Thursday......go to church day

The morning started out pouring rain, looked like it was going to be  a miserable day. However around 9 or so the rain stopped and the clouds lifted and it was quite pleasant. This seemed to be the perfect day to head down the road just a bit and explore the Il Santuario Della Madonna del Sasso. It sits very majestically on a rock outcropping overlooking Lake Maggiore, Locarno and the surrounding mountains. The origins date back to 1480 when a monk propagated the cult of the Virgin Mary. According to tradition the monk had a vision that appeared to him on the night of the Assumption of the Virgin. He built several chapels on the hill. They have been greatly added to over the years and centuries.

It's fame began to spread with the establishment of a new diocese and the growth of tourism in the region. Just after World War II, the statue of the Madonna del Sasso was taken from village to village, until it had been to the most remote places of the canton. This was the year of the 'Great Visit' and contributed greatly to spreading the news of the Madonna and her Sanctuary among the people of Ticino.

Several of the small chapels incorporated into the church each have sculptures in them depicting the life of Christ. There is a life sized scene, done in baked clay of The Last Supper, a life sized wooden carving of the Pieta as well as others that we did not understand the meaning of.

When we arrived at The Presbytery itself there was a service going on. We quietly stepped into the door and when the service was over we spent almost an hour exploring everything. Throughout the area near the entrance, the walls are covered with paintings placed by people whose loved ones have died. The unusual thing about these paintings are that they depict the way in which the person died. There was a lot to take in at once. I imagine that if we went back again we would see many things that we never noticed during this visit. Just exploring the grounds around the church would be fascinating. And leave it to Pauline to find the garden area that the nuns cultivate is a secluded corner!

Afterwards we hiked back up to the road an enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Funicolare restorante overlooking the Madonna del Sasso. Our intentions were to head right back home afterwards but we got a bit side tracked as usual and spent some time in Migros, the local department store (where we found more seeds!!!), as well as a drive thru some small roads right along the water front. Finally arrived back home late in the afternoon, had a dinner consisting of cleaning out the fridge then off to bed early. Tomorrow we pack, haul everything back up the stairs and spend a leisurely day driving to Dagmersellen where we will spend the night again in Hotel Rossi.

A semi lazy Wednesday

     After our adventures yesterday we were all ready to just hang around the house for most of the day. We slept late, had a leisurely breakfast and everyone went off in their own little corner for the morning. Pauline and I poked around the property taking photos, watched the workers in the vineyard and enjoyed finding lots of plants and flowers that we had never seen before. After lunch we decided to head down to the internet cafe, sip a cappuccino and post a few more photos on smugmug. Afterwards we headed up to the eastern end of Lake Maggiore. At least we tried to. The only route we knew was completely blocked by police, barricades, crowds of people, etc. Turns out there was a huge bicycle race that was passing thru Locarno. The bicyclists racing were also followed by cars with spare bicycles, more police, medics and on and on. We happened to be in the right place at the right time to actually see the riders go thru and they were followed by a helicopter with a camera mounted underneath. Once the bicyclists went thru the crowds turned to the TV's in cafes and shops to watch the rest of the race. The fascinating thing for us was to see how well organized it, how smooth it ran, and how little it affected traffic. Within moments after the riders went thru an area, workers were cleaning up the barricades, advertising, etc.

Somewhere in the middle of all this we managed to get up to the eastern end of the lake. Our fascination with this area is that it is a large, flat river delta. In other words, rich soil. It is covered with greenhouses, hoop houses and field crops. There was no way we were leaving the valley without spending an afternoon exploring the area.

Once we got past all the bicycle race traffic we found a narrow little dirt road that went right thru the middle of the area. Close inspection of the hoop houses has given us lots on new, efficient and inexpensive ways to extend the growing season in Maine. It was an afternoon well spent.

Afterwards we picked up a few groceries, stopped to take a few pictures of advertising signs in town, headed home for dinner and a relaxing evening.

