Back to Zurich

The drive back to Zurich has all the awesome views that we have come to expect and one long tunnel we did not expect. It is the longest tunnel we have been through and the Swiss love their tunnels.

Yes, that is the length of the tunnel.

Some mountain photos.

Lake Zug.

I will write an epilogue when I get hope.

Bellinzona

We left Aosta Italy and headed back into Switzerland. After paying some hefty road tolls in Italy, skirting northwest of Milan, we crossed the boarder back into Switzerland. We originally thought of the area around Lugano, but found a spot just passed in Bellinzona. One notable thing in Switzerland, is that wherever there is a meadow, large or small, in the valley or high up a mountain, you will find someone living there. Our place for the night was up the side of a mountain, with many switchbacks and narrow roads to get there. It was worth the climb though.

On the way up.

The view from the mountain.

A couple of pictures on the way there.

We had to wait to check in, so we went for lunch. We saw a castle, so went to investigate.

Again, up on the side of the mountain we found Sasso Corbaro.

From here, we could see, Montebello and Castelgrande.

We went back up the mountain to our B&B and checked in. We took a look around, some of the sights.

Dave and Kelly sitting under the tree.

Looking back down the valley.

Vacation almost over.

Aosta

'So, this morning we get up to sunny skies, to late, but we will take it. I will start off with a few pictures from our place in Breinz and then continue from there.

This is looking east at sun up, I know, what am I doing up.

Also east from the front of the house.

If you look close you can see a cross at the top of the mountain, I have zoomed way in on this. There is a cache there, when we went to find it, the weather was completely socked in. A very long way down. Next will be a photo of the peak from the B&B.

This is the original that I zoomed for the cross picture, it is in the highest part of the mountain. If you look close you can see where the train goes.

On to the Gr St Bernard tunnel. On our way to Aosta. Italy. The Switzerland, Italy boarder is half way through the tunnel. We stopped for lunch in Martigny-ville. They had an awesome street market going, bought some goodies for lunch. Yum.

Just a couple of mountain shots, I have know idea which ones they are.

Next.

Still pretty awesome to look at. These are before the tunnel.

This is the entrance to the tunnel, you drive through Italian customs, they did not ask us to stop. As a side note, we have not been ask to stop at any boarders on the whole trip.

A little dark in here, but the start to the tunnel. We thought it was going to be longer but it is barely five K. It does cost 27.90 Euros though. Once you get through the tunnel, you descend hundreds of meters to the Aosta valley. It is way drier on this side of the Alps, although this photo doesn't show it.

Still a nice photo.

This is our place for the night, I will post more pictures of this place tomorrow. Our room is kind of funky.

Down town Aosta, the closest we have come to that Europian flair, the centre of town is car free, so for about four square blocks, it is a street market, it was nice to just walk around and watch the goings on. We stopped at an awesome little wine store that sold wine at the tables out front, or by the bottle, we did both. The fellow that served us was awesome, I got a lesson about wine and we got a few local delicacies on the house. We had a great local Pinot Gris, I just had to buy a bottle, we will drink it tomorrow. This is the wine we drank and bought.

To work up this thirst, we went to the Roman ruins, these were great to see. It is hard to believe, but to see them is free, not many things are over here. I will add a couple of pictures of the ruins, the ones underground were taken at over a second exposure, so they are a bit fuzzy, sorry, no flash allowed and no tripod.

I will add a few more pictures tomorrow. I will take a couple of our place for the night, kind of cute.

We will leave here in the morning and head to Lugano Switzerland.

As promised, I got up early and took pictures of our place for the night.

The view out our window.

The entrance to our room. The stairs are very steep.

We are above the garage.

Home for a night, it was very comfortable. There is a road right in front, so it was a bit noisy.

That's all for now. More from the next stop.

Wed. Aug. 18

When we started planning this trip, one of the things we most wanted to do was to take the trains up the Alps to a place called Jungfraujoch, the top of Europe. Some of the peaks are the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. There is an IcePalace, Lindt chocolate factory and all kinds of other touristy things. Unfortunately for us the weather was socked in and we would not have been able to see anything but clouds. If the cost wasn't 220 Swiss Franks per person, we may have gone anyway. We decided to go the Thun to see a Castle instead. Here are some pictures of today's trip. 

The Castle, Schloss Thun 

A scale mockup 

It was very cool, lots of history.

The staircase up the battlement.

The view from up high.

Dave and Kelly in the other battlement.

Down town Thun

Not sure what this building is but it looks good.

This is why we did not go up the mountain