Hotel Royal Stresa

... hill to the Volta Lighthouse. If it wasn't for the foggy view we would have had a great panoramic view of Lake Como and it's surrounds.
After walking back down to Como we caught the bus out to Belaggio which is at the furthest point on the lake. Town was completely dead. a couple of cafes and post card shops open and that was it!
Some nice ...

... but it was nice to be able to relax and have a quiet walk around the villages. I needed to take a lot of ferries as this is the quickest way to get between each town as they are all placed at different points around the lake. A very nice place that I would love to visit again in the Summertime.

Next stop is Venice, Italy!

... is again caught in my throat-from their backyard you can see Europe's second highest mountain (Monte Rosa). Well you couldn't actually see it that night because of all the mist, but it was such a surreal scene, the mountains dipping in and out, it looked like water, it was so cool. I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera. During dinner the dad mentioned there was an organ concert in Borgo (the nickname the residents gave Borgomanero) so we all piled in the ...

... br>
Sue

We transferred from the bus to a boat to do the tour of the Lake. They pointed out the particular houses of royalty and film stars - and how many millions their houses were worth. The views were spectacular, the houses really like castles, and they would have no trouble having privacy, that's for sure! Another wonderfully pleasant surprise! Some have their own cable-cars to get down to the water's edge. (Funicular)

... featuring some very pretty gardens and fountains. We enjoyed some gelato as we walked along the lakeside gardens. After an hour break here, we took the short drive to Como. Como is also another beautiful lakeside town. We shared dinner and enjoyed a nice conversation with Stan and Johanna from Colorado. We are now in Italy and we are looking forward to the next seven days in this country.

Took the train from Milan to Lake Como - short 1.5 hour trip. The lake is beautiful and there was a speed boat race going on when we arrived. We took the funicular (tram) which has a charming little town at the top and a great view of the lake. We stayed on the south side of the lake (where George lives) and then took a boat north to Bellagio. Quaint town with steep streets filled with great shops. Can understand why George bought a house there!

... 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 ...

... was available!), there's a great view of the Alps, and for some reason, hundreds of palm trees. The orientation lasted 2.5 days, and was mainly meeting, with delicious meals (2 bottles of wine per 10 person table, of course) and one boat trip around the lake. The trip was very nice (but very cold) and we saw beautiful castles on the islands (including the tallest palm tree in the world, apparently - in ...

... to pay my first ever speeding fine in twelve years of driving with an attitude of taking it on the chin (actually, it turned out to be the second – in the post soon after I got a far less serious fine from the day before. One of the new permanent speed cameras on the autoroute somewhere around Lausanne had snapped me for presumably not having slowed down fast enough in a 100km/h zone in an area where the speed limits change constantly between 120km/h and 100km/h), and I ...

... late afternoon and hiked around a bit and saw the town (not big, but cute). The next day I checked on the gondola in town and it was closed, so I hiked up a really big hill almost straight up (and I thought the hikes in the Canadian Rockies were tough!) for awesome 360 views. Quite incredible. I hung out there for a while then hiked down and kept walking (my feet hate me) to the towns of St Christina and Ortisei. I just poked around ...