Hello again T-Mobile

It is Wednesday and we are running around today to finish up all the little things we said we wanted to do while we were here.  We are going down in to the valley of Locarno where there are a lot of hoophouses with veggies growing in them.  We are going to see if we can find anyone that speaks English and ask questions about how they work.  They have all kinds of cool ways of closing their greenhouses and opening them and we want to learn for our greenhouse.

I've visited a couple of different cell phone stores.  Pretty much the same as we have at home, even a lot of the same model phones.  For example I saw the Motorola Krazr.  But they have a lot of Siemans phones and a lot of Sony Ericson phones and data devices. This is me pretending to fall at Gotthard Pass

It's hard to believe my vacation is just about over, some of it went by really quick.  You all have just a few more days to work this week and I'll be BBBAACCCKKK on Tuesday!  Woo Hoo, I'll be there to kick off June and see what awesome things we can accomplish.  My guess is you are all rocking it out for a strong finish to May.  Keep up the good work and I'll see you all soon!!

 

Note the T-Mobile Oakland ME logo on the back of this blanket.  All the way in the Swiss Alps!!

Does any else see the humor in this?

....sign for a small restaurant up the road from the house

 

Free advertising for Joe and Dee

Hopefully this gets us at least a free cup of coffee when we get home. It's not our fault that not a single car or person passed us when we were here..........

Hey Mark! This ones just for you

Mark, thought you might want to see what the pecker poles look like in Switzerland.

Tuesday, 450 kilometers in one day.

     Up early today, in the car and on the road at 6:28. This was the big adventure day. Everyone wanted to go see Trummelbach Falls, which was somewhat south of Interlaken, Interlaken was somewhat north and a bit west of here, Italy was between here and there, and one range in the Alps that had no roads. Add to that the fact that most of the higher passes here have not been opened yet. Gottard Pass was just opened this week. To get there we had to travel through the Centovalli region, which is the same route that we took on the train to Domodossola. Since we were in the car this time we had a lot of stopping to do along the way. Before we were 30 kilometers from the house we had probably already gotten side tracked about 5 times.

     One of the first stops was a dam in the valley. They had a great diagram of how this particular system worked, which is typical of most of the ones here is Switzerland. Most of their power is hydroelectric. There are small dammed areas all over the country, in the unlikeliest of places. Several of them in an area will be connected through underground tunnels and in places you will see the tunnel come out high up on a mountainside and then there are large pipes running straight down to the valley floor.

     Next it was another white knuckle drive up the valley to the Italian border. We have done several border crossings this week and no one has asked to see our passports! This time the guard just said "You Americans?', when I said yes he just responded 'Go ahead'. A few miles later we came around a corner and saw a spectacular view of the town of Re, famous for its church and the story from the 1500's that goes along with it. (we'll write about it when we can find it). We spent about a half hour here checking out the church from all angles.The original was built in the 1500's, the part showing in the photo was built between the 1920's and the 1950's.

     We tried hard to stay on track after that, we still had a long way to go. Drove through Domodossola, then headed up to the border, back into Switzerland and over the Simplon Pass. Then down the pass and into the town of Brig. From here we headed west to Steg, only to head north again to the town of Goppenstein. Not far from here the road ends, but you can take the auto train under the mountains to pick up the road to Interlaken. Here, every half hour a train pulls these rail cars thru the tunnel. About 100 cars can fit on each train. Even tour buses were on our train. You just drive on the end and keep going until the car in front of you stops. Set your brake, turn the car off and get weirded out for the next 12 minutes. They are basically just flatbeds with canopies. When it first starts moving you want to hit the brake and grab the wheel. Then you are in the tunnel and it is totally dark. Before you know it you're back out in the daylight and on your way.

     From the train we pretty much drove straight thru to Trummelbach Falls. The parking area was packed so we drove past it a bit to another waterfall were we had a picnic lunch and took a walk through the wildflower fields to the base of the falls.The falls are quite famous as being the only falls entirely inside the mountain and still accessible. A small rail car takes you half way up, inside the mountain, then you can climb another 420 steps and several walkways up inside the mountain to few the various chutes of which there are 10 in all. Mom, who said she was tired, managed to do the whole thing. The views inside are spectacular, very had to capture on film. But it was definitely worth the long trip to get here. The wild flowers are just starting to bloom here and the fields were beautiful.  After out journey through Trummelbach we stopped for a snack at the local grotto and then headed towards Luzern, where we hoped to be able to drive over Gottard Pass in the daylight. We found the road to the pass and stopped many times to enjoy the view and even spent some time driving on part of the old cobblestone road near the top. The snow banks near the top were high and it was cold and wet out. We did manage to spend some time at the top enjoying the view. After that it was down the pass and thru the valley back to Locarno and home. Needless to say, we were all in bed pretty early. A long, long day, but worth every second of it.

