Elvezia Baveno

... to go out in the cold again, so then we spent time on YouTube until they got home and made us dinner. Ah, the Italian life. Meghan and I crawled into our beds but didn't sleep for a long time, just talking. We both thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of speaking normally, without adjusting our language to make ourselves understood. She had been accepted that day into an English teaching program in China, and wasn't sure if she wanted to take it or not, so we talked ...

The first few photos on this blog are still very much in Switzerland. Day before we left Lucerne we caught a train to Bern, the Swiss capital, and spent a very interesting day there. Got caught up in a political rally, have no idea what the protest was about, but it was a happy protest. Hundred of people singing, blowing whistles, bells, handing out pamphlets (which were in German so we ...

... and even had "grottos" in the lower level. All the walls, ceiling and floor in the grottos were covered in pebbles, all in different patterns. Bit weird. I imagine they had some pretty interesting parties down there!

We took a cable car trip up to Mount Mottarone. Spectacular view of the mountains ...

... Italian. Eventually I did return to reality, but not until after we visited Swiss Miniatur and San Salvatore. Swiss Miniatur is more or less self-explanatory, but I will say it was really cool to visit as a Swiss resident. It gave me and my friend some great ideas for future trips in the country. There are so many castles we never even knew existed! They really captured the great sites and monuments of Switzerland, including mountain ...

Lugano is a sophisticated resort surrounded by conical mountains. Lake Lugano is a sparkling jewel with a pretty waterfront walk. In my opinion, it lacks Montreux's charm, as the buildings are haphazard and less architecturally pleasing. It reminded us of South Beach in Miami, without the art deco.

The hotel wasn’t anything special to look at from the outside, but we did have a lake front view with a balcony. The elevators are funky and require you to push open the ...

... with the Italian as to who could reach the top first. Today, 150 people per day make the climb,during the climbing season, at a price of 998 Swiss Francs per person.

Our route to Italy took us over the Alps via the Simplon Pass. Those who know Agatha Christie’s, Murder on the Orient Express, will recognize the Pass. The Swiss love to dig tunnels and the Simplon Pass has both an auto pass and a train pass. The train ...

... on it. Isola Superiore and Isola Bella were very nice but Isola Madre was definitely our favorite.

After our two nights at Lake Maggiore we drove back to Milan where we boarded our flight bound for Greece.

Good News Special Note- TravelPod, the website that hosts this travel blog, is taking two of the photos we took in France and plans to use them on their home page to promote the website. Who knew we were such good photographers?! J

So we traveled to many cities in one day. We went on a train ride from Chur to St. Moritz. Love it. Switzerland is so beautiful. I still remembered that one second of the shot of the train with a backdrop of snow and lovely houses :D So what we saw were mountains, village ...

... We went to a grocery store before getting
home for dinner. His mom cooked pasta (as requested by Sally). I
didn't eat dessert 'cause I was way too tired. I took a shower after
dinner. We discussed about the places to visit in Rome. LA showed us
some pictures of Rome. And he also said, 'if you miss home... then here're
some pictures of ...

... not that the signs with 50km/h crossed out makes that perfectly clear – and the police speed trap at the top of the Oberalppass, along the sole stretch of straight road we’d travelled, had caught me going at 105km/h.

I was handed an on-the-spot fine of 240 Swiss Francs payable immediately by credit card, which, given the efficient and no-nonsense demeanour of the Graubünden Kantonspolizei, I really wasn’t in a position to argue with. I went into the ...