Sunday, December 16, 2007

Lugano; Alps Town Extraordinaire











We sadly left Zurich to continue on southbound towards Italy. But, to get there, we had to first go over the near impenetrable barrier that kept the germanic hordes from the civilized romans...the Alps.
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As we only had a couple of days to tour the Alps, we elected to do a day in Lugano on the Swiss side, and a day in Como, on the Italian side. The train ride from Zurich, through the Swiss Lake country, and then up through the Alps was magnificent. Serious rock; I must go hike it some day!
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We exited the train at Lugano station, only to come face-to-face with the dreaded Funicarello; Swiss for "the freakin' train is vertical". It's basically a box with wheels, where they cram in 40 people, let the brake off, and the train plummets down the side of the mountain to the city center. On a positive note, death in Lugano beats death in, oh, say Zimbabwae.
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Lugano itself is an incredible city. Situated on an Alpine lake, surrounded by steep mountains, it is just a beautiful vista. We took tour boats around the lake, walked the entire town, and dined along the water. Definitely one of the prettiest venues we have ever been to.
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Tomorrow we cross the spine of the Alps and head over to Italy. Goodbye Switzerland, we'll miss you.
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Lumpy of the Alps out

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