Monday, it was suppose to be another relaxing day.....

Pauline and I headed off early (around 6:30) for a walk thru the local village and a stop at the local bakery for some fresh bread for breakfast and at the local grocery store for some sausage and Gorgonzola,(each just one small room). I have never cared for gorgonzola, but Andrew had purchased some here last week and brought it for dinner. I never new it could be so good. I'll bet that we buy more before the week is up. Strolling thru town that early was really enjoyable. Lots of sights that you don't get from the car. Especially if you are driving, since one glance away from the road means trouble. One thing we saw at the top of the road that goes down to the house was the neighbors way of getting home. The photo on the right shows the small glassed in car that rides the rail in the foreground from their yard up to the street level. And, yes, the hillsides really are that steep around here. Someone downhill from you only 200 ft or so could build a two story house right in front of you and it would not block your view one bit.

After breakfast we decided to take a quick trip up Mt. Bre to see the view of the lake and the mountains. I think that it has been the scariest drive for me so far. It is not wide enough to pass along most of the route, there are just occasional wide spots for passing oncoming cars. And downhill cars have the right of way. Which meant that if we met someone coming down, I had to back up to a wide spot. The first time it happened I was so nervous backing up that I stayed so close to the rock wall on the right I almost tore off the rear view mirror. The lady coming down was laughing and ended up passing us on our right. It certainly was a white knuckle drive for me. And on top of that I had to listen to everyone else in the car commenting on just how steep the drop off was. Then we missed the correct turn and ended up heading along the side of a mountain on an even narrower road that soon turned to dirt and mud. Time to turn around, but where? We parked and walked up the road a bit, found a few spots but realized that the car would not make it over a stone drainage gully that ran across the road. It took three of us, but we managed to back the car around two corners and turn it around at a spot not much wider than the car. Dad stood in back to make sure that I did not go into the waterfall there, and Pauline stood in front to make sure that the front tires stayed on the road. A rather important position since at the edge of the pavement it just dropped off into nowhere. On the way back down we found the right turnoff, but had already had too much fun. Actually the views of toward Centovalli and Valled Maggia were very rewarding, even if I was sweating all the way up. Cappuccino's at the Hotel in Mt. Bre sounded much more enjoyable. Plus it would give my knees some time to stop shaking before the ride back down. 

On the way back down Pauline saw an abandoned house that she said she would love to move into and fix up. I mentioned that if we moved up here, we were staying forever as I was not driving that road every day to get anywhere. Afterwards we headed down into Locarno for lunch and to wander around the area for a bit, including making the required stop at the local chocolate shop in town. Then it was back home for dinner and to prepare for the busy day we had planned for Tuesday.

Sunday, a day of rest. yeah, right.........

Actually it was a fairly lazy day compared to the last week. We hung around the house and relaxed in the morning and then after lunch decided to take a ride over to Ascona. It was a misty day and we spent quiet a bit of time just hiking up the 145 or so steps to the car, stopping frequently to enjoy the ever changing views of the valley, thanks to the constantly appearing and disappearing mist.

Ascona is just west of Locarno. Both Locarno and Ascona are on a delta, formed by the rivers from the Centovalli area and the Valle Maggia area. The border between the two cities is the river. We actually managed to find a parking space rather quickly and headed over to walk along the lake. Ascona's famous lakeside promenade is called Piazza G. Motta. We still have not figured out what type of tree is growing along the Piazza, but we do know that they have been there since the mid 1800's. Of course there was a Moevenpick store there and, of course, we had to stop. A friend of mom's have given her a 10 franc piece to buy some ice cream for her birthday and this was the day she decided to cash it in. Afterwards we spent a few hours roaming around the car free streets and alleys, enjoying the sights and the smells (there is a place to eat around here about every 50 meters or so) of the area. Home and a relaxing evening followed.

