tend to take me back in time.