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.