Photo Gallery

lots of photos have been added to the gallery today. You can get to them thru the smugmug link to the right. The order is a total mess and may not be straightened out for days. Sorry about that one. D and P

FYI

the rest of Monday's story has been added if you are interested.

Saturday May 24th Bellinzona Market Day

Today, although it was cloudy and drizzly we decided to head over to Bellinzona to the market.  We pulled right into a parking place not even a block from the market.  The smells, sounds and sights at the market were amazing.  First stop was a booth with rocks, the lady was so nice and spoke great English.  She shared with us these fine needle like crystals that came from this region of Switzerland, the Tecino Region.  We bought a small grouping of these crystals and she said, "Now you have a bonsai of the Swiss Alps!"  The next booth we visited was a spice booth.  What a variety!  We chose a few special spices and asked lots of questions.

We saw whole chickens and rabbits and decided that would be a yummy lunch.  Mom bought already roasted chicken and pork roast.  The first meat we could afford in Switzerland!!  And those 2 pieces were $40!!

Their were so many cheese booths and there was sausages and salami hanging all over the place.  And bread booths galore!  And of course veggies and fruit like you wouldn't believe.  We are very curious about the veggies and herbs and try to ask questions, but even if someone knows a little English they generally do not know the translations for vegetables or herbs.  So there were quite a few things we were not familiar with and still are not.  We were admiring and photographing this crinkly  cabbage and the shopkeeper asked me if we would like to just buy 1/2, so I said yes and she just chopped it in half and asked me to choose the half I wanted.  What a great idea!

    Another interesting thing was that a lot of the veggie booths had plants for sale.  Well that's not the interesting part...they are not in pots or 6-paks or anything, you just buy the plant with the dirt and roots open.  I love how much they don't waste in this country.

     The town of Bellinzona had a fortified wall that went across the whole valley to protect the town from the Romans.  There are portions of the wall still evident throughout the town, it was very neat.

    We drove home and enjoyed our roasted chicken and pork and some sautéed Chard and fresh bread, all purchased at the market!  We napped for several hours this afternoon, the rainy day was very conducive to this activity.  When we got up Don and Edith were playing Cribbage, Donna was working on pictures so i went for a walk around the neighborhood.

     It is so amazing walking through the neighborhoods...you cross over so many waterfalls, everything is on a hill, there are stairs everywhere, and the landscaping is amazing.  It is very temperate here so there are palm trees, yuccas and tons of succulents.  Of course there are the familiar geraniums, petunias, impatiens and things like that too.  As you walk along, if you sneak a peek down into yards you see the  most amazing raised bed, rich soil, and perfectly tended vegetable patches.  Even big apartment buildings around here compost their scraps and have vegetable gardens beside them.

   Looks like we are finally up to date with this blog.  I am writing this on Saturday night.  Sunday A.M. we are going down to the internet cafe again to download everything and do some research on weather and to see if certain mountain passes are open so we can plan out the last week of vacation.  Today, after one full week of vacation I am lonesome for home.

by train to Domodossolla

Friday morning Pauline and I decided to take the scenic train to Domodossola and spend a few hours exploring before we had to catch a return train back to Locarno. First stop was Empirio at the Locarno train station to use the free internet access there and to post a few blogs and of course to enjoy a cappuccino. After we enjoyed our coffee, we purchased out train tickets and headed down to the track. It is about a 1 3/4 hour train ride that starts by heading out through the Val Vigezzo, a very scenic river valley. At the head of the river you cross into Italy and head down into the valley where Domodossola is located. And when I say down, I mean it. It was quite steep, the train squealing all the way down. The views of the Alps as we descended were incredible.  Once in Domodossola we just started walking down any interesting street that we came to. Within about 15 minutes we found ourselves in the heart of the oldest part of town. Beautiful buildings, narrow roads, dogs running free everywhere and countless balconies with flower boxes just waiting for us to take pictures of.

