Day 6 - Monday July 22 - Zermatt to Lugano - Driving over the Alps

By Ellen Outten


We were up early this morning with breakfast at 7 am. Luggage had to be outside our door at 7 am as we were heading to the train at 8 am.    Zermatt permits NO cars in the town, but it's a bit phony since there are hundreds of electric taxis and work vehicles moving luggage, etc.  

We took the train out of town to Tasch where we met our bus traveled over the Simplon Pass of the Alps, the high notch in the Swiss Alps where, from 1801 to 1805, Napoleon constructed a road in order to transport artillery more easily through his expanding empire. 







Then we entered Italy, and stopped at a 30-foot eagle sculpture, a tribute to the the Swiss Mountain Brigade during WWII. 




No bench, but he found a wall.

From there we moved to Stresa, Italy, along the shores of Lake Maggiore, where we had lunch on our own.   

Pictures as we crossed the Alps on the way to Stresa.  I finally got tonid my Euros since Switzerland uses Swiss Francs.



This is the only sign that we passed the border crossing into Italy 



The Alps from the south, looking north 


Wayne wanted pizza and I would never argue with that.  Stresa, this town in Italy, brought back my memories from our recent trip to Italy and the Mediterranean.  Stresa is right next to the Swiss border but differs dramatically.  Much looser, everyone talking with their hands, women with much less clothing, better looking men.  A totally different ambiance.  Switzerland was great and we still have 3 more wonderful days left in Switzerland but they are more rigid.  

Fresh Italian pizza, mushrooms and sausage! Yes!


How can we be in Stresa Italy in an Italian restaurant and have cactus next to us?

After lunch we had two hours to shop and walk around the pedestrian only central square.  We were right next to lake Maggiore and the promenade was gorgeous.  The very upscale hotels across the street were amazing.


The painted doors and walls of old town Stresa

Some of the beautiful hotels fronting lake Maggiore 







Mosaic pavement in front of the hotel entrance.


Inside the lobby of the Grand hotel



Another scenic drive, this time through the  Italian Lake District, brought us back to Switzerland and our hotel in lakeside Lugano.












Dinner tonight is at 7 pm in the hotel restaurant  Lugano Dante  After that, a shower and sleep.  Tomorrow is Sunday, sleeping in until 7 am.

We are almost to Lugano and crossed back across the border to Switzerland.

Swiss-Italian border crossing 

First look at Lugano Switzerland 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3 - Wednesday July 19 - Old City of Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus

By Ellen Outten
Image
  Our first day of touring!  We left the hotel at 9 am and headed 15 minutes down the road to the old town of Lucerne for a 2 hour walking tour.   Our first stop, we picked up a local guide who walked us to the Lion Monument.   It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. If there's a bench, Wayne will find it. From there we went into the Old City for a guideed tour of some of the famous landmarks.  The most famous is the Chapel Bridge.  The timber bridge, together with the water tower are a landmark of Lucerne.  It burned to the ground in 1993 and was rebuilt in 8 months.  The bridge is 672 feet long and is covered with gorgeous flowers.  This year, the flowers are impatiens.   In past years, Wayne tells me, there were geraniums along the entire length of the bridge. We walked the length of the bridge and looked at some of the original paintings on the triangular interior frame
Read more

Day 1 - Monday July 17- Lots of travel

By Ellen Outten
Image
We left home at 5 am and buzzed through United bag drop and TSA security. It's 6am and we're waiting to board, hopefully at 6:35. Departure is 7:15.   It's a 3 1/2 hour flight to Chicago, and then a 3 hour layover before our 3:50 pm flight.to Zurich. We are due to land at 7:45 am on Tuesday morning.   Carol Lee was wonderful and baked us cookies for the flight.  I took this picture to prove to Carol that we ate them.   Wayne went on a scouting trip through the waiting area for the one other couple taking our tour whom we were told were on our flight.  As usual, there he is making new friends.  (Not the person in orange, the couple on the other side, woman with blue sweater).
Read more

We're Off Again - Another Adventure

By Ellen Outten
Image
July 17, 2023, the start of our next adventure.  We'll be visiting Switzerland and Austria primarily. And, we'll briefly travel through Liechtenstein, Italy and Germany.  The map shows our planned tour with Odyssey Unlimited Tours.   We take off for Zurich, connecting through Chicago for the start of our 15 days through the Alps on Monday leaving the house at 0dark30.  I'm looking forward to beautiful scenery and a look at the Matterhorn and cooler temperatures!    This will be a much different trip as there will be no cruising.   We'll be staying in different hotels, changing about every two nights.  Our first two nights will be in Lake Lucerne. I'll be posting each day, hopefully, just as I have on the past trip.  Stay tuned! 
Read more