We quickly found the piazza that was the center of the old section and were pleasantly surprised to see a vegetable market set up there. They were just closing up but we got to see many of the things that they offered. Across the piazza there was a small sidewalk cafe where we stopped for lunch and another cappuccino.There were a few others there and we were also joined by several pigeons who sat on the table next to us and many dogs running all over the piazza. We really enjoy going to the cafes around here and seeing people bring their dogs in with them. The dogs are always well behaved and wag their tails like crazy when meeting up with other dogs. Another enjoyable thing was the number of people who ride bikes everywhere they go. And you very rarely see a bike locked up. Every town has large bike racks that are usually full and you always see one or two in front of a store or cafe.

After lunch we spent the rest of our time wandering down the narrow roads and alleys, enjoying the sights and smells of the area. Soon it was time to head back to catch the train to Locarno. The train ride back was quiet and relaxing, except for once when I was taking a picture out the door and a woman standing there said 'It certainly is beautiful'. When I said 'yes, it's heavenly' she looked at me and said, 'Oh my gosh, you speak English!' Twenty minutes later we were still speaking English.... She was traveling with some friends from Vancouver and hiking in the various places they visited. It is not hard to get around here without speaking the local languages (German, Italian and French). Most people, if you are patient and pleasant are more than willing to work with you to communicate, but it sure would be nice to be able to converse with them in their own tongue.

After arriving in Locarno we had to figure out how the bus system works since we had decided that we wanted to get all the way back to the house using public transportation. We managed to buy our tickets from the vending machine, get on the right bus and get off at the right stop! At least at this point it was all down hill from here.....  For those of you with strong stomachs I will be posting a video later of a portion of the bus ride home.

When we got back, Mom and Dad had fired up the wood fired pizza oven outside and had all the fixings ready to go. We enjoyed our pizzas and wine out on the patio and all headed off to bed early for some much needed rest.

Thursdays travels....

After all the rain yesterday we thought it would be a good day to head up the Valle Maggia to see the waterfalls up that way and to visit a few out of the way places. Shortly after we entered the valley we came upon a beautiful waterfall on the left side of the valley. Pauline and I got out to take a picture and Pauline realized that there was another one on the right off in the woods. Turns out there was a wooden bridge over a small stream that led to a path that went right to the bottom of another amazing waterfall. Another kilometer down the road as we were stopping to photograph another one. There really were so many that after a while we just enjoyed them, no more pictures. Many people have mentioned that with the rain here lately there are waterfalls where you hardly ever get a chance to see one. Two days before we arrived, Locarno had 6 inches of rain in one day, with the snow level coming down to 1500 meters. All the peaks around were covered with fresh snow which is unusual here this time of year but has only enhanced the number of waterfalls.

We stopped in the town of Cevio to see some of the sculptures there and the local architecture, we kept driving up the road through town which soon became a stomach turning series of switchbacks that never seemed to end. The road would occasionally straighten out a bit and go through the middle of a small village. In the middle of most of the villages along the way the road was barely wider than the car. The amazing thing was that there is daily bus service up here in a full size bus. Watching them get around some of the switchbacks is amazing. They have a short wheelbase and the front of the bus is literally out over the edge. One minute I think that I want to move here and drive a bus, the next I can barely get the car around a switchback and wish that I was somewhere else. This road climbed up to about 1,500 meters ending in the village of Bosco Gurin, surrounded by rugged peaks, the tops of which are the border with Italy. Along the way up we passed sheep and goats just roaming free around the hills.

     We headed back down to Civeo and took another road up the valley to the town of Foroglio. This town had been completely abandoned during WWII when every one there moved to the US. It is slowly being re-inhabited  and restored. There is a charming Grotto there with an amazing view of, yes, another waterfall. We headed back down the valley, stopping frequently to photograph the villages along the way and we even managed to back track once to check out another waterfall. We were all pretty well fried when we got home. The constant going here and there and the time difference was finally catching up with all of us. Had a light supper of soup, bread and cheese and headed off to bed early.

......and on to Wednesday

Wednesday is market day in Luino, a small town just a few miles into Italy. Even though it was rainy we decided to head down and check it out. Apparently, since it was rainy, just about everyone else around the lake seemed to have the same idea. It was a good thing that we got there early while there was still parking left. We walked around for an hour or so and Pauline bought herself a nice, Italian made wallet. Most of the people that we have talked to speak little or no English. However if you show an interest they are all willing to try to converse with you. The lady that Pauline got the wallet from was just such a person. She worked hard at the sale, choosing colors for Pauline, telling her that she was 'practico' when she realized that Pauline only wanted black or brown. The fun came when it was time to pay for it. We are pretty good at costs in Switzerland with the franc as 1 franc is fairly close to 1 dollar. This time we were in Italy and we had no idea what the rate was with the euro. I actually went into a bank and after 5 minutes or so was able to get them to understand that I only wanted to know how many Swiss francs were in 1 euro.  The wallet Pauline wanted to purchase was 28 euros, we had just been to a cash machine and taken out 20 euros. It got to be fun trying to figure out how many francs we needed to add to the 20 euros. We did it and Pauline got her new wallet. We headed back to Switzerland, lunch at a restaurant alone the lake and back to the house.

Pauline headed out into the vineyard that surrounds the house checking out all the wildflowers that grow among the grape vines. She returned with a shirt full of cherries she picked and made a wonderful cherry tart for dinner.

Later that day Pauline and I headed down to the center of Locarno to check out the train schedules and to find an internet cafe. There was a cafe right at the train station where we enjoyed a wonderful cappuccino and worked a bit on this blog. The evening was rather quiet, I think the time change was catching up to all of us, and everyone was in bed before dark, (which is 10 pm here).

Tuesday's travels

We were up fairly early Tuesday and ready for some sightseeing. We decided to head up the Valle Verzasca. We took a bit of a side trip up the western side of the valley to enjoy the town of Mergoscia. Mergoscia is perched high on the side of the mountain, overlooking the lake behind the Verzasca Dam. We spent about an hour here, enjoying the scenery, visiting the church and the cemetery. Then we headed back down the road to cross over below the Verzasca dam and head up the Valle Verzasca. The next stop along the way was the town of Lavertezzo, famous for its very photographed bridge, of which we took many. One of the more exciting things going on in town that day was trash pickup. And being a true Dashnau, I just had to check out the pile and the dumpster. And, yes, Pauline was right in there with me.
We continued up the road to a spot along the river just south of Brione where we had a picnic lunch of cheese, fruit and bread.  Then we headed on up to the end of the road and the town of Sonogno. A beautiful town to walk thru. We visited one artisan shop where most of the things for sale were wool and felt items raised and made right in the area. We spent some time on the way back down the valley walking thru the town of Frasco, enjoying the stone homes, the gardens, the wisteria that seems to be everywhere and a beautiful water fall. Of course a stop at the Verzasca dam was called for on the way back. The dam is famous for a bungy jumping scene in a James Bond movie. Now there is a company were you can pay $250 for one jump. One look from the jumping platform was enough for me.

We then headed back into town for another grocery store adventure. Andy was coming down for the night and we needed to have something for dinner. At the time we had no idea that he was bringing friends along. This time we went shopping at the COOP. It is several stories high and at least one square block. First you pull into the parking garage and try to figure out the payment method. Then you 'buy' a grocery cart. You put a coin, almost any will do, into a slot in the handle. That releases  a chain that has attached it to the cart in front of it. When you bring your cart back and re lock it, the coin pops back out of the handle. Next it is on to the large glass elevator, and trying to figure out what level you are on and what level the groceries are on. Finally you arrive in the grocery section only to find out that nothing is in english and you shop by pictures. It is quite an adventure. Very little in the way of canned things, and the packaging sizes are much smaller. The produce selection is amazing and colorful. Everything looks so fresh! You chose your produce, put it in a bag and then when you weigh it you also enter the bin number that you got it from and out pops a price tag to put on the bag. Groceries are rather expensive here. We have not been able to get ourselves to buy any meat yet other than sausage at the local butcher. A package of two boneless chicken breasts was close to $10lb. So we headed right on over to the pasta aisle and got several boxes. They have lots of different things for adding to pasta, including more varieties of sauces and cans of tuna that have tomatoes and basil mixed in with the tuna and other assorted combinations. Finally finished with the grocery shopping we searched for the elevator, headed down to the car, re-locked the cart and tried to find our way out of the garage. Then it was back to the house, carry the groceries down 140 some odd steps,exhausted, only to find out that company was coming for dinner.

     We started with cheese and sausage, both fresh from the butcher at the top of the hill. Then Andy announced that the 'company' that was coming was someone that we already knew, a friend he had brought along with him to Michael and Whitney's wedding. A bit later Hans and his wife Dora arrived and we started in on the wine, the grappa, the salad, then the spaghetti, then the pork and sausage cooked over a fire on the patio. We headed in after this to escape the chill and enjoyed strawberries, cookies, chocolate, strong coffee, sampling the varieties of wine that come from the vineyards here, grappa, walnut liquor, sambuco, and lots of laughter.

Hey to the Celestials at T-Mobile

Hello team,

     We are having a blast here.  The weather has been cloudy but decent.  Today, Wednesday we went to a market in Italy.  Yesterday we spent the day in the Alps.  So much to tell you about.  I have 5 bars on Swiss Orange every where we go, not bad at .99 per minute roaming.  I found that in Streamline!!  wink, wink! 

      Right now we are sipping cappuccino in an internet cafe in Locarno.  Life is rough!!  Tonight homemade pizzas in a wood fired pizza oven on the stone patio.  Overlooking palm trees and a banana tree above a lake.

This is us having dinner last night.  5 course meal with some Swiss friends.  first cheese, bread and fruit; salad;pasta and bread;sausage and pork grilled on fire; then chocolate and strawberries.

Lots of wine and laughs with great friends and a great view.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...CIAO!!

Monday,only 2 hours from Locarno........

.........but it took us 8 hours! We got up early, had a nice breakfast at the Rossi and headed off to Locarno. We barely got out of the parking lot and had to stop because there was a bakery across the street. So over we headed hoping to get some of the bread that we had for breakfast. Of course we had to buy a few other things as well. Shopping is an adventure between trying to read the labels and figure out the price. Groceries here are very expensive. We may be eating pasta the whole time. So we get back in the car and decide to take to local road, made it almost 7 kilometers before we had to stop and take pictures of the cows. Quite a few of them had bells on and it was rather noisy, but they were so cute. Then it was back in the car where we made it almost another 15 minutes before we had to stop and take pictures of an old farm right in the town we were in. Next stop was Luzern where we tried to find the wooden bridge that all the tourists go see. It had actually burned a while ago and was rebuilt. We got a bit lost and instead found an even older one, mostly original and enjoyed crossing it and admiring the construction and paintings. Every arch in the roof had 2 three sided paintings (one facing each way) all very religious in their themes. Lots of writing on each, but all in German so we don't really know what they said. Finally we got back on the road only to find another place to stop in about 5 minutes. Luzern was once a walled city and we found a road that went right up along a long section of the wall. Of course we had to go check it out. Every few hundred feet there is a tower, each one constructed differently. Upon closer inspection we saw that one of the towers was open and that you could walk up three of the towers, crossing to the next one along the top of the wall. Needless to say, Pauline and I had to check it all out. One of the towers is a clock tower and as you are walking up inside you are passing by the pendulum and the clock mechanism. Near the top is a display with the original clock face and clock works. ...stayed tuned, this will be added to tomorrow as well as what we did on Tuesday and today, but I gotta end it now before the internet cafe closes

AND HERE IS THE REST OF MONDAYS STORY...More on Mondays travels…..
So after we left Luzern we headed off for Locarno, going thru many tunnels including the Gottard. The Gottard Pass is still closed, they hope to have it open sometime after the 25th so we may be able to go over it on the way back to Zurich. Shortly after Gottard Pass there is a town called Altdorf. One of Pauline’s fellow employees told her that if we where any where near there to be sure and check it out. Since it was lunch time we thought that it might be a great place to have some. We were very pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the town. Plus it is not quite tourist season over here yet so we pretty much had the whole town to ourselves. Beautiful buildings, piazzas, fountains and amazing shop signs. The main piazza has a monument to William
Tell who was from the area. Lunch was enjoyed in a small out of the way place, with panini’s and fresh made ravioli’s with local cheese. By now it was after 2 and time to get serious about getting to Locarno. Somewhere between Bellinzona and Locarno we stopped at a Migros, a local grocery chain. It was our first adventure in shopping, trying to figure out prices, where they keep things and what they call them. For example peanut butter is called Burro Di Arachidi, which to us translates to donkey spiders…. Of course we had to have some cheese! The cheese counters are bigger than the meat counters back home. The fellow behind the counter was very generous in giving us samples of many different types. At one point we wanted to find some sheep cheese and I asked him if he spoke English. When he said ‘no’ I pointed to the cheese display and said ‘baaaa’. He said ‘aha’ and pointed to the cheese with goats on the label. I tried to explain to him that it was a smaller animal. Then along comes another clerk and she comes over and says ‘moo cheese’, ‘baa cheese’, and something else I was not sure off. Then she points to the sheep cheese. At this point the fellow helping us says ‘where from?’. I told him ‘ the US’ and he again said ‘where’, at which point I told him ‘Maine’. I though we were going to fall over laughing when he said ‘ah, Maine, Steven King!’ I guess that is what Maine is famous for over here. Finally around 4 or so we arrived at the house. Or should I say driveway, it is another 146 steps down to the upper level of the house and then 10 or so more outside down to the lower level. There are no inside stairs from the bedrooms upstairs to the downstairs kitchen and living room areas. At this point we were all running on empty and were determined to take all our luggage as well as all the groceries down to the house in one trip. We managed it without any mishaps. We quickly unpacked our stuff, put away the groceries and enjoyed a nice supper of fresh bread, local cheese and fruit out on the patio, finished the card game we started at Logan and headed off to bed.

later that same day (Sunday)

So we made it to Dagmersellen, took a nice walk around town and up to the church,

  headed back to the inn,

had a really enjoyable dinner,

and went to bed. The End

Still the first day

but it's really Sunday. Arrived In Madrid around 6 in the morning. What a beautiful airport, fun to walk around checking it out. Here is a shot of the satellite terminal we hung out in.   

After a quick flight to Zurich, Andrew met us at the airport, we picked up the rental car and headed into Aarau where Andrew lives with his wife Susi. Andrew gave us a quick tour of town then we had a wonderful meal at their apartment. This afternoon its off to look a bit more at Aarau then head to a bed and breakfast in Dagmarsela. Off to Locarno in the morning

zero days to go

We are finally on our way! The limo arrived at the mill at 12 noon and we were checked in at Logan at 2:30. What a nice way to travel.

We had 4 hours to kill at the airport so guess what we did? Tomorrow at this time we will be having lunch with Andy, who will meet us at the airport. See you then.

                                                   

20 hours to go

Well, we leave the house in 20 hours! Are we packed yet? NO. Are we packing now? NO. We have been outside playing in the greenhouse and saying goodbye to all the flower buds that are going to open while we are gone. If we are lucky, todays sunshine may cause the crab apple to be fully open before we leave. Hopefully the lilacs will wait until we get home. Okay, now we are going to pack...........

one more day!

It's getting closer, almost time to start panicking! We have started to pile things up on a table next to the empty luggage, but we still have all day tomorrow......so what's the rush? I am having nightmares about getting to Logan and realizing that our passports are still in the drawer at home, even though I have already put them in the car. The dogs are starting to know that something is up, the cats once again could care less. Just for that, no souvenirs for the cats.

............still counting down

Okay, only two more days and we still have not started packing. But we have been making a list.Pauline has finally relaxed about leaving the dogs behind. We have a great house sitter lined up and the dogs love her. Our guess now is that they will be disappointed to see us come home! The cats couldn't care less one way or the other.........

Countdown

we are on our way in three more days, probably time to start packing.......